"The Chosen"
Chapter Eleven
Eliyora: Don't say it. I know. It's been about half a year since my last update. This time, though, legitimate excuse. My old computer died. Just went dead. Will not start up. I had a chapter half written on it, and lost it. Now I can't remember what I had already written, so I'm having to start fresh. Forgive me.
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"I see," the dark man spoke. "You are right, Skull Witch. This may be worked to our advantage."
"I have already begun making preparations to capture the girl," Valina reported. "If we can lure them here, it will be simple to destroy them."
"Capture her, but when the Hyper Force comes, do not destroy them," he replied.
"My Lord?" Valina questioned.
"Bring her before me when you have her. I have plans for her," he ordered. "What of our servant?"
Valina laughed. "Just a bit more and he will be ours. He is already corrupt beyond what that blasted black crystal of theirs can undo, and that is without my magic influencing him. I believe it has always been his destiny to serve us and help us revive the Dark Ones."
"It may be so, Witch," he answered, grinning. "Let us set our plans in motion. Our masters grow impatient. We must free them from their imprisonment soon."
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"MANDARIN! BEHIND YOU!" Chiro yelled. Mandarin turned and saw a Formless blade slicing towards his neck. He dodged and sliced the foe clean in half with his sword. He continued in a wide sweep to wipe out four other Formless that happened to be nearby, and nearly caught Gibson with the end of his sword.
"Whoa! Be more careful!" Gibson snapped.
Mandarin glared at him, but as more Formless came at them, there was no time to reply. The fight went on until finally, Chiro spotted the Brain. "Chiro Spearo!"It dissolved, and so did all the other Formless. "Whew. That takes care of that," Chiro said. "This is getting easy."
His remark was ignored by Mandarin, though, who stormed right by him and grabbed Gibson by the collar. "Who are you to tell me what to do?" he growled. "I am the leader of this team!"
Though a bit choked, Gibson responded, "You almost sliced me in half along with those Formless."
"I will do as I see fit! You will not complain! UNDERSTOOD?" Mandarin yelled, spraying spit all over Gibson's face.
"MANDARIN!" Chiro snapped, prying Gibson free from his fierce grip. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I will not tolerate anyone questioning my authority!" he replied, snarling. For a moment, Chiro thought he had fangs.
"No one was!" he answered. "Gibson was telling you to be more careful, and he had every right to! You almost hit him with that sword of yours! You could have killed him!"
"You think to question me, boy?" Mandarin said in a dangerously quiet voice. He reactivated his sword. "Do not push me."
"Brother! That is enough!" Antauri yelled, coming to stand between Mandarin and Chiro. "You take your authority too far! Do not think to threaten any of our team, or I willspeak to Lady Kitalia! That is a promise."
Mandarin snarled a moment longer, then deactivated his sword. Under his breath, he muttered, "You are just as feeble as they are."
Unfortunately, Antauri caught it. Grabbing his brother by the arm, he demanded, "What has gotten into you lately? You never used to be like this! Not too long ago, you would have agreed that you were going to far, but now you accuse me of being feeble? What happened to the brother who looked out for me as a child, helped to raise me? What is he becoming?"
Mandarin looked at him a moment, then shocked everyone by punching him. "It is not for you to question me either, brother. You will all follow my orders, obediently, or you will face whatever form of dicipline I see fit to mete out. Understood?" Without waiting for an answer, he flew off, presumably to the training room at his house.
They had seen Antauri take a punch in the face before with no problem, but now he looked as though he had been run over by a delivery truck. He had never been so shocked in his life. "He punched me," Antauri whispered disbelievingly. "He actually punched me."
Sparx glowered in the direction Mandarin had flown off in. "That prick is just full of it! What the hell makes him think he can treat people like that?" He turned to Antauri. "And this was the guy you were so looking forward to coming home when he was gone?"
Antauri shook his head. "No. No, not at all. He was never like this. I mean, he's always been aggressive I suppose, but it was always in a healthy way. He only became violent when it was needed, and he preferred to use his head rather than brute force. Bossiness was always there too, believe me, but that was....." Antauri looked close to tears. He clearly couldn't quite grasp what had happened.
