Chapter 4: Preparations
BANG! BANG! BANG! The incessant ring of a hammer on metal filled
Isabella's ears. Phineas was currently trying to hammer in a particularly
stubborn nail on one of his Discourager Rays. She was trying to do the wiring
on a second, though her wiring patch had never covered anything this complex.
She stopped for a moment and looked over to see how Phineas was doing.
"Can't-get-this-stupid-nail-" he muttered.
"What's the matter?" Isabella asked.
"I'm not sure why, but this nail won't go in no matter how many times
I pound it."
"Here, let me try."
"It's fine Isabella, I'll-"
But she was already over. Phineas had to duck as she grabbed the
hammer from him and took a whirling swing that landed dead on the nail,
finally pounding it completely in.
"Uh... thanks," Phineas mumbled.
"Sure. You know, maybe I should hammer and you should wire, I'm lost
with those wire blueprints."
"Yeah, maybe..." Phineas muttered. He quietly walked over to the
other Ray and began fiddling with the wires.
Isabella watched him walk over, then picked up another nail and began
hammering in another metal plate. They continued in silence for several
minutes. Isabella glanced over at Phineas again. He looked... tired. Worn.
"Are you feeling okay, Phineas?" she asked, "You're not acting like
yourself."
Phineas sighed, "I'm fine..."
"No your not."
"Yeah, I'm not."
"So what's wrong?"
"It's just... this isn't fun anymore."
"What's not?"
"Inventing. Building these Discourager Rays is a chore. I thought
this job would be fun, but-"
"It's just that, a job."
"Yeah..."
"I see... well, if we get them done fast, like you used to back on
Earth, we'll have time to make something else."
"Actually we won't."
"We won't? Why not?"
"They want us to train for battle once these are done. We're both
pretty green."
"Gosh... when do we get to play?"
"People who have careers don't really play, Isabella."
Isabella frowned, "Well that stinks. We're only ten, we've got a lot
of playing left to do."
"We did... 'till Candace messed it all up."
"Yes, 'till she wrecked it."
Phineas looked narrowly at Isabella, "Hey, just curious, but since
when are you anti-Candace? I remember before that you wanted me to forgive
her."
"That changed when she shot you. NOBODY hurts you and gets away with
it, at least, not while I'm around."
"But wasn't she justified? We were trying to invade that city, and
she was trying to protect it!"
"She still hurt you, Phineas. She shouldn't have shot you."
Phineas snickered, "You really are cute, Isabella."
"What?"
"You're not mad because what she did was wrong, you're mad because she
shot you're *AHEM* 'best friend'," Phineas was sure to add the quotations with
his fingers to get the point across.
Isabella's cheeks turned pink, "And you're not mad at her because
what she did to you was wrong either. You're-"
"Wasn't it?"
"Well, if you had been SUPPOSED to be building a log flume in your
backyard, you're mom wouldn't have gotten upset."
Phineas had to laugh. That sentence couldn't have been used to
describe very many kids. "Fair enough... but just because what she did was,
well... law-supporting, did it make it right? Not everything the law does is
good, it's just... legal."
"You've gotten really twisted Phineas." Isabella said, smiling
slightly.
"Yes, yes I have. Holding a grudge and plotting revenge will do that
to you."
"You know, it's been funny to watch your descent into darkness,"
Isabella pointed out, "It all started, more or less, with an unlucky incident
that you got mad at."
"Yeah..."
"Then an even worse event followed, and those two events tore your
world apart. You were mad at the sudden loss, so you decided to pin the blame
on the person most responsible, Candace. She tried to save you and your
family, but you tried to avenge yourself of her and drove her away, thus
trapping you, me and your family for longer. While imprisoned, you allowed
your hatred to continue to fester and grow. It slowly began to consume you,
and eventually caused you to hate... pretty much everyone except me."
"Go on..."
"You became so hateful that our kidnapper noticed it, and he realized
that you might be useful to him. You used him to get yours and my freedom,
then set to work to get fuller revenge and to reclaim what you lost. You used
the scientist's equipment to bring Candace to your fortress. She unwittingly
tested your weapons system and helped you prove your abilities to the Tkpxzv,
who you contacted with the scientist's SETI device. You played everyone like
a bunch of cards and led them into a well-planned trap. The scientist got
thrown in jail, your sister got kidnapped by aliens, and you utterly crushed
what remained of your family's spirit. You completely broke all your enemies and
got supreme revenge."
"Wow. This makes me sound even more darkly awesome than I thought I
was."
"By the time we set foot on Hgtfpjsh's ship, the transformation was
complete. You had gone from a loving, happy, innocent boy, to a cruel,
vicious, selfish tyrant who only cared about continuing his old inventing
habits and making his sister miserable for the rest of eternity. I was the
only other person anywhere that you still cared about."
"Wow. Cool."
Isabella smirked. "I don't know how I said all of that with a
straight face. It just... doesn't bother me anymore... for some reason."
"That's because you sold your soul to me, Isabella."
"What?"
"The oath."
"Oh, that... but I just-"
"You said you'd stand by my side through thick and thin..."
"That's not selling your soul!"
"Only if the oath has LIMITS. You have shown me unlimited friendship,
Isabella. The problem is, if you're friends with a bad guy for long enough,
he starts to rub off on you."
"Rub off? What do you mean?"
"It seems like nothing at first. You're just trying to help a friend
in need. You just sit there and listen to him rant so he can blow off some
steam, then you help him with a little project..."
"Phineas, please..."
"Please what?"
"Please stop."
"Why? You don't want to hear the truth?"
"Well..."
"Then that 'innocent' little project you helped with blows
some people up. You thought you were a murderer... until you realized none of
them died. It seemed like a breath of fresh air... like you'd been redeemed,
as if their survival somehow justified your actions..."
"But they didn't die... I didn't kill anyone!"
"It doesn't really matter whether you did or not, because your actions
still COULD have. They were just lucky. The sin wasn't removed because they
survived."
"What's the point, Phineas?"
"You're being corrupted too, Isabella."
"Really?"
"It didn't stop there. While you thought you were a murderer, you
gave up your self control. Since you had nothing to lose, you gave me a big,
fat, sloppy kiss, stuck your head in the toilet, punched the Fireside girls in
their robotic face, and helped me defend the fortress."
"The kiss wasn't evil!"
"No, but your actions when you were a murderer proved that you obey
the rules not because they're right, but because you fear punishment. You
showed that, at heart, you weren't as good as the facade you put up. You also
relinquished your self-mastery and allowed yourself to be carried about with
your every whim, weakening your will and making you more susceptible to
corruption."
"Oh, come on, Phineas, I'm not a bad guy!"
"Once on the ship, you revealed the struggle going on inside you as
you spoke with me and when you spoke with Candace... yes, I watched that
little chat you had with her on the ship's log."
"You ARE evil..."
"I could see that you were torn. You knew Candace was right, you knew
I was wrong, and you knew the right person to side with was her, but you had
made your oath to me, and you couldn't break it. And finally, at that battle,
Candace gave you an excuse to fully side with me."
"Maybe I shouldn't have made that oath..."
At this point Phineas looked Isabella straight in the eyes. He just
stared for a moment.
"What?"
"But you don't regret making it. In fact, you're glad you did."
"Glad? I could be at home right now! I could be relaxing and
enjoying Summer! I could be doing things with my Fireside Troop! I could see
my Mom..."
Phineas stared at her some more.
"What? What are you doing?" she cried.
"But you don't want to do those things. You want to be here with me."
"Phineas, I don't need you," Isabella said coldly, "I could get up and
leave right now and go home."
"Okay. Go."
Isabella hesitated. Phineas just stared at her. Two full minutes
passed.
"Well? What are you waiting for? I'm not stopping you. The Tkpxzv
won't care," Phineas said.
Isabella didn't move. She just stared back at Phineas.
