LUPIA!!!
The evil behind the name, the terror of the victums she had slaughtered, the pitieous mewing of those she had purposely left alive in conditions worse than death come from my memory and vie for my attention.
Dispite the thrubbing in my abused head, I jump to my feet in anger and my own panic, for I know my own life hung by the slenderest of threads. That is, I TRIED to jump to my feet.
I am stopped not even half-way to upright by the collar around my neck. It is attached by a chain in back. The other end of the chain is fastened to the floor between my feet.
I feel pain in my wrists. I look and see my wrists are also bound to the floor; but they are bound separately with thin wires. If I were to pull again, I could easily amputate both hands.
I hear Lupia's silken voice and look at her. She is arising out of a comfortable lounge chair and speaking directly to me. She knows I do not understand the language of the 'umans around us; but she talks on, gloating. I hear her husband's name (Link) mentioned several times... always softly and with much tenderness. As she speaks, I look at the rest of the room.
I see the stalkers, Ocelass and Oceladd, nestled together in an overstuffed chair. Even with the two of them in it, the chair still had much room to spare. Ritki science had created them just as it had created me and Purvia. They were from ocelots (a small, south american jungle cat) while Purvia and I were of lion stock. They were no less deadly, though, as I found out painfully in our last encounter.
A flying being I first think is Simon is hovering near the ceiling in a far corner. It is Anthony, Simon's erstwhile brother, powerful and experianced corruptor, and a father-to-be.
At a counter I see two huge figures whom I quickly identify as Energy Hog and Grav Lass... powerful dominators, brother and sister to Anita and Radd Ladd of my own missing team. I almost don't note Grav Lass is wearing almost the same outfit I gave Anita grief for. Grav Lass' was purple and replaced the bikini bottom with a pleated miniskirt. I realize it was not strange that the two women had simular fashion tastes. They had grown up as neighbors... outcasts with their brothers as their size and powers marked them as mutants. Their size and powers had made most people in their home town wonder if they WERE truly nieghbors and not actually blood-relatives. Energy Hog and Grav Lass are now married, as Anita and Radd Ladd had not yet done so.
In a distant shadow I see two others. Again male and female, they appear quite disturbed to be here. Their heads are bald but not unadorned. Huge horns sprout from the sides of their heads and curve to almost meet inches in front of their mouthes. It takes little imagination to see the flesh of some victum being torn off those horns to be feasted upon by the visible fangs.
Their skin is a dark grey, as if it was in the process of decomposing. Their fingers end with black, jagged, and sharp nails which would serve well as claws. Their legs look quite like goat legs, even to the cloven hooves.
The only pleasant thing about their appearance are their faces. They have the faces of 'uman teenagers, the kind of face one would expect to be planning for their next dance. I shudder when I realized the shadows MOVED around these two figures.
The most evil of the group approaches me steadily. Lupia has not stopped speaking. Her words mean little to me, but the tone says much. She was enjoying my predicament, my helplessness. She snears several times at me and cackles often, paying little heed that her mirth is not shared by any others in the room.
She displays a small blade. Though only the length of her forearm, it shows the distinctive marking of her other, more often used swords. I remember the breifing I had received (through my mate, Purvia). The traditional blades with those markings were sharp enough to separate paper if it were simply layed upon their edge. Surgeons' scaples could arguably be considered DULL in comparision. The blades were legended to NEVER dull.
The blades Lupia and Link had acquired were from a swordsmith of those traditions. He had found MODERN methods of even bettering both the sharpness and the resistance to dulling.
Twirling that menacing blade, she walks behind me where I can not turn to watch her. She grabs my tail.
I panic. She was going to amputate my balance. As I try to turn and face her, she laughes and releases my treasured member.
She moves to kneel in front of me, well within death range if my claws were free. She snears meaningfully. She starts talking carefully and slowly. Though I do not understand her, her meaning became very clear. I may not understand words; but I had acquired some understanding of 'uman numbers.
"... one Purvia". The blade stabs downward. "...two Purvias..." the blade cuts a deep furrow in the tile. "...three Purvias..." another deep cut crossing the first. "...Four..."
She cackles evilly and stands as her meaning becomes clear to me.
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I am humbly and anxiously awaiting any comments on the story, thus far.
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Comment - Don't anticipate criticism. If you're going to do the job of the critics for them, then you might as well address the criticisms before you publish the story. 
Likewise, tell your story and don't concern yourself about whether it's "colorful" enough. Every reader is different; you can't really tell that "most readers want blood and gore in their combat". Now, if YOU want more blood and gore, then go ahead and take the time to add. "PG-13" doesn't mean "A-Team violence" where a million bullets are fired and nobody is ever hit. It, in my opinion, primarily means "no gratuitous sex or violence". Heck, if you want to include gratuitous sex and violence, there are venues for that outside of the forum...
Feedback - I like your story, and I'm looking forward to this confrontation between Purvek and Lupia. The only problem I've seen is that YOU know these characters thoroughly while we readers are being tossed into the middle of their lives without so much as an introduction. There's nothing wrong with that; it's kind of a variation on the whole in media res idea (in the middle of the action, like when a movie opens in the middle of a fistfight and you have no idea who the fighters are or why they're fighting). It's just that it leaves a lot of head-scratching when you're trying to figure out something like a horned girl who's undergoing some kind of personality transformation and you don't really have a clue what her ordinary personality is supposed to be like, or why she has horns for that matter.
For the upcoming encounter between Purvek and Lupia - Consider that we readers know next to nothing about Lupia except that she's really, really evil, she has a grudge against Purvek, and she's supposed to be dead. (I'm ignoring the backgrounder you provided, in order to illustrate the information that is contained within the story. Even the backgrounder doesn't tell us why she hates Purvek, though I can surmise it has something to do with the death of her brother and/or whatever defeat led the team to believe that she ought to be dead and buried.)
