The Generation
Chapter 18-Tyson
I dreamed. I floated above a HUGE canyon. The end of it was dammed up. A pair of piers jutted out into the water. To my right I saw a line of cages. Hork bajir and a few other species that I didn't recognize were stuck in them. The pool seethed like molten lead. There were hork bajir standing guard on the rim of the dam. The dam was made of trees, held in place across the lip of the canyon by means of smaller trees and branches.
My heart began to pound. This was the yeerk pool. I was sure that it was. This was the yeerk pool on another planet. What was going on?
The scene was frozen beneath me. And standing there on the rim of the dam were two hork bajir restraining...
//MAX!!// I cried. He was frozen in place. It was then that I realized.
This was Max's dream. It was his nightmare of pain and despair that I was seeing.
And slowly, with almost obscene innocence and delicacy, a tiny, glowing butterfly sailed down to that cesspool of despair. It landed on Max's nose. Max's body morphed, almost instantly, into a Hork Bajir.
THE SCENE BELOW BURST INTO LIFE!
The two hork bajir were dragging him out onto the pier. Max thrashed and screamed and cried. It was no use. The two guards kicked his legs out from under him. Then...
TSSSAAAP! TSSSSSAPP! A pair of andilite fighters swooped down from the sky, attacking the piers. The wooden pier beneath Max's feet vaporized. His guards jumped out of the way. Max swam free, careful to keep his head above the sludge. A hork bajir and another andilite, delicate enough in build so that I realized that she must be a girl, helped him out of the water.
"Thanks Aldrea, Dak." Max said, panting. "NOW LET'S FRY SOME YEERKS!" Max was demorphing now, changing.
But not into a human.
Max became an andilite female, larger, more graceful than Aldrea, with fur that was more violet or indigo than blue. But... didn't you have to demorph before entering another form? Besides, wasn't Max's andilite morph female?
"With pleasure Princess." The Hork Bajir said. "With pleasure."
Andilites and hork bajir were piling onto the scene. There had to be over a hundred of them! In the sky andilite fighters and some kind of squat, insect shaped fightercraft fired at each other in a deadly near surface dogfight.
Max faught, slicing and dicing. His tail whipped again! Again! Again! With deadly speed and accuracy he chopped off limbs and heads of enemy hork bajir. //COME ON SLUGS! HAVEN'T GOT ENOUGH? OH YEAH TAKE THAT! AND THAT! THAT WILL TEACH YOU TO INFEST AN ANDILITE! THAT WILL PUT YOU IN YOUR PLACE!!// The look on Max's andilite face was malicious, murderous. His andilite body was soaked in blue/green hork bajir ichor.
Then the call came. //EVERYBODY OFF THE DAM! EVERYBODY OFF! THIS IS WAR PRINCE ALLORAN SEMITUR CORRASS!! EVERYBODY OFF THE DAM!//
Under Dak's direction, the hork bajir took to the trees. Max and Aldrea leapt gracefully to the ground and made their way down the slope as fast as their legs would allow. The other andilites joined them.
The yeerks cheered. The thought that they had repelled the attack. I heard Max say to Alloran.... //Alloran, put them out of their misery.//
Alloran fired. The dam burst. The hork bajir controllers on the rim were knocked off, crushed beneath falling timbers, torn to pieces by splinters, or just plain vaporized by the heat from the shredders. And yeerks writhed on the ground in pain. Some of them burned to death by the radiation from the fighter's weapons.
//All clear Judin. All clear.// Alloran told Max.
Only then did I realize who Max had become. At night, in his dreams, he became a monster. Was this really Judy? Would Max's mother of all people order the slaughter of... how many yeerks? I couldn't count that high!
No wonder Max refused to believe that this was his mother. If I had known that my mother had been in war, ordering the slaughter of thousands of well... not exactly innocents, because they were yeerks, but the enemy... I would have been frightened too.
Then Judin began to tremble... //Goddess forgive me...// She sobbed softly. //Goddess forgive me my sin... my slaughter of innocents... Goddess of peace forgive me...//
\\MAAAAXXXX\\ I cried.
//Tyson?// Max was unable to look up, because, after all, you can't change the past.