"Go on, leave. Save yourself while you still can!" Phineas prodded.
She was still frozen.
"I'll be fine... it's not like I can lose much more than I already
have. I even release you from your oath... again."
Isabella still wouldn't budge. Phineas continued watching her for
another minute. Finally, his lip curled into a sinister grin.
"You can't do it," he said flatly.
Isabella's lip trembled a bit. She hung her head.
"You're not bound to me by an oath, Isabella. You're CHAINED to me by
your love, a love so strong, that you would rather subvert your principles
than lose me. You'd sooner follow me down into the abyss than leave my side."
Isabella didn't respond.
"Isabella... you NEED me."
Isabella shook her head slowly.
"No? Then leave."
Isabella went rigid. She stood still for a moment, then she finally
reached up, yanked her bow out of her hair and threw it on the ground. She
screamed and jumped on it, stomping it flat then growled in frustration and
collapsed to her knees, tearing at her hair.
"O, chains of hell!" Phineas cried, "We both are chained down by the
devil! I am chained down by hate and sin, and you, Isabella are chained down
with me by sin, and moreover, by corrupt love. Your love for me is so strong
that it has overcome you morals and your free will. Both you and I are slaves
to our own passions."
"Rats," Isabella grunted pathetically.
"Now... Isabella, you find yourself helping me again... helping me
destroy and enslave another race... and helping me to find Candace so I-and
now you-can enslave her and cause her unending misery..."
Isabella hung her head in shame and despair. He was right... and what
was worse, she couldn't bring herself to STOP helping him. She was no longer
in control of herself or her own destiny... PHINEAS was in control... and he
wasn't in control of himself either... his hate was. If Phineas was riding
his merry way down to H-E-double hockey sticks... she was going down with him.
"You still think you're the good guy, Isabella?"
"No..." she said sadly.
"There's no more monkey in the middle here... you've chosen a side...
and you chose wrong."
"What've I done?" Isabella whispered.
"More like what've WE done," Phineas added, "It's ironic, really, that
you should be so unhappy about this..."
"What do you mean?"
"It's ironic that you're unhappy. Your wrong choices have gotten you
what you've always wanted, more than anything else."
"You..." Isabella admitted.
Phineas turned to her, "You're mine, Isabella. I can do anything I
want with you."
"Yes... yes you can," Isabella whispered weakly.
"You're lucky I hate Candace and not you."
Isabella didn't answer. She was trapped... just like Phineas.
Neither of them could let go of what they wanted most.
Phineas went and sat down next to Isabella, "How's it feel to be my
slave?" he asked.
Isabella cursed under her breath.
"Sorrowing of the damned," Phineas observed. He pulled Isabella into
a close hug, which she returned.
"I've got some of my own sorrowing to do," he whispered, "I'm sorry
that my hate hurt you... and I'm sorry I can't let it go so you can go home.
I'm sorry I dragged you down with me, Isabella..."
"But it's what I wanted..." she replied.
"And even now, you don't regret following me. Even now, you wouldn't
change anything that you did."
"You're right. Like you said... I'm yours, Phineas... forever..."
"Yes, yes you are... even after we die, our fates are intertwined,
because we'll drag each other down to the same place."
"And I still won't regret it," Isabella said firmly.
Phineas grinned, "And neither will I."
The initiation hadn't ended there. After the prophecies, the
Candaces had received their weapons. They had actually gotten to watch, and
even help make their weapons. A gunsmith had helped Candace the Candasaur
build her energy/grenade cannon, while Candace of Earth, with instructions
from a blacksmith, had forged her own steel swordspear... which she was
looking at now.
She wasn't at the blacksmith anymore. The initiation had ended hours
ago. After that she and the other Candace had sworn oaths to protect Tizilidai
and its freedom, as well as their own freedom to the best of their abilities.
After that they'd both received scrolls with copies of their prophecies on
them, and then they'd gone to a nearby campsite and settled down for the
night.
Candace however, hadn't been able to sleep. She had made sure that
Candace the Candasaur, Xosizi, and the Candasaur's parents were all asleep,
then she'd gotten out of her bedroll and walked a little ways off. She had
gone to a hill overlooking the valley, with a view similar to the one she'd
seen on the cliff earlier. She was currently looking at her swordspear.
It was an interesting weapon. It was nearly twenty feet long. Its
handle and a heavy counterweight took up the first three feet, then the last seventeen
made up a long, two-edged sword blade. Despite it's length, it was reasonably light,
which was good, because Candace figured that it would be almost impossible for
her to wield otherwise. Xosizi had taken it and swung it like a champion, chopping
down a couple of trees with a single swing. Candace had attempted the same feat, but
with much less impressive results. She had chopped pretty deep into a tree...
but it was definitely still standing when she was done.
Candace held the weapon near it's base and took another swing. She
didn't understand how this thing would ever help her during a fight. If she
had as much strength as an Alion it might be a good weapon, but she didn't, so
wielding it was really awkward. She took another swing for good measure, then
sat down on the Alion grass, or whatever it was. She looked up into the alien
stars, mulling everything over.
What was really keeping her awake was her prophecy. Normally she
would have blown something like that off, but that guy had known WAY too much
about her for the prophecy to have been fake. She sighed and stared into the
sky. It seemed as if she was in the eye of the storm. In four days, all hell
was going to break loose, and if she wasn't ready... she looked out at the
village and imagined it burned to the ground with a bunch of dead Alions lying
all over the place... a dead Candace Flynn among them.
She looked at the sky again, "Why me?" she asked, "Why would you ever
pick me of all people?"
The sky held it's peace. That's what it usually did.
"I'm NOBODY. What makes you think that I can stop Phineas and an evil
alien race from taking over a planet I don't even belong to?"
The sky was silent.
"I know you're out there," Candace gruffed, "Even though you don't
answer me... usually. This doesn't make any sense... I'm just some random,
stupid teenager with a couple of crazy little brothers. I'm not a thunder
goddess or a great warrior or any of that! Why on Earth would you pick me as
your champion? Why?"
The sky remained silent.
Candace fell on her back and groaned. She hadn't really expected an
answer. The Mysterious Force knew she was talking to it... but it would
answer her in its own time and its own way... if it answered her at all.
She stared at the stars for a while. Not sure what to think of
anything. She really just wished she could start over. She wished that she
HADN'T accidentally busted Phineas and Ferb, and that Doofenshmirtz had never
found their house and...
"What's it all for?" Candace whispered, "Is there a reason for it, or
do I just have rotten luck?"
Candace shivered as the cold Alion wind blew across her. She
continued staring into the sky, asking herself all the big questions but
coming up with no answers... except one.
"We all have a picture to draw," she mused, "We all have a life to
live. We can do great things, or we can be mediocre, or even bad. Who we are
depends on what we choose to do with what we're given... I just wish I'd been
given something else... something with less people depending on me."
She sighed. She didn't feel anywhere near up to the challenge she'd
been given... but she'd been given it, so she had to succeed or die... or be
Phineas' slave, which the Alions seemed to think was even worse.
She stared into the sky until she fell asleep, exhausted from the day
and from worrying over the future.
She didn't sleep long.
She was jolted awake when her arms, legs, head and gut were all yanked
into the air. As her eyes opened, she dimly made out the shapes of at least a
dozen Alions. She yelped and struggled frantically as they quickly hog-tied her
and hauled her off into some sort of vehicle. She triedto yell for help as they
threw her in the trunk, but that's hard to do with gag in your mouth. She wrenched
herself into a sitting position and tried to jump out of the vehicle, but one of the
Alions gave her a good, solid punch to the head...
She woke up later with a nasty headache... and she was still hog-tied.
She would've panicked if she hadn't felt so... uhhnnn... She looked around.
She couldn't see anything. Everything was just... black.
"Bhere ab bai?" Candace blubbed.
