By Chustang Sundust
Chapter 6
"Traitor Strike"
June 16. 12:35
Jim Hawking blinked suddenly, feeling a warm, stinging sensation
in his eyes. It only took a moment before he realized just what it was
and quickly snubbed his hand against his eyes to stop it coming on again.
The fact that the crying did nothing but intensify the pain was burned
deep in his mind and he knew the consequences. He leaned more heavily against
Melfina, still shaking with rage and pain.
Meanwhile, a concerned frown possessed the bio-android's face,
yet the emotions behind that mask were being stirred in a pot of confusion.
She had never had this; emotions were a shocking new concept to her. The
fact a thing could cause a certain reaction in her seemed disturbing to
the soul. Melfina might not have had philosophy, but she had intellect.
It had been programmed.
If she had emotions, it meant her actions could be manipulated
like strings. Pull that one, get a reaction, and pull that one even harder,
get a stronger and blinder-led reaction. It meant she could be a tool,
while believing she was otherwise. Her head was throbbing with anguish.
Melfina already knew her strings were being pulled, and hard. There was
one emotion, strange and unpredictable. It had thousands of names, but
with little definition or explanation. Gilliam had called it affection,
Suzuka had called it attraction, Aisha had called it falling, and Jim had
called it a crush. She had no name for it, except for to call it by its
inspirer.
She was confused about this too. It seemed impossible to understand
just what Jim meant. She tried to comfort him but he had withdrawn into
thoughts, pale, sweat-licked face twisted up and silent. With her free
hand, she held the picture frame in her lap, running her fingers across
the glass lightly.
In the dim, orange-tinted light streaming through the blinds,
she could see the faces again. First she tilted her eyes toward the mother,
then the father, and finally to the kid and stayed there. Melfina ran her
hand around the frame, and brought it back to her lips to nurse her finger.
Her finger had been cut on a sharp edge and it bled. She stopped the bleeding
then turned the frame over curiously in the dark.
Examining it, she found a corner of paper sticking from the back,
old and tan from years. It was strange, because there wasn't a corner of
the photo missing. Melfina tilted her head and angled it to get into more
light. She saw the outline where the back detached to open and moved the
latch from it, the back quickly falling out without support. Instantly,
a folded piece of paper fell to the floor.
"Hey! We're home!"
Melfina, startled, stuffed the paper quickly into her pocket
without time to open it.
The high-pitched voice accompanied a loud, metallic banging on
the door, which Jim and Mel had been leaning against, as the rest of the
crew arrived home. At their backs, the heavy metal door tried to swing
open, but only could a crack. Orange-tinted light from the streetlamps
flooded in, with the silhouette of a familiar Ctarl-Ctarl cutting it into
a shape.
Aisha's familiar, inquisitive aqua-blue eyes, contrasted by her
smoky white hair, popped merrily in through the crack. She craned her neck
around the edge to give a perky smile. "Hey Jim, Mel!" her voice was shrill,
and it was clear she'd been drinking a bit too much. The Ctarl-Ctarl stood,
unmoving, in the door while her tail whipped around.
"Aisha, would you mind asking them to move please? It's late
and there's a profound chill in the air. I'm wet from the rain and I'd
like to get inside and get to bed soon," came the exasperated groan from
Suzuka, as the wind blew her wet black hair in her face, standing behind
her.
The Ctarl-Ctarl gave a sheepish smile, then said to Melfina and
Jim, "Oh, could you guys move just for a minute…" She suddenly trailed
off, seeing Mel stand quietly, holding a quietly sobbing Jim to her shoulder
with a loving hand stroking his disheveled blond hair. She sense the disturbed
silence from hyper-energetic Aisha and she locked her brown eyes with her
aqua-blue ones, fuming with confusion.
Instantly, the tanned hands of Aisha had found their way to rest
on Jim's shaking shoulder. With an unseen side of her personality shining
through, she brushed the hair from his face as he desperately tried to
hide his face in Melfina's soaked shoulder and stroked his cheek comfortingly.
"Jimmy, what happened?" she urged, genuinely concerned. "Oh my god… what's
wrong?"
"Go away, everyone please just go away!" he shrieked between
sobs, voice muffled against her shoulder. He shuddered even more wildly
and the hysterical sobs became louder. "I want to be alone!"
