As I post this, I'm going to gleefully report I'm close to finishing it. I think. Chapter 24, and of course, it's another lemon. *evil smirk* the one I've been wanting to write!!! Much love to Naomi Hunter ~ The Thomas/Raven is all for you, kiddo!
Chapter 13: Mail order ninjas from hell
The attack was so swift; Thomas was barely able to get out of the way. The windows smashed inwards as the winds howled from the storm outside as the soldiers came in. Lethal shards of glass sleeted down and to Thomas' horror, he heard Raven scream in agony as the younger man was in hurt. In slow motion he fell, and rage opened up in Thomas' soul enough for him to hit the first man wildly.
Thomas was not a good fighter, instead, he would erupt in a volley of punches and kicks in an effort to overwhelm the enemy before they realised he couldn't actually fight at all. The method usually worked, and for a brief moment, it worked here…but not enough. As Evelyn ran into the living room to find a gun, Thomas managed to grasp Raven and pull him beneath the table to avoid the confusion.
"KARL!! HELP MEEEEEEE!!"
He threw his arms around Raven, holding him down, hearing the soft moan of pain in his ear. The warmth of Raven's breath was strangely comforting to the young man. The lights swung wildly and Thomas tensed as the table was shoved aside, exposing them. He looked up, determined to see his attacker in the face. For a moment, he thought he saw the air shimmer in front of the masked man, but the raising of the gun was depressingly real.
"Give us the renegade." He said. "And your sentence will be lessened for betraying the alliance between the Helic Republic and the Guylos Empire."
A part of Thomas wanted to give Raven up, because that was what he had been taught to do. Obey authority. But something else completely unknown came out and slammed into his frightened and innocent heart. Raven had done a lot of bad things, but damn it, he wasn't going to give him up so easily to these dark and horrible people.
"…No." He whispered. He heard a yell from the stairs and realised Karl was in trouble. His head span.
"Then I apologise in the fact I now have to kill you." The man said tiredly.
Then he…sliced apart.
"Guh-rk!!"
Slices of him fell to the floor, blood spreading outwards in a slimy puddle of goo and liquids. Thomas fought off the urge to be sick and looked into the calm face of none other than Captain Jake O'Connell, his hands raised in a fighting stance, perched precariously on the back of one of the sofas. He moved his hands, as if pulling something towards him, the air shimmering slightly as he did so.
"Fuckin' hell! No one said there was an Aether here!"
Two of the other soldiers spun around and tried to shoot, but O'Connell was gone, a blur. More shimmering and one of them was cut clean in half, the other lost his shooting arm. In silence he appeared behind them, against the sink, panting for breath.
"Lieutenant Shubaltz, get Raven into the living room, and try not to be sick. I'll be finished in a minute. Your brother is safe. Protect the Minister, please."
"You sliced that guy!" Came the hysterical response.
"He was a bad man. He deserved it." Came the patient reply and he pushed them out of the way as a machete came down and cut a groove in the cupboard door they had been leaning against a moment before. With no time to do his slicing trick, O'Connell used another idea and moved his hand down, the other hand and the machete clattering to the ground. The palm knife flicked back beneath the cuff of his glove and he moved with the grace of a dancer, away from the floundering soldier. He pulled out the gun at his hip, smacked the bottom of it to secure the cartridge inside, then shot the wounded man once through the chest and another through the head. One of the guys, quicker on the uptake, grabbed him from behind, and with the barest amount of effort, somehow, O'Connell kicked upwards, enough to make anyone wince. Stunned, the guy fell back, and met the same fate as the others. The last man was making his way towards Thomas and Raven, but didn't make it. A second later he screamed and fell, his legs cut out from beneath him.
O'Connell stood over the gibbering man and carefully aimed a lead slug through the man's head, obliterating the red circle. He then took a step back as the body continued to convulse.
"Holy shit." Thomas whispered, clutching Raven like a stuffed toy.
"Watch." He replied, calmly. "Because seeing is believing." As he spoke, the wound began to heal and the man's eyes rolled forward again. "The only way to kill these bastards is a shot to the head, and one to the heart, or cause enough damage to make sure they can't heal themselves. As long as one of them keeps going there's will power there, enough to start up the healing processes." He shot the man as he spoke and finally the body was still. "I've been waiting to do that for a long time."
"You just killed a guy-"
"He wasn't human, Lieutenant. He was a bloody Zoidian. A Reaper in fact. The Red Sun. Is Lord Winter okay?" O'Connell replied, pulling off the hood of the man. His eyes were a pale yellow, his hair a dark blond. On his forehead was a red circle.