No one answered her. She sat up and jumped around a bit. She
realized she wasn't in the vehicle anymore-she would've hit the sides of the
trunk. She also noticed a slight grinding noise as she shifted. It sounded
kind of like... gravel? She reached down with her tied-behind-her-back hands
and felt the ground. It was rough... it was rock.
Candace wondered why she couldn't see anything. Was she blind? Had
they put her eyes out? She tested them, rolling them this way and that. They
felt fine, so she probably wasn't blind, just in a place with no light...
No light, rock floor...
It's a cave, she finally decided.
Candace mentally backed up and reviewed her situation. She'd been
kidnapped, she was hog-tied, and she was in a pitch-dark cave on an alien
planet.
Great.
After mentally bemoaning her situation, Candace decided the first
thing to do was untie herself.
Easier said than done.
"Freeshhh... meeaat..."
Candace heard something clomping toward her. In fact, she heard a lot
of things clomping toward her... from different directions... which meant she
was probably surrounded.
"Yummy..."
"New prisoner... tasty..."
Candace did what any self-respecting person would do. She forced
herself to her feet and began hopping away, all the while struggling with the
bonds around her arms.
"Gotcha!"
Something reached out and grabbed Candace, making her bowl over,
however, as she fell, she had the good sense to kick out toward the voice.
Her feet contacted nicely with whatever was after her, causing it to grunt
loudly and fall over... or, at least, it sounded like it fell over. Candace
couldn't actually see it. Once she hit the ground, she began rolling away,
trying to stay as far away from her enemies as possible. As she rolled, she
was able to get her hands free by pulling one of them up higher than the other
and using her fingers to push one of the rope loops over and off her other
hand, which then loosened the rest enough for her to wiggle free.
She heard about a dozen footsteps charging toward her. Candace knew
she didn't have long. She quickly reached down to untie her feet, and was
just getting the knot loose when something jumped on her. She felt it's jaws
clamping over her neck and responded by reaching out for ITS neck (she had to
guess where it was) and squeezing. Whatever it was didn't like being choked,
so it grabbed her hands and yanked them off. While it was doing that,
however, Candace, wiggled her legs free, arched her back and kicked the thing
off of her, sending her attacker into the air and clobbering a couple of other
creatures that Candace guessed had been pouncing at her.
Candace quickly got to her feet and ran in a random direction. She
could hear the frustrated... whatever they were running after her. Candace
reached up and yanked the gag out of her mouth, freeing herself completely.
She wasn't sure how to get rid of whatever was after her. She wanted to
escape, but she couldn't see-
BAM! Candace ran smack into a wall. It hurt a lot, but it helped her
too. She began running along the wall, keeping her hand on it and hoping it
would lead her to an exit and not a bottomless pit. She ran at breakneck
speed, even though she couldn't see, because she COULD hear the hungry beasts
still chasing her. Their footsteps seemed to be getting closer. She was
beginning to wonder if she'd find the exit before they caught up when her hand
felt something different-air.
Candace faced the emptiness and shouted. The reverberations confirmed
that she had indeed found a passageway. She stuck her hand on the wall of the
passage and began running down it. She had scarcely gone two feet when a
horde of who-knew-what leapt out of nowhere and piled on top of her. The
angry creatures grabbed her and began hauling her down the passageway. The
confused teenager struggled madly. She finally got one of the things to let
her go by pulling its hand, which was holding her arm, toward her mouth and
biting it.
The thing yelped and dropped her. Candace seized the moment and
performed an extremely violent twisting maneuver that helped her get loose.
She fell to the ground, began running, and got pounced on by several of the
things that had been holding her. A nasty brawl ensued, in the which Candace
got beaten senseless but also managed to score a number of vicious blows on
her adversaries. She may have won had she not been outnumbered (and if she
had been able to see), but she was, so they beat her up and dragged her to
wherever it was they were taking her.
A torture chamber, it seemed. Candace soon found herself strung up by
her arms-with razor wire. As if that didn't hurt enough, they did it with her
legs and stomach as well. She screamed as the wires cut into her flesh and
lashed her against a wall. Her captors then proceeded to slash her with
knives (if that's what they were, she still couldn't see)-though they seemed
to be avoiding vitals-this was torture, after all, not death.
Candace wailed in agony with every slice. She'd never felt so much
pain in her life. She thought wildly for a way to escape. Her reeling brain
realized that it had to break the razor wire, but that if it did-
Candace shrieked as knife slice her side open. Instinct took over.
With strength only a situation like hers could bring, Candace yanked her arms
down and snapped the wires holding them, cutting her wrists to the bone and
shredding her hands, but miraculously missing her veins, while simultaneously
kicking her legs and breaking the wires holding them, as well as kicking one
of her tormentors. She then untied the wire over her gut and dropped to the
floor.
Her enraged foes let out a series of terrible roars and charged at the
injured girl, but Candace was in no mood to give up. Yelling madly, she
drove into her enemies with a primal fury, punching, kicking and throwing them
to the side. She smashed her way through what seemed to be dozens of enemies
and found the wall, and soon after, the door, which she yanked open and dashed
out of.
Her captors didn't give up. They chased after her. A she ran down
the passageways going heaven-knew-where, their friends leapt seemingly out of
the walls and attacked her. She fought back. Candace had subconsciously
determined that she was NOT going back to that torture chamber. She'd rather
die trying to fight her way through the swarms of bad guys. With the same
primal rage that had driven her earlier, Candace pounded her way through
dozens and dozens and dozens of enemies. In all the fighting she got cut up
worse. She got battered and bruised and clobbered all over, but she would not
stop. She ran and ran and ran, hoping, praying for light, pleading with the
heavens that she would somehow find the end of the cave and get out alive.
Incredibly, she did.
Eventually she saw it. Light. It was dim, but it was light. She
dashed for it, ready to emerge into glorious sunlight-
When she emerged from the cave however, there was no sunlight. In
fact, there was almost no light at all... there was just a little, just enough
to know that she had left the cave, but that was it.
She emerged into a sandstorm.
Sand blasted into her eyes and stung her wounds and the wind screeched
like she had in the torture chamber. Tears came to Candace's eyes as her
hopes for safety and rest got ripped away with the howling winds. She heard
her foes barreling up the passage behind her, and she knew she had only one
chance.
She ran into the sandstorm, eyes shut tight. She coughed and gagged
as she tried to breathe and instead sucked in sand and gravel. In spite of
the agony, she kept running. She ran and ran and ran until she could no
longer hear her captors, until the cave was far away, until she could hear
nothing but the wail of the wind and the clattering of the sand.
Candace stopped and collapsed into the dust. She was almost too tired
to cry, but she did. Not loudly-she couldn't get a proper lungful of air-but
softly, quietly.
She wanted to sleep-but she knew she couldn't. If she went to sleep
in her current condition, she may well have never gotten back up. So she just
lay there in the sand, crying. She didn't know how long it was. It could
have been hours, or it could have been weeks. She didn't know, but eventually
she looked up through her sobs and realized that the winds were easing and
that the storm was dying down. Soon, the sand had cleared, and the glorious
light of morning burst upon the weary girl.
Candace cried some more at the sight-at the fact that there WAS a
sight. She hadn't been able to see much of anything since she'd been
captured. She looked over and saw that she was nearly buried in sand. She
pushed herself up on her hands, shook the dust off and sat up. She turned her
bloody, sandy, tear-streaked face to the beautiful, bright, glorious sky.
"Thank you," she whispered, "Whoever you are, whatever you are, thank
you for getting me out of there alive. Thank you for clearing the sand and
letting me see again. Thank you..."
Candace sobbed uncontrollably, overcome with gratitude. She had never
realized just how wonderful it was... just the simple fact that she was alive.
That she could see... that the sky was still there, that the sun, though it
was an alien sun, still rose in the morning. That she was still there...
injured and exhausted though she was... was enough for her.
