-Seyruun High Jinx –NEXT!
Chapter 35
Rezo's Lab
"I smell the stink of too much self esteem"– Charlie Chaplin, on a pompous pontificator
Mrs. Shearer greeted the boys at the front door. "Oh, good. I'm so glad you both came for the puppy. Come in, come in."
"Puppy?" Xelloss asked. "He's one old dog."
Zel was busy greeting Beast, so Xelloss did all the talking. "Anyway, of course we both came. You did call and request our combined presence. Miss us?"
"Well, yes I have. My boys haven't been over for a visit in a long time. And you've brought two little friends? Ah, yes, I remember you. Lina and Amelia." Mrs. Shearer looked them over frowning. To Xelloss she asked, "These two aren't your girlfriends now, are they?"
"Not on your life!" Lina snapped back. "We're all buddies here."
The housekeeper appeared relieved and her good humor returned. Leading the kids into the kitchen for tea and cookies. "That's good." She passed a cup to each of the girls and offered them the plate of cookies. "They're to share now, everyone." She raised an eyebrow at Lina, and then turned her attention to Zel. "Zelgadiss, dear, I have a couple of sweet girls that I want you and your brother here to meet. Na-na-nah! Don't give me any flack! I have had years of experience with my own children. I didn't say you had to take them out, although I think that would be a very good idea. Just meet! Just meet! Take your tea, dear." She handed Zelgadiss his cup. "Your dear father brought them home..."
"M-my father!" Zel slopped his tea and choked. "He brought them home!"
"Yes. They're new to his department. He wanted you to talk with them. Now, you just stay put and enjoy your tea, I'll go see what's keeping them."
When Mrs. Shearer left the room, Zel exploded. "Why do they think they need to do this? We're not a couple of idiots unable to make friends on our own and dates are not at all what I am looking for and you are just recovering from your last encounter of the female kind and have no need for all this. I'm going to go tell them just what I think of their matchmaking tactics!"
"Er, yer kinda worked up there, Zel. What's up? Just say 'hi' and 'gotta go' and we go. No prob!" Lina waved him to back off. "Think I could have that last cookie?"
"Go ahead," Amelia answered sulkily. She should be glad Zel was not interested in the girls, but he hadn't said it was because maybe his heart was already set on dating her. In fact, he'd just declared that he didn't want to date at all! At least, that's how it had sounded to her. Maybe he meant it differently. She tried to spin it in her favor a little harder...
Rezo appeared arm and arm with two nearly identical-looking young ladies. "I was hoping to introduce you last week but you've been busy."
"You could say that," Zel began, arms crossed, attitude set to 'negative'. "I'd like to speak to you privately a moment, father."
"In a minute," Rezo put him off. "These are my newest students...exchange students from Japan. Now my Japanese is a little rusty, but since you've been all studying it..."
"Three months. We've been in the class three months..." Zel pointed out.
"Long enough to learn to say 'hello'." Rezo was relentless. "And I would bet that my 'good' son has already memorized the text book..."
"Xelloss hasn't even been to class for the past six weeks," Zel continued in his contrary vein.
Rezo was unmoved. "This is-- now be sure I get this right ladies-- Mimi and this is Nene."
Both girls were dressed in matching gold-trimmed, red Chinese-style jackets with loose back pants. Their big, brown eyes were framed by long blue-black hair worn in Sylphiel's style. They smiled and echoed 'hellos' and bobbed slightly.
"Konichiwa!" Amelia said proudly in return.
That set off a retaliatory stream of Japanese from one of them, Mimi possibly. To everyone's surprise, Lina spoke up with a short phrase or two introducing herself, Amelia, Zel, and Xelloss. Nene responded by speaking a little slower.
"I get a few words, but the rest...We just don't have the verb tenses or vocabulary," Amelia explained.
Xelloss had moved in closer. He had noticed the pants they wore and recognized them as karate exercise wear. "Karate?" he asked.
Mimi nodded and demonstrated a punch, Nene a kick. Xelloss smiled and said a few words. The girls must have understood since they followed him from the kitchen into the roomier front room, and posed. Lina, Amelia, and, grudgingly, Zel, followed. Xelloss removed his jacket and un-tucked his shirt along the way, and then closed his eyes a moment. In a flash he attacked the pair, not connecting, but coming very close. They blocked his shots quite well, but were unable to lay a finger on him. They stopped as suddenly as they had started, bowing and laughing and chattering in Japanese. Xelloss seemed to understand but his pronunciation stunk and set them to laughing more as they tried to correct him. He had memorized the text book, but aside from listening to a couple subtitled anime, he hadn't nailed the verbal part of the language. Like his quick mastery of the German and French languages before, it was just another, although one of the better, manifestations of his ADD condition.
