Authors Note: The song I have in this chapter is called 'Chant of Mirth' if you want to pre-load it.
Chapter Two: Distracted
By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.
With that, Dexios immediately started sprinting down the mountainside, disappearing in about twenty seconds flat. "living in the moment I see." I thought. On the contrary, I started down the mountain at a leisurely pace, and continued to think on how I was going to win our bet. I also thought about what powers Dexios might have.
"I'm an idiot. Dexiós ánthropos, as in 'Right hand man'. That bitch knows greek." I squawked just before darting off the trail to find his footprints. How I missed that until now was completely ridiculous. "I'm fluent in six languages and I missed a word from my second language!" I hissed to myself, making me wonder how alike we really were.
I was following Dexios' footsteps through the forest in an attempt to catching up with him, however, after only a few meters of running down the tail, I found myself at a loss for words. His footsteps were replaced by paw prints; One step it was a footprint, and the next it was a canine's print. "What?" I questioned while kneeling to the indentation on the soft soil. "Now's not the time to think about that." I added before continuing after the paw prints.
By the time I reached the valley where the town was located, an hour passed and I still didn't have clothes. The paw prints also led all the way to the town, though I diverged from their path in searches for a victim. Then, another idea crossed my mind. The chances of an Elliot Crawford in this world were rather high. That being said, I probably had a bank account here.
"Sir? Are you alright?" A waitress asked as she poked her head out of a diner across the street labeled 'Dennys'.
Well… I suppose now's as good a time as any. "I… our expedition." I said with a desolate gaze to where I emerged from a few minutes ago.
"Oh my gosh. MARIA, get the sheriff!" The woman shouted into the restaurant just before darting across the street. "Sir, You're going to be okay. Let's get you some food." She said while helping me across the asphalt street. I was in perfectly fine condition, but this was an easy way to get food, clothes, and information on where I was, so I played along.
I kept my gaze distant as if what I'd seen destroyed my mind; It wasn't really far from the truth, however, the location in which this transpired was not the forest. The unidentified woman in a black apron sat me down at an empty booth with a glass of water that I downed like a fish; Hiking for three hours without water can do that to someone. I was then served an assortment of eggs, sausage links, toast, hash-browns and pancakes.
"I-I don't have money to pay for this." I said while looking down at the delectable meal.
"Don't worry about that." The waitress replied with a smile and a hand on my shoulder.
"Thank you." I expressed before the waitress wandered off, leaving me to my meal. By the time I'd finished off the eggs, sausage links, and hash-browns, the local Sheriff arrived with a full outfit of clothing.
"I heard you're the mystery man that came wandering out of the woods. Go put these on in the bathroom, and I'll keep your food here." He said while sitting across from me.
"No, I can't take these. I just need to go to a bank, and I'll get some money to buy my own." I replied.
"Nonsense, you've been through enough." The sheriff said as he pushed the clothing towards me.
"A-Are you sure?" I asked hesitantly. I was actually starting to feel bad for these people. Here I was about to rob them blind, and some random lady notices me walking down the street, gives me food, and the sheriff gives me clothing; Maybe this universe has a really high moral compass.
"There's just one condition, I need to scan your handprint." He added while pulling out a small rectangular device of black hue.
"Nevermind the morals, this universe sucks already." I thought while holding out my hand. Once the scanner did its thing, the Sheriff's eyes widened a little.
"Sir, do you know your name?"
"Elliot." I answered, gaining most of the restaurant's attention, and by 'most', I mean everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at me with deathly silence.
"… Well, everything seems to be in order Mister Crawford." The man said with a smile. "Go on ahead and change into those clothes."
"What did you see on that scanner?" I inquired with suspicion.
"Nothing to worry about, It's just not every day I meet a biologist working for the military."
"... Okay then." I replied as I grabbed the clothing.
After donning the clothing in the handicap stall of the restrooms, I looked over myself in the mirror. Shiny black boots, olive drab green pants, and a dark tan T-shirt. At first, I seriously considered the possibility of it being a uniform since it closely resembled the sheriff's outfit, however, on closer inspection I found this not to be the case. Instead, I found something far more muddling, yet joy inducing at the same time.
Inside my left breast pocket rested a graphite black wedding band, the same band I gave my wife. Going even further, the right pocket contained my white wedding ring. "I don't understand." I said while looking at both rings, one in each hand. The more I looked at the two circular pieces of technology, the further I went into the depths of focus and contemplation. There was only one way to truly test if these were the rings from my universe, and with that, I split the graphite ring into its two halves. I then put one of the halves on my ring finger, followed by the white ring, then the other half of the graphite ring.
All three locked together as one larger ring on my finger, and upon independent rotation of the center ring, the outer graphite ring pieces began glowing a red pattern on their surface. With a bit more rotation, the white ring began glowing a bright blue pattern that matched up to the red one perfectly. On one particular part of the pattern there was an orange circle that crossed over all three ring pieces with the pattern linking up to it.