"I never realized just how great it is just to be alive... I always
just took it for granted... but no more," Candace said to herself.
She cried for a while and finally calmed down enough to examine
herself. It wasn't pretty. Her wrists and hands were mutilated badly from
the razor wire. It was going to be hard to grip stuff for a while. Candace
was suddenly glad she was up to date on her tetanus shots... her clothes were
shredded in all sorts of places where she'd been slashed , and her
ankles and her stomach were all sliced up. She was covered head to toe in dried
blood. She didn't understand how she hadn't died from blood loss. To make
matters worse, she had a ton of dirt in all her cuts now, just so they'd get
infected.
Candace looked out across the empty desert. She was surrounded by
sand dunes. She couldn't see the cave she'd come from, which she figured was
probably a good thing. All she could see in every direction was sand, sand-
wait-off in the distance, in the direction opposite the sunrise, was a
mountain... with trees... green trees. That meant water, and water meant
life, and maybe, a place to rest.
The mountains weren't close... it would be a long walk, but Candace
knew they were her only chance.
"All right mountains, here I come..." Candace whispered. She got
shakily to her feet and began trudging, yes, trudging, toward the far-off
mountain. She prayed that she wouldn't give out before she made it. Judging
by what she'd done earlier, however, she believed that she could reach the
mountains alive.
Candace staggered on for hours. The glorious sun she'd been so glad
to see quickly became her enemy. Sunburn and dehydration added to her misery
as the temperature rose. Her cuts stung and her feet ached from the hike. In
spite of it all, Candace couldn't help but wonder what on Tizilidai was going
on. Who had kidnapped her? And why? Why hadn't Xosizi heard anything and
come to help her? She hadn't been far. It seemed like a warrior like him
would have slept lighter than that.
Candace was exhausted. She wanted to quit, but she knew if she gave
up there, out in the middle of the desert, she was dead. Thus, she plodded
onward, step after step. Slowly the mountains seemed to get closer. She was
beginning to think she might just make it...
Then, from over the dunes around her, a pack off Alions, all armed to
the teeth, appeared. Candace summoned her exhausted strength and started to
run, but soon realized she was surrounded. The Alions began closing in on
her.
"What's the matter with you all? Leave me alone!" Candace cried
pitifully. The Alions seemed unmoved, as they continued tightening the noose.
Candace, not knowing what else to do, charged at the Alion in from of
her. It pointed it's gun at her and took aim, but Candace had a trick up her
sleeve. A few feet before she reached him, she jumped forward, hit the ground
with both feet, sprang forward and did a front flip over his head (all the
while silently thanking her Mom for that gymnastics class she'd forced her to
take when she was six.) She landed and took off as fast as her tired legs
would carry her.
The Alions opened fire, striking Candace dozens of times. It hurt a
lot, but Candace was surprised to find that they were shooting her with
pellets rather than bullets. Again, as when they cut her earlier, it seemed
like they were trying to torture rather than kill her.
Candace pumped her legs hard, trying to escape, but in her exhausted
condition, she just couldn't seem to outrun her enemies, let alone get out of
range of their pellet guns. They chased her for mile after mile, unloading
their pellets on her whenever possible. Candace dimly noted that she could
now add a collection of nasty bruises to her cuts, most of which were on her
back. The pellet guns were beginning to seem trivial, however, compared to
the running. She'd already been wiped out when the chase began, but now, a
couple miles later... let's just say she hadn't realized her legs could burn
like this... or that her heart could pound this hard... or that her mouth
could foam like that (don't send THAT picture to Jeremy)... or... you get the
idea. But she couldn't stop. There was no cover, no where to hide. If she
stopped she would be captured again at best and killed at worst.
A few miles further, the Alions with the pellet guns finally gave up
and stopped. Candace thanked the Mysterious Force that she had survived. As
soon as she thought that, a couple of Alions jumped out from behind a rock in
front of her. Each one was carrying a hose. Candace had a sudden fleeting
hope that there was water behind to rock and that they were about to spray
her.
And spray her they did... with tear gas.
Or, that's what the choking, noxious substance seemed to be. Candace
teared up and gagged miserably (never mind the fact that she'd already run
six miles and that she was completely out of breath). Her body finally gave
out and she collapsed... but she quickly forced herself to her hands and knees
and started crawling, choking on the gas. The Alions dashed through the cloud
wearing gas masks and leapt at her, crushing her to the ground. Candace was
definitely suffocating, but the Alions attack gave her a quick burst of fury
and she whipped around and punched one of them, knocking him off. The other
one grabbed her throat (not really necessary at this point) and tried to force
her back down, but she kicked him in the sternum and sent him rolling off her.
Candace again began dragging herself forward, trying to escape the
cloud of gas. She could feel her consciousness slipping from the lack of
oxygen. She knew she had to escape the cloud or she was done for.
The Alion she'd thrown off earlier came back for more. He leapt at her,
slamming her to the ground, practically knocking her out. Desperate,
Candace whirled about, grabbed his gas mask, and yanked it off his face.
Well... the Alion didn't stick around long after that. His stalk eyes
bugged and immediately began watering profusely. He coughed a couple of times
and ran for it, eyes shut tight. Candace shoved the mask on and started to
crawl forward... then she fainted, finally overcome.
However... she wasn't out for long. Though the mask itself had tear
gas inside it, it began to flow out, and oxygen, filtered from the tear gas
by the mask, began flowing in. Candace's body automatically began to breath
in fresh air, and oxygen returned to her brain, waking her up.
"Uh..." Candace groaned stupidly. She quickly realized where she was
and began crawling forward again. The cloud of tear gas slowly thinned until
she had escaped it completely. Once she was sure she had completely escaped
the cloud, she ripped the mask (which was making her sweat and stinging her
cuts) off and took in a lungful of unfiltered desert air. Boy, dust had never
tasted so sweet. She got to her feet and looked at the mountains. They were
close now. Candace began trudging toward them again. As she did, she looked
back at where she had been. She saw the cloud of gas first, further back she
could see the Alions with the Pellet guns, and way, way back, she saw a rocky
outcropping where she thought the cave probably was. A question slapped her
mind so hard that she stopped. She turned to take in the full view of the
trials she'd been through.
"W...why... am I not dead?" Candace asked in exhausted wonder.
It was a valid question. What she'd been through in the past few
hours would've been more than enough to kill or at least subdue most people,
but for some reason it hadn't killed, or, for that matter, even subdued
Candace Flynn. Candace couldn't help but feel a little smug. She smiled and
laughed a little.
"Criminy, I didn't know I was this tough!" she exclaimed proudly. She
looked back at the mountain, flush with renewed courage. She marched forward,
determined to both survive and escape.
Within another hour she finally reached the foot of the mountain. The
foot of the forest, however, was a good half mile up the side of it. Candace
debated whether to stop and rest there or climb to the forest. She decided if
she stopped there that she'd still be in the open and that would make her a
sitting duck, so she forced her screaming muscles to start climbing.
As the exhausted Flynn dragged herself up the mountain, questions
started spinning in her head. Where was she? Why were these things after
her? And where the heck was Xosizi when she needed him? Unfortunately, she
didn't have the answers to any of her questions, so she decided just to focus
on survival... or maybe on resting. The forest was getting close. The trees
were only about a hundred feet away...
Candace saw something move in the trees. Actually, she saw a LOT of
things move in the trees.
Great. Another Ambush, Candace thought irritably. She pretended not
to see her foes and continued climbing. As expected, when she was about five
feet from the tree line, about ten Alions leapt out of the woods at her, not
realizing she'd seen them. The well-prepared Candace easily jumped out of
the way, grabbing one of them out of the air as she did. She landed and
started swinging the Alion around in circles (remember, Alions are stronger
than people, but they're also a lot smaller), eventually releasing him and
hurling him into his comrades and sending some of them sprawling to the
ground. Candace took advantage of the momentary confusion and dashed into the
woods. The Alions recovered and charged in after her. Candace knew she was
too tired to outrun them for long, so she started looking for a place to hide.
