Chapter 12 - A Captain Goes Down With his Ship
Quizzical had ordered the populace of the small
city inside, bells tolled across the city and Abstracts rushed about the
streets, trying to get to their houses or into the central guild building and
its well-defended walls.
If Quizzy had wings, she’d have flown up the stairs
to the flat roof of the guild. There’d been little time to get the city ready
for any sort of
She stood in her armour, standing at attention before
a group of other soldiers. She was the only one not armed to the teeth with a
bow and arrows, these arrows were created a new of the guilds
The first explosion rocked the city and Khuuka
Quizzical raised her sword just as the second bomb
dropped and the second explosion cracked on the ground and destroyed another
block of buildings. The Guardian couldn’t have spared a moment to think of the lives
that had just been cut
Quizzical watched a group of the Breakers closer to
the intruding vehicles pull their bows back and let loose a volley of arrows
into the side of one of the flying vehicles, they struck with a great cracking of
explosions as if a firing squad had just gunned someone down. The ship rocked
but didn’t fall, smoke poured from the hole in its side as it rocketed above
Quizzical’s head. The nine ships split from each other, forcing the Guardian to
shout orders to the group of Breakers around her to pursue each of them and
take them out of the sky around the city as fast as possible.
Quizzical on the other hand
The Guardian broke into a sprint, placing her hand
to her back and drawing her sword from its holster but not allowing it to
extend out, instead, she kept it as a cylinder in her hand. The ship she was following
banked at the edge of the city and turned, dropping its second bomb and
angering Quizzical further before rocketing towards the Guardian at a dizzying speed.
Quizzical tucked her head in and reached the edge
of the building before planting herself on the edge of the building and leaping
from the edge towards the flying ship, she tucked herself into a tight roll in the
air as the abstract leapt sailed through the air.
Quizzical was weightless for a moment before there
was a meaty thump as she smacked into the glass shield. She looked through the
window, her eyes locking with those of a Novan man, he looked rather shocked underneath
the helmet he was wearing, surprised that the Abstract hadn’t just smeared
across the windshield with the force of the impact.
----------
“Glo what was that?” Roe shouted through the comms,
“Glo we’re being hammered!”
“It was an Abstract, Roe,” Glo replied, his voice
perfectly level, “I’m looking at her.”
“What do you mean you’re looking at her?” Rue
asked, flicking the third switch to his left and listening to the loud clattering
noise that was another bomb dropping from the rack beneath the ship. “You mean we’ve
been shot or something?”
Roe turned in his seat just in time to hear Glo’s
shout of surprise as the Abstract plastered over their windshield drew their
arm back and slammed a powerful fist into the glass, creating a long spidery
crack across the clear surface. Glo immediately set the ship into its autopilot
mode and unbuckled himself from the straps over his shoulders. The glass was meant
to be reinforced and could take a hail of bullets before cracking, even in a vacuum,
but this Abstract had punched it once and nearly shattered it.
“That can’t be good…” Roe muttered, unbuckling
himself as well , watching the Abstract’s fist slam down on the glass again,
extending the crack into a circular net of weakened glass.
The pair of Novans backed themselves against the
rear of the cockpit, pistols drawn on the Abstract on their windshield.
“You alright no.1 ?” A voice crackled across Glo and
Roe’s communications, “You’ve set to autopilot?”
“Not particularly, we have a stowaway on our
windshield,” Glo replied, watching the Abstract pummelling the shield to get
inside.
“On your shield?” The voice that came through was
mixed with a confused static, “What do you mean on your shield?”
Glo sighed, “I mean she’s on our shield, dumbass,
how hard is that to…” He didn’t get to finish his sentence as the windshield
finally gave out under Quizzical’s pummelling and shards of glass exploded into
the cockpit, followed quite rapidly by a seething Abstract clad in hard black armour.
Glo could tell almost immediately that she was a
Guardian from her obvious anger and ferocity, the same creed of Abstracts Cat
had been so proud of almost defeating. Whichever Abstract that Cat had defeated
was unlikely to have had such fire burning in her deep purple eyes.
“You come to our home!” The Guardian shouted,
darting forwards at such a tremendous speed Glo’s eyes could barely keep up.
“You kill our people!”
The Abstract snarled from across the cockpit and
Glo willed a connection to be made between himself and his Nobility, just at
the right moment too. The silver sword whistled down through the air and
clashed with a rippling shield made from blue lightning, deflecting the
infinitely sharp blade off to the side where it bit into the metal wall of the
cockpit as it would have done to Glo’s skull.