//Max what's...?//
Then I saw the horror running through the trees, lying in wait above Max/Judin. With a roar of rage the hork bajir controller fell from the branches onto Judin's back.
Judin/Max bucked with a scream of fear. I screamed too... because Judin's tail went spinning away into the coming darkness.
I woke up, covered in sweat and dried cum. Max was curled into a ball in my arms, sweating, trembling. "No... tail... gone... morph... now!" He sobbed.
"I've got you Max." I stroked his hair tenderly. "You're not alone. I fight with you. We fight together."
"Tyson..." Max murmured. His eyes shot open, then he fell into a deeper sleep.
I looked at the clock on the bedside. It said 1:00 AM. I pulled Max a little closer to me and closed my eyes.
In my dreams I was standing on a bridge. The bridge stood over bubbling, spewing lava. The atmosphere radiated hatred and terror and rage. A creature made out of metal glared at me. It looked like a pyramid made of steel with an eye mounted on the top. It stood on a pedestal and glared down at me. It's eye glowed malevolently red. It growled at me, and I trembled in terror. I felt weak. I couldn't stand, because I knew that this creature would cause my death. He WAS death. He was death and murder and hatred and fear and everything that every half way decent human being is afraid of.
The creature fixed its eye on me, and when it spoke I trembled in terror.
//DO NOT INTERFERE TYSON!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!! INTERFERE WITH THIS AND YOU WILL DIE WITH HIM!!//
"Gods..." I prayed softly. "Kami-samas..."
The picture faded. It was replaced with a gentler figure. We stood in a realm of black emptiness. The figure looked like an old man, with glowing blue skin and pointed ears. He wore robes of a lighter blue.
"Who are you?"
I AM THE GUARDIAN OF TIME. TYSON THE CREATURE YOU HAVE SEEN IS DANGEROUS.
"I'll say." I muttered.
I MUST ASK YOU TO BE CAREFUL. MAX IS AN IMPORTANT CATALYST IN THE TIMELINE OF EARTH. WHAT HE SEES IS FOR HIM TO INTERPRET.
"HE'S MY LOVER YOU ASSHOLE!!" I shouted at him. "WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO??"
LOVE IS A BEAUTIFUL THING, BUT IT IS ALSO SAD, AND IT CAN ALSO DESTROY. YOUR DEDICATION IS ADMIRABLE. YOU WILL HAVE YOUR CHANCE TO FULFILL YOUR PROMISE TO HIM. HOWEVER, HIS FATE WILL BE DECIDED BY THE TIES OF BLOOD. IF HE REJECTS HIS BLOOD, THEN NOTHING YOU DO WILL BE ABLE TO PROTECT HIM.
"You're talking about Judy aren't you?"
The creature seemed to consider this. WAR PRINCESS JUDIN WILL DECIDE THE DIRECTION OF THE FIGHT. YOU, TYSON, HAVE AN ADVANTAGE OVER HER. HUMAN, YOUR SPECIES IS PRIMATIVE, YET CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING. IT IS THIS TRAIT THAT MAKES EARTH A CROSSROADS IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE.
"Gee, thanks." I muttered sarcastically. "And the universe? I mean, come on. We're just one tiny planet, why do WE get to do the whole crossroads thing?"
I AM NOT ABLE TO INTERFERE. HOWEVER, AS A HUMAN ONCE WROTE, 'ONE RAINDROP RAISES THE SEA,' EVERY PLANET, EVERY BEING, ROCK, TREE, AND PLANT HAS A PURPOSE. YOU HAVE YOUR'S AS WELL TYSON.
"Swell, I am supposed to be relieved that I have a purpose."
WAS THAT SARCASM TYSON?
"Do you have a fucking point?"
YOU AND MAX ARE SHORMA TYSON. YOU FIGHT WITH ONE BLADE. DO NOT ABUSE THAT POWER. MAX IS AN ANOMALY, HE CANNOT BE DISTRACTED FROM THE PRESERVATION OF THIS TIMELINE.
"And that means WHAT to me? I have no idea what you just said!" I growled.
YOU WILL, WHEN WORLDS UNITE, WHEN THE WAR THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BEGINS AND JUDY RISES TO FILL HER PLACE, YOU WILL UNDERSTAND.
