Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 18:14:26 +0800 From: Leo Huang Subject: Tales of a Superhero Band Chapter 22 With thanks to Jordi, Aeoros, Rune and Mikey for being the coolest friends on the net! Thanks for being there guys! Especially dedicated to Justin, Jeremy and Louis. The three of you have inspired more new parts of this story. Quidditch and lightsabers forever, brothers! :D ALSO NOTE: I've been in National Service (fancy term for "slave of the government") since Sept 17th, and I've gotten a few ideas down, but updates will be coming slowly. Bear with me, things will be back to normal (roughly) around December 15 or so! :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Disclaimer: This story is fictional, and says nothing about the orientations of any member of the boyband N Sync, or any other character, celebrity or otherwise. If you are under 18 or 21, or live in a country where it's illegal to read something like this, leave, though I seriously doubt you will. If you don't like the idea of two guys in a relationship with each other, or having sex with each other, what are you doing here in the first place? Though maybe none of the characters will be appearing, ideas taken from these places will show up: Star Wars, Copyright LucasFilms, Created by George Lucas Buffy, Copyright 20th Century Fox, Created by Joss Whedon X-Men, Copyright Marvel Comics, Created by Stan Lee Charmed, Copyright WB, Created by Aaron Spelling Animorphs, Copyright Scholastic, Created by K.A. Applegate Harry Potter, Copyright JK Rowling (due to James' addition of Harry Potter to his Dark Knight series, I find myself adding it in too, but the character may never appear in the story. However, loving Quidditch as much as I do... :D ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 22 - Deception "Rachel, now is a really, really, really bad time to be calling me," I groaned to my mobile phone. Rachel ignored my comment. "Well, I thought it should concern you," Rachel said, and I could imagine her customary pout over the phone. "How many vampires do you know fly planes, and how many slayers do you know get mass murdered?" Rachel had followed Joey to San Francisco for some reason or the other that he had told me the other day, but the concerns about my friends had distracted me. I told him to take Rachel with him in case of anything (I was scared that Juffrey may target Joey if I wasn't around) and apparently they had ran into something mysterious in San Francisco, but I had other, more urgent thoughts on my mind. "Could I call you back?" I asked. Rachel mumbled an affirmative and hung up. I put my cell phone back into my pocket, then looked up at the Friends of Humanity guards who had their weapons pointed my direction. "Sorry about that, guys," I said. "Important call." I mentally reminded myself to put my phone on silent next time I wanted to infiltrate an armed building. With a grunt, the guards began shooting at me, their bullets whizzing harmlessly through me. I could hear Wei grumbling over the psychic "channel" that Jumadi had set up in our minds so we could communicate with our thoughts. So I ruined the plan a little by getting caught, it wasn't like they could shoot me to death. Wei said rather sarcastically. He may be a muggle-born wizard, but he still carried their prejudices against druids and hedges, which irritated Khan and I to no end. Dean said. Dean is Sahruddin's nickname, by the way. It was easier for us all. Wei asked. I thought about it for a moment. Khan asked. Wei said matter-of-factly. Dean snapped. Wei replied. I just shook my head. "If you say so," Dean said, dropping the illusion around himself and the others. The five-on-one odds earlier suddenly became one-on-one, and we had the upper hand, the stupid guards having wasted all their bullets on me. A swift double roundhouse kick to the head rendered the one in front of me unconscious. An energy blast from Khan knocked out the other one. Dean formed illusionary minions to fight the third for him, then kicked the back of the guy's head when he was distracted. Jumadi knocked the fourth out psychically, and Wei's "petrificus totalus" spell left the last guard in a rather comatose state. "So Plan B was basically to storm in and forcefully obtain the files we're looking for?" I asked. Jumadi nodded. "Pretty much." "What do we need those files for anyway?" I asked. "What's it got to do with Juffrey?" "It has a record of all the places he's targetted recently," Dean said. "With those records, we'll be able to figure out his base of operations and rescue our friends from his control." "And why couldn't we just hack the computer?" "Because of me. Are you guys just going to stand here and talk all day?" The five of us turned to look at the