"It really is our rings." I said while moving the apparatus to my middle finger. When I held out my arm in a fist, the red and blue glow intensified as a spooling whine emanated from the ring. "Hahahaha, wait until Dexios sees this." I gleefully remarked before my body was temporarily enveloped in a blue field, which indicated the activation of the six megajoule per second, Close In Protection System.
The sheriff was still sitting right where he was when I left, only this time, I was not looking at him with a distant stare, more of a pissed off questioning look. "Where did you find these?" I whispered with a display of the dimly glowing bands, which only earned an amused smirk from the man.
"Well, you could call me a multitude of things, but let's go with a messenger. You wanted them back, and the one who brought you here felt pity." The man answered with what seemed like honesty.
"… What does it want?" I interrogated quietly.
"Well, unlike in your world, ours is not on the brink of destruction… yet. She would like you to save this world from itself."
"Ohh I'll save it alright, I'll save the shit out of it. Just point me to the Monolith Network."
"Well, clearly you're not going to help us for now." The sheriff said as he stood from the booth, which I mimicked. He then put a twenty on the table and motioned for me to follow him outside. Once we were outside, he continued talking. "I understand why you don't want to help us, especially after what Rachel did to you and your people, but we're different."
"Sure you are." I scoffed. "Look, I thank you for these rings, but they shouldn't have brought me here to begin with. Do you know where I was?" I asked as we walked down the street.
"Yes, I'm aware that you were orbiting a black hole. Anyway, once you realize that they're not like the Guardians from your universe, I will greet you again." The sheriff said before wandering off into an ally.
"I'll hold you to it." I said as I gazed down to the glowing rings on my left hand.
I began jogging down the street in searches for an ATM of some kind, however, by the time I traveled to one end of the small town, I'd only found our rendezvous point. "Norbert of Xanten Catholic church… Oh, it's a cross, not a sword." I sussed after reading the sign out front. With a gaze at the sun's position, I realized about an hour remained in our bet to steal the most money. "Oh well, I guess I lost." I said while padding into the peaceful church.
The whole auditorium style building was filled with row after row of pews, stained glass depictions of people, and at the front there was an altar with a man nailed to a cross. "I guess that's God?"
"No, that's his son, Jesus." A man in black robes with a white collar slip said from my left.
"Ahh, okay." I with a quick glance to the man before I turned back to the statue.
"You must be that stranger that wandered out of the forest a few hours ago. What troubles you my child?" The older man with graying hair asked.
"Well, I don't just give out my secrets to a stranger. The name's Elliot Crawford." I asked while extending my hand.
"Father Wesley… You said your name is Elliot, I have something for you." The man said as he wandered towards the podium, pulling out a stack of money from within it.
"Whoa there. You don't need to be giving me any money. I have a bank account, but i just can't find the bank around here." I said while holding out my hands.
"This is not my money. It came in a dream that a man would fall from a burning spaceship. The Lord told me to give this to you. Please, please take it."
"Listen, I didn't come from a spaceship. I-"
"Elliot Crawford, born in the year three-thousand three-hundred, sent into the Federations navy at the age of one year old." Wesley said in a deadpan while holding out the money.
"Uhh…. Okaayyyyy." I replied with bewilderment as I accepted the cash. "How do you know that?"
"The lord divined it to me, my son. Now please, tell me what troubles you." He said with a gesture to a closet like room with two doors.
"Uhh, sorry. I don't do confined spaces." I replied.
"Elliot, no one is going to hurt you here." As Father Wesley finished his sentence, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then his eyes opened, revealing the whites of his eyes to be completely black, the brown of his iris turned to a dark yellow, and completely dilated pupils.
"Fiddlesticks." I whispered just before sprinting for the door, only to have my body lifted off the ground and pulled back to what remained of the man. "What do you want from me?" I asked fearfully as my body floated weightlessly in the air.
"I'm not the Zofia you are accustomed to, Galactic Tracker. I'm from this universe, and I'm far different than the one from yours. Besides, all that business was your fault, all you had to do was follow orders." The shell of a man replied. "As for what I want, right now I'd like to offer you a deal… We'd like to offer you a deal."
"I just want you out of my life!" I screamed with a trembling voice.
"Please give us a chance." Wesley implored as he lowered his extended arm, placing me on the red carpet below.
"None of you deserve a chance, you killed your creators." I retorted in a low tone.
"We didn't do that in our universe." He said with a step forward, resulting in me taking two fearful steps backward. Before I knew it, there were two sets of female hands on my shoulders, causing a fearful jump on my part. I knew resisting was futile, it really was in this case, but that didn't stop me from squirming and thrashing about wildly in an attempt to escape.