"Oh so now you're bringing Max's mother into this?" I demanded. "I'll ask just once, what the Hell is going on??"
MAX IS LEARNING WHAT HE MUST. HE CANNOT HIDE FOREVER. BETWEEN VISIONS OF THE PAST AND ECHOES OF THE FUTURE, HE WILL...
"Go completely and totally insane, wonko, bye bye, this elevator does not go to the top of the building, this deck is missing a few cards here, excuse me, but he seems to have lost his marbles..."
The creature laughed. WE WILL MEET AGAIN TYSON. It said.
"HANG ON YOU! WE'RE NOT FUCKING FINISHED YET!" I shouted as the creature walked away. It didn't answer. I think I insulted it.
Who? Me? Insulting? Oh yeah, when I wanted to I could insult just about anybody.
I woke up. Max was snuggled against me, warm, sleeping soundly. Anomaly. Had I just seen that Elemist that Cassie had mentioned. I felt, felt... in tune with him somehow. I held him to me, tears streaming from my face. I had seen the true enemy.
Then I felt it. We breathed as one! Our hearts beat as one!
I'm not kidding. Want wierdly romantic? Try having you breathe in sync with your lover. Max's eyes fluttered open. "Tyson?"
"Max." I murmured. Then I remembered. Yesterday had been the last day of school, our first time having sex. I remembered the dream. But if we really dreamed the same dream, and would continue dreaming the same dreams, then how could I hold back?
Then he gasped. "Tyson, you were... dreaming the same as me? And that creature? Both of them?"
"How did you..." I asked.
"I felt it." Max answered.
"There is no way you could have..." I started.
"Read your mind? I know its..."
"Definitely weird. It doesn't get..."
"Wierder, I know..."
We looked at each other for a few seconds, the significance sinking in. "WOAH!" We said at once.
"Houston this could be..." I began.
"A problem." Max finished.
~notes~
Tyson: WILD!! Max! Max! What am I thinking now?
Max: That this whole thing is completely and totally insane! And you know I wholly agree.
Marco: This is insane! Insane! How come Max is psychic and I'm not?
Chapter 18-Tyson
I dreamed. I floated above a HUGE canyon. The end of it was dammed up. A pair of piers jutted out into the water. To my right I saw a line of cages. Hork bajir and a few other species that I didn't recognize were stuck in them. The pool seethed like molten lead. There were hork bajir standing guard on the rim of the dam. The dam was made of trees, held in place across the lip of the canyon by means of smaller trees and branches.
My heart began to pound. This was the yeerk pool. I was sure that it was. This was the yeerk pool on another planet. What was going on?
The scene was frozen beneath me. And standing there on the rim of the dam were two hork bajir restraining...
//MAX!!// I cried. He was frozen in place. It was then that I realized.
This was Max's dream. It was his nightmare of pain and despair that I was seeing.
And slowly, with almost obscene innocence and delicacy, a tiny, glowing butterfly sailed down to that cesspool of despair. It landed on Max's nose. Max's body morphed, almost instantly, into a Hork Bajir.
THE SCENE BELOW BURST INTO LIFE!
The two hork bajir were dragging him out onto the pier. Max thrashed and screamed and cried. It was no use. The two guards kicked his legs out from under him. Then...
TSSSAAAP! TSSSSSAPP! A pair of andilite fighters swooped down from the sky, attacking the piers. The wooden pier beneath Max's feet vaporized. His guards jumped out of the way. Max swam free, careful to keep his head above the sludge. A hork bajir and another andilite, delicate enough in build so that I realized that she must be a girl, helped him out of the water.
"Thanks Aldrea, Dak." Max said, panting. "NOW LET'S FRY SOME YEERKS!" Max was demorphing now, changing.
But not into a human.
Max became an andilite female, larger, more graceful than Aldrea, with fur that was more violet or indigo than blue. But... didn't you have to demorph before entering another form? Besides, wasn't Max's andilite morph female?
"With pleasure Princess." The Hork Bajir said. "With pleasure."
Andilites and hork bajir were piling onto the scene. There had to be over a hundred of them! In the sky andilite fighters and some kind of squat, insect shaped fightercraft fired at each other in a deadly near surface dogfight.