The cold night air rushed in, dotted with rain, as Suzuka walked
in, quickly shutting the door behind her. She brushed the strands of wet
black hair from her face, before her lazily scanning eyes fell calmly on
the two troubled girls and the trembling boy they were trying to tranquil.
She seemed to run this over in her mind, lifting her eyes to Jim, then
Aisha, and finally, Melfina.
"What happened to Jim?" The reserved tone of her voice had clearly
been abandoned as she approached the shaking boy. Suzuka studied the pale,
distressed face as much as she could, lifting concerned eyes to the android
occasionally to ask, "Melfina? Did anything happen?"
A swelling, burning distress boiled up in her throat and she
was sweating for some reason. She had been programmed not to have any kind
of anxiety or panic to keep her alive; was she getting real emotions? Melfina,
tears streaming from her dark and swirling brown eyes, was choking on words.
"I don't know! I don't know!" She put her head on Jim's, trying to calm
him. "Oh Jim, can't you just tell us what's wrong?"
He suddenly stopped his incessant sobbing, rubbing the red from
his pained eyes. Jim settled into the warm arms of Melfina, waiting for
the convulsions of obsessive sobbing to diminish. He glanced around the
dark room cautiously, like a frightened kitten with large blue eyes, and
saw their pure hearted concern even in the dim light. The boy sighed deeply,
massaging his temples as they filled to the brink with the same red-hot
pain.
"Alright," he surrendered, voice raspy and burnt out.
"Hey, take it easy, twerp," Aisha warned, ruffling his hair and
giving a sad smile. The Ctarl-Ctarl was replied back with a sad smile,
which came with less emotion and more a dulled mask. She could see Jim
was holding back emotions.
"Aniki… he lied to me," Jim said in a burst of courage; he didn't
want to pour it all out and get hysterical again, and he didn't want to
lock it back up. That secret was foul and it burned. He couldn't keep it
anymore. So he continued, trying to summon up more courage. "You see, I
don't have any memory of my parents besides their faces and names. That's
all that's left. I know my dad died in a horrible pirate ambush… I was
with him, or that's what Gene found out. I had no one left and I was looking
for help, wandering the streets. I didn't know he was dead; I didn't want
to believe it. I ended up on Gene's couch one night.
"I had no idea what had happened to my mom. After somehow getting
into Gene's house, I cried so loud I woke him up. When he asked why I was
crying, I just said, 'I can't find Mom, and Daddy's not waking up.' Gene
said it was fine. He lied, the bastard. He said he and I were stepbrothers
and that I had been on the streets for weeks. Gene said that my mom had
married his dad, and that Mom was just visiting friends for a while. That
she got stuck on a wayside and had no way home before her transmitter batteries
died.
Jim leaned against Melfina, feeling the onslaught of hot tears
again. He clenched his fists around the fabric of her shirt, trying to
keep a straight face. "That isn't my mom," he said, flickering his gaze
toward the picture frame on the floor. He seemed to loose composure and
falling crying back into Melfina's shoulder. "There all dead, you bastard
Aniki!"
"Jim… I'm sure-" Suzuka lifted a hand to his shoulder, rubbing
it in a soothing gesture, trying to console him best she could. But suddenly,
he felt her hand whip away and Aisha and Melfina traced it to snap back
to her sword. The assassin froze, lifting the sword at the ready in total
silence and her lips pursed coldly. Her gaze never wavered from the door,
even as a rusty creak came from it. It was opening.
Cold, icy-tinted light fell like a ghost's mask across her face,
making her pale skin seem deathly white in the moonlight. The streetlights
were off, giving a dark mood to the silence. Her eyes flashed angrily,
but with surprise overruling hate. She saw the face, and saw the deception
behind it.
"It's not him," she whispered subconsciously, in a low, harsh
tone.
I don't want to live on someday when my motto is last week
I don't want to be responsible for your fractured heart
and its wounded beat
I don't want to be a substitute for the smoke you've been inhaling
What do you thank me
What do you thank me for
Exert from Not The Doctor by Alanis Morissette
The cold, almost dusty white light that washed over the assassin
highlighted her contrasting dark features. Her steely black eyes were narrowed
at whoever had the door open; they were oblivious because the open door
was blocking the other's view. In a blur, her wooden sword matched a bullet
in a flurry of sparks and whipped the blade down to knock the projectile
to the floor. Suzuka's face was hard and concentrated.