You'd think it would be easy to find a hiding place in a forest, but Candace
couldn't see a good spot.
C'mon Candace, think! Candace thought desperately. Then it hit her.
She dropped to the ground and laid there, perfectly still. She heard
the Alions' footsteps getting louder and louder, she heard them stomping only
a few feet away... and then they got quieter and quieter. She chanced a quick
look up and saw that they had run right past her. She waited until she could
no longer hear them... and then she put her head back down and laid there some
more. She had been trying to find a place to rest, and this was as good a
spot as any. She was starting to fall asleep when something tapped her on the
shoulder.
Fearing another attack, Candace rolled over and leapt to her feet,
landing in a combat stance, or, at least, as close to a combat stance as she
knew how. Sure enough, another Alion was standing there. Candace got ready
to fight, but she was slightly disarmed when she noticed what the Alion was
holding..
"Is... is that my swordspear?" Candace asked.
"Indeed it is, young one," the Alion said, tossing the weapon to her.
Candace sort of caught it, but then fumbled and dropped it. She
quickly bent over and picked it up, slightly embarrassed.
"Why are you giving this to me?" she asked incredulously.
"I'm here to help you. Come, follow me! Hurry, before they come
back!" he turned and jogged off into the woods.
Candace really hoped this wasn't a trap. She took off after him as
fast as she could.
It was raining.
Normally getting stuck in the rain for five hours would have made
Stacy miserable, but since she was covered in sewage, well... it was kind of
nice.
After some quick deliberation, she and Jim had decided going to his
house would be a great way to get caught, so they had found a nice, dark alley
and spent the night there. Before the sun even rose, a downpour started and
both human and Candasaur were soaked to the bone.
Stacy was actually getting a little tired of the rain. The sewage
had been completely washed off by the third hour, so now she was just wet and
cold.
Jim wasn't too happy, either. He had taken a major risk by going and
buying some breakfast from an (unguarded) Candasaur shop and bringing it back
to the alley. They'd been done for some time now. The problem was, neither
Stacy or Jim knew what to do next. Without Ferb's ship Stacy was stranded
on Trisaria, and, again, Jim couldn't go home either, since the Tkpxzv would
be looking for him. Stacy finally decided to speak first.
"So Jim... now what?"
"I don't know... I guess we just sit in this alley, I mean, you can't
leave the planet, I can't go home... we're kind of... stuck."
"I need to find some way to get to this, T-zil-i-"
"Tizilidai."
"Thanks. That's where Candace is at. I need to find her and bring
her home."
"Stacy... you can't even get YOURSELF home right now..."
"That's true... still, I'm not going back to Earth without Candace."
"I wouldn't worry too much about Candace if I were you, you're
actually in a much worse position than she is right now."
"I am?"
"Tizilidai is the safest place in the known galaxy. The Tkpxzv can't
get to her there. She probably won't be flying back to-what'd you call your
planet?-Earth anytime soon, but she'll be safe until the time comes... IF it
comes."
"Why can't she fly to Earth from there?"
"The race that controls Tizilidai, the Alions, is very strong, but
their territory ends a couple thousand miles from their planet's surface.
Beyond there EVERYTHING belongs to the Tkpxzv... even if she somehow escaped
the Epsilon Eridani system, she would be tracked back to Earth, and when
the Tkpxzv found an Alion ship heading for Earth, they'd think the Alions and
Earth-people had formed an alliance and, well..."
"Bye, bye Earth?" Stacy guessed meekly.
"Basically."
Stacy thought a moment, "So the only way to get home would be to get
the Tkpxzv out of here."
"That, or get back on Ferb's rocket... without the Tkpxzv knowing."
"Well, Ferb's not going to find Candace here, so I don't think he'll
be back anytime soon, and I don't know how to get rid of the Tkpxzv..."
"We could try to steal a trade craft and fly to Tizilidai, at least we
wouldn't be on the run there. Of course... the launch pad is one of the most
heavily guarded areas of the city, and I'm pretty sure there aren't any sewers
there. The last thing the Tkpxzv want is for a Candasaur to escape and find
help... though, I'm not entirely sure there's any out there anyway..."
"So basically... we either have to get to Tizilidai or-no. I'm getting
both me AND Candace back to Earth, no matter what! Which means..."
"You're only option is to defeat the Tkpxzv and liberate the star
system."
"I-I guess so..."
"Well see, that's just it. If we could get to Tizilidai, we could get
Candace back and she could defeat the Tkpxzv!"
"How would Candace defeat the Tkpxzv?"
"The Candasaurs practically worship her... don't ask, it's a long
story, but she could rally the Candasaurs and lead an uprising to defeat the
Tkpxzv! Alas, if only-" Jim suddenly stopped. He turned and looked closely
at Stacy's headband.
"What?"
"That's it."
"What?"
"You."
"What about me?"
"We might not need Candace at all... or, we might at least be able to
get help. If the Candasaurs are willing to help Candace, they may also be
willing to help her friend."
"What are you suggesting?"
"YOU can lead the uprising."
"Sorry Jim, but I ain't no general."
"NOBODY here is. You'd probably have as good a chance of beating the
Tkpxzv as anyone else on this planet."
"Look, I just want to get Candace and go home."
"You can't do that unless the Tkpxzv are gone."
"So what you basically saying is, I have no choice."
"Yes."
Stacy shrugged, "Whatever."
"The question is, how do we START the uprising?"
"We can help you with that."
Jim and Stacy turned to see the President and the Priest walking down
the alley toward them.
"What the-? Where'd you come from?" Stacy asked.
"Well, you opened the door to the cell, so-" the Priest began.
"We got up and walked out," the President finished.
"How'd you not get caught?" Jim wondered.
"We released some of the other prisoners and then ambushed the
guards."
"Good job," Stacy said.
"So... does that mean there's a bunch of hardened criminals loose in
the city now?" Jim asked.
"Basically," the Priest replied.
"I see."
"Anyway, if you want to start an uprising, we'll help you out. I was
going to do it on my own, but having Candace's friend to rally the people
should make the job easier," the President said.
"Not that I don't like Candace or anything, but why is everyone here
so obsessed with her?" Stacy asked.
"Legend has it that she defeated a T-rex 66 million years ago by
calling down thunder from the sky, vaporizing it and saving our ancestors,
though, according to her she just came back on a time machine and got struck
by lightning while the T-rex was nearby," the President explained.
"I think she told me about that. She smelled like smoke that day..."
"Regardless of what happened, my people revere her as a goddess.
According to prophecy she's supposed to return one day and save us from the
Tkpxzv... that seems to have fallen through, but maybe you can give them
hope."
"I can give people hope?"
"I don't know, can you?"
"She will give hope to any who still have faith in the heavens," the
Priest said.
"The heavens? You mean the Mysterious Force?" Stacy said.
"Doesn't matter. Will you help us, Friend of Candace?" the President
asked.
"Will you help me find Candace if I do?"
"Sure."
"All right, where do we start?"
"Thanks to past Presidents, we have, like, no military, however,
recent events being what they are, the Alions trained two thousand Candasaurs
for battle and armed them with some of the best guns the galaxy has to offer.
If we can find them, we might have a chance of beating the Tkpxzv."
"Only two thousand? Against HOW many Tkpxzv?"
"Like I said, they're armed for the job."
"If you say so..."
"All of them had field radios with signal cloaks so the enemy
wouldn't be able to track them."
"What's a signal cloak?"
"Something a primitive like you would be totally confused by," Jim
said.
"Who you calling 'primitive'?" Stacy said edgily.
"I don't know how it works, I just know that it does," the President
continued, "If we can get to their old bunker, there should be a central radio
there we can use to call them. Now, in case the enemy's calling, they won't
pick up unless we give them a special signal... unfortunately, I don't
remember what the signal was..."