Zelgadiss was not interested in participating in whatever farce Rezo had set up for them. He stood apart, arms crossed, staring loftily out the front window. Amelia had another idea. "Zelgadiss, do you remember that song we had just learned in Japanese class? Some kind of spring pageant song."
Before he could think better of it, he answered, "Yes. Why?" Then he regretted it.
Amelia's face lit up. "Miss Lina! Zelgadiss knows it! He can direct us singing it!"
Now Lina wasn't against a little showing off from time to time, and right now she was on a roll with the CD under her belt. "Sure, let's give it a try. Mimi and...Nene can help us with pronunciation. Zel, don't forget the arm movements..."
"They might be critical!" Amelia added breathlessly.
Zel was caught. There he was stuck cooperating in another ridiculous activity. Damn. And he used to be so good at getting out of these kinds of situations, too. He was in a quandary. Obey Lina and Amelia and possibly play into his father's hands, or exert his independence and get everyone pissed at him...
"Zel! Earth to Zel! How does that thing start?" Lina demanded.
Xelloss had stepped out of the room. It was just Zel and four pretty girls all watching him expectantly. Oh, joy... He collapsed in a chair and began, "Ah...
Koi ni koi suru
Onna no ko ni wa
Mabushi sugiru no MAI DAARIN… Zel blushed at the terrible 'engrish.'
Xelloss, watching from the doorway, was mesmerized. Never in all the time he'd known Zelgadiss had he found him so entertaining. It was all he could do not to burst out laughing. Especially the words of endearment 'My Dar-har-ling!'!— choice. Mimi and Nene were certainly bewitched, or was that grossed out? They couldn't tear their eyes away from the beguiling scene: two girls singing in harmony while posing cutely and waving around their arms, all the while being directed by one exotic-looking, unusual guy with a very nice voice. Amusing, very amusing. Xelloss wished he had that video camera...
It must have impressed Rezo as well. What had his son become? Even Xelloss had had the good sense to avoid such an embarrassing show of...unmanliness--and he couldn't even actually see the activity! Oh, blessed gods above...whatever was he going to do about that boy! "Er...ah...that's enough now, ah...Zelgadiss. I am opening the lab below later and I would like you to be present. I've invited another professor, one from the molecular biology department, and a couple of his grad students...and a security man."
Zel was skeptical. "Is that wise? Why the group thing? It should be more private. What's the point?"
"The point...is that Doctor Halciform is a colleague and he has an interest in reviving some of my research on cell cloning..."
"Cloning?" Zel gasped. "You said you were working on a cure for blindness!"
"Which requires cell regeneration or replacement where particular types are missing or damaged. Cloning creates exact duplicates."
"Ah, Dad?" Xelloss broke in. He noted first that Lina and Amelia were deep in discussion with the two Japanese exchange students and ignoring them. "You said 'Halciform'? Have you known the man long?"
"Yes, ages. He was a friend of you father's as well. University man in high standing. Now, don't you go thinking he's in on some syndicate deal..." Rezo warned him.
"I am doing just that," Xelloss said in all seriousness. "His name came up recently, after a little coercion on my part."
Rezo was offended. "Not this man. His research on cell regeneration has been cutting edge. He had no time for syndicate business. Besides, Zelas would have known him. It's a common enough name. You must be mistaken."
Xelloss shook his head. "One guard won't be sufficient, and I'll come too. I have to be certain."
Rezo bristled, but backed down. "Suit yourself, but I will ask you to leave the moment you start any trouble, understand?" His 'boys' could unleash so much chaos, he had learned from the past.
Xelloss replied, "I'll be on my best behavior. We'll go say goodbye now and come back...for dinner?"
"After. Your dinner is already waiting for you at your home. Make it seven o'clock." Rezo turned and left the front of the house, disappearing into his own room.
Xelloss could understand how Zelgadiss turned out to be such a cold, blunt young man; he just wondered where he got his aptitude for art and music. Oh, yes. Zelgadiss' mother, of course, had played violin. And she had shared that unfortunate heritage of being his, Xelloss', sister...so...weird...and so deadly… If it were true that she had been killed, as her mother before her, because the two women had rejected joining the syndicate, or living up to their birthrights, and if possibly the same could be said for Zelgadiss' own 'accident', then what future did he and the rest of the Slayers have unless they fought the syndicate to the last man and woman…and won?
"Xelloss, you coming?" Lina called out. "Geesh, quit spacin'!"
Once the four kids had parted with the Rezo household, Lina knew something was up. "Okay, Xelloss come clean with us."
He opened then shut his mouth as he decided what he should say. "We need the others."
"Val and Filia are already back at the settlement by now," Zel pointed out.