Roe cried out in shock, he’d never seen a Noble use
their abilities before and watching Glo’s arms spark with lightning was so very
impressive yet terrifying in his mortal eyes. Even more so when the pale man
stretched the blue sparks across his wrist and down his arm, forming what
looked like a glowing blue kite shield from the pulsing blue energy.
“We have no personal quarrel with you, Guardian!”
Glo shouted, swiping his arm down again to deflect another blow from the deadly
sword, another came down almost immediately and Glo deftly sidestepped it.
“Your quarrel with me began when your damned kind started
this war, Noble!” The Guardian shouted in reply before noticing Roe was
swinging his pistol up to take aim at her. Her kick was swift and effective,
Roe’s wrist snapped back, forcing the firearm out of his grip, it skittered
across the room and out of reach of either of the Novans. The unfortunate
gunner howled and dropped to his knees, clutching his shattered hand to his
chest, bone and tendons had crunched and snapped from the Guardian’s strike.
Now it looked as if someone had stretched a tight film over a mass of rocks
thrust into the ground at odd angles.
Glo took the moment of distraction to roll away
from the Abstract and aim a shot at her head, it missed as the black-clad woman
took a single step forward when his weapon clicked, the action seeming to make
her vanish into the air and reappear on the other side of the room where she
snarled and held her sword in a fencer’s stance before her.
Glo swore loudly, his shot had hit something isin important
in the ship and alarms began blaring around them, just adding to the chaos and
confusion. The Abstract took another swing at him, Glo stumbled back to avoid
the swing that would have cleaved his head from his body. Instead of bisecting
Novan flesh and spilling Noble blood, the sword tore through the Pilot’s seat and
sent the foamy filling of the chair flying up into the air to scatter at Glo’s
feet.
The Abstract leapt forwards and vaulted the seat,
launching herself towards Glo with her sword out, ready to pierce his throat.
Luckily for the Novan, the ship lurched and sent them both reeling along the
floor of the cockpit, a close series of explosions rocked the Pleiades and more
lights and alarms flashed on the monitors throughout the tight room.
Glo and Quizzical rolled to their feet on the wall
of the cabin, the Guardian’s sword-strikes being deflected over and over by the
glowing blue shield Glo had formed on his arm. The rippling lightning was
weakening though with the ever more powerful blows from the Abstract.
Roe shouted and grabbed the yolk with his
functional hand, wrenching it to the side in a futile attempt to steady the
spinning ship. Instead, the Pleiades banked and rolled to the other side,
rolling the Guardian and the Noble further about the cabin. Glo and the
Abstract tumbled across each other, punches were thrown between the two until
they managed to untangle from each other and square each other down.
Glo stared at the Guardian, she was holding her
side and bleeding from her nose, but she was still standing there, staring at
him and snarling through bared teeth. Glo leant down and picked up the pistol
at his feet, it was the one Roe had been holding in his now shattered hand.
“Just take your sword and leave, Guardian.” Glo
ordered, “You’ve lost this bout.”
“I have a name, Noble.” The Abstract growled
underneath her breath, starting to slowly walk over to where her sword was
lying on the ground.
“And what is that, Guardian?” Glo asked, trying to
keep himself balanced as the ship lurched beneath his feet again, his eyes
locked on the Abstract woman before him.
“Quizzical Aphré.” She said, “And you, Noble?”
Roe was rather unimpressed to have been completely
ignored by the Abstract, although after considering she’d nearly managed to
overpower Glo with his unfathomable amount of power, he decided to keep his
head down and hide behind the chairs in the middle of the cockpit as he cradled
his shattered hand.
“Glo Prizmatica, charmed to meet you Miss Aphré.” Glo
replied, straightening out and offering her his hand.
Quizzical didn’t take the hand, instead, she spun
and swung a kick at Glo’s head. It stung when he caught her heel in the palm of
his hand, but he immediately lost his grip on it as the Pleiades started its
tumble from the sky.
Fear was overarching throughout the cabin, the
three were terrified for their lives as smoke began to fill the small space.
The ground was coming up fast, alarms were blaring through the room and
blocking out all the other sounds besides the roar of straining engines to keep
the ship in the air.
Glo looked over the other occupants of the cabin
and suddenly felt a compulsion from his Nobility, he didn’t exactly know why,
but he knew that he couldn’t let this Abstract die in the crash. Quizzical was
important, more so than he originally thought, almost reacting on instinct Glo
threw his hands out and grunted with effort as he begged his Nobility to lend
him its power.