"How're we supposed to talk to them then?" Stacy asked.
"I wrote the signal down on a piece of paper… which is sitting
in my desk at the Capitol Building."
"So we need to go to the capitol building and find the code," Stacy
surmised.
"Yep."
"It's heavily guarded, isn't it?"
"Yep."
Stacy shrugged, "Well, I've already broken into a maximum security
prison and faced disintegration, rain and sewers, so... let's get started!"
The President smiled, "I like your attitude, Friend of Candace, let's
go!"
"BWCTFADR?"
"BWCTFADR."
"BWCTFADR?"
"BWCTFADR."
"What the heck is BWCTFADR?" Candace asked incredulously.
"It's a word you must never forget!"
"I don't even know if I can!"
"Good!"
"Why do I need to remember it?"
Candace had followed the Alion to a clearing in the forest. He said
they would be safe there for little while. Candace didn't know if she
believed him, but she went along with him anyway.
"It's an acronym for the seven basic laws of combat. Each letter
represents a word... the acronym you're hearing in your tongue is probably
different than mine though."
"Is that why it's such an awful word? Or why it has eight letters
instead of seven?"
"No, each letter represents one law."
"So there's eight laws then?"
"No, just seven. One of them is so important that it comes before the
laws of combat."
"Which one?"
"Number zero, or the letter B."
"That makes no sense at all."
"B is for better, never fight someone who's better than you unless you
have to."
"You mean someone who's a better fighter?"
"Trag."
"Seems like a good idea."
"Yep, the most important law of fighting is to not fight if you don't
have to. Talk it out, run away, avoid the battle altogether if you can."
"So... BW... BWC... BWCTFADR, right? What's W?"
"W is for win."
"I guess that would be important."
"Much more than you think. Combat is ninety-nine percent mental.
Winners win first and then fight. Losers fight first and then try to win."
"So what you're saying is... I need to outsmart them?"
"No, it means that before you ever start fighting, you need to know
that you can win. If you think that you can win, and he thinks he's going to
lose, he'll probably lose even if he's a better fighter than you are."
"So, believe in myself then?"
"Trag. Remember that nobody, no matter how good they are, is
unbeatable, that you can ALWAYS win, no matter what their skill level."
"So what's C?"
"Cocky. Don't get cocky."
"Wasn't the last law that I should believe in myself?"
"Yes, but if you get overconfident you'll lose anyway."
"So... I need to believe I can win, but not believe I can win at the
same time?"
"Think of it this way... know that it's always POSSIBLE for you to
win, but also know that it's always possible for you to LOSE, no matter how
weak you think they are. You'll know you're balancing fear and courage
correctly if you think you can win, and yet you're still completely terrified
of the other guy."
"So I need to have a positive attitude but recognize that he's still
dangerous."
"Exactly. Also remember that no threat is too small. Always take
your opponents seriously. The weakest of the weak have destroyed the
mightiest of the mighty because the mighty thought they were invincible."
"Better... win... cocky... T is for..."
"Think. Don't think. Turn your brain OFF during a fight. Never try
to figure out how to win. There's no time. Your body already knows how to
fight, even if you haven't trained it. It's hardwired instinct, but it'll
only help you if you calm your mind and let your body take control."
"I shut my brain down to fight? Are you sure about that one?"
"Sounds like a bad idea, doesn't it? Trust me on this one. During a
fight, don't think, just react."
"All right I guess..."
"F is focus. Keep your eyes on the enemy and don't look away, think
or be otherwise distracted. This is critical."
"Okay..."
"A is attack. Never attack, always defend."
"How do I hit him if I never attack?"
"I didn't say don't hit him, I said don't hit him FIRST. Always let
him strike first."
"I should let him hit me?"
"No, you still dodge or deflect the blow, but you don't strike until
he attempts to, and D is the reason for that."
"Why? What's D?"
"D is down. Hit him when his guard is down. If you always defend
until he attacks, he'll always be attacking you when your guard is up, meaning
he's probably not going to be able to hit you. You only attack when his guard
is down... and when is his guard usually down?"
Candace thought a moment. She smiled, "When he attacks."
"Trag. When he attacks, dodge or deflect his blow, then hit him
before he recovers. Don't be too gutsy about it, either. Only hit him if his
guard is WAY down and you have ample time to strike. This is especially good
for getting foes who like to use unnecessarily fancy moves, remember-simple,
basic attacks are best... that's not one of the laws, but it's good to know."
"BWC-TF-AD-R... what's R?"
"Restrain-don't. Don't EVER restrain yourself in a real fight. Don't
EVER take it easy on the enemy. Don't EVER worry about whether you're hurting
them too much. In the end, only one two things matter in a fight, that you
survive, and that you win. Unless it's a practice fight, do whatever, and I
mean WHATEVER, it takes to beat your enemy."
"So, I just totally disregard the life and limb of the other guy and
kill him?"
"Trag."
"That's awful!"
"If he's on the ground and he's already beaten, you don't have to
finish him off, but don't hold anything back while he's still kicking. Does
that make sense?"
"I throw everything I've got at him and win, no matter how bad he gets
hurt. If I beat him and what I did didn't kill him, fine, he survived. If he
didn't, doesn't matter."
"Trag."
"So let's see... BWCTFADR. B is for better, don't fight someone
better than you. W is for win, win first, then fight. C is cocky, don't get.
T is for think, as in don't. F is for focus, A is for attack, don't-only
defend. D is for down, hit him when his guard's down, and R is restrain,
don't restrain yourself. Did I get all that?"
"Trag, trag you did. Repeat that to yourself over and over and don't
forget it. No matter what your skill level, if you can master BWCTFADR, you
will be a great warrior."
"Cool, I guess..."
"EENMTSLST."
"Whoa, what?"
"It's another acronym. It lists the basic targets you want to hit on
most opponents. Any hit is good, but hitting them in one of these weak spots
will do much more damage than normal, maybe even disable them."
"What do the letters stand for?"
"Ears, eyes, nose, mouth, throat, stomach, especially the sternum,
legs, between them, shins, toes."
"I don't know if I can remember all of that."
"Just hit 'em where it hurts."
"Gotcha."
"The best places to hit are the throat and the sternum. If you hit
their throat and break their Adam's apple, it'll kill them. Even if you don't
break it, it'll knock the wind out of them. Same with the sternum. If you
hit it hard it'll knock the wind out of them. If you really score a good hit
it might even temporarily paralyze them, which pretty much ends the fight in
your favor."
"Okay..."
"Last thing I need to teach you... how to use that swordspear."
Candace was still holding it. She had it planted on the ground next
to her like a flagpole.
The Alion continued, "Tell me, what's the greatest strength of the
swordspear?"
Candace looked it up and down, "Uh... it's sharp?"
"Not quite... hm... what's it's greatest weakness?"
"That it's twenty feet long and too heavy to swing?"
The Alion grinned, "I thought you might say that. It's length is, in
fact, it's greatest STRENGTH, even if it makes it unwieldy. Because of how
long it is, you can always stay out of your opponent's striking range, unless
he has a gun, of course..."
"So I don't have to get close to hit him?"
"Right. You can hit him long before he gets close enough to hit you,
and if he's getting too close for comfort, you can simply fall back."
"So to fight with a swordspear, I stay away from the other guy and hit
him with the far end?"
"Right."
"Great, what else?"
"That's all for now, you need to get out of here, but real quick..."
The Alion ran over to a bush and started digging around in it. He pulled out
a suit of what looked like chain mail and pulled it over himself. He returned
to Candace clad in heavy metal.
"...let's practice BWCTFADR and try out that swordspear."
Candace lowered her spear into a better fighting position and got into
an improvised combat stance, "Okay... but won't you get hurt?"
The Alion punched his chain mail, "That's what this is for!"
