"My mother sent me to rescue you." Perniceie said.
"Dione decided to not come herself." Angel sighed.
"She couldn't come," Perniceie replied. "she just got back from getting supplies."
Perniceie went over to a pole that held a few rings on it, she lifted a key from it and brought it over to the cell that Angel was in. One insertion, and one turn, and Angel was free. Angel walked from the cell and went to the door, she tried lifting some water from a puddle on the floor and found she couldn't. When she got to the door she turned around, Perniceie was staring at the whip that Master Vile had taken from his father and placed on the table. Angel walked over to her and followed her gaze, Perniceie was shaking slightly, her hands were in a claw-like fashion. The thing that had bothered Perniceie was the whip on the table, it was about four feet in length and was like a cat-o-nine tails only it had six leather straps on it and dangling from each strap were six razor blades. Perniceie reached her hand out, her fingers touched the leather straps then pulled away, a few seconds later she grabbed the whip and with a pained cry, ripped it to shreds.
"He was going to use that on you!" she shrieked, tears ran down both sides of her face. "M-m-my grandfather was going to use that on you? What a monster!"
"My father is the same way." Angel replied, she gently placed her hand on Perniceie's shoulder. "A father who raised a son to become a father and who turned out just like him."
"I'll help you out of here," Perniceie said, she walked towards the door in a huff. "lets get out of here now!"
Angel understood how Perniceie felt, she knew what was going on inside of her, Perniceie had seen the whip and the intentions for the use of it. She knew now why Angel wanted nothing to do with KurukVile or Master Vile or their families. The door didn't swing on its hinges like it normally would have, Perniceie raised one of her fingers and a green energy blast flew from it. It blasted the door back, a series of sparks and flames were behind it. Angel shook her head at the force of the blast, it had been powerful and Perniceie had simply raised her finger for the blast to happen.
"Remind me not to make you angry." Angel said to Perniceie as they walked down the hallway.
They went down the long hallway almost unseen before a guard walked around a corner, when he saw Perniceie he stopped but when he saw Angel he shouted. Perniceie got into a fighting position and threw her hand forward, a red energy blast flew from her hand which was held straight out like a board. When the energy blast struck the guard he exploded. The guards blood and fabric from his uniform flew everywhere, the sound of the exploding guard had attracted attention. Five more guards, all burly Mantis monsters wearing dark green uniforms, ran into the hallway. Perniceie, still in her fighting stance, sent out yellow, red, purple and white energy blasts at them, it wasn't long before the hallway was a bloody mess, pieces of dark green fabric floated in the dark green blood of the Mantis monsters that had stood there before.
Perniceie grabbed Angel's arm and tugged her hard, they sloughed through the dark green blood with the fabric floating in it then ran down the hallway. They made four turns then Perniceie turned into a large room. It had some punching bags in it and some grotesque exercise equipment in it like a treadmill that was mainly made of spinal bone except for the band, the weight machine which had boulders instead of weights on the bars and a riding bike without handlebars, the bike was made of stone and had a skull on the top bar of the handlebars. There was an indoor track all around the room, skull shaped lights from above lit the room up. Perniceie ran to the center of the room then stopped, she looked around then headed for the other doorway. They heard behind them that someone was yelling, someone was running to catch them. They went down the hallway on the other side of the room, Perniceie was now frantically checking the doors with one hand while the other was clasped tightly around Angel's. Perniceie was turning to go into an opened room when Angel shouted no, she saw the pillars and the long table with a chandelier hanging over it from one of the spade-like windows that they had passed. When Perniceie ran into the room, Angel being dragged behind her, the door behind them slammed shut. The door on the other side of the room slammed shut at the same time, as did the shutters of the three spade-like windows.
"Where are we?" Perniceie demanded to no one in particular. "Where!"
"We are in the dining room of KurukVile's ship." Angel said, she swallowed hard. "Someone was waiting for us and when we entered here we was locked up tight. Made to look like a present."