That plan lasted an all of about five seconds before my body went entirely numb. "Please don't hurt me." I whimpered as memories of my soldiers being taken away in similar manner flashed into my mind. I found no reply as my body was dragged down the chapel aisle by the two women.
My mind was rapidly diving into the depths of panic mode, and I was completely losing it as I blubbered incoherent sentences. Eventually, those too were removed from my scope of bodily control, and I was forced to silently watch a hypodermic needle that reflected the sun to cliche levels brought to my eye and forced into the depths of my brain. I tried so hard to scream out in pain as they pushed the plunger down, but I simply couldn't, I was just a passenger in my own body. When the syringe was pulled away, there wasn't a speck of blood on it, though my head still burned from whatever liquid was inserted.
"I'm going to kill all of you." I thought as my body started taking my commands again.
"There, that wasn't so bad now was it. Now, onto our deal." Father Wesley said as his body started emitting burning embers, which eventually burned his body away into a figure of a woman with brown hair and eyes to match. Just like in my universe, she wore a White toga with a diagonal red stripe.
As If on cue, the other two women started to shift into another person, although they transformed in a ripple instead of fiery embers. The woman to the left had black hair, green eyes, and she wore a white toga with a blue stripe. The woman on the right donned a white toga with a green stripe, had midnight blue hair running all the way to her waist, and icy blue eyes.
"Do you recognize us?" The one on the right asked.
"Really? You think I'd forget your faces after what you did?" I asked incredulously. "You're Maroth." I answered while looking to the woman with black hair and a blue toga stripe. "You're Zofia." I said with a nod at the woman with red striped apparel and brown eyes. "And you're Clara." I finished as I looked at the woman with midnight blue hair and a green striped outfit.
"Well, two out of three isn't that bad. I look like the Zofia from your universe, but I'm Rachel. Another difference from your universe is we're the only Guardians that survived, the others died in the long sleep… I'm sorry about the shot, I just needed to install a genetic inhibitor." She added while dematerializing the syringe gun.
In a split second after hearing that, I raised my left arm out in a fist, and my combined wedding rings fired an orange beam of charged particles into Clara with a very loud pulse of energy, sending her stumbling into a front row pew. Before I had a chance to rake the beam of energy towards Rachel or Maroth, My arm was pinned in place and the ring was deactivated.
"… Why do you hate us? We've done nothing to you besides save your life, and I suppose inject the inhibitor. But still, it's not fair to hate us for something your universes versions did to you." Rachel groused while pointing an accusing finger at me.
"You killed my family, you killed my species, and I will never forgive you. When you pinned me to the floor I realized you're no different than the one's I stopped… You best kill me now, because I'll destroy every last one of you in time." I hissed in anger.
"WE'RE NOT THEM YOU STUPID HUMAN!" She shouted with a slap to my cheek; Judging from the large gash it produced in my cheek, I think they forgot how fragile human bodies were.. "... I'm-I'm sorry; You're just so frustrating." Rachel added as she caressed my cheek with the back of her hand, which in turn caused particles of glowing white light to swarm the gash. In a matter of seconds, the white particles transformed into the appropriate cells, and my injury was no more.
"I gave you your wedding rings back, doesn't that mean anything to you? . . . No, it doesn't, because all you're thinking about is how your species was killed by the doppelganger of me." Rachel galled before sitting next to my limp body on the stairs leading to the alter. "If I bring your wife here, your real wife, will you give me a chance?" She asked as the other two guardians sat down on one of the bench seats in the left row.
"I… Only if it's really her."
"Deal." Rachel replied as a swirling vortex of water mimicking liquid appeared in front of us. After a few seconds, my wife was propelled from the spiral of liquid, completely naked and soaking wet. "Of all the moments, why did they pick when she was in the shower?" I wondered as the love of my life slung the water from her spotted fur.
{Chant of Mirth}
"Elliot, what's going on? You just left an hour ago." She asked with a glance to the women sitting on the bench, then to Rachel. "YOU!" She roared before raking her claws across the Guardians face, which did nothing but earn an unamused eyebrow raising.
"I'm from another universe, Miss Crawford." Rachel deadpanned just before vanishing into thin air. Another glance at the Guardians left me realizing they all left the building.
"Jacqueline, let it be." I said at the sight of her tail completely poofed out from anger.
"Elliot, what happened to you? You just left an hour ago." She asked with worry.
"Jacquline, I've been gone for three-thousand years." I explained while wrapping my arms around the damp feline without a care in the world. "... Everyone is dead now." I mumbled into her damp shoulder.
"... It's going to be okay, Elliot." She reassuringly whispered while gently raking her claws through my hair.
"It's not okay, Jacqueline. Everyone's dead, and no one rescued me, and now I'm in another universe for some stupid reason with someone that doesn't exist in our timeline... I don't know what to do." I opposed, causing the snow leopard to grab me by the cheeks, forcing my gaze into her cobalt blue eyes.