"Okay then..."
"Ready?"
"Sure..."
"No you're not, what's first?"
"Huh? Oh, right, BWCTFADR."
"Trag, what's first?"
"Don't fight someone better than you unless you have to."
"For our purposes, you have to fight with me. What's next?"
"Win... believe I can win."
"Do you?"
"Sort of..."
"There's no sort of, you can always win..."
"But only if I don't get cocky."
"Trag, excellent!"
"T is don't think, which I'm doing right now, F is focus-"
"Stop there!"
"Huh?"
"Notice you're already doing the first four things... after B."
"Huh..."
"It's easier than it sounds, huh? By the time you're in you combat
stance and facing the enemy, you've already done most of BWCTFADR."
"Yeah..."
"Remember how this feels, and start every fight like this. Once the
fight starts, you won't have time to go through all the steps, you'll only
have time for the last three."
"Don't attack, defend, hit him when his guard is down, and don't hold
back."
"Trag. Now are you ready?"
"I think so."
"You'd better be!" the Alion suddenly charged full on at Candace,
"'Cause if you're not, you're dead!" She squealed and ran backwards,
instinctively swinging her swordspear at him. The swing connected when he was
about six feet away. He tried to block it with his mailed arm, but Candace turned
hard and forced him into the ground.
"Oof! Good, good!" the Alion cried, "Just like that! That's how you
use a swordspear."
Candace raised her swordspear and let him stand. He walked away from
her a little and continued, "Now, once more, but we won't go through the
BWCTFADR steps this time. I'm just going to attack and you'll need to have
done them already."
"All right..."
"Ready? Go!"
He charged. Candace panicked slightly and started to run, trying to
remember what BWCTFADR was... until she remembered how it felt and realized
that was unnecessary. She ran backwards and swung her swordspear at him.
She almost connected, then he ducked underneath it and sprang into the air,
opening his bat wings and flying at her.
Candace screeched but nonetheless had the good sense to keep her eye
on her opponent. She jumped to the side and avoided the attack. As her foe
landed, only a couple arms lengths away, Candace remembered something he'd
said earlier about how to beat guys who liked to use unnecessarily fancy
moves.
As he stood up and turned to face her, Candace swung the backside of
her swordspear forward and stabbed him in the gut, getting a satisfying,
"BLOO-uf!" from him as she did.
She grinned, "How was that?"
"Good, but you forgot R."
"I did? What's-"
"You should've hit me again after that first poke, and if my guard had
still been down... again! Remember, don't restrain yourself."
"Right."
"Anyway, I think I've taught you what you need to know. It's time to
get you out of here and away from these marauders."
"Who are they? And why are they trying to... torture me or whatever?"
"I can't tell you that. You have to go now," he pointed to the other
side of the clearing, "Straight through those trees you'll find a path that
goes to the top of the mountain. There's someone up there who'll take you
back to Kilisyth!"
Those were the sweetest words Candace had heard all day, "Oh, gosh,
that's wonderful," she said exhaustedly, "Thank you so much."
Candace trudged to the other side of the clearing, she was about to go
into the trees when she stopped and looked back at the Alion.
"By the way... who are you?"
"Doesn't matter! I think I hear them coming, go! Hurry!"
Candace listened. She didn't hear anything, but she dashed off into
the trees. She'd run about thirty feet when she heard the Alion's voice
calling after her.
"Take heart, Candace of Earth! You're already a great warrior, and
never let anyone tell you otherwise! Good luck!"
Candace did take heart. She smiled, straightened up and walked
faster.
"I've gotten this far. Maybe, just maybe, I'll make it all the way."
she muttered.
She walked for another minute. Pretty soon she saw a dirt path
through the trees. Just as she stepped out of the undergrowth and onto the
path, she did a double take.
"Hey, how did he know my name?"
"Behold! I, the great Mijjim, will now make all of you disappear!
Abra kadabra alakazam!"
The Tkpxzv guards just stared at him like he was an idiot. Jim held
his magic guy stance for about five seconds, getting no results.
"AHEM, I said, I, the great Mijjim, will now make ALL of you
DISAPPEAR!"
The Tkpxzv were unmoved.
"I SAID, I, the great Mijjim, will NOW, make ALL OF YOU, dis-ap-PEAR!"
"Someone must be trying to break in, and they must be using this guy
as a decoy," one of the Tkpxzv observed in his tongue.
"Quick! Get everyone on alert! Search the grounds!" another Tkpxzv
ordered, in their language.
The guards broke ranks and scattered across the grounds, searching for
the intruders. Meanwhile, Stacy, the President, and the Priest all came out
of the bushes in front of the gate.
"Wow..." the President said.
"I can't believe that actually worked," Stacy said bluntly.
They were in front of the Capitol Building. Jim had come up with an
idea that, to everyone else present, sounded totally idiotic, to get past the
guards and get inside.
They had already agreed that Stacy and the President would be the
only two to go inside (it's hard to sneak around with four people). They took
off and ran straight for the front door. They came to it, opened it, and ran
inside, into the front lobby.
They didn't stop there. The President aimed directly for the
staircase that led to her office. The lobby was crawling with Tkpxzv, but
none of them noticed Stacy and the President until they were already halfway
through the room, and none of them got the sense to chase them until they had
reached the stairs.
"KLRTW! KLRTW!" one of the Tkpxzv yelled. Stacy figured he probably
meant "STOP!", but she wasn't about to do that. She and the President charged
up the stairs, easily outrunning their foes. Once they hit the landing, they
found a hallway guarded by still more Tkpxzv, about six, to be exact, one at
each door, or three on each side of the hall. The President's door was, of
course, all the way at the END of the hallway.
Stacy and the President didn't miss a beat. Stacy and the President
pulled out some rubber bands, stretched them on their fingers and shot them
at the two nearest guards, aiming for their eyes. The two guards both got hit
in their multi-optics and instinctively brought their ropes to their wounded
eyes, which ropes were, as Stacy and the President had correctly guessed,
intertwined with the zapper/disintegrator weapons the Tkpxzv liked so much.
The two Tkpxzv fried themselves on the spot.
The other four guards jumped and then started running toward Stacy
and the Candasaur, ropes raised high. Stacy shot a band between the Tkpxzv,
who both tried to block it and ended up touching each other and crumbling to
dust. The last two Tkpxzv wised up, opened the doors to their respective
rooms, ran inside, threw their respective windows open and jumped out, though
Stacy and the President didn't see that last part.
The hallway was clear, and a good thing, too, because the guards from
the lobby were reaching the top of the staircase. Stacy and the President
bolted for the President's office. The dashed inside and locked the door
behind them. They immediately ran to the President's desk and started
rummaging through the drawers. They had only been at it a few seconds when
they heard the guards trying the door. Finding it locked, they started
banging on it instead.
"It won't take them long to break that down," the President muttered
frantically.
Stacy spoke, "I'm really wondering if running straight in was such a
great idea. I was thinking it might be a really good idea because it sounded
like a really bad one, but-"
SMASH! The Tkpxzv guards crashed through the door and flung their
ropes out at the intruders. Luckily, the President found the paper with the
code right at that moment, and she and Stacy stood up and dashed for the window.
The Tkpxzv were so close behind them that they didn't bother to look at what
was beneath them before they did.
As they fell, they saw three Tkpxzv beneath them, awaiting them with
open ropes. The two girls screamed as they fell towards certain frying death.
Just before they hit, two Candasaurs (Jim and the Priest) charged up behind
the Tkpxzv, heads lowered, and rammed two of the guards, knocking them over
and also giving the President and Stacy somewhere to land. The two landed on
the Tkpxzv guards' backs and dived away from the third one's ropes.
Recovering quickly, Stacy and the President got on their feet and ran after
Jim and the President, who were already halfway back to the gate.