The ship smashed into the ground, horribly hard,
the noise was deafening, and the occupants of the cockpit were thrown up into
the air and about the cabin before hitting the ground
----------
Quizzical landed hard, pain blossoming over her
body and red mist clouding her vision. The crash had been terrifying, and she
was in utter agony with her arm twisted beneath her, she shook her spinning
head and spat blood onto the floor of the cockpit before struggling to her
feet. Her sword looked like it was a mile away and swimming in her bloodied
vision, she knew that she was badly concussed and probably had a myriad of
fractures all over her body. It took her a few moments to muster up the
willpower in order to stumble over to where her sword was lying and fall down to
her knees next to it to pick the shiny blade up. It had somehow survived the crash.
She had completely forgotten about the Novans in
the ship alongside her, more important to her at the moment was the gash on her
head that was dripping red down the side of her face and her probably snapped
ribs and shattered arm.
She replaced the sword back behind her after a few
failed attempts, letting it melt back into its smaller, more storable cylinder
which she slipped into its holster with a shaky hand. Her head spun again and
she leant against the port in the front of the ship which had housed the window
she had punched in. Nausea wracked her body for a few moments and she spat more
blood from her mouth, she felt like she was going to cough her stomach up out
her mouth.
Before she could take another step, she felt
herself be swept from her feet by a strong arm. She instinctively grabbed onto
whoever it was who had picked her up so she didn’t topple over, finding her
gloved fingers grasping a ragged shirt covering ashen white skin she first
thought in her delirium that her brother had swooped down from the sky to carry
her off to where she wouldn’t have had to fight anymore.
Much to her surprise and… moderate displeasure, her
senses snapped through the mesh covering them and she realised that she was
being carried rather roughly over the shoulder of the tall Noble who had just
tried to murder her. She couldn’t really do anything besides punch weakly at
his arm as he ran away from the spacecraft behind them. The other Novan was
under Glo’s other arm, he was limp, completely unconscious. He was being
mindful of her broken bones and was being as gentle as he could while running
along the road.
The Novan glanced over his shoulder and picked up
his pace, he was pretty much sprinting away from the ship, his boots pounding
along the Imaginary ground with heavy crunches through the rubble that had been
thrown up by the Pleiades’ impact.
Quizzical still struggled, although less so now,
Glo’s grip on her was too tight and she was too weak to get anywhere on her
own. Eventually, she felt herself being flung heavily off to the side, followed by
the Novan throwing himself off to the side into one of the buildings . Luckily
the glass of the window had already been smashed and the trio landed on a bed
made from broken shards without having to break it themselves. The pain from
landing on her broken arm threw her into a swimming daze and she howled through
it, blood leaking from her nose like a shower turned to full.
----------
Quizzical grit her teeth as more explosions shook
the city, she’d never felt this scared in her life. If only eight Novan ships
could reduce Khuuka to rubble in under an hour, she feared what the whole army
could do to Perception if the city was besieged . Her hands were covered in
Novan blood, pressing a soaked rag to the gory wound in Roema ’s stomach.
He had held his hands over her and her bones had
healed quickly, although she was still suffering from a few broken ribs.
Even though he was the enemy, Quizzical had helped
stabilise Roe. The other Novan had been injured far more than Glo or Quizzical
had been and he’d been quite scarily close to death’s door. For now, she was
acting more out of self-preservation, Glo obviously had more than enough power
to blast her off the face of Imagination and Quizzical would rather keep
breathing than infuriate the other Novan by letting his friend die.
Glo had reassured her that he wouldn’t hurt her
anymore, but that didn’t make her lower her guard. She was afraid of the man,
more like how one would respect a god because of what it could do to you if you
were to forget your place. She had now gone head-to-head with two nobles and
been outmatched both times. Considering neither of the Nobles had been fighting
full -on, she didn’t think that even all the Guardians had any chance of taking
one down in a fair fight.
“Yes, the bloody ship’s gone down,” Glo repeated
into his wrist, he’d been repeating the same conversation for a few minutes
now, “I don’t know, it’s not like I can get back to Nova on my own.”
He paused for a moment as if listening to
something, the Noble glanced over his shoulder at the Quizzical before speaking
again into his wrist, “I’m time, not dimensions. If you want someone from your
side to bring me back, go and bother Quantum. Good luck with that though, he
hates me.”
“Quizzical.”
Glo’s commanding voice made the Guardian jump in surprise, “Are you fit to take
me and my gunner back to Terra?”
Glo’s
question surprised Quizzical, she had been expecting to have been arrested by
the Pilot instead of him asking for her help in getting back to Nova.