"Ah..." Xelloss shook his head. "Then Gourry and Sylphiel will have to do. Lina, Amelia...wear your insignia and keep them in full view. I want to intimidate these people. Gourry looks big enough and strong enough to break most anyone's neck, Sylphiel...I'll have to remind her to wear her high priestess emblem– that thing on the wide ribbon..."
"What about Zel? He gave Amelia his mother's pendant," Lina said as she and Amelia squeezed into Zel's sports car's tiny back seat.
Xelloss turned around from his post in the front seat and grinned, "That's...a secret!"
Indeed, there was no reason to discuss that gun anytime soon. Even Zelgadiss had remained mum on the topic, preferring to let Xelloss tell him what he needed to know when the time was right.
Gourry borrowed his mother's minivan to pick up Sylphiel, Amelia, Lina, Zel, and Xelloss after dinner. The Mayor had been loath to allow Amelia out again. She had only just gotten in from the spa trip, school was starting up the next day, and he wanted a quiet evening at home, just the two of them. But...Rezo wanted the kids to meet some university people, so he was told. Good connections possibly. In the end, after a loud dispute, he gave in and stood at the back door to watch as his darling daughter ran off again. When did she grow up so fast?
Mrs. Shearer ushered them in. "He's waiting downstairs. Hurry along now."
Along the hall to the stairs, then down to a small storeroom. At the far side of the room, stood its sole occupant: some big guy in a silly-looking chicken suit.
"Who's that?" Gourry asked.
Sylphiel giggled. "That's not your father, is it Zel?"
Before he could answer, the chicken spoke. "I'm the security guard on duty here. Call me Tiiba."
"So, Tiiiiiba, er...bird brain," Lina approached him without fear. "What's with the chicken costume?"
"Don't call me 'Chicken!' I had to rush over from my other job. I'm PULLET, the mascot for Palace Fried Chicken. Hey, give me a break here! Now, look again. Take your time. What do I look like?"
"A...giant chicken."
"A chicken, from every possible angle."
"The chickenest-looking chicken I've ever seen."
"Awwwww, no...come on! You, what do I really look like?" he asked Sylphiel, who had remained quiet before.
"A very pretty...chicken?" She backed off a ways from this very disturbed young man.
Zel shook his head. "Tiiba is one of the chemistry department graduate students, like Vurumagen and Eris. That costume...is really stupid looking by the way, and believe me, I ought to know."
"Yeah, Zel likes to wear rabbit suits!" Gourry shared without a thought.
"I don't either!"
Lina pushed Zel aside, "As a rabbit, you're only a step up from the poultry-guy here." Then she demanded Tiiba's attention and a few answers. "What are you really doing here? And...what do you know about Rezo's research?"
"Hey, back down little lady! I'm here to guard the door against unwanted intruders, by the prof's leave. He just told me to show up tonight and that later I could help him with his research. That's my whole story."
"Come on," Lina called to her group. "Let's go see what the old man's up to."
"Sorry, Zelgadiss only. That's my orders." Tiiba nodded his head, sending his ridiculous red-foam comb and wattle to jiggling.
"If you don't let us all through that door, I'll turn you into fried chicken, piece by piece!" Lina yelled.
"She'll do it, too. She's from the country," Gourry assured him. "First, she's gotta wring yer neck..."
And she was doing a respectable job of that, hanging off the guy's back with her strong little fingers wrapped around his thick, feather-covered neck.
Zelgadiss chuckled to Amelia, "Lina will be really embarrassed if she can't get past this guy."
"You worry about yourself!" Lina shouted down at Zel. "I can take care of this idiot if I have to pluck out every feather..."
"Ach...ack...ah...all right...! Don't hurt the suit! It's only a loaner! I'll let you in...just...get off!"
"I think he's calling 'fowl', Miss Lina." Amelia smiled back at Zel.
Hopping down, Lina was satisfied. "That's more like it, buster. Now, shut yer beak and lead on."
Sylphiel was blocking the way while she was concentrating on the pretty design crafted onto a wall ornament. "Oooooh, look! Don't you think it's cute?" Sylphiel moved aside so Lina could examine the plaque on the wall.
Lina was not amused. "This says that a man nearly lost his only son at this spot. This is where Zel...where he got hurt."
"Rezo was working on something to cure his blindness, wasn't he?" Amelia asked, saving Sylphiel.
Lina and Zelgadiss traded glances- hers was reassuring, he appeared embattled. If he was afraid to go in, Lina wouldn't be far. To reinforce her intentions, Lina clasped his hand and squeezed gently. Her tenderness stunned him momentarily.
"Ahem...this way," he muttered, blushed, and stepped past he guard into the cause of his nightmares.
