A new chapter from. me. I never said this before, but I suppose I'd better. JFG, Lupus, Juno, Vela, and everything else belong to Rare. Nova belongs to me. I have no problem with you using him if you ask me first, though. Enjoy.
"Take her to Vela!" Juno yelled to his dog, suddenly bursting away from the group.
There was no time to explain, and he had to do something fast. Time was against him. There was no time. There was just him. He ran, nearing the Tribal Village with each wide stride. /Almost there,/ he thought. His lungs were burning. He could still faintly here Lupus' confused whining from behind him. He couldn't think about that. He had to stop Barry.
Suddenly, he burst out of the dense foliage. There below him was the main Tribal village. He couldn't pronounce the name, as it was in native Tribal tongue, although he gathered it meant something along the lines of "place of peace." Not anymore, it wasn't.
He dropped to his belly. From his perch atop the cliff he could see everything. There were… 3… 4… 5 Drone ships. One larger than the others- it must have been the lead ship. Everything was still. No Tribals moved. Drones were all around the village, aiming weapons at the Tribals' furry heads. And in the middle of it all, he saw a strangely deserted area. He knew it to be Jeff and Barry's hut. He also had a good idea about what was going on inside.
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"But Jeff," Barry was saying. "Goldwood needs you. Me, I'm a criminal. You've been too good to me brother. Let me repay the debt."
Jeff sighed. He stared into the glowing flames. Barry wanted to do something good? He didn't know. But he knew that he could not let Barry sacrifice himself. He could see faintly into the future, and he could see that bad things would come if he let Barry. Very bad things. He sighed again, and turned to his brother.
"I cannot, Barry. I thank you for trying, but I cannot. I will go." Jeff turned towards the door. As he began to walk forward, using his scepter as a walking stick, he heard the sound of sudden movement behind him, and then felt a blow come down on his head. All went black.
The stick made a sharp crack as Barry brought it down on Jeff's head.
"I'm sorry brother. This is for your own good." Then he smiled, a wicked, evil smile, and began to cackle like a maniac.
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Juno watched as a large figure appeared out of the lead ship. It looked to be a giant grasshopper. The thing made its way over to the royal hut, and then said in a rasping voice,
"Have you made your decision?"
It was obviously the leader. After these words, a Tribal stepped from the tent. Barry.
"We have," he said. There was a smile on his face, a crazy smile. Insane. "I will go."
The grasshopper through back its head and made a quick, repeating rasping sound. Juno took this to be laughter. He had to do something.
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Barry and the grasshopper swiveled their heads sharply as they heard the sounds of gunfire. They're eyes focused on Juno, running full speed down to the village, his pistol firing madly. He was shouting at the top of his lungs, and picking off Drones one by one. The Drones were slow to react, but not the Tribals. When the Drones were distracted by Juno, the Tribals took the opportunity to fight back.
They jumped on the Drones, clawed and bit at them. Drones screamed. The Tribals mobbed the larger beetle Drones. They went down with about ten Tribals hanging to them. It wasn't hard for Juno to make his way through the chaos to the center of the village. It was there that he finally stopped running.
"Give up Barry. You won't get away with this."
"Oh?" said the Tribal, still wearing his crazy smile. "We'll see about that. Get him!"
The grasshopper leapt forward, and delivered a kick to Juno's chest before he could react. Juno had the wind knocked out of him, and lay on the ground gasping for breath. The grasshopper's eyes began to glow, preparing to finish off Juno.
Suddenly, the grasshopper's eyes returned to normal. It slowly backed away from Juno, its gaze focused on something behind Gemini's leader.
Juno slowly pushed himself up on his arms, and craned his neck behind him to see what was there. His gaze fell upon Vela and Nova, Tri-rockets aimed at the grasshopper's head. The two were strangely silent despite the noise all around them. But despite the absence of sound, or perhaps because of it, one could easily distinguish this area as the center of the action.
Juno climbed to his feet, surveying the events around him. It was apparent that the Tribals could not win the fight, although they put up a good effort. The battle would have to be finished here. Cut of the snake's head and the body dies. He turned slowly to Barry. The Tribal didn't look all that threatening, but he was different somehow. Wild, crazy; evil.