Take your time and don't be afraid to revise it a few times. If you're feeling like apologizing for not meeting the expectations of some nebulous group of readers in your imagination, then realize firstly that they're imaginary and that the real readers have expectations you probably don't even dream of, and secondly that you can't possibly meet all of the expectations of people you know only as names on a forum. In other words, "frag 'em if they can't take a joke". Write your story so that YOU feel satisfied with it. Don't go apologizing in advance because some random person might be theoretically dissatisfied with it. That just says, IMO, that in some corner of your mind YOU are still dissatisfied and you should spend some more time revising it.
One small nitpick of the last chapter - Your "voice" has consistently been in the past tense (Allia did this. Bot-lass said that.) In the last chapter, you started waffling between past-tense and present-tense. If you did it purposely, then no worries. If not, then it's something to be aware of as you approach your climax here.
PURVIA!!!
She is going after my mate!?!
Why? I am here, helpless. She can slaughter me at her leasure. She can torture me as she had so many others... burning off fingers and toes, hands and feet, arms and legs.
Why should this truly evil one wish to go after my blessed one, my love, the reason I live?
I hear a small voice in my mind, like a dove's feather caught in the strength of an artic blizzard. 'Purvia is safe, safe. You should help yourself.'
'rise up... RISE UP! TAKE ON the evil you face!'
I peer at the woman standing before me. My arms are anchored to the floor, useless. The power of my legs is negated by the throttle about my throat. I have no means to reach her, to tear the life from her as she prepares to leave and kill the one for whom I would willingly offer my life for. I am helpless.
The voice returns, as weak as before, but with more authority. 'You have never been helpless. You have friends. You have love. You have done so many great things. you have saved the lives of many you have not known, of many you will never know, of each one you love, of each one you cherish. They cherish you and they seek you now. They will find you. They will come to you as you have come to their aid so many, many times before.'
Then the voice gets stronger. It is as a distant whisper on a windswept bluff. 'Purvia is safe. She is surrounded by many devoted to her safety. She is in a place where the very ground would arise in her defence.'
The voice gets angry. 'ARISE! ARISE! REMOVE THE GREAT EVIL YOU FACE! AN EVIL THAT SO FEARS YOUR WRATH IT SOUGHT TO CONVINCE YOU OF ITS DEATH!'
My blood grows hot in my veins. I feel it heat quickly. My fur stands on end as I get angrier and angrier. I snarl. It comes and I can't stop it, I won't stop it.
I feel power coursing through my frame, through my muscles, through my very being. My fury mounts as I dwell more on the deeds of the one before me, the plans she has for the ones of my heart, of my life.
I...... roar.
"WHY DO YOU DO THIS? WHY ALL THE PAIN? WHY THE SUFFERING? YOU SHALL NOT CAUSE ANY MORE! I SHALL NOT ALLOW IT!"
The evil one staggers back. She looks surprised by the voice I give. She recovers and smiles.
"Because I can. Because I NOW can. Because in my greatest hour of need... OUR greatest hour of need, no one came. NO ONE came as the rats came out of the holes. No one came as they attacked, as they took down man and boy, father and son, mother and child."
"I was four years old. My mother was my world. I was hers. When the rats came, she fought. She screamed for help, but we could hear so many others also screaming."
"She picked me up. As rats came from all directions, she ran. She ran throughout our tiny home searching for some safety, some sanctuary from the biting teeth, the tearing claws; but the rats were everywhere."
Shaking from my frustration, I listen. I vibrate with the power of my fury. I glance down at my hands, at the cutting wires that hold me. I see the small circles the wires are tied to... I recognize a flaw in my trap, a weakness in the snare that binds me.
She continues. Her eyes are closed as she once again sees the horror no one else can.
"Finally, she runs into the kitchen. The rats chase. They are there before us. They leap upon her legs, upon her arms, on me. She throws me on the counter, tears the rats off me. She opens the metal bread box of her long-dead grandmother, throws the bread out, and throws me in. She closes the door and yells at me to not open it, never open it."
The woman reliving the horror shivers. "Oh, how she fought. I hear her screams. I hear the squeals of rats she kills. I hear a strange sound and the sound is ALWAYS joined by the squalling of a rat, sometimes more. A sound I now hear and enjoy each time I weild my blades, as I cut those who did not come."
I grasp the eyelets the wires hold to. I bunch my legs under me. I hear her tale even as I strive to escape my bonds.
"I listen to the fight a long time. minutes? hours? days? I do not know. Children of that age can not measure time. They know only WHEN the time for a event... a daily event... draws nigh."
"I know only the noise stops."
"I listen longer, hear nothing. I call to my mother. I call louder, and louder. I hear the squealing of more rats and I fall silent. In fear and terror I fall silent. Soon, I fall asleep."
I am ready to test my strength against the metal not designed to hold one of my power. But I cannot do so if she watches me. I speak again. I goad her to relive the horror I have only heard of... that my mate read to me about.
"I know of that terror... of how sewer rats were brought into your building to remove the families... for the landlord's greed. The rats didn't do as normal rats... street rats... would. They gathered, they reproduced, they grew. They swarmed the families they were supposed to frighten. Fifty-six people died... all consumed by the rats."
"Only two survive... a five year old boy on the 5th floor and a four year old girl on the 7th."
She gazes upward, seeing sights no one else could. "Yes. I finally got hungry. I was scared. I wanted my mother. I wanted... I wanted to potty."
"I disobeyed her. I knew she would be angry, but I did. I opened the door of that bread box."
"I saw a knife on the counter in front of me. It was covered in blood, dried blood. I did not see my mother."
She screams. Her fists are clenched in fury. The blade is held in a hand, forgotten.
"I did not know my mother was still there, on the floor! The rats had eaten her. They had stripped her bones of meat and of sinew. They had cracked every bone and sucked the marrow from within. They had broken into her head and removed all within."