The door behind them creaked open, Angel turned first and was the first to see KurukVile walk in, his wife and Master Vile behind him in that order. Perniceie turned slowly, her hazel colored eyes wide. Her white hair was sticking up in places, the veil that was tied around her head and went down her back had gotten tangled and knotted up in some places. As soon as she saw KurukVile she pushed Angel down, Angel tasted blood and dust from the floor. From her spot on the floor she watched as Perniceie took up a fighting stance, Perniceie threw several energy blasts then sent a flaming energy blast which blew Master Vile and Irka back against the wall. KurukVile dodged as many of the blasts as he could and sent his own attacks. Angel rolled over when one of the blasts hit the floor near her. Irka ran forward and threw an energy attack which sent Perniceie back a step, Perniceie threw a bright blue energy lightning bolt at Irka. KurukVile acted fast and snatched his wife away, the blue energy lightning bolt made a hole in the wall where she had been standing a mere second before.
"Dangerous being in front of me become de-powered!" Master Vile shouted. "Become vulnerable. I command you dangerous being be stripped of your powers and end your attacks!"
Perniceie was in the process of sending another blue energy lightning bolt, this time at KurukVile who had Irka in his arms, when small sparks flew from her fingers. She tried again to attack the pair and again she was met with sparks. She tried to send a blast at Master Vile and found that only smoke came from her hand. She started making surprised, and scared, sounds. She flung her hands all about, when nothing happened she screamed. Angel stood up and placed her hand on Perniceie's shoulder, Perniceie was shaking violently, tears were flowing down her face.
"What have you done to me!" Perniceie shrieked, her body was now shaking so hard that she was having a problem standing. "My magic! My magic! My magic...!"
"What have we here?" KurukVile said, he still had Irka held up against him. "Who is this very deadly lady?"
"Someone I want no where near my little girl!" Master Vile yelled. "Angel, get away from her! Come over here now!"
Angel grabbed Perniceie's hand, she saw that with Perniceie's state of mind at that particular moment she needed to be in charge. With a tug she had Perniceie running, she ran around the table with Perniceie behind her. They had to stop when Angel's father ran in front of them, when Angel turned around she saw that KurukVile, her and Perniceie's grandfather, was behind them with Irka behind him. She looked from one to the other, her head turning so fast that her hair bounced from one shoulder to the next. Perniceie was doing the same, her white hair didn't seem to want to pick a shoulder, her brown bangs had fallen into her eyes.
"That is that girl I was telling you about Kuruk!" Irka exclaimed. "The one that Angel claims she went to school with."
"This one can not of gone to Pronghorn with Angel." KurukVile said, he took a step forward. "She uses dark magic skills not taught by Pronghorn."
KurukVile walked up to the white-haired lady with the bi-colored face similar to his own, if not for her powers and skills he would have found her looking rather pretty but at the moment he found her repulsive and dangerous, it made his intestines curl inside of him. When he got to a few feet of her he stretched his hand forward, his fingers touched her chin. He lifted her head up, getting a better look of the lady. The right side of her face was purple while the left side was black, she had hazel eyes with white hair and brown colored bangs. She was wearing a very provocative outfit, it looked to be Arabian made. She was wearing a belly dancer outfit, the bra was light purple with sequins of gold and the pants were near see through, the fabric color was the same as the bra piece but it was shinier, the band around the waist was black with designs on it. When he glanced down he saw that her feet were bare and human looking. The girl's waist was fully exposed to the air and held quite a bit of muscle, the skin on her stomach looked smooth. There was a see-through veil that hung behind her, it looked to be attached to her hair which was messed up some, the veil reached down to the ground and was tangled and knotted up in some places. He was looking at her face when, suddenly, her hand swung up. He felt her nails digging into the flesh of his face as she slapped him.
Angel leaped up onto the table, Perniceie following right behind her, and ran across it. They ran out the hole in the wall and down the hallway, both were now running on their own, no one was pulling the other by the hand. They ran into a room with a fireplace and were forced to stop, a group of guards were in front of them. Master Vile, with KurukVile and Irka following close on his heels, ran in behind them. Perniceie turned around and hissed, she tried to send out an energy blast but, miserably again, found herself unable to.
"Why are we just standing here?" Angel demanded. "Lets get ready to fight!"
"Fight? Fight with what?" Perniceie shrieked. "You have no magic and neither do I!"
"With our hands!" Angel grabbed Perniceie by her shoulders and shook her twice. "With our hands that is what we fight with now!"