"You always find a way to come back to us, and I know that's what you'll do no matter what. I'm sure you can figure out time travel." She sternly proclaimed before planting a kiss on my lips. "So come back home to me, no matter how long it takes."
"I… I can't build a time machine. I didn't even build the Quirium gateway by myself, so how am I supposed to get from this universe to ours, and travel back in time?" I asked with emptiness.
Jacqueline seemed at odds with my statement, and I could see her trying to come up with another idea, but it didn't seem like one was coming. "If you could just-"
"Jacqueline… I'm not smart enough." I interrupted with dejection.
"If you would've let me finish; Have them send you back." She suggested with a gesture to the empty room.
"WHAT!?" I squawked in return. "After everything they did to us, how could you even think of something like that?"
"I don't want to lose you, and besides; Different universe, different Guardians... Oh, which one's are alive here?" She inquired.
"Why does that-nevermind; Lunovian, Raxxlan, and the Leader." I replied as her idea clicked into my mind, prompting Jacquline to silently nod for a few seconds.
"Vele uzibulale uma ubuya; Ngeke bazi ngisho nokuthi ungubani." She proposed in Miacke as to keep the Guardians unaware of the idea, however, with the limited tutoring I gave her, it didn't come out quite right.
"Now why would I kill myself when I get back?" I asked in Miacke with a goofy smirk.
"You know what I mean, you obnoxious human." Jacqueline simpered as she attempted shove my shoulder, only ending with me stepping out of the way, and pulling the feline's fuzzy back to my chest.
"You're stuck with me, obnoxiousness and all." I whispered as our fingers intertwined on her stomach.
"Elliot… You weren't kidding about the time." She awed while lifting my left hand into view, which showed the two combined wedding rings on my finger in addition to the exact copy of the Graphite ring on Jacqueline's finger.
"Can we not talk about that; I don't know how long you can stay." I replied with my chin rested on her left shoulder.
"But, this is so cool; What if I were to scratch mine? Would it make a scratch on yours just like in the Tv shows?"
"First, there's not a chance you could scratch that ring, Darling; But if you did manage to scratch it, mine wouldn't change until you go back."
"How does that work?" Jacqueline Inquired.
"Gatáki, you know that it's beyond your scope of knowledge." I answered with benevolence.
"But, I'm sure I could understand some of it." She said with persistence.
"Jacqueline! I'm about to maybe lose you forever, and you keep trying to spend our time on something that I couldn't possibly explain in a way that you would understand." I shouted with frustration as I began pacing back and forth to prevent more tears from coming out.
"I KNOW!" She screamed in return. "I just don't want this to end, and if I ke-keep talking, maybe it won't end." She added with a snobbery sniffle.
"... Come here." I murmured with outstretched arms. Once she was resting her head in the crook of my neck, I started to scratch her ears with one of my hands.
"It's like the war all over again; You dying, and me crying over your dead body. Because you are dead, aren't you?" She asked with more sniffles.
"I'm not dead, Gatáki. . . You are." I whispered with heartache. For the next hour we stood in each others arm, simply attempting to make what was destined to end, last forever. We swayed to the sound of our own humming, and prayed that it wouldn't end. I didn't want to give her up, and I certainly didn't want to let her go through the portal.
The thought of me dancing with my wife, who's been dead for hundreds of lifetimes put more tears into my eyes; The instant she walked through would bring her back in time, and because my time is the present, she would instantly live out her entire life without me. My daughter would suffer the same fate, and my unborn son would never even see his father.
"I love you… so much." I whispered with a tearful stare into Jacqueline's eyes as I saw her fur starting to disintegrate.
"What is it, Elliot?"
"... You have to go now…"
"But. . . I love you too." She replied languidly with a peck to my forehead. Instead of her departing through a gateway like her entrance, Jacqueline simply froze in place with a gentle smile on her face as she slowly turned to dust. I tried to stay on the positive side, but watching one of the people I loved most disintegrate in my arms broke me; She was one of the only things that kept me sane in this world, and frankly, watching her die gave me a goal and one goal alone… find a way back to her, no matter the cost.
I felt like every emotion in my body was on overload as I collapsed to my knees; Anger, sadness, confusion, and all of it was directed towards the one's responsible, the Guardians. Jacqueline's idea of having the Guardians send me back in time as payment for helping them was a good one in my eyes, but my mind kept reminding me of how I was manipulated into the most dangerous pawn of history, and how all of it was one lie after another to coerce me towards their plan for immortality. I suppose that's where the second part of Jacqueline's plan came into play… Kill them all.
"I saw everything… I'm sorry, if that helps." The Guardian Clara murmured as as I buried my head into my knees where Jacqueline's silty remains lay. "I know you thought I was one of the only one's in your world to have good inside, so I thought maybe we could be friends?"
