179 replies to this topic

[Mara=^.^=]

Phew, went through and fixed all the apostrophes. Dayum that took forever

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Mara=^.^=]

Wow. I really need to update this.

Though I think my last chapter killed it.

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Beks]

Yesh, finish it! (as long as it doesn't aggrivate your wrist )

[Mara=^.^=]

Holy shit, I finally wrote the next chapter! It'll be out in a few days.


~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Beks]

YESH! Can't wait!

[Mara=^.^=]

Hee hee

I couldn't bear to be outdone by Writer Woman for too long! (A year was clearly enough )

Also, how old were you when you got your powers as a NK? At age 15, or 15 years after joining?


~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Beks]

Age 15 sounds about right.

[RocksmySocks]

New section!

[Beks]

It's been so long, I've gotta go back and read it again.

[Mara=^.^=]

Holy buckets of bullshit, I COMPLETELY forgot to post the last chapter that I wrote. Here it is now, with my apologies.

Chapter 7, in which Mara fights freakish egg people in the middle of the night

A moment later, my earpiece started buzzing. I reached up and pushed the response button, cupping the tiny microphone close to my mouth.

“Hello?” I whispered harshly. “Someone there?”

Cami’s voice answered, out of breath. “We’ve got a bit of a problem. I’ve been all over this damned dungeon and I can’t find Rat Woman or Writer Lady…or whatever their names are…and I’ve just about had it up to here with this whole asinine mission. Not sure why, but apparently the two of them were taken out of their cells a few hours ago. At least that’s what my new friend here tells me.”

I heard a cry of distress from the other line as Cami kicked someone – presumably another prisoner. “I tried to get this pathetic whelp to tell me what happened,” she said, “but he’s too afraid of what the Yolkians will do to him if they find out. I keep telling him that I’ll do far worse, but somehow he’s just not clear on the concept.” She kicked him again, harder this time, before continuing. “Anyway, Captain says this one’s your call. Do we attack or call it off until we locate the prisoners?”

There was a pause. “He wants me to decide?”

Cami’s subsequent tirade only added to my bewilderment. “I know, right? The poor sap must be flaming hot for you or something. I can’t imagine why he’d lay this on you otherwise. He only torments the people he really cares about.”

I shook my head to clear my thoughts, and a cool, detached calm descended over me. It was the same calm that had taken hold of me when I shot Red – it was, I realized, a serenity borne of adrenaline.

I whispered into the microphone, more to myself than to Cami or Ko. “It would be cruel to purposely put Writer Woman and Rat Lady in danger, but on the other hand it would be irresponsible to abandon the mission when so many people’s lives have been ruined by Goobot and his cronies.” I thought for a moment in silence. “Ko,” I asked at last, “what would Writer Woman and Rat Lady want us to do?”

She shrugged. “They’re Neutron Knights. They’d want you to finish Goobot while you have the chance.”

I agreed, and addressed Cami this time. “We can’t just turn our backs on the prisoners, but in this case the needs of the many will have to outweigh the safety of the few. Tell Captain to go ahead with the attack. Lord knows the next time we’ll have a commander on our side with his kind of talent. Meanwhile, Ko will lead in the second wave from behind. Cami, you and Steph and I will act as free agents and comb the complex from top to bottom. If the captives are there, we’ll find them.”

“You sure you want to bring along Steph?” grunted Cami, who was kicking her hapless informant again. “She can’t fight like we can. I don’t want to end up with three damsels in distress to rescue.”

“Steph is…how shall I put this?…different from you and me. She might think of something that we wouldn’t. I think she’d be an asset.”

Cami sighed. “Whatever, babe. You’re Captain’s flavor of the week, not me, so I’ll just trust that you know what you’re doing. Anyway, I’ll radio the gang and let them know what’s what. Hang tight.”

Our hiding place fell silent, and I gradually became conscious of the nighttime air – it had a texture of its own, soft and caressing, like velvet wrapped around my body. A cold wind rustled through the treetops, carrying the spicy scent of early autumn leaves down to ground level. For a moment the darkness seemed beautiful, and I breathed deeply – then the first shots rang out.

A shock of static bit into my ear. “It’s on,” said Cami, a little breathlessly. “Steph’s going in the east entrance. You should hurry up and get inside while everyone’s still caught off guard from the first attack.”

“If you run into King Goobot,” I instructed calmly, “don’t wait around and ask questions. Don’t even speak to him. We can’t afford to give him a chance to escape, or to call for back-up, or to fight back. Don’t hesitate, even for second. You can’t get caught up in questions of morality – letting him live would be the worst kind of irresponsibility. He’ll only cause more innocent people to suffer if we don’t act decisively.”