"I can't!" Perniceie screamed. "I can't! I haven't been trained in that way! I don't know how!"
Angel turned and looked at Perniceie, she gave her a good hard look. Perniceie was seventy-five thousand years old, to a pure blood human that was ancient but of course for Angel it meant nothing as she was two hundred and fifteen years old. Dione had told her that she had trained her daughter personally, and then had taken up Azura's training when she was ready to learn magic. Surely Dione had taught Perniceie how to fight by use of hand to hand combat. Perniceie looked back at Angel, Perniceie's face was a mess, there was a trail of white make-up going down both sides of her face.
"You've got to be friggin' kidding me!" Angel exclaimed. "You're seventy-five thousand years old and you don't know how to fight by using your hands?"
"Magic is all I know!" Perniceie yelled back. "It's all I go by!"
"And it leaves you in a sticky position like the one we are in now when it is taken away!" Angel yelled, she stared hard at Perniceie.
"Don't use that tone of voice with me Young Lady!" Perniceie exclaimed, she swung her hand clumsily but it caught nothing but air. "Who are these people? Which one is that razor whip wielder?"
"Why does it matter when you can't do anything about it!" Angel screamed, when she calmed down she pointed at KurukVile. "He is the whip wielder."
"And who is the one beside him?" Perniceie asked.
"That would be my father." Angel rolled her eyes. "Master Vile."
"Vile? My mother's baby brother!" Perniceie screamed, she grabbed Angel's shirt and shook her. The shirt ripped in her hands. "No one told me he was here!"
"Your mother should have told you before you came down here." Angel shook herself free.
KurukVile's mouth dropped in shock when Perniceie said my mother's baby brother in reference to his son. He looked at the woman in front of him more closely and saw it clearly, he chided himself for not seeing it before. He still didn't know the woman's name, but he knew two things. That the woman looked somewhat like his daughter from his ten-year flare with Agola, Dione and that if that was so then that would make her his fourth grandchild and that whoever had trained her had done so with dangerous consequences. He took a step forward, his mouth still closed.
"Mother's baby brother?" KurukVile repeated in shock. "Y-y-your mother wouldn't by any chance be..."
"Dione!"
Perniceie and Angel both shouted the name out at the same time, it drove KurukVile back a few steps. They were both holding a crystal up, one that was a light and pulsating red and the other a light and pulsating purple, each hanging from gold chains. There was a moment of silence before a wild cackle was heard, KurukVile was driven back by a peach colored cloud. He swung his hands a few times then saw Master Vile flying through the air. Master Vile slammed, and broke in half, one of the black spiral pillars in the room. He heard Irka screaming and turned, she flew into the air, completely surrounded by several red lightning strands. When the strands released her she went flying into the fireplace. Turning around, he ran towards Angel and the unknown woman, the nails on his hands held out and ready to tear into any flesh that he encountered. A ball of purple energy slammed into his body and sent him flying into the wall. The guards behind Angel and Perniceie were blasted by a white energy blast that only left their lower bodies intact.
"Good job Azura!" Perniceie said to her daughter.
"Thank you mother." Azura said to Perniceie. "Hello Angel!"
Angel ran over to Azura, Perniceie followed behind her because Angel had grabbed her hand tightly in her own, she looked back and seeing that her grandfather was getting to his feet she grabbed Azura's hand with her vacant hand and ran with both trailing behind her. Azura was confused, but she ran along with Angel and her mother. The three ran down the hallway, following the lights above them on the ceiling. When a hatch came into view Angel quickened the pace, Perniceie and Azura were now free of her hands and were running along with her. When they got to the hatch they heard yells echo through the hallway, Angel slammed her hand against the button beside the hatch and the door slid open. She ran through the hatchway with Perniceie and Azura behind her. Angel tried one of her abilities, tried to make dust form from the dirt, and found that her powers were still canceled out. All three of them ran on until the ground in front of them rose up like a wave preventing them from running forward. Angel turned and tried to lead them the other way but found that the ground there was also raised. This forced her to stop, she turned quickly to find that the ground across from them was also risen like a wave. She turned around and saw her grandfather running from his ship, her father following close behind him. When they stopped a cloud of dust and dirt formed around them, Angel looked behind them and saw that Irka had stopped just outside of the hatchway.