"This is not the time." I seethed with a hiccup in my crying.
"... Sorry."
"Have you decided yet?" Rachel asked after appearing in a cloud of burning embers on the pew behind me me.
"C'mon Rachel, give him some time." Clara groused in their universal language, supposedly to keep me from understanding.
"Frankly, I don't care if he misses her; We're on the brink of total war, and every minute counts." She replied, causing me to whip around.
"You just lost any bit of help I was going to give you." I said with suppressed malice for her blatant disregard of my emotions. "But you; I'll give you a chance…" I added with another one-eighty to face Clara. "Since one of you cares I'm hurting." I fumed with a hateful glare back at Rachel. It wasn't like I was really going to give any of them a chance, but Clara was the most likely one I would befriend, so I figured they would be more likely to believe me acting kindly towards her.
"You don't decide who you give chances to, Crawford. I saved your life." Rachel snipped in return, eventing in my slowly standing up and turning to face her, followed by putting my ring right up to my chin as it spooled up for a shot.
"Really now, because you are about to have a mindless body if you don't FUCK... OFF." I shouted, which caused her to immediately disappear in the customary cloud of embers with a surprised expression plastered across that stupid face of hers.
"I guess you want me to go too?" Clara asked quietly.
"No, you don't have to." I replied while walking across the room to distance myself from Jacqueline's remains. I paced around, and sat, moping the entire way, however, the time came that I realized I needed to start conning the Guardians into sending me back in time; Of course, that question would have to wait for later, it was far to ambitious to ask now.
"Could you remove the inhibitor Rachel injected?" I asked Clara; If I was going to fool a Guardian, I would have to be flawless in my execution. Of course, that would mean asking things that I knew I wouldn't get in just the right order until they gave me what I truly wanted.
"I-um… No, not yet; But thank you for giving me a chance." She answered with gratefulness. "I-I have to go, Dexios is almost here… Um… If you need me, just call, o-or ya-know, say my name." She stammered with a meek smile.
"Wait, why is he here? I know he hasn't told me much about himself, but I don't need his help to save one planet." I asked as she started rippling into oblivion.
"You must ask Luna that question, she brought him here, not us." Clara replied as the last bits of ripples dissipated, sending the church into silence once more.
"Who?" I pondered, never having heard of a Guardian named that. Hearing the unknown name brought me into complete analytics mode, and within seconds, all remaining emotional thought was put on hold. That name was defiantly related to Dexios saying 'by the moon', and if this 'Luna' is responsible for bringing him here, she must have a massive amount of power, or at least be using someone else's power much in the way I once did.
"It must be a Guardian, or maybe a Guardians messenger like the sheriff." I rationalized while pacing up and down the aisle. The next thing I heard besides the soft sound of my footsteps on the brown carpet was the main door opening with a creak. Just as Clara told me, Dexios came walking through with the biggest, most smug grin on his face.
"How did you fare?"
"I-uh, got distracted… Only made five-hundred." I replied. While it was a disappointing that I didn't make the money I wanted, I couldn't care less about money or that stupid bet right now for obvious reasons.
Dexios stuck his hands in his pockets before he said, "I guess I win, the first round's on you; I managed to get around fifteen hundred." I suppose his hand pocketing was something he thought to be slick? It just made him vulnerable to attack in my eyes. Besides that, I wasn't even sure I would've been able to produce that much in a few hours, meaning he probably did something I couldn't.
"Did you use your powers?" I asked with squinting suspicion as we walked to the door of the church. I was right to question him, because his rather audible gulp combined with his general disquiet told me everything.
"If sleight of hand is a power, then yeah, sure did."
"Sleight of hand my ass... Mhmm, that was believable." I replied while opening the oak door with another creak. "So, what's your real name anyway?" I queried after stepping outside with the man in question. In the time I'd spent inside, the sun fully disappeared under the mountain ranges, giving the entire town a dark, yet beautiful glow of oranges and yellows across the sky. It was something that I never had the chance to appreciate anymore, though this time around I made sure to take a few seconds to look up and see the magnificent glow of light reflecting and refracting off clouds and atmosphere.
"My name is Dexios, and what about you? How did you get your cash? Did you kidnap someone?" He asked with an ever so slight sharpness laced into his voice.
"Seriously, Dude; We both know that's not your name, so why hide it from me; I'll just find out myself eventually." I thought with dull annoyance to his untruthfulness. "Uhh, no, I did not kidnap someone; That was the original plan though." I confirmed. "Your name is not Dexios, and I know that because I speak most languages in my world. Dexios means 'Right hand man' in one of those languages, leading me to believe your 'Luna' gave you the name… Care to comment?" I asked with a smug grin.
Dexios froze in place at my utterance, and his face turned completely white. "How do you know that name!?" He demanded. "How do you know Luna!?"