Chiro helped Antauri to his feet. "Look, why don't we all call it a day? I think we've had enough. Let's all just go home and get some sleep." When Antauri made to leave, Chiro grabbed his arm. "Not you. I want to talk to you."
The others left. Chiro and Antauri changed back, and Chiro whipped out his cell phone and called someone. Once he was done, he turned to Antauri. "Listen. Do you remember the promise I made to Jinmay a while back?"
Antauri had to think a moment. "Oh, yes! You promised you would stay over at my house to see what kind of 'situation' I'm living in."
Chiro nodded. "I think tonight may be a good time to fulfill that promise." When Antauri began to protest, Chiro held up a hand. "It's not a request. Mandarin has been getting worse and worse lately. We can all see that. He may have been a jerk when we first met him, but he wasn't like that. We're going to swing by my place so I can pick up some stuff, then we're going to your house. I want to see for myself, now, what's going on. Whether or not it's an abuse case, maybe I'll see something in Mandarin's everyday situation that might be causing this change that you'd overlook simply because he's your brother. No arguments," Chiro snapped when Antauri started to say something.
Defeated, Antauri sighed and nodded. No wonder he was with Jinmay. They were both pushy.
A limo pulled up in front of them, and Chiro climbed in, Antauri following after a moment's hesitation. He stayed quiet until they pulled up in front of the biggest house Antauri had ever seen. Stunned to silence, Antauri looked over at Chiro, who had the decency to blush.
"Um, yeah. Did I mention that my last name is Carrington?" he said nervously.
"Carrington? As in Clay Carrington?" Antauri demanded. Even those in the Varon Order knew of Clay Carrington. After all, a lot of the technologies he had invented were being used within the Order nowadays.
Chiro blushed harder. "Uh huh," he muttered.
Upon entering, a butler greeted them. "Good afternoon, young sir and friend."
"Hey Charles. Where's my mom?" Chiro asked.
"She's in the study," he answered.
"Thanks. Come on Antauri," Chiro said, leading the way down the hall. Antauri, personal problems momentarily forgotten, couldn't stop staring at everything. Even though material wealth meant little to him, there was a point where even he'd be impressed!
Opening a door, Chiro said, "Hey Mom!"
A lovely woman with brown hair pulled into an elegant bun, wearing a business suit as though she'd just come from a meeting, turned and smiled warmly. Antauri noticed that her eyes were the same as Chiro's. She pulled her son into a hug. "Hello Chiro. Who's your friend?"
"This is Antauri. I've told you about him," Chiro said warmly.
"Ah, yes, of course," she said. She extended a hand to Antauri. "It's good to meet you at last, Antauri. My son speaks very highly of you."
Antauri clasped her hand. "I am pleased to meet you as well, Mrs. Carrington," he replied politely.
Mrs. Carrington giggled. "You seem to have better manners than Chiro does. Would you mind giving him a few lessons?"
"Mom!" Chiro complained, causing his mother to laugh more. Clearing his throat, Chiro said, "Mom, listen. I want to crash at Antauri's place tonight. May I?"
Mrs. Carrington looked startled. "This is rather abrupt. What brought this about?"
"Odd circumstances," he said without missing a beat. "I just came home to grab some stuff."
Raising a delicate eyebrow, his mother said, "It sounds like you've already decided without asking me."
"Yeah, kinda," Chiro replied. "Listen, Mom, I need to. It's kind of like the Factum situation again, but not exactly. Please?"
Antauri didn't know what that meant, but apparently Mrs. Carrington did because her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Yes, of course, but you call me if anything happens, understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," Chiro said. "Could you ask someone to gather my stuff? I'm only staying one night."
"Not a problem, dearest," she answered. Pushing an intercom button, she began calling orders into the device, leaving the boys to wait. Antauri tried to puzzle together Chiro's explanation to his mother.
Fatcum? Isn't that Otto's last name? he thought.
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Eliyora: Next chapter, the long-awaited sleepover! Get ready for hell!
