Okay, so my original project has evolved into a one-shot series centering around the Red Sentient 5 and episodes not part of their debuts. I can work with it – it gives me plenty of opportunities to write stories about Kyburi and exploit her possible romantic ties with Krytus. And any excuse that lets me do that is awesome. =D
Note: This centers on the episode Found! … And Lost, which is the eighth episode of Season 2. I'll do my best to explain the circumstances of the episode in the shot itself; lemme know if I need to expand this note into a quick summary.
Disclaimer: I do not attempt to persuade you that I own any of the characters, settings (with the exception of Mados), or circumstances of this story; they belong to the Hot Wheels franchise and Nerd Corps. (I may have embellished some of the events, though.)
Slave
The roar came suddenly and loudly, like a trumpet blast. "Bring me my dinner, servant!"
Whimpering a bit in his throat – partly out of fear towards the one barking the order, and partly because the thing he was dragging was absolutely disgusting – the tall, grey-colored Diad staggered into the circular room. It was mostly empty, save for a throne plopped in the center and flanked by a pair of Red Zurk, holding a pair of crystal standards. Carved from goldstone, the chair was occupied by a thin-faced Red Sentient, reclining in a manner Humans would find suggestive. Her sulfurous eyes glared at the smaller creature before her; she had seized him from a far-flung Battlezone as he carried out his Master's dying wish, and had brought him to this fortress to be her prisoner and slave.
"Coming, Mistress Kyburi," he simpered in his thin, reedy voice, prepared to curry favor from her any way possible. The green, fat worm-like thing he was dragging squirmed in his silicone grip, oozing a mucus-like slime all over his fingers, and he wondered – not for the first time – why this Red wanted this creature for a power source.
On his second thought, though, he decided he really didn't want to know. His old Master, the Blue Sentient, had been a far cry from this demanding female, but if he wanted to keep himself – and his chances of returning to the Battlezone – intact, he needed to soothe Kyburi and carry out her wishes. Maybe, if he did a good-enough job, she would delay the inevitable brain-picking that would result from his capture just long enough to find a refuge.
"I … I hope you don't mind it uncooked," he said hopefully, digging his fingers into the yielding flesh of the Vergrinch as she tapped her fingernails impatiently. The green worm squirmed most unpleasantly in his hold, and he fought to keep from losing it.
"I never devour the life force of anything cooked." Kyburi's voice had become softer; while the Zurk were not the smartest beings in the Multiverse, the hive mind of the Sark contained memories of other unfortunate Zurk that had been present when Kyburi's voice had wound up that way, and they all stressed that she was at her most dangerous when her tones had dropped in volume. Both present made a point of stepping away.
Her awful eyes narrowed. "Or green!" she finished in a snarl, pulling herself into a more conventional sitting position and leaning forward. "I wanted a red Vergrinch!"
Diad Quardian felt his soul plummet. He had known Kyburi had specifically ordered for a red worm, but …
"Ah, yes, about that," he stammered, trying to control the damage done, "the red one seemed even less interested in following me to the kitchen …"
As if to illustrate his point, the Vergrinch managed to yank out of his grip, but before Quardian could pounce on it again, it rammed into him, knocking the Diad onto his face as it made a successful bid for freedom. Kyburi did not order him after it, but she wasn't happy either.
"Fool!" The two cautious Zurk were cut down by her claw-like fingernails as she rose up and out of her seat, glaring daggers at her slave. "Bring me my proper sustenance, or I'll make a meal out of you!"
Quardian's terror levels shot up several notches, and he impulsively cried "No!" before he realized his mistake and hastened to amend it. "I mean, yes, Mistress!"
He scurried out of the room, afraid of making another slip of the tongue that might result in his destruction – or worse, his interrogation. Sighing as she entered another mercurial mood swing, Kyburi turned away from the exit, kicking part of the destroyed Zurk aside with one high-heeled foot.
"But not before I discover why that lowlife was living in that desolate Zone," she finished softly, illustrating her real reasons for keeping the Diad. While it felt good to have something to boss around that wasn't as passive as the Zurk – and had the satisfying emotion of fear – she wasn't lazy enough to be a finger-snapping Sentient. She could easily get her own meals; once she tired of his fear-fueled flattery, she would embark on some skullduggery.
XxX
The rumors came through the Red Zurk mainframe, carried by the Sark that had been assigned to Kyburi's holding. Normally Krytus would take anything they reported with a pinch of salt – he had gained a distrust of robots after Zemerik's betrayal – but this particular piece of info was so likely to happen that he was driving the Synfurious towards her Mados stronghold.
After the brief scare they'd had over Kytran's Respawn Chamber being located and nearly destroyed by Sage's Humans, the Red Sentient 5 had taken responsibility over the protection of their own Chambers – something none of them took lightly; they were, after all, the keys to their immortality. Kyrosys had armed the Zone his was located in with so many automatic weapons that all life in it had effectively been destroyed, while simplistic Krylox had stuck his in the center of an erupting volcano. Krytus himself … well, he kept the details to himself, but he was confident that even Sage and her telepathic link to him wouldn't help her ferret it out.
Kyburi had been much nastier: she had constructed clever fakes, complete with her Antimatter signature, and scattered them in Battlezones close enough to mask the true Chamber, but far enough to discourage anyone from looking around in neighboring Zones. If the identification probes did not pick up another Red in its scan radius, it would explode, sending a signal to Kyburi and probably killing the intruder. He had known she had been summoned away on such a call, but other than giving the Humans a scare, it had been a failure.
