Chapter 3 : Teamwork is not a service we offer
"I was wondering what those were for," Q murmured as he looked from the two smirking women to the three males that were twitching on the floor.
Lashana placed her fists on her hips and glared at him. "Well, you gave us three psychos Q, did you really expect us to go through with this without having a way to keep them in line?"
"Get this thing off!! Now!" Joyrock snarled as he sat up and pulled at the rosary, talons uselessly tearing at the beads and rope that held it there.
"Don't bother," Inuyasha sighed as he leaned up against an invisible wall. "Only they can take it off." Curiousity overwhelming his annoyance, he glanced at the two females and frowned. "So you're Mikos then? Like Kagome?"
"Er.... kinda," Telca shrugged. "We're Avatars. Granted thanks to Mr. Pain-in-the-arse over there, we can't use our full powers because he's blocked them, but on good days, we're the Avatars of Gaia and Chaos."
"Chaos?" Joyrock forgot about the rosary for a moment and got to his feet, towering over the two women as he walked over to them. "One of you is L-Sama's Knight? Which?"
Lashana smirked and waved. "Heyla."
"Oh dear Gods, no."
Telca chuckled at the completely horrified tone of Joyrock's voice and turned to look at Venom and Skie. "Those rosaries won't be coming off anytime soon, so you might as well just get used to them. Besides, it could have been worse."
"How?" Skie grumbled, reluctantly lowering his claws from the necklace as he glanced over at her.
"They could have been shock collars instead."
"Telca, he's from Krynn. No modern technology there, remember?" Lashana reminded her as she turned away from Joyrock and looked at the confused dragon. "Shock treatment... see, it's a collar that keeps unruly animals in line by giving them a jolt of electricity every time they misbehave."
"Hmm.... Like this?"
"Ack!" Lashana danced out of the way of the full power lightning breath attack and growled. "Down!"
WHAM!
"You had that coming," Venom muttered to the collapsed dragon as he let his symbiote pull away from his face, ridding himself of his gruesome mask as he rose a hand and ran taloned fingers through his hair. "Alright. Fine. Since we can't get out of this... can we at least get whatever it is over with?"
"Certainly!" Q grinned, seeing Lashana and Telca turn to look at him suspiciously. "After all, you don't think I had forgotten about the tests, did you, my dears?"
"Don't call us that," Telca growled, folding her arms across her chest as she glared at him. "And exactly how many of these 'tests' are there?"
"Only a few. A dozen or so."
Lashana yelped. "A dozen?!"
"Or so," Q added with a smile as he looked over at the four males. "And you four have to help them. If nothing more than to make sure that no one in this group dies. If one person dies, you all die." He turned his gaze on the two women. "And so does your precious 'family'."
Eyes going amber, Telca lowered her arms to fist her hands by her sides, trembling with rage. "When I get my powers back, I am going to kill you."
"Somehow my dear, I'm not overly afraid."
"You will be."
Everyone turned to look at the two women as they glared at Q, auras of power flickering to life around them. Silver for Telca, golden black for Lashana, the sheer magnitude of power making even Joyrock take a step back in shock.
"Well. This is surprising. Seems I can't block out all of your Avatar traits..." Q walked over to Telca and gripped her chin, raising her face so that he could look in her eyes, not even flinching at the complete hatred he saw there. "It's melded to your soul...hmm... interesting." He released Telca and went to look at Lashana. "And what's this? The little Elf has a Soul-Bond and a few telepathic links. Tsk tsk, trying to contact your Bonded are you? That just won't do."
Telca growled as Q snapped his fingers, that ever irritating smirk never leaving his face, even when Lashana suddenly clutched at her chest and screamed, collapsing to her knees as a look of pure torment crossed her features. "Bastard!!" She ran over to the Elf and knelt next to her, ignoring Kalamadea as the dragon shrieked and tried to warn her away.
Inuyasha's eyes widened in shock as he took a hesitant step towards the agonized woman, then glared at Q. "What did you do?!"
"Oh, nothing much," Q shrugged. "Just annulled that pesky Soul-Bond."
