Xao:
Kyle slowly stepped away, more like staggered, wiping his nose on his arm- he was never the neatest person. I spoke up again. "With J-Star... I just got through to you... maybe I can with her too."
"Xao you don't..."
"The right words was all it took, just something you didn't realize or think about- that's how it works right?" I knew even as I said those words they didn't ring true, but maybe Kyle would agree and...
"No," Kyle said. "Xao, the right words for you were, "leave the tricksters or leave us". You think I converted you away from the tricksters with an ultimatum? You were the one who ultimately convinced yourself. You cared more about the danger of doing the wrong thing than the life the power offered you. You wanted more to not become a monster than to keep make believing you were a hero."
I nodded. "But still... Kyle I see it in her eyes, the way she talks- we beat her up, insulted her, and spat on her way of life-"
"In our defense-"
"I'm not saying we were wrong- well saying she was barely human was certainly pushing it."
"I apologized for that," Kyle pointed out.
"She's. Still. Here. She's humble enough to see she needs to grow, and she's determined to learn and grow. She even lets us train her while you keep looking down on her."
"It's not her personally I'm so upset about," Kyle said. I folded my arms. "Don't give me that. She's the last thing we need right now. We're going into a fight and we're going to have to kill. We're trying to save two people already and now you're trying to save a third."
"Whatever your reasons Kyle, Jay has more than proven she is a good person. If you and I don't try to save her from the tricksters now, it's probably not going to happen."
"We can't save her in our own power... bud. Just like you couldn't save Darius."
I nodded. "Kyle... you've been facing a loss of control- me? I've been facing a feeling of being useless. But I'm not, there are things that can be done. You might have to stick with people for a while... and who knows, maybe I gave up on Darius too fast. You and Jessica traveled with me and when the truth was revealed about what being a trickster meant, when how corrupting the power was became obvious, you stood up to me. You forced me to make a choice. You saved me. If you hadn't been there, it wouldn't have happened." I nodded to myself. "To be fair to the past, not sure I even COULD have given Darius that choice."
Kyle paused. He looked down. "Well... what is your plan for this?"
I shrugged. "Kinda been winging it."
Kyle gave a smile. "How did I figure that?" He closed his eyes. His eyes opened and he stared straight at me. "Okay, if we use your conversion from the tricksters as an example, you didn't leave just because you were afraid of corruption, that's just what brought you to the edge..." he started feeling his chin in a thinking pose.
"Are you... are you really doing this?" It was like my heart was feeling weightless for a moment- a person was going to willingly help me? I wasn't alone against the darkness for once in this horrible trip.
"You helping me or not?" Kyle said. I just blinked. "We're setting out with objectives out here and one of them is apparently saving this girl from Tarth- I don't like that guy anyway..."
"Wanna break his jaw?" I asked with a grin.
"That'd probably be a bad idea so I'll take saving Jay as a close second. You wanted friends when we met you so my ultimatum meant something, we throw something like that at J-Star it'll probably just bounce off. I mean as far as I've seen she's not with us for companionship."
I shook my finger. "I also kinda pressed my luck today- knocked her off her feet," I said shaking my cannon.
"Pretty sure if you asked me for dating tips I wouldn't have said sparing was the time to ask," Kyle said with a chuckle. "Does she think you're cute at all? Do you know?"
"Apparently yes. Really think we can use that?"
"Worse ways of doing things," Kyle said with a shrug. "Ends can justify means and hey if you really DO like her, you're not exactly lying."
I gave a half-smile. "Ehhh... Even still, what she really focuses on with the tricksters is the power."
"Power she shouldn't have," Kyle said.
"I know, but she doesn't have much to fall back on if she leaves," I replied.
Kyle looked up for a few seconds. "She... she's not the only one without much to fall back on. Still, me, you and Jess," Kyle said waving his finger around.
"That all we got... really? Not like she knows us that well."
Kyle leaned against the rock thinking again. In the distance, a branch crashed to the ground. Kyle rolled his eyes and checked his device. He paused looking at his radar.
"Someone coming?" I asked.