If they were expecting a gloomy room with bubbling flasks, fog, and uneven lighting, then they were all disappointed. Rezo's laboratory was an antiseptically clean, sparsely decorated place with modern appointments and equipment set out on mirror-like, anti-reactive surfaces and freshly scrubbed stone floors.
Rezo greeted them with his usual warmth. "I wasn't expecting the whole crowd."
"You tried to keep everyone out, so you must have expected them to come with me," Zel countered with his customary politeness.
It was, all in all, a fine start to the evening.
"I see Xelloss had the good sense not to come," Rezo said.
"Then you SEE wrong because..." Zel gestured to the empty space at his side. "Huh? Where did he get off to?"
Gourry 'fessed up, "He was still talkin' to Mrs. ah... the woman up there when we left."
Great. Zel was about to say something cutting about guys carrying big sticks, but was interrupted by the sound of a man clearing his throat.
"And so...she's marrying...him, and I am...once again...(sniff)…alone," Xelloss explained to Mrs. Shearer over a bowl of her homemade lemon sherbet.
"Ah, well, you poor thing. But the best thing for you is just to jump back into the ring and have another go at it. You might start with one of those nice foreign girls you met today. They are very lonely, I imagine."
He smiled and was about to decline, when a very large chicken thundered up the stairs and pounded along the hall in what he guessed was the direction of the exit. "Ah, if you will excuse me a moment? I need a word with the Pullet-zer Prize man before he leaves the house!" He took up his ruby-orbed staff from its hiding place beneath the kitchen table.
Mrs. Shearer was complaining about the rude man running in her house, but Xelloss had disappeared.
"Is that you, Zelgadiss? I haven't seen you since you were working on the chemistry department computers...what that last...no...two summers ago?"
"Ah, yes."
"Professor Halcifom, my son has taken it upon himself to bring some friends tonight."
Zel remembered the man now, mostly by reputation– tall and lean with a too-handsome, ageless face framed by a mop of shoulder-length brown hair. He was known as the 'Leech' or the 'Starfish' in the graduate student underground. He had come by these names by his history of attracting countless graduate students with promises of research grant money, and then working them to death in his labs, sucking the energy out of them. He went through dozens a term.
The effete man smiled languidly. An anemic-looking hand brushed an invisible dust particle from his winter-white suit jacket.
"That might be one of those syndicate-type designs on his shirt collar," Gourry said in a voice so low that he knew only Zel could make out his words.
Halciform narrowed his eyes in their direction and coughed behind his hand, causing a wisp of hair to sweep across the Mandarin-style collar of his purple silk shirt, masking the embroidery.
Zel's surreptitious glance vaulted past the man's shirt to his steely eyes and back to Rezo. "This is Gourry Gabriev. His father's construction company led the cleanup of this place recently."
With a simple nod, Halciform acknowledged his presence. Zel continued with the introductions. "Sylphiel Nels Lahda. Her father is the High--"
"--Priest of the downtown White Shrine, yes, I recognize...the name," Halciform said. He dipped his head her way. If he noticed the raiment of her office, he wasn't impressed.
"Amelia Seyruun, daughter to our mayor..."
"It's a real honor to meet you, Dr. Halcifom!" Amelia bobbed up to the man, making certain he could see the pendant clearly, and extended her hand.
She was rewarded with a cool, fleeting handshake. "Indeed."
"Lina Inverse..." Zel continued.
"We're all in a band, maybe you've heard of us? The Slayers? I'm the leader." As with Amelia, Lina made a point of letting him catch a good look at Zelas' ring which hung from the chain around her neck. She had added the amplifier jewelry for good measure. As over-accessorized as she was, he paid her no undo notice.
"I don't follow the local talent, but I do read the headlines…although I don't believe you were mentioned in the unfortunate scuffle the other day."
"Nah, me and Gourry were out of town and missed all the excitement." Lina searched the man's poker face for some reaction, but saw nothing. Scuffle be damned!
Halcifom seemed unaffected by anything Lina and the others had shown him. And that bothered Zelgadiss. What was he to do now? He couldn't simply yank out that gaudy pistol and swish it around! Damnit anyway! Where was Xelloss, the man with the plan?
"AHHHHHhhhh...umph!" Again, using his staff to trip up his target, Xelloss had his victim where he wanted him– at his mercy.
"Tiiba? Is this you again? You have sprouted feathers since we last met. Taking flight? And here I thought I'd freed you to get a message back to your boss...to leave town. But you're here!"
It took a minute or two for the chicken-suited man to get his breath back. "I...I did. You ...don't work for her...not my boss."
"Not only do I not work for Zelas, I killed her. I have all her power at my disposal. Not only that, but all of DarkStar's as well." Xelloss reiterated the facts for the dullard.
"Who?"
"What do you mean who? DarkStar? The late head of the syndicate's competition? That guy?" Xelloss was losing patience.