I am ready. Just one pulse of power. Just one burst of strength. The eyelets are leash anchors. Designed to hold canine pets by leashes attached to collars around their necks. To hold creatures weighing no more than 100 pounds... not an intelligent feline of 600 pounds who can grasp the anchors and twist. I just need a couple seconds.
I speak once more. "I do not understand. The report I read said you survived 3 days without your mother, with no one to look after you."
Unseeing, she answers. "Yes, I did. I went out when I got hungry. I looked for food. the rats took everything I could reach... everything except the rats themselves. I learned to hunt them. I killed then with the knife my mother fought them with, the knife she put on the counter for me when she knew she could no longer fight."
"They killed my mother. I killed them. I ATE them. Now I kill those who would not come and save us. I wear them to show I have triumphed where they wished me to die."
She stops as she hears two distinct 'snaps'.
I reach for my collar as she watches me.
"You said there was a five year old boy. I never knew his given name. I only knew him as 'LINK'. We stayed together. He never allowed them to pull us apart. He became my life as my mother was before. He became my guardian, my mentor, and even my husband. I loved him as I could love no one else..."
She glares at me as I stand. She walks casually to the chair she had sat in. She tosses the small blade aside and pulls two longer blades into veiw.
"... and you killed him. You killed my only love, my husband, the father of my now never-to-be-born child. You killed the child. My husband and my child. You have killed my family."
"I shall go to your Purvia. She shall die; but your child shall live. I shall tear the child from her body and carry it away as your Purvia gasps and watches."
"You have lain there on that floor three days. No food, no water. You can not fight. Your death shall be slow, and very painfull."
She faces me and readies her swords. "Now we begin."
It was not the first time I have thanked the ritki. I had cursed at them many times as I fought them in the streets of Paragon; but in my heart, I have also thanked those who had created me, who equipped me.
The claws they had given me still defied the best analysis human scientists can devise. They may chip. They may even break, but they always reform... regrow? All I had to do was retract them and redeploy them.
Against the swordswoman of evil incarnate; that was needed... several times. Many times my claws met those incredible human-made swords. Each time I feel one and sometimes two claws snap. Each time I peer closely at the blade I think had taken the claw and saw no notch, no nick to suggest those blades could be defeated.
The voice returns. It sounds like the whisper of a loved one in the dead of night. I hear not the words at first; but the voice speaks again.
"You are not to defeat her blades. That is for others. You must defeat her heart. Remove that which drives her to desire your pain, your suffering, your death. It was given to her so that she may glorify her life; but she has not. She has taken it and abused it. She has twisted it to become that which she already had in great abundance, that which she already had too much. It must now be removed."
I blink at the words. I whisper quietly to the voice. "I do not understand. What is it? What must I remove that she would fall?"
Pain flares across my chest as the voice answers. "What have you that she once had? What have you with Purvia that she wishes to have? What have you that she has promised to take? There are others within the room who have it and still others who desire it. There are two, as well, who believe they have lost it... but they have not."
I cring as a sword creases a thigh. "I still do not understand."
"Think... think of those who cherish you. The one of the greatest heart. Within her lies your answer, though she does not yet know it." The voice falls silent.
I battle silently. I bleed freely, but I continue. I know I have an answer. The blades cut and slash. I feel the pain, but I refuse to cry out. I snarl at my assailant; for I have yet to even touch her.
She draws back and I am tempted to collapse; but again, I refuse.
"HA! The mighty Purvek! The lion of heart they call you. You stand there barely able to move your arms. I could kill you with one stroke. I hope your mate gives me more challenge. Even those ridiculous golden aliens you trapse around with would fight better."
My anger flares uselessly; but I snarl a reply. "You go and TRY to take them on. You would not stand a chance against neither Unia nor T'Pom." I blink as the voice's clues finally come together.
Unia is with child. Lupia has promised to TAKE our child from my mate.
I look at those within the room.
Energy Hog and Grav Lass are married. Do they desire children? Oceladd and Ocelass are odviously inthralled. Anthony has married Ledona and she is now with child. The necromancers are barely visible; but could they be those which I had heard of? If so, they may well believe...
YES! There is my answer. Lupia herself had said it.
I let my arms fall to my sides. The answer is NOW my weapon.
"You cry out in pain because your husband is dead. You call him your beloved; yet you do not know the name he received from his parents. I do know that name. You cry that I have killed not only your husband, but your family. Is not that the same, for you gave him no child."
"No, THAT was for another to do. You and he slaughter a family to get good blades; but he desires the girl and spares her... from death, at least. You keep her two years. She becomes with child and you eject her from your presence. Did HE wish this, or was it you?"
"I and my team finally catch up to you and you arrive in prison. While you are there, the girl gives birth to a son and a daughter."
"You both escape. You renew your ties and become once again the Couple of Darkness . But he wants more. He wants more and you do not give him that which another has already."
"Your infamy grows. You grow powerful in reputation and legend. Once again, you gather your team and you are all feared by those who should not have to. Yet, does he desire more?"
She staggers backward. She gasps as if I have landed mighty blows upon her. I am astounded as I see tears well into her eyes. She whispers. In the quiet room, that whisper seems to echo off the walls as if from a siren.
"Yes. I did as well. We had tried... we had tried so very many times. I go to the clinic. I am told they can help. I am told it will take time, but it can happen."
"Then we try to take out that bank, the one in Founder's Fall. You remember?"
I nod. That battle had been a crowning achievement for my team.
Ailia and Thomas had worked their best in the battle, dropping Anthony and Ledona.
Unia and T'Pom had taken out Tech-Lass' and Tech-Ladd's many robots; then the mastermind robots themselves.
Shock Lass and Radd Ladd downed their own brother and sister... Energy Hog and Grav Lass.
But the media focused on one battle in particular. The Lion and Lioness of Heart were facing the Couple of Darkness .
"Yes, you damn heroes won that day. You did much worse than just take me down with that last strike. I felt your damn claws cut too deep. I felt that which must remain whole fall apart."