“Not
right now, but given time I’ll be fine, but I don’t want to commit more treason
than I already have by helping Roema .” Quizzical muttered, not moving from
beside the unconscious Novan. “I’m sorry Glo but I do not think I can help you
and retain my honour as Guardian.”
“There
is an honour in helping us, Guardian.” Glo persuaded, looking over her, “I
believe I saved your life, and I didn’t kill you either.”
“I
know I owe you a debt, Noble. But I won’t simply break my oaths to this world
in order to return you to yours.” Quizzical replied, “Keeping your friend alive
will not cut close to you saving my life, I can do a lot for you, but I don’t
think I can return you home… at least not yet.”
“How
about we stay here until we manage to find a way home. ” Glo told her, “You just
don’t mention us, and we’ll stay quiet and out of everyone’s way, and you will
supply us with food, water and medical care.”
“I
think I can do that, although if you’re caught and tell anyone that I helped
you I’ll get banished from Imagination.” Quizzical said, “If you somehow don’t
get caught, you’ll owe me for essentially committing treason.”
“Somehow
I know that I’ll manage to repay you, Guardian.” Glo muttered, coming away from
the window and kneeling down beside the Abstract. “I can take over from here,
thank you.”
Quizzical
nodded and allowed Glo to place his hands over Roe’s bleeding wound, there was
none of his Noble magic now, the lightning that had crackled across his arms
when he was fighting against her was replaced with tender care for his
companion and what looked like genuine concern. Going into the war, Quizzical
had been told that Novans were all loveless destroyers, incapable of feeling
any emotions besides rage and lust. Nobles were worse, only self-serving gods who
would rather watch a planet burn than have to go down to it’s surface for the
inconvenience of saving it.
“I’ll
check up on you, Novans.” Quizzical said, “Stay here.”
Glo
nodded Quizzical watched Glo care for Roe for a few moments before piecing
herself together, the Guardian carefully vaulted out of the window with a lot
of things to think about. The bombing had gone quiet half an hour prior and the
other Abstracts would be searching for her, she didn’t want to be anywhere near
the pair of Novans when she was found for fear of exposing them.
----------
After
Quizzical, the Guardian, had left them, Glo had been left to care for his
injured comrade with limited medical knowledge. He was relying on Novan’s quick
rate of healing and his reliance seemed to be paying off, Roe had stopped
bleeding, but his skin was almost the same colour as Glo’s.
There
was little else that the Noble could do besides stare out of the window and
wait. The coming weeks, Glo managed to keep himself and Roe hid well enough.
He was happy that the Abstract woman who had tried to kill him had suffered a
change of heart and checked up on them every few days. Each time she visited
she would bring them some food and clean water and stories about other battles
that were happening across Imagination and Terra. Quizzical looked a lot
cleaner now though, a rough contrast to the Novans’ grime-covered clothes and
soot-stained hands.
Roe
was up on his feet by the second time she came to check on them, completely
oblivious to the situation, he had swung a feeble excuse for a punch at the
Abstract. She had caught it easily and swiftly put him on the floor, her sword
at his throat in a silent threat that she could kill him in an instant.
Glo
explained the situation to Roe, who swiftly nodded and backed off from the
Abstract. Quizzical had sat down gracefully next to Glo and recounted the
week’s stories before giving the pair the morsels of food that they had to make
last until Quizzical’s next visit, Glo couldn’t begin to explain how grateful he
was to the Guardian.
After
three weeks trapped in Imagination and six visits from the Guardian, Glo began
to see her in a much different light to the violence he’d learned from the
other Abstracts. He wasn’t really sure how, but he accidentally began to grow
close to the athletic woman. Roe, not so much though, the camaraderie was still
alive and well between the two Novans, but the gunner was petrified of the
Guardian.
Roe’s
hand hadn’t healed properly from her vicious kick, he could only move three of
his fingers and the bones had set terribly. It looked better than it had when
Quizzical had first snapped his wrist, but it was still riddled with odd lumps
and outcroppings. Glo assured Roe that it could be properly healed back on
Nova, but he’d have to be happy he still had his life after the crash.
Quizzical
was fine with the gunner not talking to her, she didn’t particularly care for
him or the other Novan. She only visited to tell the Noble what had been going
on in the world while he was in hiding and to make sure they were still
breathing. She also had some questions for him, none of which he could answer
solidly for fear of giving away the military secrets of Nova to an Abstract.