"Barry of House Arkemerent, brother to King Jeff of Goldwood of House Arkemerent, I place you under arrest for… well, all the shit you caused. Call off the troops."
Barry looked at him, smiling smugly. The wild look was still there, if a little diluted.
"Kiss my furry ass."
Juno didn't have much time to be surprised by this comment before the grasshopper once again leapt into action, as if suddenly activated by Barry's last comment. The oversized bug once again knocked the wind from Juno's body as it delivered as kick to his chest. Juno fell to the ground gasping. The bug turned its attentions to the others.
Nova swung his weapon about at the same time as Vela, letting a trio of rockets fly. Both of their blasts hit harmless earth as the bug leapt again. The two dove out of the way of the swiftly descending creature, each rolling in a different direction. The bug went after Nova first. As he was getting up, the grasshopper came down on his head, slamming his skull against the ground and knocking him senseless. Vela had just had time to climb to her feet before the creature switched his attacks to her.
She jumped backwards as it came down where she had stood. She fired off her rockets, but the thing had already moved. She couldn't hope to keep up with something this fast- she needed Homing Missiles. She reached desperately into her suit, but as her hand closed around the weapon, the bug slammed into her. She flew backwards and hit the ground hard. The grasshopper's eyes began to glow. But once again, it was robbed of the kill.
"Hey, ugly!" came the cry from behind the creature's bulk. It turned to meet Nova, who had managed to get to his feet. He attempted to wave his gun menacingly, but failed miserably.
"I'm not dead yet! Bring it on!"
The bug leapt for Nova in its standard method of attack. Nova practically flopped to the side, but it didn't matter. As their adversary came down, it failed to notice the land mines planted where Nova had just stood. An explosion blew it backwards, and it slammed to the ground.
Vela stumbled to her feet, and then to the downed insect. It was twitching on the ground, and most of its powerful legs had been blown off. It no longer posed any threat. She felt a hand placed on her shoulder as Nova came up behind her.
"A bee without its stinger. It's helpless now." Vela turned to face him, this man who she had only recently met, but found herself strangely in love with.
"You saved my life," she said. Nova gazed into her eyes, twin pools of blue.
"I was just repaying-" He was cut off as Vela forcefully planted her lips against his.
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Juno groaned as he got to his feet. It was official. This day sucked.
He turned to view the ensuing panic. The drones were apparently disheartened after seeing their leader blown to bits. They were retreating, but that didn't stop the little furry cannonballs that were still after them.
Then Juno realized Barry was missing. He must have escaped into the crowd during the battle. He wouldn't easily be spotted in the mass of fur, so Juno had another plan. He ran towards the largest of the Drone vessels, passing Nova and Vela as he went. He didn't bother them, this wouldn't take much effort.
As he neared the ship, its engines roared to life. He was too late- Barry was taking off. Juno ran as fast as his legs would carry him, and was suddenly aware of the third member of Jet Force Gemini running down near his feet. Lupus let out a howl, and ran ahead of Juno towards the ship.
As the vessel cleared the ground, Lupus leapt into the air. He slammed into the side of the ship, and dug his claws deep into its side. The ship swung back and forth, attempting to knock Lupus off, but the dog would not be moved. His weight alone prevented the ship from reaching the atmosphere. Suddenly, the ship dropped to the ground. Its engines went dead, and its systems went off. Lupus still clung to the side.
/Why did the ship land?/ thought Juno. Surely Lupus couldn't have put it that much off balance. Then he realized it.
"Lupus, get off the ship!" He yelled at his dog, but it was too late. An electric current surged through the Drone ship, blasting Lupus back, and frying the big dog. An EMP: Electromagnetic Pulse. The ship roared to life once more and lifted off. Juno ignored it, however, as his dog was lying gravely injured on the ground.
He ran over and knelt beside the dog's body. Lupus was whining faintly. His fur was blackened from the shock. Perhaps he or Vela could have survived it, but Lupus' body was too small. Tears rolled down Juno's face as Lupus slowly quit whining. His breathing stopped.
Lupus was dead.
Don't worry about the dog, I have a lot more surprises in store for you then you could guess. And don't complain about the EMP, I don't care.