"Now who is this we have entering into this little party?" KurukVile said, he was wiping his hands on his robe.
"Your worst nightmare!" Azura snarled.
Azura threw four blue energy lightning bolts, a green sphere of energy and five energy swipes at KurukVile who dodged by dropping and rolling on the ground and jumping high to avoid being hit. He made the ground around Azura crumble by stamping his foot down, when she jumped from the area she had been standing on previously he made roots raise from the ground and encircle around her. She made several energy swipes before the roots closed in fully on her, trapping her arms to her side. She kicked her legs out, pink energy blasts came from them, from her mouth she spat out a red energy strand. KurukVile lifted a slab of Earth up, the energy blasts made the Earth slab crumble into nothing but pebbles but KurukVile was unharmed.
"Dangerous being in front of me become de-powered!" Master Vile shouted. "Become vulnerable. I command you dangerous being be stripped of your powers and end your attacks!"
Perniceie screamed no and ran forward, KurukVile released Azura from her root prison and she fell with a gentle thud to the ground. Azura shook her head a few times, she felt fuzzy, then when she saw KurukVile walking towards her she swung her hand out. The only thing that came from her hand was a spark, that was all. She gasped and tried again, when the same result happened she started flailing her arms and legs around. She stopped when she felt Perniceie's arms encircle around her. She dropped almost to the ground and started crying, Perniceie wrapped her arms around her tightly.
"Wh-what happened?" Azura cried. "M-my magic! I can't do magic anymore?"
"My father..." Angel started to say.
"I removed your ability to do magic." Master Vile spoke up. "You both have caused enough trouble! Angel, get over here now! Get away from those two dangerous women at this moment!"
"You..."
Azura stood up, her finger was pointed at Angel's father, Angel felt the anger oozing from Azura and she shook her head miserably. Azura had ears that stuck out from the sides of her head slightly, her long midnight black hair with the blonde ends and bangs was all over the place. She stared out at Master Vile with hot, angry moss-green eyes that had tiny light gray pupils inside of them. She was wearing a dark green dress, the skirt was of ripped design with the hem being black, she wore dark green gloves that stretched from her fingertips to her elbows. The left side of her face, and body, was darkly tanned while the other side was bleached white. She had black heels on her feet.
"You're the one who hurt my daughter!" Azura screamed. "Master Vile... that's you!"
"And whose daughter might that be?" Master Vile responded, he stared back at her angrily. "Who are you?"
"Helen... you hurt my Helen! You almost scarred her for life you monster!" Azura screamed.
"Azura calm down..." Angel sighed.
"No!" Azura shrieked. "If I had my magic your blood would be dripping from the leaves!"
"Helen?" Master Vile thought hard. "I don't recollect any Helen."
"Helen of Earth you bastard!" Azura ran forward a few feet then was pulled back by the combined efforts of Perniceie and Angel.
Master Vile stared at the odd-looking woman for a long time before his mouth dropped. He took a few steps forward then stopped, his father took a step forward to stop his son but a shriek from behind by Irka made him turn around. Angel and Perniceie pulled Azura back fully to the wave-like crust of Earth behind them, Azura was shaking violently and would jump forward from time to time. Perniceie pushed Angel hard and wrapped her daughter up in a deep hug, Angel landed on her rear in a puddle of mud.
"You are Helen's mother!" Master Vile exclaimed. "Who is this being? Angel who..."
"Helen is my daughter!" Azura yelled. "Angel is my granddaughter you beast!"
"What!" Irka ran forward, she pushed past her husband until she was beside Master Vile. "How can that be? Angel's my and KurukVile's granddaughter how can she be..."
"Dione!" Angel and Perniceie shrieked at the top of their lungs.
A cloud formed in the sky and Dione's face appeared, Angel, having gotten up from the mud puddle, took a step forward but didn't say anything. There really wasn't anything to be said, she felt rather betrayed by Dione. She had asked Perniceie if Azura was also trained like her, to use magic and only magic and to live only by magic, Perniceie had simply nodded her head. She had asked Dione for help and she had, instead, sent her daughter and granddaughter who were inappropriately trained to help her. She had had no idea that neither knew how to fight without magic, if she would have know she would never have asked Dione for help. She would have stayed locked up in the cell and taken whatever punishment that was given her then try to escape afterwards.