speaker. Eddie was relatively tall with average looks and monkey ears that I enjoyed pulling. His face, usually contemplative, looked positively sinister. I could sense something around him that made me uncomfortable. "Blab, blab, blab," another voice said. "Unlike the master, they lack action." "CK," I said. Chee Keong, of Keong for short, was another friend of ours, and a cousin of Wei's. Like him, he was Chinese as well, and had the typical black hair and dark, almond shaped eyes. He had changed from glasses to contacts, making him look less studious and "gwai" as he called it (it generally means "goody", or "obedient"). His mutant powers were considered "useless" by many people (all he could do was make litle lights that couldn't do any damage whatsoever), and he was often quiet and shy, but today he was also out of character. "Keong, you too?" Wei asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "How did you get controlled by that madman?" "He doesn't control this body," Keong replied. "He controls me, who controls this host." "Is that some kind of Zen thing? Because I really don't get it," Dean said. Keong flung his hand out, tossing Dean back a few feet, but with such force that Dean was unconscious before he even hit the ground. "That was not one of his powers," Wei muttered, shaking his head. Khan's anger blazed, his eyes shooting sparks. He gathered energy into his hands to shoot a blast at Keong. "Energy blast," Eddie stated, and Keong nodded. Khan's plasma blast shot towards Keong, who blocked it easily with his hand, and threw it back at Khan, knocking the mutant witch out. "Three on two now," Wei said, his voice strangely emotionless. "Three on four," Jumadi corrected. "I sense four life-forms there, not two." "Are you sure?" I asked, summoning energy to myself. I heard Eddie calling out "summoning spell, fleas," but I ignored him. The fleas were too small and fast for Keong or Eddie to hit them with powers, and the itch caused by their bites could really ruin a person's concentration, buying us time. A swarm of fleas descended on them from all directions, called from their homes on every single stray dog, cat and rat in the area (and judging by the number of fleas, there were plenty in this area). Both my friends cursed and began swatting in all directions in a desperate but futile attempt to keep the fleas off them. "Oh, thanks," Jumadi said sarcastically. "You just screwed my life-form scan." "Anytime," I replied. "So what was it you said about four life-forms?" "That there are four life-forms there, not two," Jumadi said. I couldn't tell if he was kidding or being serious. Wei assumed the latter. "Well that really helps us," he said snidely. "Well, actually, it does," I said. I ran through the mess of fleas and grabbed Eddie, turning him intangible. I heard a large splat, and a fat slug-like creature landed on the ground. Eddie quickly grabbed it up and shoved it in the pocket of his cargo pants, then zipped the pocket closed. I requested the fleas to leave, and they did, leaving Keong standing there alone, scratching his arms and legs. I grabbed him before he could react, and did the same thing to him that I did to Eddie. As I expected, another of the slug-like things fell to the floor. Keong gasped and shook his head. "No!" In an unusually swift move, he grabbed the creature and began to run. Wei pointed his wand and shouted "Locomotor mortis!" Keong's legs immediately stuck together as if they were magnets, and he fell, dropping the creature. Jumadi scooped it up and put it in his cargo pants pockets. We always wore cargo pants when we went on missions, even the scenario ones we did in school. They're useful to carry things around in like a stake, a holy symbol of some sort, or some documents we found. "What the heck are those things?" Wei asked, walking to Eddie. "They're called yeerks," Eddie replied. "They take over the brains of their hosts and they're able to read all our memories. But I found it works both ways, we can sometimes access their thoughts and memories. Juffrey snuck one up on me while Keong distracted me." "Why did you do that?" I asked Keong. His face was pale, and looked rather distressed, continuously glancing at Jumadi's pocket containing the yeerk that had infested him. "He's a voluntary," Eddie said, sounding disappointed. "He willingly accepted the yeerk. When it leaves him to go to the yeerk pool, he doesn't get grabbed screaming and kicking by the hork-bajir or the taxxons." "Woah, woah, hold it," I said. "You're gonna have to explain things a lot more, it's way over my head. And possibly somewhere safer too." "Yeah," Eddie agreed. "Those five goons could wake up any time, and the rest are at the yeerk pool. There's one hidden in this building." "Are all