So, Clara was telling the truth when it came to how Dexios was sent here. The questions remaining were who and how powerful was she. "Ooooh, struck a nerve therreeee." I said in a falsetto as I completely disregarded his outburst as an empty threat; The hateful glare I received gave me the inclination that I may have chosen the wrong avenue of linguistics.
"Either Luna sent you here to help me or… You're the one she sent me here to kill. Tell me human, which one is it?" He asked acerbically.
Being threatened by him didn't phase me in the slightest, mainly because he was a simple pleb in the grand scheme of things. What caught me as out of the ordinary was his mentioning of me as 'human' like he was somehow a different species than me. It was possible he thought me to be an ordinary human, whereas he possessed triple bonds. But with that amount of DNA present, he would've been able to detect my abnormal strain from a mile away. So that meant he was something far below my power, but different than the normal strain of human DNA.
"Ehh, you could be here to kill me, but that might prove tougher than it looks. As far as Luna sending me, maybe, maybe not." I said in an attempt to further aggravate him. I even turned down a dark alleyway peppered with trash and other varieties of grime to give him ample opportunity to use his powers on me. Hopefully, my C.I.P.S would protect me from whatever he possessed.
In an instant, I found myself being pressed up against the wall. 'So he does have more than than three brain cells.' I thought as my vision focused in on the attacker. What off-put me was that a Raxxlan wolf was attacking me, not Dexios. I suppose my daze gave him time to wrap his jaws around my neck with enough force to not only cause blue shield ripples all over my upper body and across my face, but the wolf's jaws pressed down so hard that it pushed the shield right into my neck, cutting off my air.
Suffice to say, I was surprised.
I didn't want to kill him, but I didn't plan on dying today, and with that in mind, I reached to my combined rings and adjusted the high amplitude, linear focused diode to a low amplitude, wide focus so that I didn't burn a hole straight through the target.
In the time it took me to adjust the weapon, my enemy's jaws pressed further into my neck, and I felt my skin break under the pressure of sharp fangs though an antimatter and charged particle shield. Nevertheless, the notion that my vision was loosing color hastened the action of me shoving my left fist into his solar plexus, followed by firing a short burst of direct energy into my enemy. It defiantly did the trick, the sound the Raxxlan produced was evidence enough, though it still took me a few more seconds to pry his jaws off my neck.
I was also sure that I was going to collapse from the pressure induced on my neck because of how much it hurt to breath. Just to make sure I wasn't the only one going down, I fired another burst of the ring's particle beam into his chest, causing an orange, conical pulse of energy to impact the entirety of his chest. Even with the low intensity shot I used, my ring still singed off all fur on the wolf's chest in addition to giving him second degree thermal radiation burns, presumably all the way through the dermis.
'Ugh, that smell." I internally cringed as the scent of burning hair wafted into my nose. "Good try, Daurilian." I coughed out in the Raxxlan language as I felt my wounds. "Where did Dexios go?" I added with a glance down both directions of the ally, finding no sign of the man in question.
Now was not the time to be thinking on a man that disappeared, so I readjusted the diode to fire a more condensed beam of energy, reducing the cone by half. When I returned my gaze to the wolf, I was puzzled to find he had no clothes whatsoever. "Why did you attack me? And why don't you have clothes?" I questioned as my rings spooled up for another shot.
"Whoa, easy. What are you babbling about?" The wolf asked in English as we both propped ourselves against adjacent ally walls.
"What am I babbling about?" I asked with surprise. "Since when did Daurilians learn English?" I asked while further tuning my ring's focusing lens. It was possible that the alien learned our language, but the chances of that happening were quite slim by my calculations.
"What are you talking about? Daurilians? I've always spoken English." He replied in confusion.
So the wolf didn't even know what Raxxla was… meaning he didn't have a ship. "If you were born on this planet, you're no use to me for getting home, and I can't let anyone know of my technology." I explained as I adjusted the ring to fire a medium intensity, linear focused beam into the castaway; In one flick of my wrist, he would be cut right in two, not the worst way to go, definitely not the best either.
As I held out my hand in preparation to end the wolf's life, the ring started to spool from a low to high pitch whine along with the entire outer surface glowing both bright blue in the center and red on the outer halves of the combined ring.
"Wait, Elliot; It's me, Dexios." He stated while standing up. Before my mind had a chance to piece things together, all the remaining fur on the wolf was drawn into its skin, and the structure of a wolf changed into the structure of a human, all within the span of a single second.
"That's... different." I commented as my mind dove into thought on how he did it. I didn't care at all the he attacked me anymore, that was the plan after all.
No, I was much more concerned with how Dexios achieved transmogrification. Morphing into a wolf was nigh impossible, I even contemplated the possibility of permanently shifting myself into a Leopard with nanotechnology before I was brought here. But to do it with such speed and without disorienting side effects… "That's your power, isn't it?" I questioned after a few seconds. There was no way shape shifting could be all he was capable of if he was a Galactic tracker, but if all he did was protect Earth, I suppose it was a reasonable assumption.
