Author Note: Well, that was an unplanned hiatus on my part. Back to where we left off!
Time until Pyron's arrival: Five days and counting…
Episode Three: The Silent Hunter
In an area just outside the city limits untouched by progress, a butterfly flutters through the air above an open field and lands gently on a wildflower. The creature makes a fast exit as a large shadow covers the flower. Seconds later, Felicia's tail smashes the flower crushing all life out of it. "Uh, stop the ride I want to get off…" The sky seems to be spinning as the dazed cat woman lies down on the grassy ground to collect herself.
"Did you have to throw Felicia like that Joe?" questions his brother as the victorious human grabs a bottle of water from the cooler and sits down on the grass to rest. Damn, Felicia must have completed at least six full rotations… This field was the only place that was available to train the feline fighter that wouldn't draw any unneeded attention had to be isolated from the rest of the human population. Joe takes a big guzzle out of his water bottle and watches the younger cats chase after the butterfly Felicia's tail nearly smashed.
"Hey Jeff, is there anything you could build that would destroy Pyron before he can arrive?" answers Joe completely changing the topic. "You have enough parts don't you?"
"There hasn't been anymore corrupted Huitzil since Gallon's last defeat and those little fur balls shattered what was my greatest creation EVER!" Jeff's loud rant catches the attention of the playing cats as his brother tries to calm down the pissed human. "What was that glass thing anyway?"
"That was supposed to be an amplifier for Phobos' systems."
"Huh?"
"You are so technologically impaired… I figured since Phobos needed an extra form of power to pilot his advanced form, why not give him a way to use it without my life-force?"
"How do you know Phobos is a male robot?" Jeff blankly stares at his brother as the lame joke fades into nothingness. "I was thinking that Phobos had a motherly program built in." The annoyed sibling smacks his unfunny brother in the head with a half full bottle of water. "OW!"
How can he possibly fight on Pyron's level when a hit like that causes him so much pain…?
A familiar voice calls out as Joe rubs away the sting from his head. "I see that the little human has become a teacher." The life force driven Morrigan floats down out of the sky from a cloud of bats and lands in front of the two brothers. "What do you want now Morrigan? I'm a little busy here." The aqua haired succubus looks towards the still dazed Felicia who stumbles out of the patch of flowers only to collapse again. "With training like that, who needs enemies?"
"You're wasting my time Morrigan… speak your case or leave." Morrigan snaps her fingers creating several Darkstalker themed cards and hands them to Joe who looks over the freshly printed trading cards. "They're nice, but you are missing a few."
"And I thought you were an intelligent human… those cards are all the missing Dark Ones."
"Missing? Let me see those." Orders Jeff as he takes the cards from his brother and takes a quick glance of those in the deck. "We haven't met Q-Bee, Sasquatch, Anakaris, or Rikou yet but Bishamon, Raptor, Victor, and B.B Hood haven't been seen for a while." Jeff stops on the last card in the deck and pulls it out. "Why is Lilith in here? Wasn't she with you?"
"I don't know where she is. Last time I saw her was a few weeks ago when she asked to go alone for life force. The strange thing is I cannot feel her or any of the other missing creatures' Dark Force." Morrigan points a finger at Joe who backs away in surprise. "Why are you and your brother the only ones without any Dark Force in their body? No matter how pure someone is, there has to be some trace of it."
"Yea, well I have to do something now." Joe incinerates his empty water bottle with a quick burst of energy. "I'll see you at home Jeff." Before his brother can reply, Joe vanishes from sight in a flash. He knows that pisses me off… The tech wiz of a human turns around to find Morrigan has left too. This isn't fair! Why am I the only one without elite powers?
Somewhere in the Adirondack Mountains, Donovan is busy meditating on the flat side of his sword over one of the many lakes prepping for the upcoming battle. Several small ripples appear in the water as he opens his eyes. "You are good… but not good enough to completely evade my senses human."
Guess there is something I need to work on…
Joe comes out of the sky and stands on the shore of the lake facing the hunter. Donovan jumps off of his weapon and lands in front of his surprise visitor. The sacred weapon returns to its place on Donovan's back as the hunter address the human. "Why have you tracked me down? I cannot train you anymore…"
"I need to ask a favor."
"If you expect me to train the cat woman, I refuse."
"It's not that."
"Then what human?"
"Well…"
Time seemed to fly by as the others wait for Joe's return from his sudden errand at his house. An entire day has passed and Jeff noticed that his chaotic brother was taking a long time to return. He's been gone for a while… must be important. As Jeff tries to repair his broken device, Lucy walks down the stairs to the basement and trips over a pile of machine parts at the bottom of the stairs.