the Friends of Humanity infested?" Wei asked. Eddie shook his head. "This is the only installation of their the yeerks infested. It's low-security, and provides a perfect cover to keep troublemakers away." "Come on, then, let's go," Wei said. "I hate this place even more than I first did." Keong rose to his feet, tears streaming down his furious face. "No, I won't go with you." "Come on," Jumadi said, holding his hand out to Keong. "We have to leave, the yeerk jerk thing messed with your brains." Keong slapped the hand away. "It didn't, I chose for myself." He slipped into a martial arts stance. "I'll fight you if I have to." "Vocare ceruchus," Wei said. Magical ropes appeared from nowhere, binding Keong up. "Sorry cousin, but we need to get some sense into your head. Now lets get the two sleeping beauties and get the hell out of here." "Keong." My friend ignored me, pushing the bowl of cold cereal away from his face. I sat across from him, the leaning forwards on the back of the chair. "Keong, what's wrong?" Keong scowled. "Nothing." I couldn't understand it, he had always been cheerful and optimistic, despite being teased for having what many considered a useless power. He tended to think a little slowly as well, and earned him many hurtful names such as "retard" and "386", despite him being a straight A student. But through it all, he maintained an air of confidence and brightness about him that made him beautiful, inside and out. He had a curious nature, and retained a childlike innocence about him, even at twenty. But all that seemed to have changed. "Keong, please," I pleadedm trying to look him in the eye. "Tell me what's wrong." Keong sighed. "I'm useless, I'm stupid. Even the yeerk said so, and he could tap into more areas of my brains and powers that I can't. I'm a waste of time, a stupid mistake." I gently picked up his hand, and squeezed it none too gently when he tried to yank it out of my grasp. "That's not true at all." "What do you know?" Keong asked, tanking his hand, this time succeeding in breaking my grip. "I know that there's power in you," I said truthfully. "A power that no one else sees, hidden behind your powers of making lights. It's a power stronger than any magic or power I could summon. A fire of the spirit." I smiled a little. "Forgive me, but your eyes make me feel poetic, they're so soulful." Keong smiled a little, but lacked his normal radiance, but at least it was a start. Jumadi walked over to the small wooden table we sat at and joined us. He reached up and touched Keong's forehead with his fingers. I felt energy disperse through the room, and Keong shivered, his eyes wide. "I finally figured it out," Jumadi grinned. "Remember Fury? I always ended up fighting him, I should have recognised his trademark. He could control other peoples' emotions, and his was rather subtle about it. He would instill a subtle emotion like depression or despondancy, and then a week later hit his target with some other active emotion to cause trouble and chaos. I had to remove both his obvious and subtle effects, but I overlooked it this time." "Too concerned with the yeerks, huh?" I asked. Eddie had explained about the yeerks being a parasitic alien race that infested the minds of their hosts and can read every thought. They had an mutual symbiosis with a race called the taxxons, which looked like giant centipedes with red jello-like eyes, and they had enslaved another alien race called the hork-bajir, creatures taller than a man with spikes and blades protruding from their bodies, which Eddie said was used for cutting bark and branches from the trees on their home planet, but the yeerks used for attacks. What was most disturbing was the number of voluntary human-controllers, most of them with low self-esteem and inferiority complexes, or with destructive tendencies. And they were Juffrey's allies. "Yeah," Jumadi said. "We came up with a plan earlier, we need to strike back and rescue our friends. Eddie can help us get into the yeerk pool, but we'll need to strike hard and fast to get our friends out. Our odds are roughly fifteen to one, and all of them are armed with either guns, lasers or natural weapons. There's also a possibility that the Chaos Mongers will be around to help the yeerks, since Seer often reads our plans with his powers. We'll be seriously outmatched, but it's better than nothing." "We can get the non-gifteds to help, can't we?" I asked. Jumadi nodded slowly. "That'll help us a little. I'll bring it up with the others." "So lemme get this straight," Joey said over the phone. "Everyone in your school has powers." "Yup," I confirmed. "So what in the world is the difference between a gifted and a non-gifted?" Joey asked comically. I laughed. "Gifteds are those born with their