"I wake up in that damn hospital that cares not who you are. The one that cares ONLY of your need. That one they call SAM. They tell me they tried to save it, but it was not to be."
"I ask what they meant. They are surprised. They ask how I could not have known I was with child."
"Oh, I was incredulous. I was happy that it had happened. Of course; I also tell them, I was sad that I had lost it, but this meant I can try again... I can give my husband that which he desires so much."
"That was when they told me. No, I can not. The cuts were too deep, too destroying. There was not enough to even repair. It was removed."
edit= colors
She screams. She is full of hate, of pain, of fury.
"HE STOOD THERE SMUGGLY TELLING ME I HAD BEEN WITH CHILD! HE TELLS ME THE CHILD HAS DIED! HE TELLS ME I ONCE COULD HAVE CONCEIVED; BUT he REMOVED THAT CHANCE!"
"I kill him. I snap his neck and drive that silly pencil into his brain. His squirelly assistant turns to run and I drive her spine into her chest. She crashes through the door and to the hall, or maybe lobby."
"There are two guards at my door. As the assistant's body falls slowly to the floor, they reach for their guns. I allow one to bring his psitol up. I remove the weapon, put it under his chin, and empty it."
"As his body still flies through the air, I face the other guard. He is slowly swinging one of those silly oriental clubs. I remove his heart and take the club."
"As I bend over the first guard's body, I hear the panic arise. I hear a voice say I could not move, it was impossible. Another says hilariously to tell ME that."
"I find the guard's club, A standard police truncheon. I discover I am NOT in a hall or lobby. I am in a laboratory. They were going to experiment on me? Cut me apart and put me together to see if it still worked?"
"When I leave the place, there were none living, no flasks or vials unbroken, no tubes still complete. I had found two blades. They were not as long as my swords, but they were enough. They were as sharp as scapals. Not fashioned for battle, they would serve."
"As I walk through the doors, three rush me. They were those silly types... the medical assistants not yet doctors or nurses... interns. I lose not a step as they die."
"The halls are filled with people and noise. They are in a panic. Good."
"I kill as I have ALWAYS killed. Men rise up against me and fall. Women flee slowly and are gutted. Many shield tiny infants with their very lives. Each time, I take both lives. Parents arise to defend children. Parents die, as do the children... if they are slow."
"I enter a room almost empty. A small nurse charges me and I smile. I am surprised. Her fury matches mine. She has no power, but she is enraged... mad. Though of small body, she is a towering pillar of rage. She ignores the cuts I give her and continues to fight. She lasts almost ten seconds."
"I step over her body and discovered what she defended. Row upon row of small cribs... Some with tubes running into them. When I leave, there is only death behind me. Why should others have the hope, the pleasure that has been taken from me?"
As I listen to Lupia rant, I am stunned. Yes, I had heard of her loss, of how my last cut had severed a life as yet unborn. I had grieved when I heard and I had been overjoyed when they had told me where she had been taken.
Lupia did not yet understand. She did not think WHY a laboratory would be beside a maternity ward, why that lab would have its OWN rooms for SPECIAL patients. Rooms with their own SPECIAL cribs for tiny lives.
Why very talented doctors... SPECIAL doctors... would give up extremely well-paying private practices to work a week, or even a day in that lab.
Yet the doctor she had killed in her room... the first to die in her rampage... was the lab's founder.
She continues her tale.
"A taxi waits outside as I leave. The driver dies as he tries to flee. I leave the blades in his back and take the cab."
"I return to the team's base. I find the team has also gotten there. I hurt badly from the cuts of the doctors. Link hugs me dearly and I cring from the pain."
"Ledona and Anthony examine me. They say they can heal me of MOST of my wounds. My sweet Link offers his essence to be their source."
"The two corrupters cast and cast... and cast. He falters and falls to his knees. I scream it is enough... to do no more."
"In the days that will follow, the team will rest. We will rest and try to plan; but there was a fear. A fear of those who had met us in Founder's Falls. We had been defeated before. It was a rare thing; but it had happened. We could shake THAT; but there was more."
"While I had lain unaware in a laboratory, the team had gathered and watched the media tear them apart once again. The team knew it would happen, they did not expect otherwise..."
"...but this time was different. Though the cameras had focussed on two towering cats who challenged blades; the editors had not."
"On every channel were two shining, golden beings challenging robotic menaces. They dodged beams and projectiles. They stood mightily as massive robots raised heavy arms of destruction against them. But there was one scene played over and over on every channel, every 'cast. A scene no editor could ignore... or wanted to. A scene no veiwer could forget."
"A scene where two shining, golden beings PICKED UP two multi-ton assault robots and SMASHED THEM TOGETHER."
"I saw this. I watched it but once before scenes of my escape joined the golden heroes. I watched in glee as hardened police blanched and fled the scene in the halls."
"I was still watching when a tall golden form was seen rushing to the hospital. The so-called unbiased camera's eye found she was panic-strickened, terror-driven. She saw not the crowds, no camera attracted her... tho the camera often LOVED her and she it."
"The cameras followed her... focussed on her. The camera men angled so the bloody sights she saw would not go on the air again."
"As I and my team watched, the golden heroine known for her passion fell to her knees, already weeping. She crawls to a body, lifts it slightly, and another tiny body is seen."
"The hero's moanful wail fills the room. She inches forward on her knees. The cameras refuse to follow. They watch as she nears each body, touches each, and cries anew. She turns a corner and vanishes from veiw. The cameras do not move as the microphones do their job for them."
"Ten, maybe fifteen minutes later, she appears again. At no time had she been silent. Her cries had been reduced to animal-like shrieks. She comes into veiw at the same corner she vanished through, but from the opposite direction."
Lupia's eyes gleam with madness as she SNARLS wildly. I am appalled that one such as she could once be considered sane. She speaks again.
"The golden hero, she actually crawls towards the cameras. Bloody trails follow her thickly, as she was crawling on all fours. She eventually comes to the same body she had moved before. She sees it. A hand reaches slowly toward it and stops. The hand wavers, then returns to its place in the blood. She looks up, at first with unseeing eyes, then she finally sees the cameras."
