Deceptive Appearances...
Sitting on one of the few couches in the penthouse that Kalani had reserved, Andy looked across the table at his best friend's sister. Her appearance had surprised him - not always an easy feat. First of all, she wasn't Japanese, as her last name would make one expect. Second, he couldn't deny the fact that she was, aesthetically, pleasing to look at. Third, he nearly choked when he was informed of what her occupation was.
"I'm an exotic dancer."
Lynn Higashi was so matter-of-fact about it, he couldn't take it as a joke. She was calm, too. Much calmer than he would expect of someone who had grown up with Joe. She held a peaceful aura about her that seemed to permeate into the people around her. Andy instantly felt at ease when she spoke.
"Full or partial nudity?" The query had come from Benimaru and it whipped Andy's head around, crimson staining his cheeks rapidly.
The blond fighter slapped a glare on the slender karateka, "What kind of question is that?!?"
Benimaru didn't return the glare but simply went back to talking to Lynn. "Partial," she answered, making Andy's face even redder, "I wear a lot of black henna dye to simulate stripes."
"Oh, you have a gimmick?"
She nodded, "'Pantera' is my stage name." Lynn's gray eyes flicked up when the door opened and Kalani walked in, "Something up?"
The young Egyptian woman nodded, "Yes… My Lady is working on things from Her end. She says that She's found one more Champion and is preparing to gather another."
A sense of excitement shot through Andy, "Two more? That's good, isn't it?"
Kalani smiled, "And they're both 'self-awakened', she tells me. That's a rare find." She sat down on the third couch, next to Benimaru, and poured a cup of tea, "There may be hope for humanity yet." The woman sipped the tea and then looked at her watch, "Well, it's late and I think we'd best be getting some sleep. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow."
Whoo-hoot!
The sound of the owl's call brought Andy bolt upright out of bed. He padded, barefoot, out to the balcony. Something was drawing him there. Outside, he tilted his face up to look at the moon as it hung low in the sky.
"Beautiful, isn't it, my childe?"
Andy whirled around and faced the speaker. His eyes widened when he took note of the very Grecian style of dress, the shield, the spear, and the owl perched on her left shoulder. The woman had blond curls that draped down her back like a golden waterfall, "Do you know me?"
The soft voice was laced with a hidden strength. Andy shook his head, "No… I don't." He turned away from the woman and planted his hands on the railing, "But my guess is that you're my Patron."
"Your guess is correct, Andrew." Her soft hand reached out and stroked back his touseled hair, "I am Athena… Governess of Justice, Wisdom, and Battle."
The gentle touch settled his sparked nerves. All that power in the air made Andy edgy and ready for a fight. "Somehow," he said with a smile, "I should have expected that." He turned to her, finally, and asked the question that had been plaguing his thoughts for the last week, "Was my brother's sacrifice worth it?"
The Goddess inclined her head to him, "Your brother's sacrifice will save you all." Athena looked him in the eyes, "Should you find the opportunity, strike Laocorn in the heart with your most powerful attack. That will end the threat he poses." With a strength that belied her frame, she pulled Andy to her and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead.
Suddenly, the karateka was rocked with the powerful sensation of something being let loose within him. Power unlike any he'd ever felt before ripped through his body, gripping his soul and shocking through his heart. "Uhn!" Andy gasped and cried out before falling to his hands and knees, panting for breath. He could feel the power Athena's kiss unlocked, right under the surface, undetectable by any but another Champion.
Taking a deep breath, he looked up, but the divine presence was already fading from view. "Thank you… I will not squander what you've given me."
His only response was the sense of a smile that settled itself over him and made him smile back.
"We just might have a chance…"
Terry gripped the dashboard of the Ferrari tight enough to make his knuckles white. Sebastion was a damned crazy driver - especially on cliff side roads. His blue eyes flicked over to his companion, "Just where the hell are we going again?"
The Egyptian man smiled, "To see an old friend." He cranked the wheel hard, skidding around a particularly sharp bend and narrowly missing a guard-rail.
Glad for the seat belt, Terry threw a look at the driver. When they'd crossed the Austria-Germany border, he felt this strange sense of urgency. Like there was something that Sebastion was in a hurry to take care of. What was so important about this 'old friend'?
It was during the next turn that something happened to make Terry doubt his own sanity. Sebastion had made some kind of smart-ass remark that had earned him a glare, but, the longer the blond stared at the exotic man… the more he changed.
Finally, Terry was looking at the image of a beautiful, felinoid woman super-imposed over the long lean frame of Sebastion. Something about her stirred things inside of the fighter and he quickly looked away, shifting in his seat to alleviate some discomfort. 'I'm never telling Joe about this… I'll never hear the end of it.'
The hairpin turns and curves ended to become open highway. Sebastion gunned the motor and dropped it into fifth gear, "Not much time left…"
Terry caught the whispered statement and snapped his head around to face the exotic, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means," Sebastion began, "That if I don't hurry our asses up, someone important is going to die." The car sped up, the RPM gauge going into the red zone, "That little bastard is moving quicker than I thought…"
"Who," Terry demanded. Things just got a lot stranger than they had been - as if that was possible.
"A little nutcase bastard by the name of Laocorn."
Life just keeps getting weirder and weirder for Terry, no? Then, there's the idea of Andy as a Champion... No one in their right mind would want to tangle with that...
~Rei.