Author Note: Finally, it's time for the earth shattering violence to begin! Personally, I was starting to get sick of the "plot development" and "character feelings" in this story… but now we can begin the critical fight for survival.
Dark foreshadowing clouds began to devour the late afternoon sky as Jeff threw one last bag into the truck of his father's car. Today was the day that the flaming comet was to hit the earth. But those who had known about this well in advance knew that the comet wouldn't hit the earth. Instead, something much worse would arrive in the place of a disastrous impact. Jeff looked up into the sky and began to question the idea of fighting a being with immeasurable power.
Man, why do I have to drive to my own possible destruction? Where the bloody hell is Joe?
Episode Four: Enter the Pyron
After slamming the trunk shut, Jeff leaned back against the driver's side of the vehicle to watch Felicia's friends see her off. To the heavily disproval of her fellow nekos, Felicia decided that it would be better if she didn't drag her friends into the upcoming conflict. The little ones jumped onto Felicia who decided to wear her nun outfit to prevent excess attention and began to cry. Jeff sighed but looked back at the door as Lucy throws the car keys at him along with a warning. "I'm making you responsible if something happens to Felicia."
Great, like I need that on my mind as well… The disguised Felicia finally escapes the unrelenting grip of her young friends and walks to the car. "I hope you're ready to go, because we're late enough as it is." as Felicia enters the vehicle. Her friends wave goodbye to her until the car is gone from sight then the kittens begin to cry uncontrollably as Grace tries to calm them down while Lucy stares blankly at the floor. "Return safely to us or we can't call our act 'Felicia & Friends' anymore…"
A couple of hours into the trip Felicia begins to fumble around with the car radio to find some music to kill the boredom, but only finds the dull, monotonous tone of the national emergency message telling people to remain calm. "What is wrong with these stations? They're all playing the same thing over and over…"
"Well, you would too if you thought the end of the world is coming." A giggle from Felicia freaks Jeff out. "What are you so happy about? I'm the one driving to my death…"
"You forget that Pyron doesn't know about our secret weapon." The bored cat woman yawns loudly as she crawls onto the backseat to take a nap. "You wouldn't be sleeping so easy if you knew about my private meeting with Donovan…"
Twenty-four hours ago Donovan appeared at the house and demanded to speak with the one called Jeff. The two of them met at an isolated spot of town where no one could act as witnesses. Donovan planted his sword into the ground as Jeff arrived in Phobos' car form minus one Cecil. Thinking that there might be trouble, Jeff decided to leave Phobos' excess baggage at the house so he can combine with Phobos and not have to defend anything but himself. The human leaped over the side of Phobos and walked up to Donovan with his beam handguns strapped to his chest. "Since you aren't asking me to train with you, what the hell do you want?" Donovan's eyes shifted to his left as two bright lights blinded Jeff. "Now what?" The lights turned out to be Morrigan and Demitri.
"Bah, Morrigan you brought me to speak with a human and this half-breed? I should just destroy them both." Demitri's verbal threat to Jeff's safety caused Phobos to transform into its battle form. "Hmm? Maybe I'll destroy that miserable machine for the previous destruction of my castle." The golden mech's arms suddenly convert into two huge beam cannons and began to charge before Jeff stepped in. "Phobos, stand down!" After a few seconds his order was obeyed and Phobos' arms reverted back to normal and hung to the side of the golden mech. Command acknowledged. Returning to standby. "Geez, Donovan can you explain what's going on here before something blows up?" The Darkstalker hunter looked at the unconventional group and shakes his head.
"The reason why I summoned you all here was to tell you that the human known as Joe will not fight against the Pyron creature."
"WHAT? MY BROTHER'S NOT FIGHTING?! Why?"
"I guess the human realized that he's too weak."
"Funny, I thought you tried to beat this Pyron creature once before and got beat Demitri… or was that dumb luck that you ended up destroying your own castle?" The succubus laughs mockingly as she jumps out of the range of Demitri's arm. "Too slow my dear king." Demitri transforms into his full demonic form and chases after Morrigan in the sky as a sweat drop rolls down Jeff's head.
They fight like they're married. That's a match made in hell…literally.
Donovan removes his weapon from the ground and returns it to its rightful place. "Hey, hold on a second." Jeff pulls out his weapons and aims them at Donovan who continues to face away from him. "You didn't answer my question."
"I'm unable to answer that question. The human didn't say…"
"Joe never does anything without cause." Interrupts Jeff as he removes the safeties from the guns. "I want a real answer… NOW!" Donovan reaches for his sword which causes Jeff to fire off a warning shot. "Don't even try it."
"You're too late for that human." A puzzled look comes across Jeff's face as he notices that Donovan's massive sword is awaiting the order to slice through the back of his neck. No way! I didn't even see him touch the handle… Before he knows it, Donovan is gone from sight along with his weapon. Jeff throws his guns to the ground in frustration. "DAMNIT! Why am I the only one without special powers?"
As Jeff begins to debate whether he should participate in the oncoming battle or play it safe on the sidelines, a loud clatter from the trunk wakes up Felicia. "Nya… what?" The car comes to a stop on the shoulder of the deserted highway and Jeff gets out to check on the strange noise. He pops open the trunk door to find Pico the eldest of the cat girls hiding in the trunk. No wonder that suitcase felt heavy… Felicia steps out of the vehicle and wonders over to where Jeff is. "What's going on?" Pico laughs nervously as Felicia pulls her out of the trunk. "What are you doing here?! I told you to stay home!" Tears begin to fill Pico's eyes as Jeff checks his watch.