"You what?! That could kill her!" Panic rising in her, Telca grabbed Lashana's shoulders, ignoring the fight that was now ongoing between Mischief and Kalamadea as the dragon tried to attack her directly, the cat quickly intercepting and trying to drive him away.
"Soul Bond?" Skie lowered his head towards the Elf and frowned. "I have never heard of the Elves being able to do that."
"Not the Elves on your world," Q told him, nodding in Lashana's direction as he did so. "She's from a different world than you, my good lizard."
Telca growled lowly as she overheard their rather uncaring conversation and gently shook Lashana as the Elf fell silent, her eyes fluttering closed as she went pale. "Oh, shit... Lashana!"
"Oh, she'll be fine," Q said, growing annoyed. "Stop fretting over insignificant things, would you? It's growing tiresome."
Eddie Brock glared at him angrily. Even if that woman was the cause of him being dragged into this fiasco, she certainly didn't deserve what Q had just done to her. "Insignificant?! You killed her!"
"No. She lives." Joyrock crouched next to the Elf and lightly touched her forehead, yelping when the duo of Mischief and Kalamadea attacked him. "Get away vermin! Or do you want her to die and end all our lives?!"
"I thought Mazoku were immortal," Telca frowned as she gathered Mischief into her arms, relieved to see Kalamadea land on Lashana's stomach and snarl at the demon warningly.
"Only the High ones," Joyrock muttered sourly, rubbing at a quickly healing talon slash across his cheek. "The Elf lives, barely. She's merely unconscious at the moment."
"Exactly. Honestly, you mortals..." Q heaved a long suffering sigh and rolled his eyes. "You get so touchy. And you!" He pointed to Kalamadea. "Stop trying to telepathically attack me. You have no idea what you're dealing with. Try it again and you'll suffer a fate worse than death."
Skie frowned and looked at the Elf, blinking in surprise at the small peacock hued form that was crouched protectively on the woman's stomach, and he belatedly wondered how he had missed it before. Curious now, he lowered his head towards it, rumbling in surprise when it turned to look at him warily. "Why protect her?"
::Lashana is my mother. She raised my brothers and I from the egg,:: Kalamadea growled, unintimidated by the other dragon that was a hundred times his size. ::Without her, we'd have died from from some wizard's experiment before we were even born.::
"She keeps you as pets then."
::No! We're equals!::
Skie frowned at the angry yell that bombarded his thoughts, studying the little one a bit longer. "Mmhm." Moving slowly, he stepped forward until his could arch his head above the two women protectively, looking at Q. "You will not harm the little cousin. Tell us what you want with us and be done with it."
"Fine. Fine. This is getting boring anyway." Q snapped his fingers and teleported them back to the desert, ignoring Telca's annoyed grumble as he did so. "First test. There's a village nearby. Rather nasty species actually. Cannibalistic. I want one of their trophy skulls from their leaders hut."
"What?!" Telca shot to her feet. "What kind of a 'test' is this?!"
"To see how well you work together. And to see if the Elf will survive the night. When you get what I want, I'll send you a file on where to go next." Q turned to look at Joyrock and snapped his fingers again, smiling when the Mazoku looked at him in wary shock. "And no major spatial shifts unless you're opening them to bring the others to the next test. Other than that, you can only shift a distance of a quarter of a mile away from the groups location." That said, he looked back to Telca. "And remember. Only fifteen spells per day. You've already used up three for those fashion disaster necklaces, make the rest count."
A low wild growl left the sorceress as Q vanished in a flash of light, and she resisted the urge to simply rend something in half as she turned to look down at the Elf again. "Dammit all to hell and back."
~*~
::Lashana? Lashana, can you hear me? Elfy? .....mommy?::
The soft worried voice tugged at her consciousness, a lone presence that made itself known as she floated in the shock of having the one constant light in her life ripped from her. The voice called again, and Lashana instinctively clawed at the darkness that held her until bright light assaulted every sense.
"...nuugh..."
"I think she's waking up."