powers, like mutants, or witches whose familes have had the power for at least seven generations. Melvin's kindred powers only developed after school, so he was considered a non-gifted because he's only the second generation in his family to have the power from his parents." "And you?" Joey asked. "My family can trace through the generations to at least 500BC," I said. "That's why I was a gifted, even if I didn't have kindred powers, which are relatively new to my family, I'm a third generation kindred." "So all this fuss..." "Is really all crap," I finished for Joey. "Exactly my point. But Juffrey doesn't agree, and he's proven many times that he'll do anything to prove his point. That's why I'm asking you to come with me, because Ian and the others have saw you the other day on the beach with me, and if they truly are under Juffrey's control, I don't want you anywhere unsafe." "But I promised my mom I'd take care of the house while she was away," Joey said for the hundredth time. "I don't care," I said, also for the hundredth time. "I can lay over it with protection spells and what not. Heck, I'd ask every witch, wizard, druid and magician I know to protect it if it would get you out of there." "Magician?" Joey asked. I sighed. Apparently I hadn't explained this to him either. "Muggles who use magic, true magic, are magicians," I said. "Those who are born with the powers are wizards. That's how you differentiate." "And how about witches?" Joey asked. "Some are inherited, right, and some seek the powers?" "Yes," I said, "but they're all called hedge-witches by the wizards. It's complicated, and annoying because the wizards always loved having everything in rigid order and control with all their ministries and schools and laws on magic. That's why the druids and hedges broke off with them long ago." "Ahh," Joey said. There was something in his tone that made me worry. "Look, I've got visitors, I'll call you back?" "Visitors?" I asked before he could hang up. "What kind of visitors." "The regular kind," Joey said, his voice still strange and tight. "No need to worry." He quickly hung up. I rolled my eyes and muttered, "No need to worry, my foot." Switching to the telepathic linkway, I called, Jumadi replied. A large, swirling portal appeared before me, and glancing into the bluish tube, I could almost see the destination, and the other connectors that my friends would take to reach Joey. Wei announced. The Otherworld lay in between the fully astral and the fully material planes, thus accounting for the fae-folk to exist in both places at once. I took a deep breath and entered the vortex. Light swirled around me, and I felt a slight tingling in my body, but nothing uncomfortable or painful, just a feeling of warmth. I smiled as I was pulled through the portal. Wei was as good as his word, and didn't lack any talent, knowledge or skill when it came to his magic. He was one of the best wizards around, no doubt about it. I emerged at the exit of the portal just behind Joey. He was standing outside a house which I assumed was his mom's. In front of him was a large purplish robot of a kind I had seen before. "Dammit, Dylan, I told you to stay away!" Joey shouted. "The bloody thing can't hurt me, I'm not a threat to it, so it's against programming." The sentinel's mechanical eyes focused on me and with its dead metallic voice stated, "Target identified as threat to humanity. Aggressive mode activated." "Shit, that things fucking huge!" Wei exclaimed from behind me. My other friends were appearing around us now, save for Jumadi and Dean, who were still looking after the distraught Keong. Though he was freed from Fury's control, he was still in a slight state of shock. The sentinel pointed its massive arm towards me, and the forearm compartments opened to reveal four small missiles. The giant launched all four at once, aiming towards me. I didn't know what to do. If I phased, my friends would get hurt. If I didn't, we'd all get hurt anyway. The four missiles turned suddenly, zooming round and round above the sentinel's head, then smashed and exploded all at once. The headless sentinel collapsed to the ground, sparks flying from its neck. "Sorry I'm late," Eddie said, putting his hand down. "I almost forgot I can control anything mechanical." Wei narrowed his eyes on Eddie. "Forgot?" "Almost," Eddie corrected with a grin. Wei scowled and crossed his arms. "This was kinda like overkill, wasn't it?" Khan asked, looking at the wrecked sentinel. "Well, it served to catch your attention and bring all of you here, didn't it?" a familiar British voice said. The five of us turned and realised we were surrounded by fourteen guys, hovering in various heights around us. I recognised the costumes of five of them, the Chaos Mongers. The