The Gathering

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Chapter Twenty-Seven

     The wave of beings thickens as he approaches the boarding hall that allows dimensional phases on and off the ship. Twenty-three stone pillars decorate the space outside the massive room, which glows from the hue of solid, blue light. Stone Pyramid technology is a wondrous thing and dangerous in the wrong hands -- he estimates as he counts the numberless heads that obscure the expanse between him and his only exit. They frantically push and shove their way though, attempting to be one of the first off the doomed ship, like cattle to the slaughter. It often confounds him to how such elevated creatures could act like such humans in human situations, to where their powers, abilities and gifts are absolutely useless in moments of crisis. And this was not even close to the icing on the cake. He leaps the fifty feet separating him from the tank top overhead, using the bulkhead as a leaping board on his ascent. His fingers and toes adhere to most surfaces like fleshy magnets, allowing him the ability to climb straight and difficult surfaces without equipment. His super natural strength and agility does the rest as he crawls along the ceiling like a baby across the floor. Looking down, he watches the disorder as minute skirmishes erupt along the way. The masses quickly display their solidarity and strength as they avert those wanting to cut in front of the line. He shakes his head in absolution while recognizing the futility of their efforts, for there will only be one leaving today. Their trip is far from over and the fun is just about to start.

     “Where did the little runt make it too?” Sam asks as he positions himself for a better view of her assets. The pain seems to die with the rise and fall of her perfect cheeks, from her movements. Then he takes a miss step from the lack of attention to what he was doing, but it was worth it for the view alone. His face contorts with the agony. His hand stumbles over the gash to reassure the safety of his innards.
     “I don’t know. Come on, if you’re coming?” She says, first turning to face him as she speaks then one, two, three hops as she quickens her pace. He stumbles after her, pain wrenching at his side and drool fading from his lips.
     Shock waves disintegrate the bonds that hold the rock formations of the pillars, sending debris down upon the waiting, unsuspecting. They cover their faces from the dust and curse the frailty of the ship as it fails around them. Suddenly, the decks begin to buckle as a second set of ripples tear through the reinforced deck plating. They cower from the instability as someone points out his menace, his presence as he delivers another wave of his disaster. The deck begins to split, opening up to the lower deck below, but not without the protest of the many who see him and prepare to retaliate. A massive, skeletal orb manifests from behind a corner and appears out of the dust cloud with a wave of blue energy in its wake. Deano senses its approach, yet does not question what it is. He fades and sinks into the tank top and reappears on the other side, one deck up. The intent is to encapsulate them inside the ship’s energy sphere, prohibiting them from any further movements. However, not always do things turn out the way he wants them. For he can no longer see the happenings on the other deck. Everything becomes unpredictable without his prodding hand to twist the amber’s like a decadent poker. But the assumption was clarification enough as they are most probably busy tearing at each other in the course of finding him. Suddenly, the deck at his feet sparks with a brilliant flash as the metal pools solidify to a deep red. He blindly swirls on a stable center to greet his attackers. A small group of Sunaj and Blind Women, armed with weapons and bio-wizardry. Their Orb stems overhead, like a vigilant watcher, beholder, seeing every detail, move he makes and will make. He shoots off two simultaneous bolts from his clenched fists and watches them be absorbed by an opaque barrier of energy. “Smooth, but what makes you think it can contain me?” He questions any one of the nameless. Silence persists as he looks over each of them.
     “We’ve been watching you and some of us even recognize you, or at least what you are.” A male voice speaks through the microphone of his helmet. “We have captured you and you will pay for everything you’ve done.” A second male’s voice speaks.
     “What makes you so sure?” He becomes intangible, the untouchable, the phantom of the night who can pass through any barrier, non-organic mass and most energy weapons. What did they have that could stop him? He questions and attempts to pass through the barrier’s outer limit. Then nothing, the barrier remains solid to him despite his state of phase. “What is this? I’ll fuck you all.” He scorns, as his becomes a mime act, touching an invisible wall, yet he is the specter.
     “No use fighting, just give yourself up.”
     At which he offers a simple smile as he overlooks the confines of the sphere.
     “It’s a phase barrier, meant to impede the use of phase technology, teleportation and beings just like you. Do you surrender?”
     “Go to hell.” He spits and answers with a long burst of his shockwave that rips through the barrier, like water rippling from the assault of a falling mountain. The phased energy begins to solidify and pulse as he overloads the organic generator held by one of the Blind Women. The device suddenly erupts in her hands sending shrapnel and flesh into the surrounding corridor, thus gripping the attention of one of the Sunaj. Deano focuses another ripple toward this one, encapsulating him in a wave of disintegrating matter. The deck and his armor tear and shatter at the seams, penetrating him within with the fragments. Another of the Sunaj attempts to dodge the collapsing deck but becomes victim to the failing and stumbles to the deck below. Then a Blind Women discharges her Phase Barrier upon him, encapsulating him within another sphere. “And we end up here again.” He comments, as he returns to looking at the remaining three.