Max faught, slicing and dicing. His tail whipped again! Again! Again! With deadly speed and accuracy he chopped off limbs and heads of enemy hork bajir. //COME ON SLUGS! HAVEN'T GOT ENOUGH? OH YEAH TAKE THAT! AND THAT! THAT WILL TEACH YOU TO INFEST AN ANDILITE! THAT WILL PUT YOU IN YOUR PLACE!!// The look on Max's andilite face was malicious, murderous. His andilite body was soaked in blue/green hork bajir ichor.
Then the call came. //EVERYBODY OFF THE DAM! EVERYBODY OFF! THIS IS WAR PRINCE ALLORAN SEMITUR CORRASS!! EVERYBODY OFF THE DAM!//
Under Dak's direction, the hork bajir took to the trees. Max and Aldrea leapt gracefully to the ground and made their way down the slope as fast as their legs would allow. The other andilites joined them.
The yeerks cheered. The thought that they had repelled the attack. I heard Max say to Alloran.... //Alloran, put them out of their misery.//
Alloran fired. The dam burst. The hork bajir controllers on the rim were knocked off, crushed beneath falling timbers, torn to pieces by splinters, or just plain vaporized by the heat from the shredders. And yeerks writhed on the ground in pain. Some of them burned to death by the radiation from the fighter's weapons.
//All clear Judin. All clear.// Alloran told Max.
Only then did I realize who Max had become. At night, in his dreams, he became a monster. Was this really Judy? Would Max's mother of all people order the slaughter of... how many yeerks? I couldn't count that high!
No wonder Max refused to believe that this was his mother. If I had known that my mother had been in war, ordering the slaughter of thousands of well... not exactly innocents, because they were yeerks, but the enemy... I would have been frightened too.
Then Judin began to tremble... //Goddess forgive me...// She sobbed softly. //Goddess forgive me my sin... my slaughter of innocents... Goddess of peace forgive me...//
\\MAAAAXXXX\\ I cried.
//Tyson?// Max was unable to look up, because, after all, you can't change the past.
//Max what's...?//
Then I saw the horror running through the trees, lying in wait above Max/Judin. With a roar of rage the hork bajir controller fell from the branches onto Judin's back.
Judin/Max bucked with a scream of fear. I screamed too... because Judin's tail went spinning away into the coming darkness.
I woke up, covered in sweat and dried cum. Max was curled into a ball in my arms, sweating, trembling. "No... tail... gone... morph... now!" He sobbed.
"I've got you Max." I stroked his hair tenderly. "You're not alone. I fight with you. We fight together."
"Tyson..." Max murmured. His eyes shot open, then he fell into a deeper sleep.
I looked at the clock on the bedside. It said 1:00 AM. I pulled Max a little closer to me and closed my eyes.
In my dreams I was standing on a bridge. The bridge stood over bubbling, spewing lava. The atmosphere radiated hatred and terror and rage. A creature made out of metal glared at me. It looked like a pyramid made of steel with an eye mounted on the top. It stood on a pedestal and glared down at me. It's eye glowed malevolently red. It growled at me, and I trembled in terror. I felt weak. I couldn't stand, because I knew that this creature would cause my death. He WAS death. He was death and murder and hatred and fear and everything that every half way decent human being is afraid of.
The creature fixed its eye on me, and when it spoke I trembled in terror.
//DO NOT INTERFERE TYSON!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!! INTERFERE WITH THIS AND YOU WILL DIE WITH HIM!!//
"Gods..." I prayed softly. "Kami-samas..."
The picture faded. It was replaced with a gentler figure. We stood in a realm of black emptiness. The figure looked like an old man, with glowing blue skin and pointed ears. He wore robes of a lighter blue.
"Who are you?"
I AM THE GUARDIAN OF TIME. TYSON THE CREATURE YOU HAVE SEEN IS DANGEROUS.
"I'll say." I muttered.
I MUST ASK YOU TO BE CAREFUL. MAX IS AN IMPORTANT CATALYST IN THE TIMELINE OF EARTH. WHAT HE SEES IS FOR HIM TO INTERPRET.
"HE'S MY LOVER YOU ASSHOLE!!" I shouted at him. "WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO??"