remaining nine were the rest of the Braves still under Juffrey's control. I shoved Joey towards the still-open portal. "Get out of here!" "Oh no you don't," Malek said, throwing a blue bubble at Joey. The stasis globe encased Joey inside, trapping him outside time, but also protecting him from events around him. Wei shut the portal to conserve his energy while Khan tried to retaliate with a plasma blast of his own, but nothing shot from his hands. He snarled and spat on the ground, glaring angrily at a rather round man. "Blockade!" Our opponents slowly lowered themselves to the ground surrounding us. Ian pointed at us. "Finish them!" Chaos ensued immediately, energy blasts ensued, coupled by spells and physical battles. I found myself having to dodge what Eddie called dracon beams, which were a type of yeerk laser weapon, which could still hurt me even when I was intangible, for some reason. I withdrew the lightsaber that my cousin had made for me, and deflected a few shots back to the shooters. The lasers must not have been set very high, since according to Eddie, they were able to slice through nearly anything, but they did seemed to just injured whoever they hit. Eddie had mentioned during planning that if a yeerk dies, the host is free, but if the host dies, so does the yeerk, so they would not have set their dracon beams to prevent themselves from killing each other. We were moving closer together, using more distance attacks than close-ups. We were tiring, and hopelessly outnumbered. I had a few gashes from bites and tears and slices, but nothing I couldn't handle. Wei was waving his wand in a desperate attempt to deflect the dracon beams, but it was futile. They had won, and we knew it, we were just prolonging our sure defeat. Suddenly, a loud roar thundered in the air around us. A large grizzly had entered the fray, flinging Ivan in his velociraptor form to one side. He banged into a wall, and slipped into his human form again, unconscious. Terry was in his stegoceres form, and he headbutted the grizzly easily, knocking her to one side. A tiger leapt seemingly from nowhere, latching his teeth around Terry's neck. Terry shook him off, but the tiger's quick reflexes allowed him to take a huge bite out of Terry's leg. Eddie said. Wei said from behind me. I turned to look, and he was right, there was a blue centaur-like creature there, save that its body was slimmer and smaller than that of a horse, and it had a tail with a blade that would make scorpions envious. It had no mouth, and two extra eyes on eye-stalks that could look anywhere at once. Its hands also had too many fingers for a typical human five. "Andalites," Ian shouted. "We retreat for now!" The yeerks were retreating now that the fight was more balanced. They grabbed the metal bands around their wrists, and began to levitate. "Another time!" Ian called, as he shot into the air. "Oh no you don't!" someone shouted. Keong, dressed in green and red traditional Chinese robes, descended from the skies with a flying kick. And I mean a real FLYING kick, knocking Ian to the ground. Ian recovered quickly and swung a punch at Keong, who easily knocked it aside with his arm. With a swift movement, he had grabbed Ian's extended arm and twisted himself around, his back facing Ian. With the force of momentum, Keong flung Ian easily over his shoulder. Ian wiped blood from his mouth and sneered. "So you're free. Not for long, we'll find and conquer every last one of you! The Horseman wills it." He got to his feet and shot off into the air again. Keong flung his hand out, and a long strip of blue silk reached out for Ian and wrapped his foot. With a flick of his hand, Keong brought Ian crashing down to earth again, this time knocking him unconscious. The silk rope untied itself from Ian's leg and disappeared once again into the long sleeves of Keong's robe. "That was for tricking me," Keong said simply. Wei smiled. "Nice moves, cousin. How long have you been practicing?" "My whole life," Keong smiled. Khan's eyes were as widely opened as his mouth. "What kind of magic was that?" "Not magic," Keong said. "Ancient Chinese Shaolin martial arts at full power." "Nice!" I grinned. "Maybe I should take it up too!" Eddie rolled his eyes at me. "I'm sorry, but we have our own martial arts in our history, we just need to recreate it." "Our Irish martial arts never taught us how to fly or shoot silk ribbons," I retorted. "Although they did have a few good techniques for beheading a person without a weapon. I should practice that one on a vampire some day." Jumadi spoke in our minds. Wei asked. But he made the portal anyway, and we slipped through before they came, dragging our captive friend with us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To be continued...