Chapter Twenty-Eight

     Carter and Sam run toward what they hope to be the direction of the transient room. Sam follows in tow keeping pace, absorbed by the curves of her back, yet consistently falls behind. His wound is critical and he continues to bleed. “I can’t make it!” He yells out to her, distant down the corridor. “I have to stop…”

     She stops and turns to see him lagging behind, attempting to find support from the bulkhead. His left hand continues to succor the gash to his left. “Come-on if you’re coming. I’m not waiting for you.” She yells out, attempting to motivate him. She assumes him to be overplaying the ‘too wounded to continue’ bit, for her compassion. However, this has the trailing of severity as she watches him fall to the ground, catching himself with his right elbow. She returns to find him pale and lithe - babbling incoherently, crouched up against the bulkhead.
     “I need to see a Doctor or something... I can’t believe how much this fucken hurts.” He speaks, looking at his blood soaked hand. “Don’t worry. It’s not that bad, really.” Looking up to her, trying to convince her of his bravery.
     “Let me see.” She orders as she reaches down to lift his vestment. His bloody hand comes up, dripping the crimson that accentuates the lines, to the deck. He does not resist her as she lifts it to see a bloody gouge, crimson and peacock. It appears that his natural healing abilities have kicked in, but the wound itself has somehow become infected, as though diseased or leprous. She takes in a deep breath and contemplates her options while straightening up and scratching her right brow. From her purse, she manifests a small, silver pistol shape weapon. The brilliant pureness startles him as he catches the flash of it mirroring the corridor’s lighting.
     “Wow! What the hell is that?” As he looks at her hand with genuine concern at the pure silver pistol.
     “This is going to hurt you a lot more than it’s going to hurt me.”
     “Oh no you’re not.” He protests, shifting on the deck, pain tearing through him for his effort. He attempts to avoid the blow but catches it in his lower abdomen. He screams out from the assault as red-hot pain penetrates his being and spoils inward like burrowing worms. “Why’d you do that for?” He yells out, with no care for the consequences.
     “It’s similar to an IRMSS and Knitters for humans, but works for Super Natural Creatures.” She lifts his shirt again to find that the bullet wound is beginning to close. The open mess of his prior wound meshes and webs as though infinitesimal spiders are at work spinning webs of blood clutters. The blood stops almost immediately as he continues to whimper from the fact that she shot him.
     “What makes you think that? I’m not a monster.” Concern strewed into her eyes like a good actor.
     “I don’t know what you are, or who you are Mr. Sam Haynes. But do not insult me by continuing to lie. I know that you are, for it is as plain as the nose on your face. So be careful and grateful.” She warns with the silver weapon still flashing in her hand.
     “It feels like the sun is rising in my stomach. What the hell! I preferred it when it was only the stab wound.” He continues to examine the wounds. The gun shot fades almost immediately as the other turns the flesh to an off gray. “Is it supposed to be that color?”
“Come on, we haven’t much longer. Or do you wish to stay here and drown with the rest of them?”
     “How long will it last?”
     “I don’t know! 24 hours?”
     “I’m asking you.” He follows and maintains her pace. “I still can’t believe you shot me.”
     The act wears with his welcome.