"Never heard of him."
Xelloss pounded the ground in frustration. "That gun. You recognized it. Outside the shrine...you were laying charges and we stopped you. The gun...I showed you the inscription...DS the star... And you knew it from someplace."
"It's not a star..."
"Say what?" Xelloss was not amused. He was about to start hitting things.
"My ah...brother is upstairs and should be here any minute," Zel said at last.
"Well then, permit me to introduce my beloved, Rubia." Halciform stepped back to lead a young lady out from behind a tall transparent vat. She moved slowly in the listless manner of an invalid. "My research has always been focused on curing her afflictions which have kept her sequestered from society."
Looking at the attractive girl, Zelgadiss wondered what her problems were, since they were not physical. In fact, from his point of view, Rubia was the most beautiful young woman he had ever laid eyes upon. Her lithe body remained immobile, nearly lifeless, moving neither toward the speaker nor to her audience. Her waxen flesh contrasted sharply with the copious, ruby-red hair which hung straight until it barely grazed her knees. From clear, blue eyes she stared blindly past him to...some far-off distant point in the universe.
"She no longer can hear, see, or communicate in anyway. It's...such a tragedy for someone as lovely as she to live a wasted life." Halciform caressed her hair, but she did not so much as blink.
"Do you mean that she once was...normal?" Lina asked. She was staring at the other redhead, whose face remained placid.
"Yes...such...a tragedy..." he repeated, apparently unable to go on.
"Ahem..." Rezo began. "Like you, Zelgadiss, his daughter (although he suspected that she was something else entirely, this wasn't the time or place with all the young people around to point that out) was unwittingly hurt as a result of an experiment gone awry..."
"Oh, let us be clear about it," Halciform declared dramatically. "It was one of my experiments, but I take very good care of her. I shall find a way to make her whole again and restore her mind!"
Zelgadiss was enamored of this incredible girl whose terrible story paralleled his own, except that where her beauty was intact, his mind was and while he was fearsome to look at, she returned a vacant expression and was unable to interact with the world around her. They were like polar twins. He felt more drawn to her than to anyone else he had ever known.
Rezo was explaining how their research overlapped and how rediscovering his old notes on curing his blindness had excited him to begin his work anew. "If I could re-concoct the material which transformed your hearing, it might be a general neural stimulant which could be used to cure countless medical problems."
"If my Rubia could see and hear again...perhaps the secret to her entire rehabilitation is buried in those papers!" Halciform was growing increasingly animated, reminding Lina of the typical mad-scientist, no... more of a creepy, evil mage...
Zelgadiss' eyes hadn't left Rubia's face. "I want to help you...restore her life." He riveted his brilliant blue eyes on Halciform. "And in the process, my own."
WHAT! Lina burned with fury. Didn't Zelgadiss see that was how that awful man snared his laboratory assistants? How could he fall for...well, Rubia was rather pretty, but wasn't Zelgadiss beyond that kind of infatuation stuff?
A smile spread to Halciform's lips. "Ah...wonderful. Just wonderful. How soon can you start? You are taking courses at the university now, your father tells me."
"He's just taking two and he's not even graduated from high school yet!" Amelia cried out. This couldn't be true! Zelgadiss knew better than to get himself involved with…these unknown characters, his father included. And why was he looking at that girl…that way?
"Um...yeah. Zel's got a lot goin' on right now, school and what with our band, our musical, the band, the musical," Lina emphasized what was important. "Maybe next year. That'll give ya plenty of time to get things rolling first."
"Nonsense!" Rezo dismissed her argument with a word.
"The star...is a starfish. DS– Deep Sea. That came offa her general, codenamed Starfish."
Stunned, Xelloss sank back onto his heels, "Ssssssssshit." He hadn't understood until now just how deep in trouble they all were, he was, in particular. He hadn't understood what the guy had said before when he'd questioned him outside the shrine. Xelloss must have been dreadfully tired and his head especially foggy and distracted by other concerns to have missed that reference. "And you report to…Starfish?" Gods the names the names these bozos used! It was embarrassing just to refer to them!
"Yes. I gotta go before he knows I've talked to you again."
"Oh, don't bother. I shall pass on my message personally this time. Will I find him in the lab below? Good. I know the way."
Zelgadiss had the nerve to reach out and tenderly pinch a lock of Rubia's crimson hair in his fingers and watch it slide over his mottled hand. So beautiful, like blood trickling off marble. "I'll find the time."
Lina was lost here. What was Zelgadiss up to? "Here? In this house? In the basement?" Lina questioned both men. "Why not at the university? There can't be that big of an over-crowding problem that you can't find lab space there? I mean, how safe can it be here?"