::Elfy!::
"Oooh, Kalamadea, not so loud...." Lashana grimaced and rose a hand to her throbbing temple, automatically raising her free arm to hug the draconic form that latched onto her. The sensation of being completely alone and empty overwhelmed her then, and she curled her free hand into a fist, using the pain of having her nails go through her palm to distract herself before she broke down.
The sudden realization that she was being carried made her open her eyes to look up into Eddie's worried expression, and she frowned as she hopped out of his arms. "I'm fine now. Thanks."
::Liar.::
"Are you alright?!" Telca demanded as she spun around from where she was leading the ragtag group towards the forest and ran over to her friend, grabbing the Elf's shoulders and shaking her gently. "What happened? Is the--"
Lashana glanced away. "The Bond's gone," she whispered, seeing Telca tense out of the corner of her eye. "It's just.... gone." Giving herself a little shake, she rose her gaze to the other Avatar's again. "Kalamadea brought me back."
"Shit." Sighing, Telca released her and turned to look over at the nearing forest. "Can you make it?"
"Stubbornness is a useful thing in the hands of professionals," Lashana smirked, looking at Telca reassuringly. "C'mon."
"You're insane, you know that?" Telca growled as she stalked after her, dimly aware that the males were following just close enough to be in earshot of their conversation. "You're making jokes at a time like this?!"
"Well, it's either jokes and my usual attitude or a complete breakdown," the Elf shrugged, glancing back at the other Avatar as Kalamadea firmly planted himself on her right shoulder, his tail dangerously tight around her throat. "Pick one."
Gods, I am so going to beat the crap out of Q when this is over. "Yeah, okay. Point."
"Good. So what are we doing here, exactly?"
"Oh, Q wants a souvenir."
"What?"
"He wants us to invade a cannibal tribe and get him a trophy skull," Inuyasha told her as he moved to walk by her side, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye as he did so. "After we do that, he'll send us on the next 'test'."
"Lovely."
"Oh, and the blue lizard was muttering about wanting to talk to you."
Skie growled lowly where he was leisurely keeping pace with them and swatted at the hanyou with his tail. "Mind your own business!"
"Add to that the fact that Joyrock's pissed cuz Q's limited his shifting abilities and it's been a real hoot around here," Telca muttered sourly. "You waking up has been the high point of the whole bloody afternoon."
"Afternoon? How long was I out?!"
"Four hours, give or take." Eddie saw her pale slightly at the information. "What did he do to you anyway?"
"I... I'm Soul Bonded to another... or at least I was. Q... destroyed the link we shared, Soul to Soul." Lashana rose her gaze to the distant forest, feeling Kalamadea rub his cheek against hers reassuringly. "It's like having a part of you ripped away, and all that's left is a cold emptiness. I was also linked to my three dragons.... If Kalamadea wasn't here...."
::He broke my ties to Mewtwo,:: the dragon murmured into her thoughts. ::It's lonely now.::
I know, littling... Mustering up what emotional strength she had left, she quickly pushed her feelings aside and concentrated on the 'here and now'. "Anyway, I'm awake and alive, so technically I'm alright."
Telca snorted. "Oh yeah, sure. And hippos fly."
"Mreow."
"That's right. You tell her Mischief."
Lashana rolled her eyes and casually hopped off the edge of a dune, the heels of her boots digging deep into the sand as she slid down the side of it. "C'mon, Telca! I'm not getting any younger!"
"Your coping skills suck!" The sorceress yelled as she scrambled after her friend, glaring at Skie when he spread his wings. "And where do you think you're going?"
The dragon snorted and ignored her, choosing instead to crouch slightly before leaping into the air, his wings kicking up huge clouds of sand that made the others cough violently. "I don't take orders from you."
"The hell you don't!" Telca growled out in between trying to breathe through the lungful of sand she had just inhaled and trying to clear the air in front of herself. "Lashana! Get him!"
Sighing, the Elf looked up at the flying dragon and shook her head when it looked like he was fully intending to leave them all behind. "Khellendros!!" She waited until he had ducked his head under his right wing to look back at her in shock before smirking. "DOWN!"