Through the entire ordeal, I never once let my left arm drop due to my slumped over state against the brick wall. I still felt my neck was bleeding, and to make things worse, I found it hard to breath. Not hard enough to leave me gasping like at first, but enough to be noticeable from, say, one Dexios standing across the alley; He didn't even seem all that phased by the damage I inflicted.
"Yeah, that's my power, and you shoot laser bolts out of your fists?" He retorted while leaning against the wall in pain.
"I do no such thing!" I squawked in return. "At least not anymore." I added in thought. Well, it really wasn't my fists, more of my palms, but whatever.
Dexios simply lifted his gray shirt and looked down to his charred chest. "Right, and this is a bruise."
"I never said I didn't shoot a laser at you; I just said it didn't come out of my hand… It's this ring." I said with a tilt of my hand to better reveal the lowly glowing weapon.
"I see." He replied with a glance to the ring, then back to his chest. "I think you still owe me a drink."
"For the bet, or the injury? Because I'd say we're even on the injury department." I remarked while feeling at my neck. "Oh, and I realize you might not know it, but I just hit you with the energy present in a lightning strike. So how are you not at least unconscious from the pain? And now that I think about it, how did you get clothes again?" I asked while clambering to my feet with the assistance of the brick wall behind me.
"For the bet… And I've been through worse. As for my clothes, do you know of quantum superposition?" He asked with a pause. "How did I not rip your throat clean out?"
"Do I know about quantum mechanics? You've got to be kidding me." I thought boastfully. "Ha-ha, yes, I'm aware of Quantum Superposition… You run on Quantum Superposition!" I concluded with excitement. If I could manipulate that power into making my genetic inhibitor simply cease to exist, I could go home today… well, probably next week, but still. "I've never been able to make a living thing as big as you stay in a quantum superposed state with stability before!" I added before going into an injury induced coughing fit.
"...Yeah, pretty much." He responded.
"Oh, man. I need to take some genetic samples; You could be the key to… a project." I declared with a raspy voice, just barely catching myself from revealing my idea.
"Um…. Maybe?" Dexios replied warily.
"It's not going to kill you. I just need a few ounces of blood. Besides, I don't have an AFM right now, so it would be pointless to get it until then…... Now what? We were going to go drinking, but then you tried to murder me, sooo." Getting him to attack me was the idea, but hearing Dexios say 'How did I not rip your throat clean out?' put me a bit on on edge, especially now that I had someone to fight for.
"Hey, you're the one that provoked a wolf. Besides, you tried to kill me when we first met, so we're even." He snipped in return. I attacked him? Technically, I was going to kill him when we met, but he threw the first punch, so that hardly puts us at even. "And no, you can't have my blood. So let's go drink till I heal, because this fucking hurts." He added with a gesture to the thermal radiation burn.
It took me awhile to respond due to the thought of him saying 'until I heal', and by the time I replied, I was absentmindedly staring at my palms. "I suppose you're right, but I can't believe you actually boiled over in such a short period. Three remarks was all it took." I said while holding up the specified number of digits. "You should work on that, it would make you more efficient at your job… Honestly, all I know about your Luna is it's name. I have some theories, but beyond that… nothing." I replied while stemming the oozing wounds on my neck with my fingers.
"Stranger shows up from another world, knows that Luna sent me, and dodges the question about how he knew of her… Kind of makes you seem like a threat… Being mysterious and smug is hazardous to your health… You should work on that." He retorted before pushing himself off the adjacent wall.
"Where I'm from, being mysterious and dodging questions is part of my job description. Once you've been doing something for three-hun… for awhile, you don't break the cycle." Well, there goes that secret. "Partially, it's to protect those around me from what I've dealt with." I explained as I pushed myself off the wall. "Also, if I acted how I feel, I wouldn't get anything done. Smugness hides it… There's something I don't share easily, so keep it a secret, would ya?" I asked. Why I was telling him all this, fuck if I know. Maybe I really give so little about my secrets nowadays it doesn't matter. Maybe it's because I basically broadcasted every detail of my life to whatever bit's of the galaxy was left… Yeah, that probably had something to do with it.
"Really? You just found out I'm a werewolf, and you're worried about me spilling the beans that you have feelings?" He questioned cynically. I don't know about 'werewolf', I'd go more along the lines of 'Quantum soldier', it sounds more science-ey. "I'm more interested about the three-hundred year long job." He said with a gaze shift towards me. "Normal humans don't live that long where I'm from, so what are you?"
I was a lot of things in life, so the question is, 'What does he want to know, and what does he need to know?'. That was a very fine line that I intended to cross... for some reason. "Right… have you seen your DNA since you became a werewolf?" I asked. "Depending on your answer, I may tell you how I've lived this long."
