My Calling: Second Cycle

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

MAKAI! Seperates Paragraphs

Chapter 11: Exploring the Cosmos... not yet, anyway

"Nelius, I have to ask, where and when did you get so good with a gun?" Brad had to ask as he, Nelius, and Radara watched the Nekomata that had held him captive get dog... er, more appropriately, cat-piled by the other Felynn. It was a sea of fur, claws and teeth, with the odds literally thousands to one. "Did you ever happen to train with a Gunner or Archer?"

"To tell you the truth, I haven't any idea, and no, I never bothered hanging around most others back home. Maybe it's just one of those things I was born with." Nelius replied as he sat down on a chair and pulled up a bag of popcorn. "Still, though, the thought that she'd go to this level of extreme, just to grab you is rather sobering. I have a suggestion."

"I'm all ears."

"Step up security, to prevent this from happening again." He popped some kernels into his mouth as he watched the spectacle. "Forget TV, this is entertainment at its finest. Just wish I had a video camera so I could immortalize this event."

Brad nodded in agreement. "Hopefully, she won't be dumb enough to try something like this again, because next time, I won't tell any of them to go easy on her." He gestured to the horde of Felynn and Sabercats who were now exiting the ship, their rage spent. The Nekomata was down on the floor, several bruises and teethmarks adorning her body with multiple tufts of fur (and a few pints of blood) missing. All she could do was twitch helplessly in pain. "You better be sharing that."

"Anyway, what do you plan to do with her now?" He asked as he passed his bag over.

"Good question. For now, I'll have her placed in one of the storage cells down below." The Jaguar Overlord crunched down on some popcorn. "I'll drop her off at a friend's later."

"Hopefully, she's learned her lesson this time." Radara interjected as she partook in some kernels. "If she hasn't, then next time she does this, I think I'll end up joining in." As always, she had to lean right over Nelius in order to reach the bag. "Looks like they missed a spot."

"Speaking of this incident, I was just reminded of something." Brad walked over to the ship's controls, taking the popcorn with him ("Hey!") and began looking over several things as he brought up some charts. "Let's see... oh, hmmm...." The readouts gave him some highly interesting information. "Well, this I wasn't expecting."

"What's up?"

"According to the readouts I'm getting, even with what all happened these past few days, I'm close to one full month ahead of what I had projected for this time. Damn, I'm good."

"Hm?" Now Nelius was interested. "Ahead of schedule for what, exactly?"

"Even though I'm legally considered this world's Overlord, I also have my other duty as a Guardian."

"Guardian?" The lone eyebrow went up. "What, you go around acting as a bodyguard?"

"Ah, no. Actually, I've been charged with the task of heading to different Netherworlds to make sure things haven't gone to methaphorical hell."

"Oh, you mean like a Cosmic Mediator?" Brad blinked.

"Well..... yes, I suppose you could put it like that." 'That's a new way I've heard it described.' "Since everything here is in order, I can get my secondary job started by later today. I can sign you on as one of my crew members, you've earned the spot."

"Hmmm." Nelius was in thought. "That's a tempting proposition. I suppose I'll give it a shot, but I need to go grab my stuff before I do so." He departed from the ship, heading back toward his room in the Overlord's Tower. "Just send me a heads-up when it's time to go."

MAKAI!

Nelius Journal Log, August 25, 33XX

Ah, the sweet smell of success. As reward for saving him from his obsessive girlfriend, Brad has offered me a position aboard his ship when he goes out on his trip around different Netherworlds to play peacekeeper. Makes me wonder how the hell he does it.

Now this is a prime opportunity for me to check out those weird moves that keep appearing in my dreams whenever I doze off. I can understand them shielding me, but how the hell does one transform their wings into armaments like that?

Eh, something tells me I'll figure it all out sooner or later, so I won't worry about it for now. I'll guess it's some kind of magic.

Nelius' room

As Nelius stood up to stretch, he then realized that he'd been up all night helping save Brad's rear end, as he saw this Netherworld's sun rise.

"Well, since I'm wide awake from that party, trying to fall asleep's a no go." Placing what few items he had in his bag, then slinging it over his shoulder, he exited the tower and decided to just take a walk around the city for a bit, just to pass some time until takeoff. Strolling around town, he watched as several other Felynn wen about their own business, wether it was just waking up, getting something for breakfast, or going out for some morning exercise.

Though some of them did give him strange looks and make comments toward each other, as if they'd never seen a humanoid demon before, they eventually turned back to whatever it was they were doing, their fascination already used up. Nelius being Nelius, though, wasn't one to catch their comments, some of which would've been quite interesting.

Instead, his thoughts now turned toward what Brad had described about the travel to other Netherworlds. 'What was it that Queen Bitch told me about where I was from?'

He remembered back about 4 years ago, when he had been apprenticing under Sirea. It was a year before her sudden change in attitude, and she had been telling him something...