By now the whole area was alerted to their presence, and almost all
the Tkpxzv came running out of their different positions to catch Stacy and
the President. Unfortunately for them, Stacy and the President were already
too far ahead, and the gate had been left unattended so... they got away.
Once out of the yard, the four of them charged through the bushes,
back out into the city, and, after running for a good ten minutes, dashed down
another alleyway and rested. They sat against the wall of one of the
buildings and caught their breath. Only one thing was said while they rested,
and it was Stacy repeating what she'd said earlier.
"Once again, I can't believe that actually worked."
Candace dashed up the mountainside, desperately trying to reach
whoever was going to pick her up at the top of the mountain before more Alion
bandits (or whoever they were) caught up to her.
To her surprise, she got all the way to the summit before she hit
trouble... but she still hit trouble.
The path climbed out of the forest and cut straight up a rock field
before reaching the summit. Candace ran and panted and climbed, realizing she
was almost there. She crested the peak and saw a glorious sight.
Candace the Candasaur.
"Candace!" Candace of Earth cried, her eyes welling up with tears.
"Look out!" the Candasaur screamed.
Something swooped out of nowhere and backhanded Candace in the jaw.
She went tumbling down the rocks. She stuck her spear into the ground and
caught herself before she had gone far. She groaned and sat up. The thing
suddenly slammed down on top of her.
Predictably enough, it was an alion, only this one was covered head to
toe in body armor. It pinned her to the ground and lunged at her throat. She
grabbed it's mandibles and pushed against them, trying to prevent the monster
from biting her head off. She suddenly remembered her one physical edge
against these aliens-she was bigger than they were. Hanging on to the
mandibles, she threw herself forward and got to her feet... sort of. The
rocks gave out from under her and she went sliding, then tumbling down the
mountainside with the alion and a bunch of rocks coming after her. The alion
wrenched free from her grasp and took flight.
Candace thrashed and managed to get herself straight again. She looked up the
mountain, then at the alion, then back up the mountain.
The top. She had to get to the top. The top meant life. Anything
less was death. She saw the Alion swooping back down toward her. She began
scrambling up the mountain, trying to get to the summit before the creature
got to her.
It roared and dived at her. She tried to roll to the side, but it
guessed her move and needled her through the stomach with its jaws.
Candace felt it. She felt the hard bone drive through her. She felt
herself seize up. Her mouth hung open in a silent scream.
That's it. I'm dead. I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, she thought. She
was so shocked that she didn't even feel the pain. But she did feel the
alion's mouth closing over her stomach, cutting through the flesh. She felt
it's hot breath, saw it savage eyes...
She suddenly lunged forward, grabbed it's mandible and yanked it
straight out of her stomach. Saw blood and bits of... whatever go flying from
the wound, but she didn't stop. She yelled to the sky, flung the alion up
over her and threw him back down, mandible-first, into her knee.
SNAP!
The beast shrieked in agony as Candace snapped it's mandible in half.
She threw him away, fell onto all fours and, with a roar, barreled up the
slope. She barely registered the alion's screaming, or the ridiculous amount
of blood she was losing, or Candace the Candasaur's cheering... actually... it
didn't really sound like cheering... actually-it sounded like-
The world started to focus around Candace, and the Candasaur's words
finally came clear.
"You broke his mouth! You crazy redheaded maniac you smashed his
mandible!"
"He tried to eat me!" Candace of Earth screamed back.
"But he wouldn't have! It was all a test!"
"Test, what are you talking about?"
"Candace, you just maimed Xosizi!"
Candace froze. A bunch of wild emotions ran through her. Then she
looked down the mountain at Xosizi, who was now rubbing his broken mandible
and... she couldn't believe it. He was laughing. Laughing. At her. At the
whole thing. Candace looked back up at the Candasaur. It all made sense now.
"Guard of Death and Life training?" Candace of Earth gasped.
"Yep," Candace replied.
Candace looked back down the mountain.
"You JERK!" she screamed at Xosizi, "You punched a hole through my
stomach for training! I swear I-!"
"Relax, Candace," Candace the Candasaur coaxed, "There's a medical
crew right here, they'll fix you right up!"
"Relax? Relax! He just... just... I'm bleeding flipping buckets and
guts right now, huh?"
The Candasaur nodded. Candace of Earth looked down at her gut, and
back at the Candasaur, who grimaced painfully.
Candace of Earth's eyes rolled up in her head, and she collapsed.
"Candace, you get one hundred percent for the last 'R' in BWCTFADR,"
Yhixthyi laughed.
That was his name. The alion that taught Candace the rules of combat.
"No restraint? Xosizi does too," Candace growled. The Alions'
advanced medical technology had already healed the massive injury her mentor
had given her, but she was still resting in their hospital (which was a fairly
nice mud building back in Kilisyth). She still had a lot of blood to recover.
Yhixthyi laughed some more. "He didn't exactly go easy on you, did
he?"
Candace laughed bitterly, "Not at all."
He chuckled. "You're a great warrior, Candace of Earth, and don't you
forget it!"
Candace groaned and flopped her head back down on the fluff, "If you
say so."
Yhixthyi got up and left the room, leaving Candace alone. She was
trying hard not the hate Xosizi. She was the one that had asked to be a Guard
of Death and life, after all...
Candace heard footsteps. She looked up and saw none other than Xosizi
the Alion walk in. His mandible was back in place now, though it had a scar
where Candace had snapped it.
"Oh my gosh, you?" Candace groaned.
"Mad at me, are you?" Xosizi said.
Candace sat up and pulled up her shirt to show him the giant scar on
her stomach.
"Really? Really? For a training exercise?" she griped.
"The medics were right there. I had to simulate real combat."
"Simulate? That WAS real combat!"
"Nothing teaches you like the real thing, besides, you smashed my jaw,
too. I think we're pretty even."
"Uh huh."
"Look at it this way, Candace. Most Guards of Death and Life endure
five years of hell. You only had to endure five HOURS."
"If I'd known what was coming I would never have volunteered for it."
"Ah, Trag. That's why we didn't say anything to you. We didn't want
you to bail. You see, a normal Guard of Death and Life has five years to
prepare for what you went through. What you did today was a normal Guard's
entry test... his final exam, if you will. According to your prophecy,
however, it seems we only have a few days, so..."
"You just threw me out there and hoped I'd live."
"Well, you were never in any, um... MORTAL danger... the medics were
nearby the whole time, and we're all trained not to hit vitals..."
"So sadistic..." Candace whined.
"You asked for it..." he replied.
"I did..."
"Do you regret it?"
Candace paused at this. Did she?
"No way," she replied.
Xosizi grinned, "Didn't think so."
"I kicked some major butt that I never would have thought I could
today," she said.
"Trag. You sure kicked mine. Or my mouth. Man... I got owned by a
rookie warrior today. I must be getting rusty..."
Candace smiled and laid back down, "So Xosizi... what happens
tomorrow?"
"Candace is going to give you music lessons in the morning... then
I'll teach you some more warfare in the afternoon... and at night you'll be
honored as our newest Guard of Death and Life."
Candace showed Xosizi her scarred, once torn-up arms, "Will there be
more of this, when we train tomorrow?"
Xosizi chuckled and shook his head, "No... that's done. That was your
final exam and you passed. You're in the Guard. We'll just be going over
boring technical stuff so you can understand the army tomorrow."
Candace sighed, "Boring sounds great."
Phineas couldn't sleep. Partly it was because Sirius was still up
(two Earth days), but it was also because he wanted to know where Candace was.
As he tossed and turned, the thoughts started to gel in his head... and then
he finally got it. He'd kind of guessed it before, but he hadn't had the
connecting data so he had refused to accept it. As he reviewed it now,
though, he realized, missing links or not, that was probably what had
happened.
"She's on Tizilidai," he whispered to himself, "I'm not sure how she
got there exactly, but if she was with the Alions, that's where they would
have gone."