WHAM!!
"That's gotta hurt," Joyrock winced as he followed Venom and Telca down the side of the dune, grumbling when Inuyasha merely leapt over all of them and lightly landed next to the Elf.
Kalamadea shivered. ::Glad I don't have one of those things on.::
"I'd never even dream of putting one on you, littling," Lashana assured him as she casually walked over to the dragon that had plummeted from the sky and imbedded himself a foot into the sand. "What do you think that was going to accomplish, hmm? Q will only end up killing you as a result."
"You...." He snarled and rose his head high above her, teeth fully bared. "How do you know that name?!"
She shrugged. "I've read about you, Khellendros the Blue, or Skie as most mortals call you. You're the only Dragon Overload native to Ansalon, the first to join Malys in conquering new territories, and the only dragon that so loyally served your rider. I am sorry that you lost her, by the way."
"I don't want your pity Elf!"
"It's not pity. I know what it's like to lose someone you care for. At the moment, I know how it feels better than most."
He growled lowly and glared at her, surprised when she calmly met his gaze, the little dragon on her shoulder watching him warily. "What that creature said, Q, about you not being from my world.... I didn't think he spoke truth.... But no Elf from Krynn would feel for dragons as you do. Even those platinum dragons instill fear where ever they go, and yet you.... do not fear me."
"Annoying, ain't it?" she smirked as she turned and headed after Telca and the others, who hadn't bothered to wait for them. This.... is going to be a bad day.
Kalamadea blinked and looked at her. ::You mean it isn't already?::
~*~
"Ahhh! Shade!" Telca grinned in relief and leaned against a tree, ignoring the fact that it was multicoloured as she enjoyed the sensation of not being roasted alive by the sun.
"This place is beyond psychotic," Eddie murmured as he looked from the rainbow tree to the plaid one, turning at a happy sigh in time to see the Elf leap into a tree and recline on a large branch.
"You are in no place to comment on anything being psychotic, Venom," Telca smirked, letting Mischief hop out of her arms and bound into the bright yellow ferns.
"Neither are you," Joyrock grumbled, ignoring the glare that she sent him in return.
Lashana rolled her eyes and shifted to lie down on her stomach, looking down at everyone as Kalamadea climbed over her to curl up on her back. "Well, what now? Where's this cannibal group we're supposed to pester?"
"Close," Inuyasha grimaced, ears twitching in annoyance as he followed the Elf's example and leapt into a tree, seating himself on a sturdy branch. "I can smell them. They stink. Worse than the demon frog."
"Oh yeah?" Joyrock turned and hissed. "Come down here and say that dog-boy!"
"Teme!" The hanyou growled and leapt from the tree, talons of his right hand glowing. "Sakonte--"
"SIT! STAY!!"
WHAM!! WHAM!!
"There will be no infighting," Telca told the two who were sprawled on the ground and twitching.
A smirk spread across Eddie's lips. "Is that even a word?"
"If it wasn't before, it is now," Lashana chuckled as she rested her chin on her crossed arms and gazed down at the two males who were just starting to peel themselves off the ground. "Well, I kinda want to get this over with, the scenery is giving me a migraine."
"Migraine?"
Kalamadea paused in the middle of cleaning his talons and looked at Skie. ::Very severe headache.::
"Ah. Then on that, you're not alone. I much prefer Krynn's landscapes to this."
"Ditto." Sighing, Lashana gathered Kalamadea in her arms and backflipped off the branch, landing in a slight crouch next to Telca. "Yo, Inuyasha, think you can track those cannibals down?"
"Only if the demon-frog stays downwind."
"Alright! That's it! I'm gonna--"
"SIT!"
"STAY!!"
WHAM! WHAM!
"We're never going to get anywhere at this rate," Telca growled as she pushed away from the tree she had been leaning on and looked around. "Um... where's Mischief?"
Lashana paled and exchanged wary glances with Eddie before lightly nudging Kalamadea's thoughts. Littling, do me a favor and go find that damned cat, will you?