'I can't remember a word about the whole deal. Was it really that far back?' Finding an old branch nearby, he took it, hooking it over his shoulders and sparing his arms from further fatigue from carrying the bag. 'Even if could squeeze some info out of her, it wouldn't explain those weird dreams, especially the one about...' As he continued to walk, lost in his thoughts, he rammed face-first into a tree. "Oww! That wasn't there a second ago." He clutched his hurt nose, barely managing to hold onto his branch.

"Oh, but I was. It was your own fault for running into me." The "tree" turned around to reveal that it was really a Treant stump.

"Sorry about that, man. I was lost in thought."

"Seems to happen a lot with you." Surprised to hear a familiar voice way too close for comfort, he whirled around and came face to face, instead of face to chest, with Radara.

"Do you enjoy having fun at my expense?!"

"Sorry, it's the oldest habits that die the hardest." She playfully stuck out her tongue with an accompanying "nya", causing Nelius to sweatdrop. "Regardless of that, I'm out here to play messenger girl again."

"Oh, this ought to be a riot. What does he want today?"

"You did intend to take Brad up on his offer, so you best get back to his ship. He's got everything ready to go, and will be leaving within the next two hours. Here's your heads up." With that, she took off toward the ship.

It took him a moment for the message to register. "My heads up... Oh, hell!!" Dropping the branch and grabbing his bag, he quickly let his wings sprout from his back, ignoring the slight pain. "Hey, wait for me!"

Phantom Cat Mk. 2

"We are now leaving Brad's Netherworld, through gate [BW231]." A ship-wide intercom system informed the passengers. "Please enjoy the trip, and make sure to keep your doors firmly shut. We don't need a repeat of what happened two years back."

"Huff.. huff... next time... you're giving me a time limit... give me a quicker heads up!" Nelius complained.

"What, and ruin all the fun?!" Radara just smiled at him. "Besides, you're the one with the advantage. You can fly, you know."

"Hey, remember, even with everything that's happened, my wings are still getting back into shape again."

"Before you two decide to have a lover's spat, I best let you two know about what I already told the others." Brad, at the helm of the ship, warned the both of them. "It's going to be about a day or so before we reach the first of our stops, so you two will want to rest up. To add to that, my crew has already selected their rooms, so if you two want some space to yourselves, go claim an empty room now."

Having forgotten their discussion, the two of them quickly raced down the hall toward the sleeping quarters. Brad grinned. 'Bet number one is in the bag!'

Meanwhile, Nelius and Radara were making their way through the sleeping quarters, trying to find any vacant room. While the latter person was content on simply finding a room, Nelius was taking a little more time, having found a panel with a shipwide map. Based on the map's information, if he was looking for his ideal room based on where he'd already been, he needed to go one hall over, three halls down, head over in this direction, then take a left.

'Finally, one that's open. It'll have to do.' Having taken the directions and arriving at the hall in question, he swung the door open and took in the sight of the room. Its design was fairly similar to the room he'd been given back at Brad's Tower, right down to having the exact same kind of bed, dresser, and TV. 'Wait, does that thing even get reception in dimensional space?' Curious, he walked in, closed the door, and grabbed the remote, turning the TV on. To his surprise, the reception was actually quite clear; Peta-definiton, they called it. 'This I was not expecting, but it can wait.' Turning it back off, he threw his bag down on the floor before he left the room, retracing his steps back toward one familiar door.

'Let's see if Brad's got anything better than what Queen Bitch had.' His hand went for the knob, trying to twist it. 'Hey, why's the door locked?'

"Didn't think it'd be that easy, did you?" Brad snuck up on Nelius. Cats were known for sneaking around quite well. Hell, any quieter and they'd be teleporting.

"Holy shit!" He nearly shrieked like a spooked Prinny, almost adding in a "Dood" as he spun around. "Don't do that, man!"

"I told you to rest up. Now scoot." Nelius was already gone. 'I sense an easy source of amusement. This will be an interesting trip, after all.'

Back in his room, the humanoid was busy flipping through channels on the TV, trying to find something so uninteresting that it would bore him to sleep. So far, there was way too much stuff on that would keep his interest, or at least creep him out. Bo Tie's "Work up a Good Sweat" program, the "Netherworld Geographic" channel special on the various Dragon species, "Prinny Station", even the "Tri-tech" show from Earth was starting to catch his interest.

'Huh, here's irony at its finest. Well over 37,000-something channels and nothing boring on.' He flipped from channel to channel, seeing nothing that would bore him to sleep. 'This is taking too long. Forget this.' He turned the TV off and settled into bed, sleep still eluding him for a small while.

Over to Brad, now...

"Say, Radara, you do know where we're headed next, right?"

"Oh, I know, since it's almost always one of our first stops. While everyone else is getting their things done, I'm going to be catching up on old times." Radara answered back. "I haven't been able to catch up with my old friend all that much, so this'll be a good opportunity to see how things have been."

"Just be careful with him being on this ship. You remember her... habits, right?"

"You shouldn't worry too much about that. Leave it to me." She laughed. "I know she'll behave. Besides, if she does get out of hand, I still have that one string I can pull."

"You're quite the devious one, aren't you?" He smirked.

"After all, I did learn from the best. Good night, Brad."

End of Chapter 11

Until next chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough