Chapter 3

Zane sat quietly at a table, rolling a piece of bread between his fingers, trying to measure his level of hatred for bread. When he and his gihox army had started their march of war, the only thing that had come into his mind was glorious conquest. Never once had his mind turned to the food he would have to eat along the way. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say the bread he would have to eat along the way. He had had precious little to eat other than bread for all the weeks of his march.

Sure, they had pillaged the food stores in the cavern they had raided, but that had mostly gone to feed the gihox, who needed more food than their smaller general. The gihox had, of course, eaten the humans they had killed as well, but Zane could not have brought himself to do likewise. He had his standards, after all, and besides, the only human he had any desire to eat was his girlfriend, and that in a different way entirely. The lewd thought brought a wolfish grin to his face, and distracted him enough so that he could swallow the piece of bread without gagging.

Zane heard commotion from outside the building he had taken as his own, and with a final disdainful glance at the bread he rushed outside. The street of the village that he and his army had taken earlier this very day was dark and foggy, and camp fires burned within the fog in several places. Around these fires, through the gray haze, the one-eyed general could see the silhouettes of his soldiers, two times the height of a man, and with shoulders as broad as most men were tall. The gihox were bustling about, and Zane understood why, for now he could clearly hear the flapping of the huge wings.

Zane looked up and saw the huge form of Fanarloki in the sky, then it dove down to land heavily in the street. The camp stood hushed as the horned reptilian head rose, purple lamplight eyes scanning those in attendance. That fiery gaze passed over him then, and there came a green flash and the huge form of the dragoness was no more. In its place there now stood a short and slender woman, wearing a black cloak. She strode toward him, trailing the fog behind her.

''We need to talk,'' Malice said.

Zane nodded and led her into the house where he had been eating, where he sat down at the table, motioning for her to do likewise. Malice sat down and placed something on the table in front of him. It was an orb that was roughly the size of a tangerine, and it was encased in a crystalline shell of glittering blue ice. The one-eyed general bent over the table to scrutinize the object. ''The cataclysm stone?'' he asked.

''Indeed.''

''Do you think it wise to bring it here?'' Zane asked. ''It could drain the kairu out of our soldiers and leave us without an army.''

''It is dormant,'' Malice explained. ''After Team Stax took it from Mexico, they froze it with an attack so that it could never again be used.''

''And you intend to revive it,'' Zane stated as much as asked.

''Indeed,'' Malice replied. ''The stone was shown to me in a vision, though as of yet I am not entirely certain of how I will utilize it.''

''You will think of something.''

Malice nodded. ''I am going to pay Karbraxis a visit,'' she said. ''I have a gift for him, something that I have been working on for quite some time now.''

''What is it?'' Zane asked.

''What we are doing has caught the eye of the Redakai,'' the dark spirit said. ''Sooner or later they will come against us. Karbraxis will be sorely pressed if they come after him, for he has no knowledge of kairu. But if I give him this...'' Malice produced a disk-shaped object as wide as her clenched fist, and made of some dark bluish material, with threads of red, blue and green swirling about it discordantly.

Zane watched as the dark spirit removed one of her bracers and pressed the object against her bare forearm. For a moment nothing happened, but then the object seemed to melt, the bluish material stretching to cover her forearm, then moving up to cover her entire arm, up to the shoulder. On that shoulder there was a triangular design, with one of three symbols on each of its three points. The one-eyed general recognized those symbols as those worn by the Hiverax before their death.

''I retrieved more than just the teleporter units from the Hiverax,'' Malice proclaimed. ''I also retrieved the components that made each of them immune to a certain color of kairu attack, and combined them into this sleeve. I have taken extensive notes, and will soon crack the secret of how my grandfather achieved this effect. And when I unlock the secret, I shall create a sleeve for the two of us, that we too will be immune to kairu attacks.''

''But what if Karbraxis decides that with the sleeve he and his fellows will no longer need you?''

Malice understood the trepidation of her lover, and had to admit that in this case, his cynicism was well placed. The gihox had been searching for a weapon to help them reclaim their place as the rulers of the earth. Malice had witnessed through Maya as Team Stax had foiled the plans of a gihox chieftain in the South Pacific, who was trying to find a relic known as the Fist of the Colossus, for that very end. At the moment, Malice was such a weapon, for she was what held the disparate and feuding tribes together. But if Karbraxis decided he had another weapon, then he might just lead his kin into a rebellion.

''Then I will teach him the truth,'' Malice stated. ''Not even the muscle of a gihox can match the killing power of Fanarloki.'' That said the dark spirit removed the sleeve, which reverted back to its previous disk form, and she put it away in her belt pouch.

After giving Zane a long goodbye kiss, Malice strode out of the building and fell into her monster x-drive, transforming into the shape of the dragon. Then she took wing, leaving the village far behind as she soared toward her other army, and the general leading it.

xxxxx

Ky dipped his spoon into his bowl of cereal, then brought it to his mouth, chewing but never thinking about the food. He was thinking about the assignment he and Boomer had been given by master Boddai earlier this morning. They were to go back to Ireland, and meet up with king Keiran McCann, that they might help him in the war with the gihox. But that was not the only thing they were supposed to do. Team Tuatha, the students of his father, were to accompany them on this quest.

Boomer sat in the chair opposite him, the distant look in his eyes indicating that he was similarly thinking of this latest quest. They had only met the members of Team Tuatha once before, in the meeting where the Redakai had decided Maya should confront her evil look-alike, and end her reign of terror once and for all. But they had heard a bit about them from their master and the other Redakai. They had also heard that master Baphamel had taken on apprentices of his own.

Suddenly, the door of the microwave burst open, spewing forth gouts of greenish ooze, and a putrid stench filled the air. Mookee rushed into the kitchen but stepped in the slime and fell on his back, then slid across the floor. Ky and Boomer, both holding their nose, looked at the tangerine-colored alien.

''Sorry,'' Mooke said, repeatedly trying to get back to his feet, but skidding on the slick and slimy floor again and again. ''I forgot to tell you that I was preparing a delicious breakfast treat, traditionally eaten on the planet Nevrod.'' He finally managed to stand, and scurried over to fetch a large bowl. Then the little alien began to scoop the greenish slime into the bowl, before placing it on the table, squarely in front of the two boys. ''This part of the recipe is always a little messy.''

As if by some prearranged signal there came a knock at the door, and the portal slid open to admit Francesco, the leader of Team Tuatha. He was a tall and lean fellow with hawkish features. He had sandy-blond hair, a neatly trimmed goatee, and his blue eyes exuded competence and confidence. How those eyes widened as he slipped on a puddle of slime Mookee had missed, and fell flat on his back.

Coming in behind him was Dusibol, a short but stocky man who provided the muscle power for the team. There was nothing soft about his physique, for he appeared as though he had been carved from stone, with his broad shoulders and huge, square jaw. He had dusky brown skin, his black hair curled up tightly on his head, and he had intelligent black eyes. He tripped over his leader and fell down hard on top of him, his two hundred pound frame blasting the air from his lungs.

Last to enter was an oriental woman by the name of Yu Lin, who was short in stature and slight of build. She was very pretty, with her round face and catlike features, and with midnight-black hair flowing across her shoulders and down her back. She did not trip over her friends. Instead, she dexterously sprang into the air, landing on top of Dusibol's broad back, drawing a wheeze from Francesco. She balanced there on the ball of one foot, arms out wide for balance, a mischievous grin spreading across her face.

Yu Lin hopped down from her perch and her two friends scrambled back to their feet, brushing themselves off.

''We were told to go with you to Ireland,'' said Francesco.

They talked together for several minutes while Ky and Boomer finished eating their breakfast, then the X-caper shot up into the air, bound for Ireland.

xxxxx

Karbraxis flexed his huge arm, staring as his muscles corded taut, and yet the sleeve Malice had just given him did not burst apart. The gihox general looked back at the tiny woman that was his mistress. Had his face not been so hideously scarred and disfigured, a questioning look would have been stamped upon it, for he did not know the purpose of the sleeve. He flexed his muscles tighter, again without tearing the sleeve. Then the ugly brute turned fully to the dark spirit.

''There be not a kairu attack in the world,'' Malice began in the gihox tongue, ''that can harm yerself while ye be wearing that sleeve.'' As if to accentuate her point, her arms shot out, and dark red flames spewed forth from her palms. The shadow fire wreathed the behemoth, and while he appeared startled, the flames did not touch him. The fires swirled around him like a tornado, but then they dissipated, leaving the gihox chieftain unscathed.

''Ye can not harm me,'' Karbraxis snickered.

There came a green flash suddenly, and then the gihox was on his back, pinned to the ground by a massive, clawed foot. He struggled to break free, but the beast had little trouble in keeping him pinned under its weight. The gihox looked up to see the reptilian head come closer, one huge horn prodding the skin of his neck. ''Make no mistake about who is in charge here, Karbraxis,'' Malice thundered, and his eardrums nearly burst from the volume, beads of sweat forming on his brow. ''I do not need a kairu attack to kill you, and if you try to use the gift I gave you against me...'' The dragoness let the sentence drift off, and pressed her horn tighter against his throat.

Then there came another green flash, and the weight of the dragoness lifted from his chest, allowing him to move freely. Karbraxis rose to a sitting position, watching as Malice, in human form once more, strode away, black cloak trailing behind her. He rose stiffly to his feet, and watched as his mistress vanished in a flash of kairu. He seethed with hatred, and allowed himself the fantasy of grind her to death. But he dared not make it more than a fantasy, for the lesson had come across.

To be continued...

Here is a song for a characters.

Karbraxis = Praise Abort, by Till Lindemann