"No... just got to thinking. We got her hunting squirrels... do hope she's missing on purpose or something or that's kinda cruel... and she's out there accidentally breaking large trees with small pebbles. She thinks she's weak without the tricksters... she kinda needs to broaden her idea of power ya know?" Kyle pulled out his notepad. "Ya know I estimate we have at least two more days before that ship starts coming down. No where near enough time to build muscle memory- but hers is a projection-based weapon anyway. Its power is based on her creativity and quick thinking, physical power means almost nothing."
"How good can we make her in just a few days?" I asked.
"No way we can make her a martial artist in two days. But she's already creative- she made that thing after all..." he gave an evil grin.
"What exactly are you thinking?"
"I wanted her gone, you want her to have power of her own to be confident in- one of us is getting what he wants- don't think you're getting a date though."
"How do you know that came up?"
"You spend thirty years with a hopeless romantic like Jess, ya learn to spot a thing or two." He pointed at my pulse cannon. "Between myself and her, I don't know whose weapon is better- after all, her weapon is metal so it's easy enough to nullify. Your weapon is actually inferior to hers. It's just a cannon. She should be able to run circles around you if that's all you have."
I looked at my wrist-mounted pulse cannon. "What are you getting at?"
"You're gonna keep training that girl- till she can trounce you. That ought to give her confidence." I smiled at this.
He looked off into the trees with a sigh. He then looked back to his scanner- then the trees- then his scanner, repeating himself several times.
"What's up?" I asked.
"We've been making an awful lot of noise. I was ready to leave a few false signs and move out. But the leprechauns keep not moving towards us. What are they doing?"
"One of us can scout..." I said.
"Yeah, me. I have the scanner, you'll get captured or killed for sure if they use those cloaks... What are they doing?"
"You were hesitant to scout them before."
"Still am... but I can't shake this feeling that they know we're here."
"Didn't you say that thing isn't so good around wildlife?"
Kyle nodded. He reached out his hand and then- it was like he grabbed something in the air. Nothing was there- but it was like he was holding onto something nonetheless. "What I'm about to do... I'm a son... son of Triad. If there's a way for something to be done, a son of Triad can..." He closed his eyes to think. "If I'm trying to detect life forms with this and I'm surrounded by life-giving off the same kind of electric signals... yeah... but if they're using their technology that's not an issue and there's no reason they wouldn't be." He shook his head. "They can't know how this device works but... sounds like I got a job to do." He pointed in the direction of J-Star. "You and her practice, I'm going in."
"Wait... really? I thought that was too dangerous."
"It is... Son of Triad right?"
I bit my lip. "Right... be careful."
(***)
Kyle:
Lightning sword drawn I moved through the trees, taking cover behind larger ones frequently. How close could I get to their camp without being detected?
I knew hunters weren't exactly the easiest thing to spot with just one's eyes... course there were worse things leprechauns could have with them. That giant dinosaur we killed for one- but I doubted they had more than one of them.
I wandered closer and closer to where the electric signatures of the leprechaun weapons were, telling me the location of their camp.
Whenever I looked at my scanner... something looked off. Certain electric signatures read as life signs essentially... there was a lot more life in their camp than I expected. It was like there was a huge mass, the entire thing alive.
I was near the camp now. I got on my hands and knees and crawled through the undergrowth around me. I slowly came to a small cliff, a nearly straight drop that lead to where the camp was.
I stayed low to the ground. Looking over the cliff, it occurred to me that I had no idea how leprechaun technology actually worked. The land in front of me was completely barren, but the camp was alive- super alive.
In the clearing were three small tents. All around were deep marks from what I guessed were harvested trees- it looked like patterns of somehow evaporated roots. There was short dry grass all around as well. The dry grass went out for a radius of maybe one hundred feet and actually extended to cover a large circular area. But still, there was... life... in that camp.
Maybe they just harvested biological mass and converted it into their monsters... somehow.