Gourry broke in unexpectedly. "This place is plenty secure. Surrounded by bedrock; the walls are five feet thick and vented way above regulations to keep the air quality real clean. Private, too."
Private…like in secret. Lina's eyes flamed up like tiny, twin torches. "You doing stuff illegal, aren'tcha?"
Rezo retorted, "Time is of the essence now! Following all the testing procedures required by the City-State statutes would force us into a backload of forms and permits, years of testing stretching into lifetimes! Here, we can…streamline the process, avoid the busywork…"
"Maim and kill your test subjects…" Lina put in.
"But…but," Amelia could see the injustice of the situation written on the laboratory's walls in Zel's blood. "That's just wrong! That's willful and predisposed disregard for the laws of Seyruun! It's unethical and…immoral! Oh, Zelgadiss, you agree with me, don't you? You want to help, and that's good, but…they are going about this all wrong. You don't need this, not when the doctor is offering you real cures, safe ones!"
"Those aren't cures," Zel's tone was dead. "They are tortures I'm being offered. This… this is the only way. Don't you see? I have to undo what was done to me. And this is my only chance! Don't you want me to become normal? Or are you afraid…once I'm not a freak, that I will no longer interest you…or be interested in you? Or do you want to keep me like…a pet!"
"Okay, that's enough attitude, Z-mon," Lina warned him.
Both the words and the tone shocked Amelia to the core. He didn't really think that, did he? He couldn't believe that her feelings were so… shallow. How could he trivialize them so! "No! Not at all!" she shouted, stricken by his fateful attitude. "I don't care how you look. The only one who does is you!"
"In that case," he smirked, "I will do what I want to."
Sylphiel cringed, while Gourry held Lina back from following through with her threat to 'pound some sense into Zel!' Amelia seemed heartbroken, but was as close to helping Lina smash in his selfish face as she had ever been--to forward the just cause, of course!
Rezo and Halciform, for the most part ignoring this dispute, edged nearer to one another. "He will do a fine job, my son. He's very bright and determined. It seems bringing his friends along has actually helped him come to a decision."
Halciform smiled. It was an evil manipulative smile of a subjugating conqueror. It was unfortunate that Rezo was blind and unable to take note of the expression on his colleague's face, or he might have reconsidered encouraging Zelgadiss to participate in the research. "He'll be perfect. A wonderful contributor, I'm sure."
Xelloss caught it, however. It was a look with which he was over-familiar. "Hello, everyone! Sorry I'm late. Have I missed much?"
If anything, is was the barest hint of dismay that washed over the smug countenance of Professor Halciform. Those Metalliums and their exquisite sense of bad timing… His eyes flitted from Xelloss' face to the staff he held. So, it was true. The boy brandished his mother's symbol of office like a baton, and handed out emblems of power like toy badges and trinkets. He was an imbecile or a loon, as he had been told. Good, idiots perished by the wayside--and crazy people he had had a great deal of experience with.
"Xelloss!" came a chorus of voices, some happy, some not.
"Am I glad to see you-- at last!"
"Well, Lina, I encountered a slight delay!" He giggled and tucked a small white feather into her hair. "Oh, Zelgadiss, I was wondering if you would show that gun to me again. I understand this man is an expert in identifying them. Perhaps he could give you a valuation." Xelloss smiled inanely at Halciform.
Rezo jerked around to face Zel and Xelloss. "GUN! My son has no gun!"
"This?" Zel grinned pulling the gun from his waistband, happy to prove his father wrong, once again. "It's too large and over-decorated for my tastes, but it looks important." He pointed it at Halciform, who recoiled. "Oh, sorry…" Zelgadiss flipped the gun around expertly and again offered it over, butt end forward. "It's not loaded."
"Where…did you get this?"
Zel folded his arms casually. "A gift from a friend."
Now, Lina's attention was diverted to the shiny object which she had to own. "Is it valuable? When did you get that, Zel?" And why didn't you show this to me before this?
"Valuable? That depends." Halciform's face became an inscrutable mask.
Rezo wheeled around onto Xelloss. "I advised you not to interfere here."
"Interfere? Who me? I just said hello…"
"You gave my son a handgun. That's illegal in Seyruun. He's underage…you both are!"
Xelloss gave him a withering 'oh brother' look, which was lost on the sightless man. "I like to think of it as just another of my heirlooms. Don't you agree, sir? Or, should I just call you…Starfish?" he asked of Halciform.
"Starfish?" Lina guffawed. If Xelloss wanted to be rude and resort to name calling, well…that was fine with her! She picked up a nearby beaker of green fluid and sniffed. "Ugh!"
"Put that down!" Rezo scolded her. "I can smell that from over here. It's unstable in oxygen. Put the lid on immediately!"