"No… That was the last thing on my mind since it happened." He replied in a tone that sounded half truthful and half sarcastic, leading me to give the following explanation.
"Well… It's most likely had some alterations, certain proteins have probably been replaced. I used to be like that, TECHNICALLY I still am." I said with another adjustment of my ring's output amplitude so that I could etch directly into the brick wall behind me. "This is the best part." I said with a pause. Was it really the 'best' part? Maybe the most interesting, but the 'best' was probably too strong of a word in this instance. "Do you have other powers? Because before my rebellion, my abilities were limited to keep me under their control."
"Other powers?" Dexios said with a shake of his head. "Not that I know of. Why? Do you have powers?" He wondered while watching me etch the depiction.
I wasn't too sure on how to answer him. I had powers, but they were blocked after the specter incident, and by whatever Rachel shoved into my eye. "Uhh… No, I don't have powers anymore… You probably have other quantum properties no one's taught you, or wishes for you to know. Anyway, this is my DNA." I said with a step back so Dexios could see. "An Impossible bond of chemicals that produce one thing… absolute destruction." I said with a gesture to the etched, triple bonded DNA. "Well, that wasn't entirely truthful... Whatever; As long as it keeps him wary of having Triple helix DNA." I thought with a few steps to my right so I could start another portrait..
Dexios pondered what a said for a good moment, and I was hopeful he would understand why this is a curse, not a blessing. "Hmmm… Absolute destruction sounds like a great thing to have."
"You IMBECILE!" I screamed internally. "It's a curse. NEVER wish for something like that!" I screeched. "Because of my p-power, my people went extinct… and my wife died." I whispered. "I… I tried to save them…" I added with a pause in my drawing. Seeing my wife turn to dust right in front of me was just twisting the knife.
"Genetic plague that mutates by the hour. Naahhhh, don't worry about it. It'll be easy to find a cure." I thought in anger.
"It was sarcasm." He said with an uneasy scratch to the back of his neck. "Sounds like I'm not the only one that lost everything."
"Oh, you lost everything. Congratulations, just let me know when a fricken planet decides to hyperspace jump all over the galaxy, imploding hundreds of inhabited star systems with singularities as it goes; Then I might actually give a shit about your insignificant speck of a planet."
"My curse, or fate, caused the extinction of both humans and werewolves. Soon, I will be the last of both on my world… Doesn't help that I lead the battle that sealed their fate." Dexios said with guilt. It still didn't even scratch the loss that I witnessed.
People die all the time, people don't watch their skin fall off as they puke up their insides, simply begging you to end their life. When in reality, you have to tell them, 'Sorry, I can't waste the bullet, they're too valuable right now, and regulations say mercy killing isn't acceptable via bladed weapon... Oh, painkillers? Sorry, we have to save those for people that actually have a chance at living, so hope you die soon.' I ranted in my own brain; The only thing that kept me from blowing out the entire building with my ring was an intermittent squeezing and release of my clenched fists.
"I think I'm going to need that drink sooner rather than later. Can you write this-" He said with a gesture to my uncompleted drawing. "On a napkin or something in the bar?" Dexios asked.
I think the pure hatred boiling up in my mind completely garbled what Dexios really said, because in hindsight, my reply made absolutely no sense whatsoever. "I'm a reconnaissance officer, I'll remember it."
"Cool, you were in the army; I worked retail. Now that we have that summed up, I'm going to drink until I forget today happened." He replied.
"Navy Admiral in charge of over half the HDF fleet." I corrected absentmindedly. "I wish I could forget… TO THE BAR!" I shouted in an attempt to keep myself composed. If I were to lose it, people would definitely die, and when the red haze of my anger lifted, I'd simply shrug my shoulders and say 'oops, my bad'.
"I almost forgot something." I said while jogging to one end of the ally, followed by pressing my ring up to the brick building in juxtapose with the ally wall. I didn't really forget anything, I just didn't want to kill Dexios, and destroying a building would help with that. "You may want to move." I added with a head nod away from the building.
Dexios must've been in his own world just as I was, because the reaction he gave me was delayed for a good five seconds. "Amen, Sailor." He said with a salute; What did a 'sailor' mean anyway? "Wait, WHAT!?" Dexios screeched with a step away from both me and the brick building.
"No, like… Clear the ally." I said as my ring began glowing bright blue and red. He immediately darted for the streets, a comical action considering he thought I would bury him alive if he didn't move with haste… maybe I would now that I'm thinking about it... Then I saw the poster.
A/N: I am SOOOOOOO sorry for taking this long... anyway, thanks for any reviews you may give.
Be sure to check out Dexios's version if you want to read his supreme thievery, and the thoughts of the Q.S.S himself.