A fast, lean black figure whirled down on her in attack, matching
the sword with a long pipe. She easily blocked the attack, and then attacked
again, cutting the top half of the pipe like butter. It crashed to the
floor, but the figure, with his back to the group, moved like lightning
and quickly jabbed the rest of the weapon into Suzuka's gut. She staggered
backward at the force of the blow, and it was ungodly how much speed and
predatory wits he had. Recovering, she dodged another bullet that snapped
the table in half and filled the air with shrapnel.
Her foe gave a possessed scream of hate, leaping up above her
in impossible strength. He whirled the metal between his fingers before
it settled in a powerful batting position. With a lick of blood mixing
with her sweat, the assassin raised the bokuto again and conjured a burst
of wind to protect it. Suzuka gave no cry; she paused only a moment to
size him up then raced up to meet the onslaught.
The two evenly matched fighters' weapons clashed loudly in midair,
giving a rain of sparks, and their faces, cold and angry, were close in
evaluation. Suzuka nearly lost her balance, seeing the blood-freezing eyes
that were ghostly and hellish at the sametime. At her hesitation, he slid
the metal under the sharp edge of the bokuto in a flash of determination
and lightning quick nerves, flinging it roughly from her grasp. In midair,
she saw him, in slurred time, raise a foot and wrench the bokuto from her
in a hot-blooded frown.
Suzuka had now dropped the mask of cold confidence. There was
no confidence left in her well of cold emotions. Her face was sickeningly
pale with fear and her throat twisted like a vice. She'd never known fear
for her life since the bloodbath of murders in her village, and now, to
be killed by a turned ally, it was sick irony. She'd been the one trying
to kill him in the first place.
Well, I guess he taught me wrong….
The air filled with nothing less than respectful silence as the
famous assassin, the indestructible and beautiful killer, Twilight Suzuka,
was thrown violently into the wall, where the concrete promptly crumbled
and buried her.
The stranger gave a deliriously sickening smirk at his success,
wiping blood from his hands. Its pure and unbridled evil intention was
strange. He lifted the trophy, the bokuto of the infamous assassin, up
to be admired, before he causally slipped it under his belt. He didn't
bother to notice the awestruck trio, and the Ctarl-Ctarl who watched with
angrily glowing eyes.
"Hmm." His voice echoed in the cold air, and he lifted a hand
to rub his chin. "That was easy. Oh well, just another sash to add to my
collection…" The stranger started walking toward the dusty pile of rubble,
ignoring the gravel move as its prisoner tried to escape. With no pity
even considered on his maniacal face, he leaned over and was lifting the
bokuto to drive it in when there was a slash of pain across his face and
whirl of white and tan.
The killer was thrown backwards in an immense slam and it was
a few moments before he regained his senses and skidded to a stop. A hand
went up to his face, where the claws of Aisha had struck sweet revenge,
and wiped the sticky red liquid from his cheek. Instantly, a disgusted
frown came across him and he lifted stormy eyes to the creature.
But it was clear she hadn't looked at him. He knew they'd all
ignored his face, and an urge to laugh bubbled in his false mind. The magic
controlling him was too strong for the real mind to surface, and even then,
it would have been hopeless for him anyway. Aisha was wildly sobbing and
clawing at the rubble in an uncontrollable drive to rescue her fallen comrade.
The Ctarl-Ctarl suddenly bolted back, disturbed at what she saw.
"Suzu…" was the only word that came to her lips, as she held
the already cold hand to her cheek. Its pale skin was scarred, and soon
was dripping with tears.
Melfina was silently screaming with pure, indescribable horror
flowing her veins like a venomous poison, which sickened her to death.
The android was pale herself, holding a shaking Jim to her, as he focused
his eyes directly on the attacker. He never wavered, trying to pry her
arms from him. Her lips formed incoherent words of undimmed pain, eyes
blurred to confusion. Emotions. They hurt.
The Ctarl-Ctarl stood suddenly, eyes shadowed in deep thought.
Her lips burned with a growl, causing her hair to lift in a magic aura
emitting from her. Aisha choked back tears, biting her lip with long canines,
before her fist rose angrily and she knew she had to avenge this. The world
would pay for killing her. Aisha had watched all her friends die, the curse
to being immortal, and this was definitely enough.
"Alright, face me you cowardly snake! I'll gut your yellow belly!"
she roared, flashing demonic blue eyes at the assassin of the assassin
for the first time. Lines of Ctarl blood streamed down her chin, scrunching
her whiskers in a sting. The killer's face was dark and void of emotion
again. "Bring it on! Come on!"