"You can't leave this crap lying around! Someone's going to get hurt." Like you…
"Well, I didn't ask you to come down here to visit me." Lucy's face begins to blush but Jeff doesn't take any notice. "So, what do you want?" The cat woman recovers enough to explain her visit. "Felicia's been training by herself for several hours now and I'm getting worried."
"It's not like she's in any danger. If there was trouble, my scanner would pick up something." A small red light followed by a beeping noise from Jeff's watch forces him to stop the repairs and check the scanner. But just as he turns on the device that is mounted on the wall, the watch goes silent. "Strange. It must be a bug or something."
"What's the problem?" questions Lucy. "I thought you had these things figured out."
"It said that there was a Level A Darkstalker outside the city heading towards a Level B. But the only A I have on file is Gallon and the only B that's nearby is…" Lucy passes an annoyed look to Jeff who sighs and grabs his beam guns from a desk drawer. "I'll get the car."
All because I had to scrap my teleporter for parts… damn lack of supplies. I'm so pissed, that I'll go bust up a few Huitzil myself for the needed parts.
While Jeff rallies the feline troops, Felicia continues to train alone at the isolated field unaware of the approaching Gallon. The training neko finds a tree in the middle of a patch of stumps and shuts her eyes tight as her extended right claw begins to glow in a light shade of blue. Felicia sharply opens her eyes and swings the charged claw at the targeted tree. Her attack crashes into the tree only to show slight scratches in the bark of the tree. Ow! I knew it…I didn't use enough Dark Force. The cat woman sits under the tree as her mind travels back to the first day of training where Joe was giving her some pointers.
"Ok, let me see how much Dark Force you can gather and hold for five minutes." Felicia takes the form of her EX Charge and hisses as her hair is blown back by the gathering energy. Joe takes a quick glance at his watch to get the official time. "Ok, just thirty more seconds and it'll be time." The "charging" Darkstaker begins to sweat profusely from her body as Joe checks on his student's condition. "Something wrong Felicia?" Felicia's eyes begin to flicker from green to a crimson shade of red as her body begins to shake violently.
Suddenly, Felicia's flexed arms and legs break away as the feline warrior passes out. Sometime later, the fur censored female finds herself lying under a tree looking at the sunlight trying to pass through the leaves. Felicia rubs her face with a paw as she spots Joe standing in front of a different tree several feet away in his fighting stance and watches as he strikes the target with a soft punch and walks away from the tree. Seconds later, the tree explodes littering the ground with scrap wood.
"It's not fair…" Felicia complains as Joe kneels down next to her. "How come I can't do that?" A small laugh comes out of Joe as Felicia becomes upset with her teacher. "Why are you laughing at me Joe? I don't want to be weak anymore…" The human places a hand on the upset cat's head and scratches between her ears. "You aren't weak Felicia."
"Huh? What do you mean? I don't have the power to defeat Demitri, Pyron, or even Morrigan."
"True. But there is something you have that they don't."
"What could that be?"
"You have the ability to see the good buried in everyone, even if they try to hide it. And that's a power no one can create." The human holds out a hand to help up his student and smiles. "So, how about we try this again?"
The sudden presence of a vile scent knocks Felicia's attention back to the present as she looks ahead to find Gallon walking towards her. Felicia stumbles as he rises to her feet. I'm too tired to run from him and one-on-one combat isn't smart either… Gallon surges forward and swings a claw at the tired neko who barely avoids the attack by diving under her attacker. Felicia rolls away to distance herself and prep a counter-attack.
However, her opponent wastes no time in rushing her again using his version of the "Beast Cannon". Running on empty, Felicia avoids the attack but is struck from behind when Gallon redirects the missed attack into the center of her back. The hit sends Felicia tumbling across the ground tossing grass and dirt everywhere. Still feeling exhausted from her training, Felicia struggles to reach her feet as Gallon stands over the burned out cat woman. As she looks up at her attacker, Felicia notices that the scar Joe gave Gallon in the past has vanished.
"How did you heal so quickly?" questions Felicia as Gallon reaches at her. "Wouldn't you like to know…?"
A hail of gunfire forces Gallon back as Jeff separates them and quickly reloads. "This time I won't miss, you sack of filth." The gunslinger switches his twin beam guns from rapid-fire to single shot as Gallon rockets into the air to avoid the two shot attack. "Got ya." Before Gallon can react, Lucy appears above him and lands a heel to the back of the werewolf's head which slams him into the earth headfirst.