Halciform's smile became a sneer, his eyes danced from Zel to Xelloss to something behind their backs.
"I'm not so easily mislead." Xelloss smiled benignly. "You are not welcome here. I have made it my purpose in life to rid Seyruun of all its trash. Now, give my little brother back his gun, please."
"Then your life shall be short!" Halciform hissed, not bothering to hide his syndicate identity. "This…" he whipped the gun to point and glared down at Lina, "…is mine. It has served its purpose, which was to draw you out. And now that I have established who each of you are, I may proceed with my orders."
"Just one minute!" Rezo shouted authoritatively. "I remind everyone here that this is my home, not some battleground over a keepsake. If that gun belongs to Xelloss' family, then return it to him, Doctor Halciform, and stop bickering like old women over it. Xelloss, I shall have to ask you to leave now. You have spoiled our lovely evening with this nonsense…"
"No!" Amelia cried out. "Professor! You don't see what's going on here! He-he's got the gun and he means to kill us!"
"I removed the ammunition the other night, Amelia. I don't think he can…" Zel began.
The first blast ripped past Amelia's ear, and buried itself in Sylphiel's left forearm, "Ahhhhhh!" she screamed. Then she screamed some more.
Zel dove for Halciform's legs as the man aimed and targeted Gourry next, while Lina ditched the beaker, aiming for the attacker's face. "I'll give you unstable!"
Xelloss was also on the move. His first attempt to disarm Halciform had fallen wide of its mark. That man was fast. "Amelia! Stop her bleeding!" He shouted in mid stride. Concentration was difficult with Sylphiel's crying and wailing going on. As he finished his step, he swung his staff in a path to intercept the beaker which had fallen short of its moving target. It was about to empty its contents on Gourry instead as the big guy rotated around to avoid the gun pointed directly at his head…
The flashing orb smashed the glass, sending shards flying backwards into Halciform. "No!" the scientist cried out as he flung up his arms protectively, shielding his face from the foul-smelling liquid. Caught off-balance, he fell backwards.
Zel nimbly leaped up and twisted the gun from his hand, then bounded over Gourry and pushed Lina out of the way before nailing his shoulder on the corner of a table and falling to the floor. The gun skittered across the tabletop, and then plunged off the edge out of sight. "Ugh! I did remove the bullets, I KNOW I did! Now, where is it!"
While still in motion, Xelloss reached for Rezo by the nape of the neck and tugged him to the side, too close to a vat of something behind glass.
At the hollow sound, Rezo choked out, "Don't break the vat…it's flammable!"
"Yeah…" Xelloss nearly tumbled over the man's feet in his rush to get back to Halciform. Catching himself up, only wavering a second, Xelloss shot from the floor, making a mad dash at Halciform, hoping to stop his descent.
Halciform continued falling, hitting the side of the glass-enclosed vat with a dull thud. He blinked twice, and as he attempted to right himself, the glass splintered with a tinkling sound like falling icicles.
"No!" Rezo hollered over the chaos around him. "Up on the tables. Get up! Don't let that fluid touch you!"
Xelloss spun and saw Amelia struggling with Sylphiel. "Zelgadiss!"
Zel was on it immediately. Favoring his one shoulder, he bit back the aches and hefted the tall girl onto a table, then gave Amelia a hand up.
"You, too! Hurry!" Amelia begged him.
But Zel was gone. He had to save Rubia.
Rezo had struggled onto a ledge. Gourry, carrying Lina on his back, climbed upon a table top alongside him. "What's in it!" he shouted at Rezo.
Meanwhile, the liquid from the beaker splashed into the cleaning fluid in the vat. Halciform thrashed to gain his feet, cutting himself badly and mixing the two solutions together before his eyes glazed over.
"Get back…away…up on something!" Xelloss screamed at Zelgadiss, who was an inch deep in the vat's contents.
"Rubia! As soon as I help her!"
Xelloss cursed his life and made a dash for his friend. "Forget her. It's too late!" Xelloss grabbed Zel by the waist and tossed him like a doll at a table full of apparatus.
"Damnit Xelloss!"
But his words were lost in the roar of fire. It was like his nightmares played out in real time. As the beaker-liquid reacted with the oxygen in the air, it combusted the vat's liquid fuel. The floor of the lab became a river of blue flame, hot and smoky.
"Cover your faces!" Rezo shouted to any that could hear him.
No doubt the fumes were toxic as well.
"We're going to be burned alive!" wailed Sylphiel, although she was only echoing everyone's sentiments at the time.
Smoke was filling the room. They could no longer see.
Gourry, hoping to ease everyone's fears shouted, "Just wait! State-of-the-art sprinkler system…"
Which came on with a hiss…cooling the room instantly, drenching the people, but lowering the visibility to zero. The room filled with steam. "Everyone, get out! Don't breathe the air!" Rezo hollered.