"That SILLY LITTLE CATGIRL whispers quietly; but no sound invades, so each word is heard. Each plea for forgiveness is heard. She says she had been assured the villain could not move; that she should leave and let the doctors heal. She had not even put her coat down in her living room when the bloody scenes came on the TV."
"I laugh in glee as the grief-stricken hero offers her card to the camera, declares she is unworthy, that she shall one day find the one who did this and MAKE HER PAY."
"I smirk as the hero collapses. What care I for a being who can not bear to see a little blood? I am amused as a sweet and pretty girl comes into veiw, puts that stupid card in Unia's hand, and closes the unknowing heroine's hand once again on the card. The girl's whispers resound in the quiet room for all my team to hear... 'Yes, Unia, we know you will. God's speed, and God's will.' I roar in glee at the girl's foolishness and leave the room."
"Though I am weak, the girl is dead within an hour."
As Lupia laughes in madness; I am tempted to strike, But I realize I am indeed much depleted of energy.
I remember the voice which had already saved me from a grim death. The voice had said I was to defeat her heart while another was to defeat her blades.
Briefly, I wonder at the voice's origin. I know it isn't my own sub-conscience, since the voice had information I did not and I also did not doubt. I have also no doubt it isn't Ailia or Thomas. I have have several Psionic 'conversations' with both and know their 'voices'. Oh, how I wish I could hear them now.
Remembering a human saying about looking a herbivore in the mouth, I look at the others in the room.
The two tiny cat-people are clinching each other tightly. I note the female is sobbing and the male is holding her close, silently snarling over his shoulder.
The over-sized human female is grasping her mate's right arm with both hands. I note tears streaming down her face. Her mate has the hand she holds behind him and is partially facing his insane team leader, his right hand has lights dancing around it.
The flying corruptor has landed and is approaching the clinging cats. I watch him. His hands go to his head and he pulls off an electronic device... a commo? He sets the device on the lamp table beside the cats and talks to them briefly. I see both cats nod and extend a hand each toward him. With twin soft 'plops' he disappears from veiw.
I had not know the ocelots could do that. I instinctively mark the deadlier threat the cats now become. To have the ability to give others invisibility means they also have to have invisibilty abilities OTHER THAN their instinctive 'hide' powers. I note the power they each have... they can 'hide', then invoke invisibilty, THEN give invisibility to each other. Two small and deadly killers with a TRIPLE layer of invisibility!
I remember there are two others in the room. Shuddering, I look into the shadows and have no trouble finding them. Whatever power they had used earlier to make them harder to find was no longer in play. I also see at least a half dozen shambling monsters grouped around them. I also see mystical blades raised and two figures I simply did not want to look at. Yes they were definately necros and they appeared to be fully empowered.
I hear more soft 'plops' and search the room. I note the small cat-people have also disappeared and there were two more electronic devices on the lamp table. I am tempted to 'acquire' one and then realize I couldn't use it. Having never learned to read the human words, I have depended on my team... particularly my mate to set my own commo.
PAIN LANCES ACROSS MY CHEST! I stumble, then fall backward. I look up at a snarling visage.
"YOU LOOK AT ME WHEN I TORTURE YOU! I WANT YOU TO BEG ME FOR DEATH... BEG! I SHALL NOT GIVE IT TO YOU... NOT FOR A LONG TIME, NOT UNTIL I AM SATISFIED YOU HAVE SUFFERED WHAT I HAVE SUFFERED! THEN, MAYBE, I WILL KILL YOU!"
I snarl back. "SUFFER? You have ONLY made people suffer. You scream you have lost family; but you have slaughtered families."
"You killed the Ling family just to get some good swords, then abandon Xia Ling when she was with child. Then you again abduct her."
"I now have no doubt it was you and Link, even though she or her body have not been found, I know she would not have abandoned those children."
"We did not think of you because we had thought YOU were burnt to a cinder and buried in a mass grave. We did not think of Link because we had no idea of Xia's connection to him until we read her will."
Lupia's eyes lit up. "YES! SHE WAS SO CLEVER! She finds the day care center YOU are a member of. She spends a large portion of her paychecks to keep them there. She conjoles the witness program to keep the children there in secret if she ever disappears and they do it."
"I now know she figured the program would contact you and that blasted mate of yours if she vanished. They must have."
"When we finally capture her, when we finally get SOME information out of her... it is a trap of HER devilish devising. She tells us of one day... april fool's day... in which she is supposed to meet the children at a certain day care center, YOUR day care center."
Lupia glares at me. "Do you know WHY she did that? Do you know WHY she gave us THAT day and TRICKED us into killing her right after?"
"She knew... she KNEW on THAT day, your whole damn team would be at the center when the bus dropped the children off at lunchtime for the rest of the day."
I am stunned.
LUPIA was behind the April 1st attack? The Freedom corps, PPD, and many other agencies are STILL trying to figure out WHO co-ordinated the assault of 7 street gangs AND the Circle of Thorns against the security team of a day care center.
While the center did harbor the children of several wealthy families (many multi-millionaires); the authorities are not convinced ransom was the reason for the assault. We had all thought my team's presense was the ultimate in luck; for the center's standard team would not have stood a chance of defending their charges.
When Link and two assistants had come through the center's back wall; my alert mate contacted me (already heavy with child, she and Lenola were tending to the children and teachers). The assistants fled when I arrived, leaving Link to face me alone... claws to blades.
At the time; I had been surprised at my opponent's skill, for Link had disguised his idenity for the attempted abduction. It was that very disguise which gave me the final advantage.
A fake eyebrow had dropped to cover an eye. As he strived to remove the hindrance, one of my kicks forced him against the wall. A sharp sliver of metal had purtruded from that wall (created during our battle). The sharp end went through his chest.