The ground shakes lightly as Jeff checks on Felicia's current condition. "Can you walk?" The feline nods as she gets to her feet. As Jeff turns around to assist Lucy in combat, he is cross-checked by Lucy as her body smashes into him. Jeff's weapons are knocked out of his hands as Gallon steps forward from a cloud of dust and cracks the bones in his left claw back into place. Damn it, I can't reach them! Lucy's out cold…
"Felicia, it's obvious that he's after you." Groans Jeff as he attempts to move the dead weight of Lucy off him. "Get out of here."
"No."
"WHAT?"
"I'm not running away anymore." Felicia falls on all fours and runs directly at the black werewolf as he laughs at her attempt of an attack.
What effect does she think coming at me will have? A look of sheer determination enters Felicia's eyes as Gallon pulls back his right fist and charges his aura around it. This won't kill her, but it'll make sure she's silent until I'm ready to use her. The cat woman launches at Gallon who swings a powerful uppercut into her feline's stomach. But to his surprise the attacked Felicia vanishes leaving Gallon puzzled.
"Where are you?" Furious at missing his mark, Gallon begins to look around for the real Felicia when something slams hard into the werewolf's left right shoulder. "First Stage-EX Release: Tail Hammer!" Felicia comes out of the sky in a spinning roll and smashes her tail into Gallon shattering the shoulder blade in his left arm. The wounded werewolf is stunned as Felicia rolls into him and connects a strong "Neko Punch" to Gallon's jaw.
"Take that!" Felicia's quick combo had scored two direct hits to a defenseless Gallon but it took the rest of her remaining energy just to pull of the first hit. Now completely drained, Felicia collapsed to her hand and knees as Gallon's body lay motionless. "Please stay down… I have nothing left." As if from a bad dream, Gallon woke up and began to rise off of the ground. "Oh God no. Why won't he stay down?"
As Gallon reached his feet, he jumped backwards to avoid a beam shot. Armed with the combined form of his two beam handguns, Jeff fired a second shot from his rifle which found its mark in the ankle of Gallon's left leg. The werewolf howled in pain as the shot burned through his flesh and the full extent of his shoulder injury became apparent. "Filthy human, I will kill you!" The injured werewolf began to foam at the mouth as he began to charge his aura.
Enough! A voice screamed through Gallon's head before the creature could fulfill his pledge. Return now Gallon, it seems you are unable to continue in your current state.
"Master Dami, I cannot stop until I have killed the human."
What would you rather deal with, a defeat or my fury?
"This isn't over human."
Acting on his Dami's advice, Gallon uses his "Beast Cannon" to rocket away from the area. After a quick scan to make sure no other threats are in the area, Jeff rests his rifle on the ground and assists the two cat women back to the car. The still KO'd Lucy was placed on the back seat as Felicia dropped herself onto the front seat and grabs a hold of her ribs. "Is something wrong?"
"I'm ok, just a little tired."
"What kind of ability is EX Release? I've never heard of that before." Felicia chuckles as she explains her new ability.
Well, I can't use projectile based techniques… so, Joe thought it'd be better if I focused on super charging my physical ones. I already have a large supply of Dark Force in my body and I can unleash it whenever I need an extra boost of speed or power. Since I had previous fighting experience, it was easy for Joe to teach me how to store and release large amounts of energy. The only problem is that each release needs a certain amount of Dark Force and in my weakened state I could only use the first stage which allows me to deliver a huge amount of damage in one shot. Unfortunately, I was just learning how to reach the third stage before Joe had to take off. Another problem is that if I release too much energy too quickly, it will result in self-inflected damage to my body.
"Wow, not bad. I guess having Joe around help huh?" Felicia's answer is drowned out by her stomach growls. "I guess we'd better feed the successful student before she decides to eat my upholstery."
To Be Continued!
Trailer for the next episode:
The feared even has finally arrived… but, Joe is nowhere to be found!
Demitri: Ha! That human couldn't handle the reality of the situation and ran away.
Morrigan: Last time I checked, this Pyron had already defeated you once before and trashed your castle…
Demitri: Silence!
Next time… Episode Four: Enter the Pyron
Pyron: I shall destroy all Darkstalkers…
Jeff: Phew! Thank God I'm not a Darkstalker.
Pyron: …and then this miserable planet! evil laughter
Jeff: Crap…
Author Note: (insert excuse here for not producing this Chapter sooner) I bet you could come up with a good one.