Gene Hawkins pressed himself against a busted up garbage truck as armed men across the street fire missile after missile ripping chunks off of it. He brought up his gun and ejected the mag and turned to Jim who was shouldering a semi automatic and reloading at the same time. He was about to call him whe on of the rockets whizzed by the truck and exploded against the store in front of them. "damn it gene I told you not to take this job!! We could have taken the damn deliver job but no…..!!" he angrily raised his gun over the mutilated low rider and randomly showered the men with suppressive fire. "we had to take this one instead."
"shut up shut up" growled gene as he threw a small frag grenade and heard it explode. He looked over but the men still stood there vest heavily smoking. Gene angrily hissed "damn it there armored." he wheezed and stood but suddenly a faint muffled explosion stopped them all. Jim looked up in time to see one of the windows on the third floor shatter followed by the rest, completely engulfed in flames with shards of glass raining upon the street. Aisha clan-clan hit the floor and spun, she slammed the man she was carrying hard enough into the garbage truck it left and indent and nearly tipped it over.
She ripped the man out of the wreckage and flung him like a rag doll towards the other men knocking two of them down. Almost in an instant she held the last remaining fellow with the missile launcher by the collar and pulled the weapon from his hand as if he was an infant. She took the mans mask off and smiled at the look of complete horror on his face. "gotcha"
A while later at the police station gene was arguing with the heavy set man at the counter. "what the hell do you mean a thousand wong!? that wont even cover the 'munition it took to take these guys down. Guys that your guys couldn't I might add" the man stared at him in disbelief with an open mouth and raised eyebrows, "oh so we're adding now? Lemme see destruction of public property, repairs to civilian vehicles not to mention the destruction of the bank that could have killed someone. Your lucky to get anything Mr.hawkin." Gene was about to retaliate when Jim shoved him out of the way. "thank you sir we'll take it"
Aisha stared up at the ceiling watching the little dots start to form shapes and tell her stories. The doors swung open and several police officers dragged a rambunctious man into the station. "im telling you we need to get off this planet now!!" he yelled as they threw him into cell across from her the men didn't even listen to his plea. He coughed angrily as he stood and sat down on the bench directly across from her. He glanced at her and suddenly gasped.
"you're a Ctarl-Ctarl…!"
Aisha simply blinked not knowing what to say. "so?"
"is your name clan clan?" he asked lowly
Her heart seemed to have been squeezed by a frozen hand. "yeah….?'
The man scoffed in disbelief "holy shit…."
He stood up and leaned against the bars "listen to me my names dime, a few hours ago a brother of mine sent me a message telling me that this monster landed on his planet and burned it down looking for a ctarl-ctarl. He managed to escape just before the son of a bitch blew up the planet." one of the guards smashed the butt of his rifle against the bars "shut up". The man spat at the guard "fuck you pig" he yelled and turned to her. "he's coming here for you" the guard open the door and started beating him down. Jim came up to her and nodded towards the door. "lets go Aisha"
When they got back home she took the bed on the top floor and just laid there rerunning the event in her mind. The guy didn't seem wasted or anything, they never met before yet he knew his name and he knew about the ctarl-ctarls and the urgency and fear in his voice…. Down stairs jim was on his laptop looking at ammunition prices. A window blinked and he frowned.
"yo Aisha u got an e-mail." he called. Aisha snapped back and sat up. "I have an e-mail?"
Jim continued typing "yeah I gave one to all you guys remember?" she jumped down and pounced next to him silently "from who?" she whispered. Jim twitched and gasp "god Aisha don't do that… it says Kanamei clan-….clan" she turned to Aisha "you know her?"
She couldn't suppress the smile and flipped over onto the table and took the lap top as ashe sat down Indian style and placed the computer on her lap. "shes my mom" jim looked at her directly across from him. Her smile suddenly faded and she soberly pressed her lips. "whats it say?" he asked carefully. She blinked and slowly sighed. "my dad died……"
"oh….. Aisha im sorry" he said putting his hand on her knee. "yeah….. Damn, I have to go home" she sighed again. "want us to come with you?" he asked as she slid down from the table. "no its alright its custom for the oldest child to bury the body……. So I have to go." jim got the weird feeling she didn't want to go. "were you guys close?" he asked as she walked towards the door. Aisha took her long black coat and turned the knob. "he was my father." and closed the door.
She took a small cruiser from the garage out of blue heaven, once it reached space and out of the planets gravitational pull, she floated around for a moment. She turned the ship and steadied it till it pointed towards her home planet. She typed something down. It blinked and beeped "destination locked." she placed her hand around a striped handle. A count down started. She twisted the handle and pulled it out. She took in a deep shaky breath and completely broke down emotionally she leaned back on the seat and covered her face with her hand not being able to keep the tears from flowing. The countdown reached zero but it took her several minutes to stop and compose her self. She gripped the handle and bit her lip as her eyes began to gloss over again.
She was ctarl-ctarl one of the galaxies most powerful beings with the strength of ten men and soul of a beast. Yet pushing down the handle, a handle designed for a child to be ably to push down, was the hardest thing she ever had to do. The ship glowed and suddenly stretched into infinity and disappeared leaving only the hyper drive discharge trails behind.
When she drifted out of hyper drive she gazed upon her home planet, one she hasn't been to for several years. As she drifted closer Dime's warning zipped through her mind. She entered the planets atmosphere and she suddenly gasped. A beam suddenly ripped through the cabin barely missing her torso. She screamed in shock as the ship went down, she took the controls and tried to steady the ship but nothing she did worked. "fuck…!" she screamed as the back of the cabin caught fire. She glanced out the window to see a military plane at her side. The cabin suddenly malfunctioned and ejected her involuntarily.
She soared through several thousands feet of sky. The Ctarl-Ctarl military plane hovered nearby lazily strafing around her. It took her an eternity to realize her chute hadn't deployed, the pilot seamed to have come to the same conclusion. The ground got closer and closer in fractions of seconds. Her stomach already chocking her, the shear force of the wind against her not allowing her to breath, the plane drifted under her. Aisha reached out, her finger tips brushing against the cold titanium. She gripped the wing and pulled her self flat against the plane. The pilot glanced at her and suddenly the plane slowed to a stop and lazily floated back down to earth.
The plane landed with a small thud in a military base, soldiers surrounded her with their weapons held up, she raised her hands and stood. The cockpit opened and the pilot jumped down throwing her helmet against the seat. The Ctarl-Ctarl girl that saved her life glanced at Aisha briefly before she disappeared into the crowed.
She was escorted to a small blank room, kind of like the ones she seen on tv. The blank walls and single light bulb with matching single door which suddenly opened. An older weathered looking bold man stepped in, with an air of seriousness about him. He had on heavy dark green robs and a light cape over his shoulders that carried several emblems neatly stitch onto it. He took the seat across from her. Aisha suddenly couldn't look him in the eye and began to say something, but the man subtly cocked his head forcing her to stop short.
"times are not as they once were Aisha…." his deep somber voice suddenly raping the silence around them. She looked up and stood "you guys almost killed me…" the general slowly stood and completely towered over her making her look small and fragile in comparison. He pressed his lips and stared deep into her "you didn't respond to our instructions." Aisha flopped back down in embarrassment, "Aisha this is serious there's been talk of a demon that's going around killing planets in search for ours."
He stood and walked towards the door. "your free to go." Aisha jerked towards him and stumbled out towards the door. "take it easy Aisha, and be careful." he told her as she walked past him. She turned the general "who was the pilot by the way?" he scoffed and broke a smile for the first time in years "she's your little sister Nei'ko."