I stood waiting for his medavac beacon to activate. He soon realized why I stood. He told me he no longer wore one. He asked for mercy, for he was dying painfully and slowly. I gave him that mercy.
Now, I stood at the mercy of his own wife. I could expect no such mercy from her... she had just declared so, if I had ever had any doubts.
I know I could expect no mercy; but I COULD keep her talking. There was so much I wanted to know.
"Why did you attack the lodge? What had those honorable men done to deserve the death you brought?"
SHE laughed hysterically. "I could give you four reasons. There is Ailia, Thomas, T'Pom, and above all, UNIA! You know how Unia went on her crusade, how she was followed by the media?"
I nod.
"She terrified my team. How she was single-handedly taking on gang after gang, raiding hideout after hideout, shaking down so many contacts... with the media following her every step."
"Only Link, I, and the two robot masterminds were not afraid. When Unia was reported only four blocks away, we decided to strike at her. Though the media never reported your team; we KNEW you had to be close..."
Lupia sneared at me. "...you treasure each other WAY too much to allow one member to put herself at risk like that. The 'Teches', Link, and I thought seeing us engaging your team would break the others out of the fogue they were in."
"The 'Teches' summoned and prepared their minions as we raced to take on Unia. I was rather surprised how quickly your team arrived; but we knew you would."
"While we four took on your team; we kept calling to the others to come help us, but they didn't. THEY DIDN'T COME TO HELP DESTROY YOU!!!"
'Oh, the Teches tried to help us disengage. Their 'pets' provided many a stop as we fled, but your blasted controllers... Ailia and Thomas... eventually got one mastermind, then then other."
"Link and I got away, thanks to the Teches beseaching us to run. We watched from hiding as your controllers removed the Teches' personality modules, connect those power cubes to them, and handed them to the robotic tankers."
"I WAS ENRAGED, INFURIATED!! Your team did not have your fairy healers, mutant blasters, and even the so-called 'Lion and Lioness of Heart'; yet MY team had been afraid to engage you! Link and I had to do something to revive my team's malicious nature. It didn't help the media was NOW so enamored with Unia, they were visitting her childhood home. Those interveiws were all over the 'casts. Those men were so proud of their four wards. Of course, it was easy to find out where the lodge was, they LOVED the free pubicity."
"The Teches had long ago shown Link and I where their creator's secret lab had been. We figured THAT was where your bots had taken the Teches' captured personality modules. We had spare bodies for them ready, but we needed the PMs to control them."
"While Link led our team to recover the PMs, I went to demoralize YOUR team. Those men may have been great hunters or guides; but they were lousy fighters."
I got angry. "You killed four men because your team was afraid to engage mine? You are mad!"
She looked at me for a moment, then laughed. "It worked. It worked! After the media got the tapes of my 'fun', they didn't even hold back on broadcasting. The media can be so helpful sometimes."
"The teches were already in their new bodies when the first 'casts hit the air. Our team watched the action so many times and CHEERED each time. We didn't even notice the teches had left until the next day."
"We hit the clinic a week later. You never knew WHY we hit it, did you?"
I shook my head, it was indeed a mystery.
"I needed to see their records. I wanted to know if they knew I was with child when they told me they could help me conceive. If I had been told; I would have been more careful, more aware of the dangers of my life-style."
She looked me in the eye. The madness seemed on the verge of exploding.
"I was inside their record room when your team arrived. I got the records and joined my team. I have to ask; why were you so stupid? You are too clever to engage with a team so melee-heavy."
I grimaced. "I didn't have much choice. Ailia and Thomas were using their corporate connections to arrange the funerals of the 'uncles' from the lodge and our blasters were away in the Rogue Islands. Even so, I thought we could defeat you because I thought you had to get past us to do whatever you intended to."
She retreated from her madness to nod sagely. "Yes, I can see that. I never knew WHY you engaged us. We were about to leave when Bot Lass and Bot Ladd hit us. Then you four scrappers and the two healers arrived."
"I have to admit, when Unia came after me, I was scared. I had never seen such a wild look in anyone's eyes, before. I was quite relieved to see her fall to Grav Lass' and Energy Hog's powers. I saw the ocelots hit you. THAT was excellent work. You should have moved a bit more, you know."
I nodded. "I know. I thought we were again engaging six of your team. I didn't know the Ocelots were so capable."
Noting how she seemed almost sane, I asked. "How did you fake your death?"
She smiled evilly. "With a bit of preparation. Link and I had decided to retire. I no longer enjoyed killing so much. Link wanted to find the children he had with that Xia. We could raise the brats as our own if we could find them."
"First, we had to get the media and the heroes off our backs. We decided that clinic needed a lesson, as well. Their records had shown they had detected my child with the VERY FIRST TEST! They had labelled the child as 'high-risk' because of some problem with my reproductive tract; BUT THEY DIDN'T TELL ME!"
"I contacted my 'friends' amoung the Circle of Thorns. It was VERY expensive; but I finally got a 'special' service. I got a jewel... like this one..."
She held up the neckless she was wearing (the first I had EVER noticed her wearing).
"... this jewel will exchange me for whomever is wearing its partner. I told the CoT whomever I exchanged with was unlikely to survive 5 more seconds; but the 7-digit fee they charged covered their loss. They gave the jewel's partner to an apprentice and told him or her it was to teleport someone to their location."
"My team took control of the clinic. We captured the people inside, set up the incendiaries, then the team sealed the entrances and exits and left."
"I waited for the word to get out. We had PURPOSELY allowed a hostage to escape after seeing me, just so the authorities and the media would witness my 'death'. Of course, you know what happened."
I nodded. Lupia had set up a video feed to the PPD. She displayed a handheld device she claimed was a 'deadman' switch. She had said if she released the trigger; the clinic would implode, killing all within. PPD swat was entering the top floors when the explosives and fire erupted. No one inside the walls survived.