"Who?"
"Sorry." O'Connell struck his forehead. "Minister Gunther Prozen. Is he okay?"
"Suffering from a touch of fever-" Came the worried voice of Evelyn. She was standing behind Karl, who in turn was halfway down the stairs, his mouth wide open with surprise.
"Can you keep an eye on him?"
"Wait a second, you're Jake O'Connell, one of the nicest guys in the Republic army…what the hell do you think you're doing? How the hell did you know we were here?" Thomas snapped, tearing another strip of material from his shirt to help bandage Raven's wounds.
"I apologise, but that's classified information. Know that these men sought to kill you, and they were sent by a supposed ally…President Hermann. Yes, I am Jake O'Connell, but I am also someone dedicated to the real monarchy of Zi. I…wish I could tell you more, but…I am forbidden. I'm sorry."
Evelyn opened and closed her mouth trying to think of something to say. She had known O'Connell for most of her career, and was pretty sure if she had invested in a group of neo-McGuyver-ninja types, she would remember it. And Rob would have told her…but that didn't explain O'Connell's fighting prowess if such a group had been set up in the short time that had been.
Nor did it explain why he had a little box of dental floss in his hand.
"Excuse me, but is that mine?"
O'Connell blinked and stared at his right hand. "Why yes. I think it is. I came in through an upstairs window to make sure the minister hadn't been injured in any way. I used up quite a lot of it, but there's still some left." Clumsily, he gave it to her, and once again he was the old O'Connell, the apologetic and hopelessly sweet man who really needed to stop being so serious all the time. "It's a poor substitute for good old cheese wire. You can't go wrong with it, and it makes the loveliest noise in an open space. If you spin and throw it fast enough, you can even play tunes…"
"Well…that's…very nice." Karl replied, hopelessly. "But you sliced people apart with dental floss. I have seen a lot of things in my time, and that is by far the strangest."
There was a clatter in the kitchen and everyone tensed.
"I can't believe it. I missed the bastard's heart." O'Connell grunted and ran into the kitchen to see the form moving out of the window and weaving their way across the lawns to a StormSworder. O'Connell sighed and ran a gloved hand through his teal hair, his grey eyes tired. "Well, Janae now knows about me. He won't name names, but put me on a line up… But it also means that now the Republic knows you're here… As far as President Hermann is concerned, he believes that you were abducted, Mrs Camford. The Shubaltzes are wanted in their country for disobeying the crown and the Guardian Force are baying for blood. The Reapers have what they wanted – chaos and a price on the minister's head."
"Please, Captain…what is a Reaper?" Spoke up Evelyn.
"Winter will tell you when he wakes up. I contacted both Ambient and Shadow on the way in and requested that they stay out of it – the fight I mean. Hermann will only hear that yes, you are here, you are all healthy and safe, but it went horribly wrong when someone turned up and started causing trouble. Look, I have to go, I have to get back to the Republic before people realise I'm missing! Memories don't last that long!" He stood up and paused, then touched Thomas' shoulder. "Ask the minister for help when he wakes up. I think he'll be conscious soon. He may be able to help Raven. I'll hopefully see you all in good health soon, all right? Janae will think twice about sending down a team to take you out in the same night, but all the same, I'd like it if you all left and found better lodgings for the night."
And with that, he gave them a little bow and walked out of the door, humming a jaunty tune.
Thomas watched this, then looked down at Raven's calm face. He realised that he'd been conscious throughout the whole ordeal. "How are you feeling?"
"I've been better." Came the weak reply. "But I'm glad you're here."
"Yeah?" Thomas asked surprised. "I'm glad you're here too."
And he held him as he passed out.
~ to be continued.
Was that too confusing? Aethers were probably amongst the weakest of the people of Zi, and were very light and athletic beings. O'Connell is not a pureblood of course, which explains why he looks so human. The Zoidian children who saw them on the beaches in the past called the Aethers fairies. They had wings. Not always strong enough to fly with, flying was sort of being phased out because the predators (Funnily enough, Prozen and Hiltz' respective species!!) stopped hunting them with the treaty. O'Connell is tall for his kind. Their wings are very insect-like usually clear with veins running though them that are the same colour as their hair. Hehe…Does Jake have wings? I don't know…hmm…fairy Jake…hehe
I'm making Thomas a real prat, aren't I? I always saw him as an excitable person, so it sort of works. Am I playing him right?
Is this too far out or what?