“Since when have I ever worried about morality?” she shot back, walloping her informant with what sounded like a large rock. I heard him slump to the ground, knocked out cold…or at least, that’s what I hoped. She breathed heavily into the microphone. “And it goes without saying that the same applies to you, blondie. You better have the guts to pull the trigger when it comes down to it.”

“I’ll never miss another shot again,” I replied grimly. “Now let’s do this.”

Cami grunted confirmation, then cut the comm. link. I turned around to face Ko, who was standing irresolutely behind me, fiddling with her sword and scabbard. I smiled at her – though I had known her less than an hour, I felt a distinct sense of mutual regard and understanding with the young Queen. She grinned back, but there was a warning in her eyes.

“Your color just turned,” she said. “Take care. Remember that killing is something we must do to uphold justice and to vanquish evil. It isn’t something we do for pleasure.”

I reached out and clasped her hand, and the warmth that flowed between us steadied me. We said nothing, and I released my grip. Saluting, she turned and headed toward the courtyard’s back gateway, and I turned my attention to the task of gaining entry. As I squinted into the darkness, I had a spot of luck – there, just past a row of hedges, I spied a low window. It had been left open, just an inch or so, but enough for a pair of deft hands to gain access.

I pried open the pane, then hoisted myself up onto the sill with a muffled grunt. The old wood creaked under my weight, and I winced as the sound reverberated through the musty-smelling corridor. I shifted my weight off from my shins and sat down on the windowsill, then dangled my legs into the interior and dropped down onto the floor. To my horror, the soles of my shoes squeaked loudly as they scuffed against the polished wood. I immediately yanked out my two handguns – one, an alien-import ray gun complete with silencer, the other, a tried-and-true traditional firearm – and waited, breathless, for a sentry to come investigate the source of the noise.

When none appeared, I tucked the old pistol back into its holster and advanced cautiously, plasma handgun cocked and at the ready. As I walked, I let my surroundings wash over me, my senses capturing all those fleeting impressions which, pieced together, would help me gauge the character of the place. The dim lighting of the hallway did little to obscure the ornate architecture – arched doorways soared overhead, decorated with carven images of mythical beasts, while a panorama of interconnected paintings colored the ceiling above me…even the baseboard that ran along the floor was embossed with fantastically intricate reliefs. I breathed deeply, trying to tease out individual scents from the aromatic web that hung in the air. There was cinnamon, certainly, mold, and perhaps peppermint as well, all combined with the heady, intoxicating smell of antique wood and old, old books. Overall the space had the feeling of a library, one with a history of power and deep secrets – as if tomes of lost magic and tales of forgotten valor might still lay hidden on some back shelf.

As I headed further into the stronghold, I became aware of a growing and powerful urge to posses the place – to own every nook and cranny, and to stay up long into the night, wandering its forgotten twists and turns with nothing but a candle to light the way. With a near-jolt, I remembered that this castle was the ancestral home of the Neutron Knights, and that if everything went according to plan that night, it would be mine. Hesitantly, I reached out and brushed my fingertips across the wall to the right. It was so…

Something moved. It registered on the very edge of my peripheral vision. Time seemed to slow to a surreal crawl as I spun around – I even blinked in slow motion, watching as individual strands of hair flew across my field of vision. In an instant my fantasies about the castle evaporated, for there, only a few feet behind me, was a Yolkian guard.

I had seen few Yolkians in my life, and always at a distance, for they were a haughty, insular race who preferred to keep their own company. But in that instant, no detail was spared – not the bulging purple eyes mounted on skinny stocks, nor the runny organs encased in a bubbling, artificial tank, nor the electric-tipped spear grasped in one metal hand. I nearly blacked out from the certainty of my own impending death.

In the end, it was sheer luck that saved me. The creature had not been expecting me to turn around, and in its fear-driven haste to impale me, it swung the spear too far to the right. The tip grazed against the wall, spraying tiny wooden splinters into the space between us. The mistake bought me a few precious seconds of extra time. My gun arm rose of its own accord, and I watched dumbly as the weapon kicked back once, twice, three times. When the smoke cleared, the guard’s mechanical shell lay sparking inside a puddle of viscous green ooze. Two eyes stared up at me from the rapidly spreading pool, and with a touch of nausea I realized that the formless gob was still alive.

That won’t do, I thought robotically to myself. I can’t let it live.

I searched the immediate area for a solution – breaking the exoskeleton must simply incapacitate the alien, I deduced – gunfire alone wouldn’t be enough to fry its insides. My gaze fell upon the sentry’s electrified spear, and the answer came to me. In a flash I snapped it up, twirled it round, and plunged the tip into the fallen guard, effectively bringing the encounter to an end.