In the midst of the area, I saw far more than just the six leprechauns we met back in the desert. I could quickly estimate twenty, maybe even fifty. Something was strange about these leprechauns though. None of them were carrying the weapons or the energy packs we saw on the original six. In fact, they had no clothes at all. These creatures were naked- not as gross to look at as one might think, they crouched down and their tails covered anything too uncouth from the back.
As a pharaoh, I could use my electric powers to temporarily enhance one or two senses- for only as long as I focused on them. This required undivided attention and generally wasn't practical in a fight, but the need to react quickly wasn't an issue right now. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my vision.
I opened my eyes, my vision-enhancing, seeing further like I had a pair of binoculars. The range was maybe twice that of my normal vision. I looked at the leprechauns. One turned in my direction as I looked at the bipedal lizard and- those were not eyes.
It had slits for eyes, it had eyelids but the whites behind them- they were just white, no pupils. It was also missing its nostrils and its half-open mouth had some kind of white mass in it like it had a large eye in its mouth.
It was... disturbing, to say the least. I watched the creature as it seemed to mill around. It just sort of moved, its head just bouncing about on its neck, not really looking where it was going.
I continued to scan the area and saw a large stake driven into the ground. There was Bart, his leg chained to the stake. He was holding his hands over his head and trying to be as small as possible.
I closed my eyes. I knew some things about Leprechaun creations. The things surrounding Bartholomew were mimics. They could look like anything or anyone at a glance, but if you looked closely and in the light, something was always wrong. I didn't know how mimics really navigated, but they didn't have real eyes or ears, though they could see and hear, I knew that much.
They weren't skilled at fighting, but pretty strong, meant to overpower victims who got too close, like a moving venus fly trap, luring you in by making you think it was a loved one or something else you wanted to see, and then grabbing you when it was too late.
I shuddered thinking about them.
I slowly crept away from the scene, thoughts spinning.
I slipped behind a large maple tree. What were we supposed to do now? I had figured a few blasts from me and Xao would decimate if not kill all of those in the small leprechaun squad. But if they were actually reinforced, especially by mimics, a few quick shots MIGHT have that effect, or just destroy a few mimics and make us targets as the shooters.
Then there was exactly HOW to get Bart out of there. I was glad his legs looked alright when I looked, but I would have to break that chain- which couldn't be done with electricity, I would fry Bart himself doing that. I would have to get in close enough to break the chain with my sword, grab him and run... and oh yeah, as far as grabbing him, he was two maybe three times my size so...
Every time I blinked it was like the image of that mimic emerged under my eyelids, fully visible in my mind. It looked terrifying. I could only imagine how scared Bart was of them. 'Hang in there kid.' I had to think.
I opened my eyes and looked down, breathing as quietly as I could. I glanced right and noticed- those black things on the side of the tree weren't branches... branches didn't grow along trees like fingers.
Right next to me were the claws of a hunter.
My heart was racing and I felt my breath starting to catch. I wanted to whine in fear. I saw it out of the corner of my eyes- seven feet tall, back turned to me as it silently looked back and forth- rather turned a head with no eyes. That thing would hear me soon. I could feel it getting closer to the tree it was holding that I was standing behind. Why was it coming towards me? If it knew I was here... it would have tried to kill or catch me already.
'Think of what you are- these are the creations of an enemy. An enemy your people have fought and terrified. If it can be done, a pharaoh can do it. You can do this... If I jump to the next tree it will see the blur if its eyes are turned my way... but...'
I reached into my pants pocket and felt around... I had them. Xao had instructed me to always carry rocks with me, just a small two or more, enough for make-shift weapons, I had a small handful- not sure where he got the idea but they were amazing to have now.
I pulled one out and held it in my fingers. I sent a quick pulse to my hand and tossed a rock with a wrist flick, it coming down with a small "thump" several feet away.
Was it enough? My heart was racing even more. I snagged the rest of the rocks in my pocket and chucked them as well. They all noisily dropped to my far right.
I fired electricity to my legs, pressing my luck and shooting to a tree to the left.
I didn't dare look back. If I could see it, it would be able to see me. I shot to the next tree, the next, and the next, quickly moving back to camp.