"We don't have time to go back now. For now we'll just have to take her with us." Jeff starts back down the road and takes the next exit heading north. "According to the information I gathered through hacking the government's satellites, Pyron will crash into an isolated area of the mountains."
"At least we won't have to worry about any bystanders." Comments Felicia. "Where exactly is it going to land?" Jeff presses a button on his watch bringing up the data he collected. "Hmm, that's weird. For some reason there's an incorrect equation here."
After pressing a series of five different buttons Jeff suddenly whips the car around and floors the accelerator pad. His two passengers grab whatever is near in order to keep from bouncing around the car as it jumps the grassy median and lands in the southbound lane. "What is your problem? Are you trying to kill us?"
"No…" The color in Jeff's face drains out as the car hits speeds nearing ninety miles per hour. "We only have a few hours until Pyron arrives and I screwed up the landing area." The onboard GPS system shows the car heading out of the mountains and towards the Atlantic Ocean. "It's going to land in the center of New York City!"
"What?" Jeff goes silent as he realizes the new situation.
I didn't expect this. I know the other Darkstalkers will be there ahead of us because they can sense Pyron from your earlier encounter. But I can't sense things like that.
"What's going to happen to all of those people?" shivers Felicia as she checks on Pico who cowers on the backseat in her full kitten form. "Let's just hope the people got out in time…"
The time is eight thirty in the evening as the car stops on a small hill located about thirty miles out from the city. Jeff looks through his binoculars and is surprised to find no movement from New York's main roads. "Ok, this is one of the world's busiest cities and it looks dead."
"Maybe everyone's hiding underground?"
"Let's hope that's true Felicia." Something catches Jeff's attention as he scans the roads. "Hold on. Who's in that junky car?" Felicia peers down the road and squeals as she recognizes the people in the car. "It's Hsien-Ko and her sister Mei-Ling!"
The junky car clanks up to their position and sputters to a halt. A large coffin shaped object lying on an attached trailer shatters to pieces as Hsien-Ko rises up from the box. "This thing barely got us here in time." Hsien-Ko states as she steps off the trailer and kicks the hubcap of a tire causing a piece of paper to fall off the radiator.
The car suddenly collapses into a pile of scrap parts. "You shouldn't have done that Hsien-Ko." Comments Mei-Ling as she picks up the rectangular piece of paper and sticks it in her sleeve. "My 'Restoration Talismans' aren't supposed to be used on non-living objects. They just end up destroying the object afterwards." The blue skinned hunter folds her arms in disproval and walks towards Jeff and Felicia. "Whatever. Oh, hey Pico." The sisters join the first arrivals as Pico runs over to Hsien-Ko who picks her up and sits on her shoulder. "You've grown since we last met."
Mei-Ling heads over to where Jeff's car is parked and looks around for something. "Is there something wrong?" questions Jeff. The spellcaster shakes her head as she asks where their "other" companion is located. "Hell if we know."
"I see… and Donovan is not with you either?" Hsien-Ko smiles devilishly as she sneaks up shoves her sister's arm. "Just come out and say it. You want to have his kids don't you?"
"Hsien-Ko!"
"Yea, well we can't until we find a way to return being human." Jeff's watch begins to beep as another vehicle approaches the group. The latest arrival is Phobos rolling along the road with his young master Cecil in the front seat. Cecil jumps out as Phobos transforms into its battle form. Hsien-Ko freaks out as Phobos stomps up to the group. "You damn machine! You were the one who destroyed our car and more importantly made us walk." Phobos looks down and quietly scans the group while Hsien-Ko continues to scream at it. "Are you listening?"
Scanning complete. Begin analyzing data…
Past enemy data recovered… enemy is of unknown class…
Allies data achieved… consist of two B class Darkstalkers, one C class, one D class, and two humans
Comparing data…
Percent of victory with this unit's involvement… 15
"Geez, doesn't this machine know how to lie?" scoffs Hsien-Ko.
The early night sky suddenly grows red as a large sun shaped object descends on the city and breaks into five smaller "suns" and surrounds the city in a star shaped pattern. Jeff's watch begins to sound off loudly as the five suns begin to glow.
Oh no… "Phobos, raise shields… set for maximum strength and cover!
At the same time, each sun fires off a massive beam of red energy at the center of the star formation. The beams collide above the city setting off an equally large explosion engulfing the modern city in its flaming wrath. Glass from buildings shatter and rain down onto the streets below as vehicles are sent flying into each other and twist into unnatural shapes. Destruction levels not seen since September 11th have left a large area of the city a crater while buildings and cars continue to burn from the impact. Any solid object within the initial impact zone was evaporated to nothing. Night turns to day as the group of unlikely allies watches in horror from the safety of Phobos' shields as the city is dealt a crushing blow.
To Be Continued!
Trailer for the next episode:
Pyron has arrived… the city's been heavily damaged… and the fighters have assembled, well not really.
Jeff: Dammit! Where's Joe?
Donovan: I do not know.
Jeff: You said was with you…
Donovan: ….and then he vanished.
Jeff: Great… what else can go wrong?
Next time… Episode Five: Opening Rounds
Felicia: Joe… where did you go?
Author Note: I am really sorry for not updating, I could run off the things that needed more attention... but I'm not gonna go emo on you.
Later!