The battle won, I slumped against the wall, shaking slightly as the adrenaline retreated. My reprieve didn’t last long, however, for my feelings of relief gave way almost immediately to intense anger and self-reproach.

Stupid, amateur mistake! I raged under my breath. What the hell is the matter with you? How could you have let your brain take a vacation in the middle of such a dangerous situation? You almost deserved to get gored by that spear! Pay attention, you idiot!

Biting back shameful tears, I thanked my lucky stars that nobody had been around to witness my incompetence. I wouldn’t have been able to handle the embarrassment. After a moment, I had collected my thoughts enough to take an unsteady step forward.

Resuming my mission put things back in perspective, and I put a stop to my self-loathing and instead turned my attention to monitoring my surroundings. I wandered down two more corridors and on through a series of small, interconnecting rooms. I mentally called up the building’s schematics, but found that I was unable to place myself inside the mazelike complex. I would need to find some sort of landmark in order to get my bearings.

As I wandered about aimlessly, it occurred to me what a staggeringly bad plan this had been. True, most of the sentries were probably outside fighting the knights, but those that remained were certainly on high alert, and Goobot was probably under heavy guard. If Steph were to run into them, she would undoubtedly be captured, or worse…and without a way to accurately keep track of our movements, it would be impossible to tell which areas the three of us had covered in our search. We were in their stronghold, surrounded by their forces, performing a rescue op that we were never prepared to undertake in the first place. Unfamiliar ground, unfamiliar enemy, unfamiliar objective. It was a recipe for disaster.

It didn’t do any good to dwell on this fact, however, and so I forced myself to concentrate on determining the best course of action. I came to a mahogany door and, still desperately mulling the situation over in my head, pushed it open. The air inside was cool and refreshing; a breeze tugged on blue curtains which shielded a trio of lofty windows on the far wall. The chamber must have been some sort of treasury room, because it contained various expensive-looking antiques displayed atop ornate daises. Not surprisingly, two Yolkians had remained to guard the spoils.

I met their alien eyes, and as I did, I became aware of a terrible power coursing through my body. My vision sharpened, my muscles tightened, and I was overcome by a curious sensation – as though black tar were coursing through my veins in lieu of blood. A vase sitting on a nearby pedestal shattered into a thousand pieces, and the two guards collapsed to the floor, whimpering incoherently. I blinked once, and the sensation faded, leaving me surprised and a little frightened. What sort of horror was lying dormant inside me? Was this a taste of my latent power, the one Ko had mentioned? I had no further time to reflect on the subject, for I heard a sound behind me, and spun around and dispatched my would-be attacker with two precisely aimed shots.

As I reloaded, an idea occurred to me. Ko had said these knights weren’t pushovers – maybe it was time to test their capability.

I thundered over to the two whimpering sentries and treated them to a good look down the barrel of my gun. “One of you, answer me!” I demanded, more boldly than I felt.

They simply stayed where they were, trembling and blubbering, stupefied almost to the point of catatonia. After a few more failed attempts at communication, I realized that they had actually gone mad. Picking up one of their fallen spears, I put an end to their misery before turning to face the remaining sentry, who was at that moment in puddle-form on the floor.

“You there…I have a question. Unless you want to end up like those two, I suggest you answer.”

The pathetic trickle of goo somehow managed to look hopeful for a moment, and he nodded his eye stocks at me.

“Is there an intercom system in this building?”

It nodded again.

“What channel?”

The creature seemed confused by the question, so I explained: “I’m wearing an earpiece with the capacity to broadcast my voice anywhere I want. Right now, it’s broadcasting on a secure channel, so that only a few other people can hear me. However, if I switch it so that it’s on the same frequency as the comm. system, everyone in the whole building should be able to hear what I say.”

The Yolkian’s eyelids shot up in comprehension.

“Since you can’t talk without your exoskeleton, you’ll have to give me the channel number some other way. Here, I know – tilt your eyestalks forward to count out the numbers; clack them together to indicate a period.”

My informant complied and, after some initial difficulty, conveyed the information to me. Setting the electrified spear down on the floor, I flicked through the channels on my earpiece until it tuned in to the correct station – 88.4. I opened my mouth to speak, but then hesitated, unsure of what to say. I needed to formulate some sort of coded message, one which Writer Woman and Rat Lady would understand, but which would mean little or nothing to Goobot and his cronies. I racked my brain for inspiration. Unfortunately, what came to me was less than inspirational…but it would have to do.

I recited the short speech at last. “Little-known fact,” I said, “Greenburg was fond of loud, riotous parties, and so were his subjects. Whenever he went looking for his knights, he always found them in a boisterous mood.”

My voice echoed out from every loudspeaker in every room of the castle – hopefully carrying with it my message to the knights that, if they wanted to be found, they would have to cause a ruckus.