Lupia sneared again. "I held the switch. When I knew the PPD's team had to be inside, I activated the 'exchange jewel'. I was teleported to a location far from the clinic, while the apprentice took my place in the clinic. Since the explosives and incendiaries no longer detected the 'deadman' signal, they detonated."
I was stunned. "The unidentified bodies? One was a CoT apprentice just following his or her orders?"
She looked upward in madness. "YES! Isn't it wonderful. I even tricked someone to take my place in a deathscene! It is so wonderful to have someone who simply helps you kill themselves.... HAHAHAHA!"
"Then came finding Xia and her brats, or course. She was easy to find. She held her information very well; I was truly convinced she didn't want to tell us. She's swimming in the atlantic, now. We found pictures of the brats in her purse. Link was supposed to enter the day care center, sedate the kids, and bring them out."
"Instead, he met you and you killed him."
She glared at me. "I guess I should tell you. We know your team has taken Purvia to the lodge. The CoT and several gangs are sending enough power to wipe the island off the map. At least a hundred and fifty thugs and thirty CoT have already hit. I haven't gotten any reports; but I don't expect to until I have your treasured mate standing in chains in front of me."
"It is time to start your death. You will last quite a while, I'm sure. I want to hear your screams."
I glance around. Somehow, the mutant dominators have left. There were only the two necromancers backing Lupia now and she STILL didn't notice. Not that it helped me at all. In my depleted condition, I didn't stand a chance against her.
As she approached...
...the world exploded.
I watched her cross her blades and approach.
Suddenly, the door I had barely noticed was blown off its hinges by powerful kicks. I am very surprised to see two golden legs ending in cloven hooves held high where the double-wide oaken door used to be.
Then a wall close to the door is hit hard by a heavy force. I see two huge masses in the dust. I then realize the wall was solid wood; not a wood frame, insulation, and sheetrock.
Unia and T'Pom come through the door, followed by Ailia and Thomas. Bot Lass and Bot Ladd lead Shock Lass and Simon through the hole they made in the wall.
I am very happy to see each and every one of them. I hear a loud hiss and look back at Lupia.
Her eyes had expanded to wild proportions. She was waving her blades in odviously instinctive and well-practiced arcs. She screams.
"YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE, PURVEK! YOU DIE NOW!"
She leaps at me, only to be met by two golden bodies and thrown across the room. I collapse to my knees in relief. She screams again.
"TEAM AGAINST TEAM ONCE AGAIN! NONE OF YOU SHALL SEE THE SUNRISE!"
I reply softly. "You may want to look at your team, Lupia. It's not really very large, right now."
I hear several gasps from my own team. Why? I decide THAT is a mystery I can solve later.
Lupia looks around and sees no ocelots, mutants, or flying corruptors in the room. Her scream is incoherent as she spins a full circle searching the room. The necromancers start to disappear into a shadowy fog, covering Lupia as well.
I hear Ailia yell. "SUSAN ANNETE WHITLEY! HENRY ROBERT WHITLEY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"
The female Necro is startled. "Miss Ailia?"
Ailia is furious. "DON'T YOU 'MISS AILIA' ME!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOLLOWING THIS WOMAN? DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT SHE IS... WHAT SHE HAS DONE? WHAT WOULD YOUR PARENTS SAY?"
The other necro answered. "Miss Ailia, we have no choice now. We have been changed. We are the pure embodiment of evil, now."
Ailia's answer was harsh. "You have been changed, yes. You STILL have choices. I have heard of what you have been doing. I have read reports of your crimes. YOU CHOSE THOSE ACTIONS! You did not have to take up crime. You got power and abused it."
"What would have happened to Whitley incorporated if I had done the same? Well?"
Both necromancers fidgetted. Then the many shadows around them disappeared. I smelled dust that didn't smell very pleasant. Both necros then seemed to just 'fold' and were no longer there.
Lupia was wide-eyed and backed against the wall. I turned to Ailia and said. "That sounds like a very interesting story... for later."
Ailia just looks at me in astonishment. "When did you start speaking english?"
I stare at her. I was what? I was speaking... human? I try to remember when I spoke my first human words and can't.
I've just read the first couple of chapters, and I have to say that you have a definite gift for conveying a nonhuman viewpoint.
Well done! 
My COX Fanfiction:
Blue's Assembled Story Links
Coming from a writer like yourself, that is a grand compliment. Now maybe some people would bother to post some ratings on this story.
You aren't too bad either. I just wish I COULD write as well as you have been doing.
I have been speaking 'human'? I must have been. I am wearing no commo and I had NOT been conversing with my team. I turn to the evil one.
"I have been speaking to you in the human tongue?"
Frightened, she nods, appearently not understanding. "Yes. I didn't understand WHY at first, but thought you had finally learned the language. You have a decent vocabulary."
I take a deep breath. "Ok. I have something I need to tell you. You woke up in Saint Augustine's Mercy hospital. You didn't ever wonder why a laboratory would be located beside a maternity ward? That was because the lab SPECIALIZED in reproductive enhancement."
Lupia's eyes widened as I continued.
"My mate and I were also patients of that establishment. They do fine work... even after your rampage."
"My mate and I were given access the the lab's computerized records after your rampage. What we found was ironic."
"Dr Leonard Kincaid was your PERSONAL doctor for your time there. He was the LAB'S FOUNDING PHISYCIAN. His own wife was one of the lab's first successes."
"His wife had deformed fallopi.. fillopi... reproductive tubes. The lab invented artificial tubes and implaced the first set in Bethany Kincaid. She has now 6 children."
I point a finger at Lupia. "YOU are now carrying another set of those tubes. Implaced by Dr Kincaid in the SAME surgery where he removed your... your womb."
Pressed against the wall, Lupia was confused. "Why did he do that? Why put those things in when I would have nothing to nourish the child?"
I point a finger at her, again. "He didn't dispose of the tissue. He made five cultures of them. He was attempting to REGROW those tissue samples into new wombs for you. He was one of only four doctors IN THE WORLD who may have been able to regenerate reproductive tissue, and he was dedidcated to giving YOU the first FULLY-REGENERATED womb."