"Aisha!" Jim yelled suddenly, trying to run out between the two
combatants. Tears were bitterly stinging as he desperately tried to spit
the words out. "Don't do it!"
Her accusing blue eyes snapped toward him, and she threateningly
raised claws up into fists. "Why shouldn't I?! This bastard just killed
SUZUKA!" she snarled at him. The cold gaze was giving daggers of threats
at the blonde, warning him it was personal and the man would die before
anyone else on the planet that night.
Jim swallowed, mind blurring through all the pain. It wouldn't
come. "Because its… its, its -"
A deep, all-to-familiar laugh came, an insolent gesture from
the assailant, as he found the pitiful emotion display too much to hold
back. The man lifted his hands up in a faked surrender, while trying to
subdue his laughter. He flashed disturbing blue eyes at the tiger girl,
and smiled at her reaction. "I guess you found it out, didn't you," he
mocked silkily. "It hadn't dawned on you to find out just who had killed
your precious friend, hadn't it? You didn't think it would be your captain
to kill his friend?"
Aisha blinked, pausing in her silent transformation. Her eyes
wandered his face and they were swirling with shock, but the stormy mood
to them just intensified more. "Gene…"
The red head blinked sinister white eyes, turning to Melfina
and Jim to give an affirming look to them. Gene slipped his hand into the
castor's sheath, and lifted it to make them stare, stunned, into the glistening
black barrel, from which death could erupt at any moment. Predatory eyes
with the frosty tone of white stared at Aisha, and his lips formed harsh
words. "You, move and I'll kill your little friends here," he snapped.
But her rage had blocked it all out. She snarled rabidly at him,
barely able to contain herself. "You're a pirate aren't you?" her voice
was low and ominous, venomous to the ears. "Lying to get your hands on
the Galactic Leyline while playing innocent all along! You played us all
for fools; you were a lie, weren't you!"
"No," Gene purred back, clearly untroubled by the hellish power
that was shaking her body. He kept the gun trained on the two, as it stirred
ancient magic to life. "This is actually a lie now."
Jim shuddered, and he spoke up in a hushed, disturbed child voice.
His entire world was shattering again, with the motor that had died threatening
to explode and top the disaster. The pain of losing his parents burned
in his bleeding heart, as he realized his brother, his friend, and his
mentor was a traitor; somehow tied to Pirates. Gene was his replacement
father, and there was no replacement for that. "Aniki?" he whispered, drawing
Melfina to him again, searching for the mother figure to comfort him.
The outlaw ignored this from Jim, continuing. "I'm not really
Gene Starwind." He laughed to himself. "Hah, there isn't one. He's dead."
"Liar…" Jim hissed.
"Oh no, he's quite dead. I'm just a program possessing his body,
and I'm getting controls from Tao Magic. Gene is just a name for this shell;
there isn't anything left here. You see his future self, who came from
five years in the future, poisoned him then killed him to set the toxic
in motion," the redhead said in a relaxed and yep-that's-right voice.
"I've just come to set the XGP in the hands of its rightful owners,
the Kei clan, along with the android that accesses the controls, Melfina.
I didn't come here to kill anybody, but a fresh piece of prey is hard to
resist practicing on, you know? And if you think you'll get Gene back,
I'd really hate to rain on your parade.
"This body is programmed to self destruct after the task is finished,"
he finished dangerously, turning his horrific, white-eyed gaze to the android.
"No!"
"Gene!"
There was a ferocious roar, that shook the very earth with its
booming hatred, and there was a shrill yowl as the white haired Ctarl-Ctarl
brewed fire in her demonic-looking eyes. All eyes came to settle on her
as she growled out a warning, crouching on the floor, claws growing for
the ready. "Time to prove it, bastard," she snapped, suddenly rippling
in a flash of white energy. It faded, revealing an unearthly white tiger
whose crystal blue eyes never faded from their anger.
He just smiled. "Fine."
*********************
Author's Notes:
Well, Little Diva Girl1, I hope I explained it enough for you.
And for the rest of my fans, I hope I supplied you with enough of a cliffhanger
to last until summer! Yep, that's right! I probably won't have the seventh
chapter up until summer break! Review please! And tuson tucks! (That's
Norwegian for 'Thousand Thank You's)
Chustang