He could hear scrambling and sloshing. "This way," Gourry's low voice said calmly, and giving him an arm to guide him out the doorway.
Zel busied himself with Amelia first, then saw that he would have to carry Sylphiel. "Go on," he told Amelia. "Try not to fall into this mess. It can't be good for us."
"I'll try, but it's hard to see where I'm going," Amelia replied shakily.
"Go straight. Put your hands out in front. When you feel a table, veer right and out the door." Zel could have found his way out in total darkness. He, in fact, had before.
The hall was flooded as well, mostly from the overhead sprinkling system. A fire alarm siren in the house above was pealing out its warning. Mrs. Shearer was at the door to the lab. "Oh my goodness, hurry…this way!"
The group slogged up the stairs into the front room.
Lina swung her head around, "Where's Xelloss?"
Zel pushed Sylphiel off onto Gourry and tore back down the stairwell. The fog had mostly dissipated. He had no trouble finding Xelloss hunched over near the broken vat. He was coughing, so he was at least alive. Rubia…was floating face down. Halciform, submerged entirely, was dead-- he assumed. As Zel rushed in, he had to decide which to pull out first, Xelloss or Rubia.
"Xelloss, can you walk?"
"My eyes…stinging. Feel stiff, but yeah…"
"Here, Give me your arm. Get up. There's a chance I can save Rubia."
"Don't bother," Xelloss said between coughing and wiping his eyes.
"What? She can be helped!" Zel slogged through the broken glass and oily liquid mess a step further, cursing the stinging fuel lapping at his skin.
"Gods, no, Zelgadiss! Don't look at her!"
Zel hauled her up by the shoulders, wrestling with her wet hair holding her down. "I have to see if she's breathing! OHhhh!"
Recoiling in horror at the sight of her charred face, he nearly bashed into the tottering Xelloss.
"She's not real!" Zel focused on the wires and ceramic mold beneath the melted and burned vinyl covering which defined her unearthly face. "W-why…?" Zel lost his grip on her and the manikin slipped back into the sludge.
Xelloss flew into another coughing fit, breaking Zel's trance. "Let's get out of here," he grumbled to his friend.
"I could have sworn I removed all the ammunition from that gun," Zel insisted.
They were waiting for the emergency vehicles to arrive and administering first aid where needed.
"You did. He replaced it. A slight-of-hand operation I barely caught myself," Xelloss relied. "Oh…that's it for these pants unless singed is a new look for hems."
"Mr. Xelloss! You're burned!"
"Yeah, but not much. I was lucky to have been able to walk on water."
Lina shook her head. "Okay, so if you're all right, then you can answer a few of my questions. Like, where did the gun come from?"
"I confiscated the gun off the intruder in my home. Too valuable a thing for the police to have." He smiled and pulled it out from under his shirt. "I even went back for it. Eh, eh! No, Lina, you can't have this! It's Zelgadiss' and he can't give it away!"
"But who did it really belong to? Halciform? And what's with that Starfish crap? Another mind-numbing codename?" Lina snatched at the gun as Xelloss emptied the remaining shells, and then tossed it to Zelgadiss.
Rezo had been shaking his head and muttering, "I had no idea…" but was now listening intently to what Xelloss was saying.
"Halciform set up the attacks on the mayor's house, the shrine, our place…just to get us out into the open. I don't think he expected us all to come here tonight, or he would have had reinforcements. We wouldn't have had a chance."
"But…what about that Grauscherra dude? Didn't we think he was behind this?" she pointed out.
"I was wrong…misled. I think Halciform ordered him to locate us, but when Grauscherra's stupid plans didn't work, Halciform came to do it himself."
"So, who do you think has been sending you those photos?" Zel asked.
"I don't know. Someone local. "
Lina edged up closer. "Xelloss, do you know who Halciform was working for?"
Xelloss nodded. "Yes," he said, but he didn't appear to want to say more.
"Xelloss, who else have you kids got on your tails?" Rezo demanded.
"Ah…" he smiled and shook his head. "You are not going to like this."
"I already don't like this…" Rezo sighed.
"Halciform used the codename 'Starfish' when he was under contract to D.S, which I had assumed to stand for DarkStar. As it turns out, he works for my aunt, codename Deep Sea Dolphin."
And anyone who hadn't already been sitting down, was now.
Gaily he added, "You know, I never have met my mad auntie before!"
From the Authors:
Where are the pictures?
Seyruun High Jinx has a home. Please go to the author profile for Kaeru Shisho and choose the link. You will find pictures under Seyruun High Jinx NEXT. Pictures for each of the other stories are associated with their links.
KS
End Seyruun High Jinx –NEXT! Chapter 35.