::Hai. I've been needing to stretch my wings anyway,:: he nodded, taking a moment to finish cleaning his talons before spreading his wings and leaping out of her arms, circling her once before silently gliding off in the direction Mischief had gone.
"Uuugh... will you two stop doing that?" Joyrock groaned as he shakily rose his head from the ground, glaring up at Telca irritatedly. "That really hurts."
She smiled sweetly. "Well if you'd stop being such an ass, we wouldn't have to say The Word, now would we?"
"Alright, look. Whether we like it or not, we're all stuck with each other until this stupid retarded fiasco is over with," Lashana said, looking at each of them in turn before adjusting her sword belt and turning to head after Kalamadea. "So can we just go already?"
"Elfy's got a point," Inuyasha grumbled as he stood and shook dirt out of his hair, glaring at Joyrock for a moment before grunting and running after Lashana.
Telca smirked and walked past Joyrock. "C'mon Froggo."
"Don't call me that!"
"Hehe."
Lashana rolled her eyes as she walked through the thick forest undergrowth, constantly keeping an eye open for Kalamadea or Mischief as she did so. The sound of a tree branch creaking above her drew her gaze, and she blinked as she watched Venom shoot a line of webbing out from the back of his hand before swinging out to the next tree. Figuring that he couldn't get into too much trouble up there, she turned her attention back to where she was going, sighing as she hopped over a rotted tree stump.
"This is stupid."
"Hai," she murmured, glancing back at Inuyasha. "You'd think Q could find better ways to get his kicks instead of tormenting us."
"Feh. Probably isn't smart enough to think of something else." The hanyou paused and sniffed the air for a moment before pointing a little to the left. "That way."
Lashana followed his pointing talon and frowned, her curiousity getting the better of her as she walked over to the spot where the vegetation grew thickest, numerous vines and thick thorn bushes blocking any entrance. Being careful, she reached out and brushed some partially dead branches aside, leaping back in shock when she uncovered a marker made out of skulls and dried blood. "Telca! Over here!"
"What'd you find?" The other Avatar crashed through the ferns and skidded to a stop next to the Elf, grimacing at what her friend had found. "Ew."
"It's a warning marker," Skie grumbled as he squeezed his bulk in between two trees, hating how being in this damnable forest limited his mobility. "Their territory starts here."
"Hmm..." Lashana looked from the marker to the dragon. "Look, we can't exactly be all stealthful if you're with us knocking trees over to get through. Get out of here and follow us from the air, okay? If anything you can at least find their camp or whatever before us and tell us if we're going the right way."
He looked at her in surprise for a moment before nodding. "Fine. I'll scout the area. If you find the little cousin, see if he can relay. That way we won't give away our position by yelling."
Telca blinked as the huge dragon turned away and looked at Lashana. "How is it that you always manage to make the murderous psychotics like you?"
"I.... have no clue what so ever," the Elf murmured, shrugging as she turned back to the marker. "Well... I suppose we have to go this way then." Taking a step back, she drew her sword and eyed the thick vines a moment before tightening her hold on the hilt and savagely slashing at them, cutting a rough path through them.
"Sankontessou!"
"Yipe!" Lashana threw herself aside, barely avoiding Inuyasha's attack as it flew past her and slammed into the undergrowth, obliterating it and making a slight path through it. Annoyed, she looked at her now shortened bangs, then at Inuyasha. "Ahem."
"Eh?" he looked at her and blinked as she pointed to the locks of her hair that were on the ground at her feet. "Oh. Um... Get out of the way next time! Baka!"
"Sit!"
WHAM!
"Who's the baka now?" Joyrock snickered as he stepped over the twitching hanyou and followed the two Avatars into the brush.
Lashana grumbled under her breath for a moment before glancing over at the other sorceress that was walking beside her. "Ne, you okay?"
"Oh, I'm great!" Telca snarled. "I've had most of my powers nulled, I've trekked around for hours in the gods forsaken sun, I haven't eaten yet and I don't smell good. Oh yes, I all kinds of fabulous over here!"