Krytus did not tolerate failure, in his companions or himself, but for every rule there was an exception. Kyburi was that exception – always had been and most likely always would be. Besides, even though she had not killed the Humans or found Earth's coordinates, they would be much less brazen the next time they tried to find a Respawn Chamber.
And, it was hinted by the Zurk, the tough-as-nails female had not come back empty-handed. She had returned with a Diad, or at least with a piece of Sentient society. In either case, she was said to have had claimed a trophy, and he was curious enough to investigate.
He was quiet as he drove the Synfurious through the huge hallways of her stronghold. While Kyburi was an excellent First Lieutenant, she guarded her secrets jealously, and he didn't want to give her time to hide it, in case she thought he was there to take it.
After all, she had captured it, but as the leader, he held the right to claim it for the team in general – assuming it existed. Skulking in the dark hallway, just outside her "throne room," Krytus watched his companion lounge in that huge chair she loved. A grey figure was hovering by her right arm, and he knew what was going on. A female Red Sentient's beauty was often judged by the length and sharpness of her fingernails, and Kyburi was no slouch in that regard – if anything, she had become more obsessed with them after she had gained a chance to do something with them other than show off.
Waving aside the figure – who cringed away, still holding the enormous metal file – his lieutenant rose up from her feet with her natural grace, examining her long, slender fingers with a critical eye. She took a few steps in his direction (Krytus was prepared to go into reverse if she had seen him and had decided to use him for target practice, unlikely as it seemed), but then whirled on her Zurk, reducing them to scrap with a pair of swipes.
To a Human, this would have been impressive – and a bit nerve-wracking – but it did not satisfy Kyburi's stringent demands for herself. Whirling on her high heels, she pointed an index finger imperiously at the cowering creature. "Sharper!" she barked.
Krytus knew how this would end if he allowed it – Kyburi had been an abusive mistress to the Diads that had once served her – and he gunned the engines dramatically, rolling into full view before he willed it away, landing easily on his feet. The ones still standing whirled to see him, the female's eyes narrowing as she glared at him; out of her line of sight, the creature hid behind the throne. The leader of the Red Sentient 5 noticed the development, but only a moment passed before he spoke.
"So, Kyburi," he said in a manner that seemed businesslike on the surface, but hinted towards a threat, "your ambush of the Humans failed. Yet I hear you claimed a prize."
The woman's irritation vanished on the spot; it was no secret that Kyburi sprang at any opportunity to impress him. Smirking in a manner that showcased her pearly fangs, she replied in a voice that couldn't be any different than the snarl she had directed at her creature – softer, for one thing, and delivered in a manner that seemed calculated to sweeten the temper of any male within earshot. "Mmm, and I think you'll be pleased, Krytus."
She looked around, but when she realized in turn that her prize was trembling behind her chair, she scowled again. "Show yourself, Diad!"
"Yes, my Mistress," he muttered, rising and trudging to her side, standing in the space made by Kyburi and Krytus' distance from each other (granted, it wasn't a very great distance). He was still holding the nail file in his hands, and Krytus noted he was trying not to look him in the eyes. In terms of height, he was tall enough to have his eyes be level with Kyrosys' core, assuming the Artillery Officer had been around to perform a measurement. The Leader felt a stirring in the back of his brain, like he was unconsciously trying to remember something, but he was forced to put it aside as his lieutenant spoke again. There were no seductive hints in her voice this time – it was strictly business as usual now.
"I captured him in a desolate Zone as I was pursuing the Humans. A lone Diad, in a barren corner of the Multiverse, seemed … suspicious."
Once again, the male Sentient examined the creature that was trembling before them. He was sure that he knew this … thing, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember where.
"You …" he said softly, hoping that speaking out loud it would unravel some of his thoughts. "You look familiar …"
And just like that, he stumbled upon the answer, which – in hindsight – seemed so obvious that he was amazed he hadn't realized it sooner. "Of course!" he cried, grabbing the Diad's face in his hand. Kyburi made as if to protest, but he ignored her. "You were the Diad servant of my sister's ally, Boralis!" he said triumphantly.
The Diad's eyes widened as Kyburi hissed in surprise, and he began stammering a reply; it took a moment or two before he could articulate "You must be mistaken," but by then Krytus was absolutely sure of it. He flung Quardian aside with a snarl of "Silence!" but if the Diad expected his new mistress to come to his defense, he was sadly mistaken.
Were the circumstances different – if it weren't that Krytus and Kyburi had both recognized the name of a former enemy – the Sentient equivalent of a custody battle might have taken place, allowing him to escape outside into Mados. Unfortunately, this wasn't his lucky day.
"Boralis was a clever foe … for a Blue," Krytus growled at the Diad, Kyburi grinning maliciously over his shoulder. "He might have sent you there for a reason." Turning his attention from their captive to the captor, he quickly asked the question that could spare them a lot of trouble: "Where was this desolate Zone?"
Kyburi's eyes narrowed, her mood swinging back again. "I had no time to fix coordinates. It was all I could do to escape." She said it in a haughty manner, tossing her head like she offended that he would even dare to accuse her of doing such a thing.
Krytus fought the urge to chew her out about that neglect and won, mostly because they had a Plan B available. Marching over to where Quardian lay, he seized his head and forced the Diad to look into his yellow eyes.
"Then this miserable creature will tell us," he proclaimed, "and reveal the nature of his true mission … one way, or another."
Kyburi cackled in dark glee, no longer caring if she would have a servant. Quardian trembled in Krytus' grip, praying for the help he knew wouldn't come, since the only others that knew of his existence were sealed up, thanks to his own work.
Where are you?
XxX
Likey? No likey?
-Inferna