Chapter 10
Lichmonde felt the familiar cold rush of wind against his feathery back.
Behind him, a young blackbird knelt down and laid Eduardo on the floor carefully.
".........." Lichmonde studied the offering with a lazy eye. He slowly advanced toward the unconscious figure.
"Would you like to know something, child?"
The blackbird silently kept its eyes focused on the earthen floor.
"Usually, I like to give credit where credit is due. Usually, I'd compliment my boys for doing things right. But," His eyes flicked up to rest on the blackbird's head. "I can't compliment you. Do you want to know why?"
The blackbird sneaked a peek up at Lichmonde.
Suddenly, he was slapped across the face so hard he went flying into the wall.
Lichmonde smiled sinisterly. "Because you're not one of my boys."
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"You guys alright back there?"
Garrett gave a thumbs-up from atop Roland's back. Roland shifted Garrett into a better carrying position.
"Okay." Kylie picked up a rusted iron rod from the pile of discarded metal factory junk on the floor.
She raised the rod over her head as though it were a baseball bat, and silently approached her unsuspecting target.
Scout saw stars as it got whacked in the back of its head full force. Its eyes rolled to the back of its head and it collapsed to the floor in a messy heap.
Garrett held up Roland's feather and caught a glint of metal.
"Look! There's our stuff!"
Kylie poked the sparrow with the rod to make sure that it was really out cold. When she was satisfied that it was, she approached the other end of the room and retrieved Garrett's wheelchair.
Roland let Garrett down into the chair before he checked their equipment. "It's a good thing they left our proton packs intact."
Garrett eagerly picked up his own pack. "Boy am I glad to see you!"
Kylie switched on one of the pke meters. "We've got company over there!" She pointed down the other door at the end of the hallway.
Garrett strapped the pack into its rightful place upon his back. "Okay boys and girls, who wants to kick some serious ghost bird butt?"
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Sidus looked up at Lichmonde through the blackbird's beady eyes. He slowly got back up to his feet. "Ya sure are sharp-witted for a bird."
Lichmonde smirked back. "I know my children better than you think, dog boy."
Sidus ducked as Lichmonde attempted to strike him again. "Guess evolution and mutation haven't improved your IQ any!"
"........"
Sidus felt the wind knocked out of him as Lichmonde's hard talon rammed into the soft flesh of the blackbird's unguarded stomach.
Lichmonde's other talon flew to the back of the blackbird's neck and pulled.
Sidus felt himself literally ripped from the blackbird's body by his neck.
Lichmonde smirked as he hurled the ghost and sent him crashing into the desk.
"You know nothing about playing with the big boys, puppy."
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Kylie, Garrett and Roland charged through the hallway, leaving unconscious birds all over the floor behind them.
"So what's the deal?"
Roland tweaked the pke meter knob to preview the last readings they took. "These bird spirits are unlike anything ever encountered!"
"That's nice. What makes them so special?"
"We can't trap them!"
"Okay, that's bad. What do we do?"
"Hey guys. Remember Morpheus?"
"You think that these birdies are bits and pieces of some Bird Almighty?"
"If that were the case, we wouldn't have been able to blast them at all!"
"You've got a point."
The conversation was cut short by the pke meter.
"We're finish this later. We've got a class 9 behind that door!"
Roland grabbed the doorknob and pushed. "It's locked!"
Garrett backed away from the door as much as possible. "Stand back, Rol! Leave this to the Monster Truck!"
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Sidus crouched low on the floor, growling. Blood dampened the black fur above his right eye.
Returning to his original dog body seemed to be ad bad idea. He definitely wasn't getting anywhere near to doing some serious injury to the huge raven before him.
With a snarl, Sidus flung himself at Lichmonde again. Before he could get his teeth into the talon, he was promptly knocked away again.
/ Where's good ol' Lassie when you need her? /
"You're pathetic, pup."
Sidus leapt clear as Lichmonde went into aggressive and lashed out at him.
"You can't defeat me in such a weak form!"
Sidus leapt a distance away. Oh yeah?
Lichmonde suddenly screamed in pain as proton energy pummeled his back.
Eduardo gritted his teeth as he increased the power slightly and kept his hold on the trigger.
With a crash, the door at one end of the wall collapsed, revealing the rest of the Ghost Buster crew.
May be so, Feathers. Sidus grinned human-style. But at least it earns me some backup.