LOVE IS A BEAUTIFUL THING, BUT IT IS ALSO SAD, AND IT CAN ALSO DESTROY. YOUR DEDICATION IS ADMIRABLE. YOU WILL HAVE YOUR CHANCE TO FULFILL YOUR PROMISE TO HIM. HOWEVER, HIS FATE WILL BE DECIDED BY THE TIES OF BLOOD. IF HE REJECTS HIS BLOOD, THEN NOTHING YOU DO WILL BE ABLE TO PROTECT HIM.
"You're talking about Judy aren't you?"
The creature seemed to consider this. WAR PRINCESS JUDIN WILL DECIDE THE DIRECTION OF THE FIGHT. YOU, TYSON, HAVE AN ADVANTAGE OVER HER. HUMAN, YOUR SPECIES IS PRIMATIVE, YET CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING. IT IS THIS TRAIT THAT MAKES EARTH A CROSSROADS IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE.
"Gee, thanks." I muttered sarcastically. "And the universe? I mean, come on. We're just one tiny planet, why do WE get to do the whole crossroads thing?"
I AM NOT ABLE TO INTERFERE. HOWEVER, AS A HUMAN ONCE WROTE, 'ONE RAINDROP RAISES THE SEA,' EVERY PLANET, EVERY BEING, ROCK, TREE, AND PLANT HAS A PURPOSE. YOU HAVE YOUR'S AS WELL TYSON.
"Swell, I am supposed to be relieved that I have a purpose."
WAS THAT SARCASM TYSON?
"Do you have a fucking point?"
YOU AND MAX ARE SHORMA TYSON. YOU FIGHT WITH ONE BLADE. DO NOT ABUSE THAT POWER. MAX IS AN ANOMALY, HE CANNOT BE DISTRACTED FROM THE PRESERVATION OF THIS TIMELINE.
"And that means WHAT to me? I have no idea what you just said!" I growled.
YOU WILL, WHEN WORLDS UNITE, WHEN THE WAR THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BEGINS AND JUDY RISES TO FILL HER PLACE, YOU WILL UNDERSTAND.
"Oh so now you're bringing Max's mother into this?" I demanded. "I'll ask just once, what the Hell is going on??"
MAX IS LEARNING WHAT HE MUST. HE CANNOT HIDE FOREVER. BETWEEN VISIONS OF THE PAST AND ECHOES OF THE FUTURE, HE WILL...
"Go completely and totally insane, wonko, bye bye, this elevator does not go to the top of the building, this deck is missing a few cards here, excuse me, but he seems to have lost his marbles..."
The creature laughed. WE WILL MEET AGAIN TYSON. It said.
"HANG ON YOU! WE'RE NOT FUCKING FINISHED YET!" I shouted as the creature walked away. It didn't answer. I think I insulted it.
Who? Me? Insulting? Oh yeah, when I wanted to I could insult just about anybody.
I woke up. Max was snuggled against me, warm, sleeping soundly. Anomaly. Had I just seen that Elemist that Cassie had mentioned. I felt, felt... in tune with him somehow. I held him to me, tears streaming from my face. I had seen the true enemy.
Then I felt it. We breathed as one! Our hearts beat as one!
I'm not kidding. Want wierdly romantic? Try having you breathe in sync with your lover. Max's eyes fluttered open. "Tyson?"
"Max." I murmured. Then I remembered. Yesterday had been the last day of school, our first time having sex. I remembered the dream. But if we really dreamed the same dream, and would continue dreaming the same dreams, then how could I hold back?
Then he gasped. "Tyson, you were... dreaming the same as me? And that creature? Both of them?"
"How did you..." I asked.
"I felt it." Max answered.
"There is no way you could have..." I started.
"Read your mind? I know its..."
"Definitely weird. It doesn't get..."
"Wierder, I know..."
We looked at each other for a few seconds, the significance sinking in. "WOAH!" We said at once.
"Houston this could be..." I began.
"A problem." Max finished.
~notes~
Tyson: WILD!! Max! Max! What am I thinking now?
Max: That this whole thing is completely and totally insane! And you know I wholly agree.
Marco: This is insane! Insane! How come Max is psychic and I'm not?