"Mother!" Perniceie screamed. "Help us! Please help us!"
"Pernie dear!" Dione said, her voice was shocked yet confused. "Use your magic! Both you and Azura, use your magic to get past them then bring Angel here to safety."
"We can't!" Azura screamed. "The beast... the monster who fathered my damn granddaughter took our magic!"
"We can't do magic!" Perniceie shouted.
"Well looky here!" KurukVile laughed. "I did think that you was surely deceased my dear Dione. Where have you been holed up this past hundred thousand years?"
"Help us!" Azura and Perniceie shrieked together.
"I can't." Dione sighed. "Not with my father being there. I can hold my own against my brother, my father added into the equation I cannot."
"What!"
Angel's mouth dropped, Master Vile and KurukVile had turned and were looking straight up at Dione's cloud face. Turning to Azura and Perniceie, Angel saw that they had a great amount of surprise in their faces, Azura's face was like her mother's now. Trails of black make-up ran down both sides of her face, her eyes were wet still. Irka had turned from the Dione face-cloud, she was now looking at the three of them. At first Angel thought she saw pity on her face but if so it was only there for less than a second before the very look of pure anger replaced it.
"Mom you have to help us!" Perniceie screamed. "We can't get out! We can't use magic!"
"Silence Pern!" Dione shouted. "Angel..."
"Yes Dione." Angel sighed, she had a feeling she wasn't going to like what she was about to be ordered to do.
"I charge you with the protection of my daughter and granddaughter." Dione said, her cloud-face started to disappear. "Bring them to the Azure Spring where you can swim to my palace."
The Dione cloud-face disappeared and it seemed that as soon as it did the laughing began. It was Master Vile who started it, with KurukVile and Irka following. Angel looked around, she held one of her hands behind her and started trying to get her elemental powers back. She saw from the corner of her eye a stream of mud rise from the puddle behind her. The laughing stopped almost at once.
"She always was one to put things on others." KurukVile said, he stifled a laugh behind his hand.
Angel swung a long strand of mud around and it smacked her grandfather in the face, she saw her father open his mouth and, still holding the mud strand in her hand, she swung it again and smacked his mouth with it twice. He fell to his knees, his hands to his mouth, she saw blood drip from his hands. Turning quickly, she made the ground behind her, Azura and Perniceie drop then she ran through. Azura and Perniceie ran behind her with KurukVile running behind them. Hearing her grandfather, Angel veered left and ran around Azura and Perniceie. With her head held low she charged at her grandfather and struck him hard. She felt dizzy and staggered a few steps before taking off in a run, transforming into a fiery red horse in the process. Azura grabbed a hold of her red mane and swung aboard, Perniceie grabbed Azura's hand and was dragged a few feet before she was propelled through the air. She landed a bit roughly on Angel's back and felt some pain.
"Azure Spring is some miles from here..." Angel said, she snorted through her nostrils. "but in this form I can get there quicker!"
"Better get quicker than quicker because your father is charging behind us on a black horse." Perniceie yelled. "And our grah... and KurukVile is propelling himself pretty quickly with an Earth wave."
"Don't you ever refer to any of them as related to us!" Azura screamed at her mother. "I want no relation to any of them! They're monsters! All of them!"
Angel kicked the dust back with her horse-legs, her long tail trailed behind her like a cloak and her long mane swept across Azura's face. Azura and Perniceie were fighting, bickering back and forth about Master Vile and KurukVile, when Perniceie mentioned about the whip that had razor blades on the leather straps Azura grew silent. Angel felt her hand caress her neck, it was a loving stroke and she enjoyed it. She turned her head to the side slightly and saw that she had put some distance between her father and grandfather, they were now far behind her. When she looked forward she saw the blue of the Azura Spring. Stretching her neck out as far as it would go, pumping her legs as fast as they would go, she closed the distance to the Spring quickly. When she got to it she leaped up, transforming as she did so into her true form. When she, Azura and Perniceie landed in the water it was in the deep end. Each one started swimming, Angel in front leading the way with Perniceie and Azura following.