"Gee, I'm so glad Q took that zipper off," Lashana groused as she cut a few thorn bushes out of the way. "And where the hell is Venom?"
::ELFY!!::
"Gah!" She winced and clutched at her head for a moment, stunned by the loud telepathic scream. It only took a few seconds for her to recover, and she immediately ran forward, ignoring Telca's yells about how they had to conserve spells as she blasted the bothersome vines and bushes out of her way with a fireball. "Kalamadea!"
The small blue dragon burst through the smoke caused by the spell and divebombed her, slamming into her with enough force that she staggered backwards, her arms automatically rising to hug the shivering form to her. "Littling! What happened?!"
"Mischief!" Telca knelt and caught the cat that bolted towards her, frowning at how the animal's fur was completely on end, a wild panicked look in her eyes. "What the hell?"
"Hey!" All eyes turned towards Lashana's outraged scream. "Something bit Kalamadea!"
"What?!"
Fairly shaking with rage, she carefully checked the very visible tiny bite mark on her dragons left haunch, her mood not aided by the fact that he was whimpering as he clung to her, his chest firmly pressed over her heart. Shh, shh, it's okay. You're safe here...
"Mischief seems to be okay," Telca reported after worriedly checking her cat over, relieved to see that, while shaken, she was alright. "How is he?"
"Don't know yet. I can't seem to get a full sentence out of him," Lashana murmured, frowning in concentration as she tried to understand Kalamadea's thoughts, shifting through a constant flood of his emotions as she did so. "All I can get is 'horde is coming' and 'fangs'. And Joyrock, if you're feeding off of his emotions I swear I'm gonna hurt you."
The Mazoku paled slightly and backed away, frowning when he felt something brush his ankle. "Nani?" Curious, he looked down in time to see something red vanish into a bush. "What the?"
"It's a bush," Inuyasha explained. "Y'know, a bush?"
"Shut up." He half-heartedly swatted at the hanyou. "I saw something move."
"Oh?" His own curiousity getting the better of him, Inuyasha crouched and peered under the bush, wrinkling his nose at the stench of carrion. "Ugh. Whatever it was, it reeked of blood."
"Well dammit." Telca looked around for a moment before frowning. "HEEL!"
Off in the distance, there was the distinct sound of a yell and a very painful sounding 'thud'.
"Found Venom. C'mon. Let's regroup and find out what the hell's going on."
"You're taking way too much pleasure out of those necklaces," Joyrock grumbled as he followed them deeper into the very unpleasant underbrush. Truth be told, he wished he could just space shift his way around, walking was highly overrated. And now that he was stuck wearing this accursed rosary, he had no choice but to listen to these two insane females. Granted.... if that Elf really was the Chaos Knight, then as a Mazoku he was bound to obey her... Hah. She could've been lying. There has never been a female Chaos Knight, and I can't see why L-Sama would choose this one.
"'Shana? How is he?"
He glanced over at the Elf as she hugged the small dragon to herself, muttering something in reply to Telca as she did so. Whatever that little thing had run into, Joyrock couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive of meeting it. Granted, the dragon was only the size of a cat, what frightened it probably wouldn't frighten the rest of them.
"Did you have to do that?!" Venom yelled when he saw the group, glaring at Telca angrily. "That hurt!" He was about to keep yelling, only the sound of a soft whimpering caught his attention, distracting him. "What happened?"
"I don't know. Kalamadea found.... something. I just don't know what." Lashana growled slightly and narrowed her eyes, fangs bared. "But when I find out what it was, it is going to be very, very dead."
At Venom's curious look, Inuyasha shrugged. "It bit the dragon."
"Oh."
Telca rolled her eyes. Lords what have we gotten ourselves into? Mischief wriggled in her arms then, and she frowned when her cat arched her back slightly and hissed, her ears lying flat against her skull. "Um.... I think we may be in trouble."
The three males tensed a little and warily looked around, trying to
see what exactly was setting the cat off like that. Inuyasha growled softly
then, ears folding against his head as he picked up a powerful scent of
dried blood. "It's here."