“That oughtta throw the Yolkians into a tizzy,” I muttered absently as I switched my earpiece back onto a secure channel. “They’ll have no idea where the broadcast came from.”

I bent down and jerked the guard’s spear off the ground. I turned to face him, holding the deadly weapon in one tightly-clenched fist. From the beginning I had planned to kill him after he gave me the intel that I wanted. But now, seeing the way he looked up at me in plain horror, this seemed like too cruel a betrayal. How could I promise mercy, but deliver destruction? Was the power going to my head already? Then again, letting him live might prove unwise – if I left him unattended, another guard might find him, and then the cat would be out of the bag.

Torn between caution and compassion, I finally made up my mind. I twirled the staff around once before thrusting the tip of the spear into sentry, electrocuting him just long enough to put him out of commission – but not long enough to kill him. Satisfied that I had made the right decision, I threw the spear aside. As soon as I had done so, Cami’s voice came blaring through my ear bud.

“Wanna explain to me why the walls are talking…and in your voice?”

“I tapped into the comm system,” I answered. “This was a godawful plan. I had to improvise.”

“By giving us a two-sentence history lesson?” she shot back. “Were you just trying to confuse the hell out of the Yolkians, or was that gibberish supposed to actually mean something?”

“Hmm, you think I was too subtle?”

As if in answer, a loud crash sounded in an adjoining room, followed by a cacophony of screeches.

“Whoops, gotta go,” I said, and took off running.





MOAR SOON THERE WILL BE ANIMALS HOKAY

[RocksmySocks]

BOOOM

CRAAAASH


SCREEEEEECH



Yay noise.



And whaaaaaaaa? I'm captured? Lol, I had to go wandering back through your previous chapters to see if that was mentioned already somewhere else. I found that Lady Ally and Writer Woman were captured, but no mention of Rat Lady. So this is my big debut! *debuts*


This chapter was awesome, and not just because I'm mentioned in it. Your description of the Yolkians made me really amused.

I had seen few Yolkians in my life, and always at a distance, for they were a haughty, insular race who preferred to keep their own company. But in that instant, no detail was spared – not the bulging purple eyes mounted on skinny stocks, nor the runny organs encased in a bubbling, artificial tank, nor the electric-tipped spear grasped in one metal hand.

You actually made them sound SERIOUS, like real freaky menaces! Haha, for some reason, I love that you're able to do that.


Yay for the new chapter! The whole thing was awesome, but particularly the parting convo at the end:

“Wanna explain to me why the walls are talking…and in your voice?”

“I tapped into the comm system,” I answered. “This was a godawful plan. I had to improvise.”

“By giving us a two-sentence history lesson?” she shot back. “Were you just trying to confuse the hell out of the Yolkians, or was that gibberish supposed to actually mean something?”

“Hmm, you think I was too subtle?”

As if in answer, a loud crash sounded in an adjoining room, followed by a cacophony of screeches.

“Whoops, gotta go,” I said, and took off running.

Pffffft. Hilarious.

[Beks]

YAY! Queen Mara to the rescue! Totally agree with what Rat Lady said

Can't wait for me and Rat Lady's debut!

[Mara=^.^=]

@Katie: Nah, I decided that I wanted it to be you, not Lady Ally (since you'll be reading it, and she won't). I changed it in the word document, but just forgot to switch it on IDOJ.

But it's all fixed now. W00t!

~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[RocksmySocks]

Awesome. *begins takeover of Mara's NK origins fic*

Wait, getting my personalities mixed up again. I have so many of them.

[Mara=^.^=]

I'm thiiiiiiiiis close to finishing this thing.

A few more pages, and we're good to go. As for when to expect it? God only knows. LOL


~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Mara=^.^=]

BTW this is Cami. As...well, Cami It fits so well!





LOL, and for those of you who have never seen the real Steph, this is her!



While I'm at it, here's the rest of the cast!

KO!


Mara!



Rat Lady!



Writer Woman!


(LOL, that's what you get for putting this on your facebook profile)

Captain:
uhh...wait...he's like the only fictional character...so no pic
I always pictured him as being half Asian or something. That, and sullen/plotting all the time LOL
If you find a pic that you think looks like him, by all means, post it.



~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Beks]

Woot! Go Cami!

Dawwww! Real Steph is just as cute as I pictured her! *pinches Steph's cheeks*

[Beks]

Personally, I would have picked this as my photo

[Mara=^.^=]

LOL, I know, but I was going for ACTUAL photos here


~*Mara*~ = ^.^ =

[Beks]

If only I had a tight-fitting red jumpsuit and a black trenchcoat...then I could take a real pic of the NK Writer Woman.