Each time she visited, Glo took notice of the time she spent lingering at the
door to watch him. At first, she just glanced over her shoulder and quickly
exited the building, but now she was lingering at the door for about half a
minute to study the Noble before exiting the building.
Originally
it was a little unnerving that the Abstract would spend so long just watching him,
but now he was finding some comfort in her company. Glo was lost , he was never
expecting to have been dropped into another world and have to hide from the
inhabitants, the Guardian was the little shaft of light piercing through the
dense leaves and branches of a thick canopy of uncertainty and fright.
Glo
was wrong to think that Quizzical trusted him, not yet at least, the Guardian
was uncertain of his intentions and she knew that he was becoming more and more
dangerous every day. Despite her paranoia and his uncertainty, a small flame of
friendship began to spark to life between the pair. They both knew that it was
foolish to make friends with the enemy during wartime, Glo would be ousted from
the Nobles and shunned by Nova while Quizzical ran the risk of being tried for
treason and banished from Imagination.
Banishment
from Imagination was a little more frightening than just being thrown out of
the dimension, banishment was more of a death sentence to most Abstracts, and
not a pleasant one at that. A banished Abstract would be sent to the dimension
of Malphesut , a world where nearly everything was made from copper and oxygen,
a world of malachite. An Abstract sent there would suffer for days before their
scarred and burned body eventually gave out and they were granted the mercy of
death. Sometimes something went wrong when an Abstract was banished and they
were sent somewhere else, like some had been banished to Terra or other worlds
where less savoury things lurked.
The Guardian
knew this too well and so hid her blossoming friendship with the Novan hiding
in the suburbs of Khuuka behind tight-fitting leather armour and steely looks.
About
a month after the battle above the hospital-city, Quizzical decided she would
take Roe and Glo home to Terra. She wouldn’t risk sweeping a gate directly to Nova,
instead electing to leave them in one of the neighbouring systems and hope they
would be able to take themselves home.
----------
“So,
I guess this is goodbye?” Glo asked, watching the Abstract work in the dim
room, “At least until we meet again.”
“I
think it is.” Quizzical replied, glancing at him over her shoulder. She wasn’t
wearing her armour today, making this the first time Glo had seen her without
it. She had replaced it with a dark green jacket and a tank-top like shirt , the
Novan was rather surprised when she had walked through the door to the building
and he’d seen just how young she looked when out of her armour. He observed
that on Nova, she could easily pass as still being fifteen years old even
though she had informed him that she was almost twenty-five.
“You
don’t have to look too excited Roema .” Quizzical joked, smiling at the gunner
who was cracking his first smile since they crashed on the alien world. The
Novan’s grin quickly vanished under her sarcasm, leading to an amused laugh from
the Guardian.
“I’m
sorry that I’m finally escaping this hellhole and getting to somewhere I can
actually get a full meal and some painkillers.” Roe countered, “Can you just
get on with it?”
“Don’t
be rude Roe, we’re very lucky that she’s helping us at all in her
circumstances.” Glo chastised his gunner, “You’re fortunate she kept you alive
too after we tried to kill her.”
The
gunner grumbled and Quizzical’s tittering laugh lit the room up once more, Glo
couldn’t help but smile when he heard the Abstract’s happiness, he didn’t
realize it at first but he had grown to enjoy her companionship when she had
come to tell them the war stories.
“There,
I have a grip.” Quizzical declared before pushing her hand into the wall, “Be
quick, this wall isn’t playing well.”
With
that Glo witnessed something incredible, the first time he’d seen an Abstract
open a gate between two different worlds. Quizzical swept the wall aside as
easily as she would brush a curtain from her path, revealing an alley in a
bustling city through the shimmering gate.
Roe
quietly thanked the Abstract before almost diving through the aperture in the
wall, the glee on his face when he got into the fresh air was unmistakable.
“Thanks,
Quizzy. Really thank you.” Glo smiled at her and offered her his hand.
Quizzical carefully accepted it and squeezed his palm, Glo shook it heartily
much to the Abstract’s surprise. “I’m in your debt.”
He
let his hand rest on her shoulder a moment before ducking through the portal
after his gunner, he waved through the hole and smiled at the Abstract,
Quizzical returned his grin and let go of the Candelaum.
The
gate closed with the silent ruffling of the candelaum, Quizzical immediately
cursed herself and leaned her head against the wall. She shouldn’t have helped
the Novans, nothing good would come of giving them any assistance . She didn’t
regret it, Glo wasn’t a bad person and Roema was just frightened of her if
anything she was just a little upset that she’d let her friend go even if she
was keeping him captive here.
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