Standing no more than 6 human feet from her, I now towered over her. "ALL FIVE cultures were developing nicely according to the lab records. Dr Kincaid estimated between 3 weeks and 2 monthes before you could receive a regenerated womb and possibly could conceive again."
I looked hard at her. "He never got the chance to tell you that, did he? You killed him before he could give you that news, didn't you? You also destroyed all five of the cultures."
"You may NEVER concieve again because YOU destroyed any hope of it."
I reached quickly to her and broke the neckless she was wearing off her.
"I know you are wearing no medavac beacon. I now have your 'teleport-switch' you could have used to esape. You will not teleport out of here. You are already officially dead."
"There are three people here who ache to repay you for the death of four honorable men."
I look to my team. "Unia, Thomas, Ailia. You are no longer heroes. Give me your registrations. You can retreive them later. The rest of us are leaving."
Lupia screamed at me. "YOU SAID YOU KNEW MY LINK'S REAL NAME."
I looked back at her. "Yes, I do. I will not tell you, though. Remember him as you have always known him."
I and five members of my team leave the room. I found myself in a wooded clearing. The room had been a small cabin.
T'Pom was looking over his shoulder as he approached me. He asked "Why didn't you tell her the name?"
I grimaced. "It was best she didn't know. His name was Lincoln Bartholemew Wilson... junior."
T'Pom glanced at me. "junior?"
I nodded. "The landlord who introduced the rats was his father."
Simon grabbed my hand and commanded with that voice all doctors use when they won't brook any resistance. "Purvek, SIT DOWN!"
I obey, since I was getting light-headed, anyway. It was the last thing I remember for a long time.
I wake in a bed. I hear many electronic devices on both sides of the bed, beeping and clicking. I smell lots of antiseptic, enough to tempt me to sneeze. My body and my left arm report they are held by straps. My right arm is free to move. The world is completely black. I realize I am blindfolded. I raise my right hand to remove the blindfold.
A authoritive female voice interupts the movement. "Mr Feline. Put that hand back down. You are NOT to touch that blindfold. Not, that is, unless you wish to be blinded."
"You come to MY hospital, no food or drink for four days, cut to ribbons, a near-overdose of a strong barbiturate, and now you try to blind yourself? You really should take better care of yourself."
I put my hand down quickly, thankful for the warning and the short synopsis of my condition. "I didn't have much choice in most of that."
The voice returns. "Sure. That's what they all say. Well, I am NOT going to allow you to misbehave in MY hospital, MISTER FELINE. You understand me? You are NOT to go chasing evil women until I tell you you are fit."
I try to put on my most understanding smile. "Yes, ma'am. I understand."
"Hurump! Sure you do. I'll make sure you do before you leave."
I hear her turn to leave. "OK, he's all yours. NO HANKY-PANKY, now. He's not well enough."
I am mystified by that only for an instant. Then the most wonderful voice in the world spoke softly to me in 'cat'.
"Beloved?"
I got excited. "Purvia? Oh, my beloved Purvia! I feared I would never see you again. Never hear your voice. Never smell your wonderful scent."
Then her scent reached me. It is definately her; but it has changed. It no longer carried the 'fullness' it had last time i sented her. It no longer had the stress-scent of carrying a heavy load. It had instead a new scent... of a 'special-ness'... like... milk, but with some extra 'tang'. I am confused, then I realize.
"You've given birth? You're nursing our child?"
A short giggle answered me. "Yes, beloved. After forty-seven weeks of pregnancy and two hours of labor, we have a beautiful twenty-two pound, four-ounce daughter."
A welcome pressure desends upon me. I put my right arm around her.
I could continue this.
But I am not sure if ya'll REALLY want to know WHY Purvek didn't speak english for so long. The rest of the story would just be Purvek's new life with a daughter (and her siblings to come).
I know I left many unexplained mysteries (like what happened to the attack on the lodge Lupia was waiting on). I don't know enough of the groups in that battle to explain very well; but the CoT was joined by the Carnival of Shadows and they found themselves facing the land, itself (Somewhat like the 'devoured earth').
Also, Purvia had another bunch of people helping. Purvia now owes some others a big favor. Purvek will have to pay it; since HE has the correct equipment for what the others want.
a hint:
Purvek/Purvia, Ocelass/Oceladd were NOT the only human/feline hybrids the ritki made.
I'm curious about why Purvek suddenly decided to speak 'uman.
He and Purvia were among more than 150 human/feline hybrids created by the ritki when the ritki over ran a zoo during the first ritki war.
After hero 1 and company shut the portals; regular human forces retook the zoo. During the fighting, Purvek saw his family (lioness mother and siblings) slaughtered by humans.
Though he survived the fighting, a mental block went up in Purvek, thus he was sub-consciously 'refusing' to learn the language of those he saw as his family's killers. In truth, he did learn the spoken language, but never realized it.
Both Ailia and Thomas discovered this during their many mind-to-mind 'talks' with Purvek; but they told no one and did not try to peirce the block.
Fortunately, Purvia was fashioned by the ritki to provide 'team-glue' (all human/lionesses were--only Purvia survived) and she learned the language easily.
Finally, when Lupia threatened Purvia and her unborn child in this story; Purvek could not protect them physically. His only recourse was communications and the mental barrier was destroyed by the need. His first reaction to the need was to roar his first human words at his mate's attacker (Lupia).
Gotta tell ya loved the story and characters really hope you do more!
I apoligize to those who expected some bloodsoaked and gory fighting. This forum IS supposed to be PG13, after all.
I know the invasion of the skull base could have used some more detailing, but remember Purvek is simply a 'member of the team' in the incident (a position he was not used to). To be completely taken 'out of the loop' near the end made his details even more scarce.
I am humbly and anxiously awaiting any comments on the story, thus far.
Purvek's story now continues.