Chapter Twenty-Nine

     The ship’s structural integrity begins to fail as the lower decks buckle and allow the water to enter. The human-slave population is swept away from the rushing currents and die from the force. Of the deities that can, they exit into the new world and Dimensional Teleport away leaving their belonging and vassals behind to their own fates.

     Carter and Sam greet an oncoming wave of ships’ security as they appear to be lured toward another part of the vessel. Up ahead are the sounds of conflict raging in the undertone of the ship collapsing. Almost immediately do the Orbs, which are two, cast furious lightning bolts upon both of them, urging cascading ripples of pain through her. Sam retorts with a massive high jump and kicks his aggressor with a mighty blow. The orb almost implodes from the force as he lands and darts forward with blinding speed. The space resounds with the tinge of vaporizing ozone as the Blind Women fire upon the blur that is his form in motion. Carter’s body continues to quack from the surge, filling her eyes with the mist that are her tears. The Sunaj commence to fire upon her paralyzed body and find the space, which glows from the searing heat of their weapons furor, vacant and abandoned. Suddenly, one of the Guards disappears. His tumbling body resonates off the failing bulkheads some 50 feet away, as another feels the sharp thrust of solid menace climbing up, through his helmet and into his jaw. The bone ruptures with the pulse, sending fragments shattering through the remainder of his skull. One of the women spots Carter as she pushes her extended foot through her opponents’ face, sending him crumbling to the deck. The blind sentry then aims and fires. Suddenly, the weapon lifts and dissolves from her hands as the trigger verges on the limit of discharge. As she stands confused, her body falls to the deck, collapsing at the chest. Her armor and protective shrouding are ineffective against assault as her lungs fill with blood and tissue.
     With the weapon in his hand, he twirls with a semi crouched demeanor to face the primary mass of the group and discharges it's upon them. The ensuing ripple of translucent energy creates a barrier around them, encasing them and the Orbs behind an unconquerable cell. Sam considers another tactic while watching Carter disappear into the depth of the corridor. He stumbles and follows behind, leaving the thought with the imprisoned.

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Chapter Thirty

     Deano simply sits to the deck with a smile on his lips as he considers a thought. The field is weightless and soft to his touch, reminding him of the leathery touch of a fruit husk. “I’ll just sit here and wait for you all to drown. I will overcome the field generator, like I did the first, and swim to safety.”

     “Considering that, if you were on earth. But we are not, this is not...” One of the males’ voice contemplates and argues before his feet dance to the shift of the dying vessel. A screech of colliding metal overcomes the void space of the inner cavity of the ship. Suddenly, it heavily lists to one side, driving everyone to move toward the sound. Urgency and panic overcomes their alien words, where then one finds flight and crashes into the solid barrier of his prison. Where the man once stood now, is finds the imposing figure of Sam Haynes, Summer’s End in another language, brooding over the collection of the bewildered. Seizing the opportunity, Deano delivers a massive blow with his fists and releases the control he held on the phased cellular structure of the barrier. The sequential result is a tremendous impact, ripping through the energy field and the deck below, streaming outward toward the collective.
     Sam reaches over, grabbing one of the women by the throat. She blindly tears at his other hand as it meets her hair. The end is her blood covering his hand as the Orb unleashes fury upon his resistant body. Her body drops and bounces off the lower deck then fade into the fracture, created by Deano’s shockwave. Water begins to rush into the space with the devil’s rage, crushing the fabric of the ship’s hull. Swept by the force of the current, they all fall into the fissure that leads to the Transient Room. Only Carter’s antipathy lingers in their ears as the flood presses them against the hold with an unbreakable bond. The sense of weight turns to melancholy as the asphyxiating grip of the water’s ice cold mass lifts from their throats and fills them with the feeling of de-materialization. They fade with the death of the Empress.