Chapter 42 Meeting
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"Captain, we have a situation down here in hangar ninety-seven." Samuelson screamed into his comms.
"What have you got, chief?" Captain Preys' calm voice came over the small devise.
"Whatever was in Commander Prey's cargo bay is out now, and it's carving your security team to pieces!" The senior chief screamed as yet another man went down. The blur of teeth and claws moved so fast he couldn't see what it did until it was finished and onto the next man.
"Help is on the way, chief, just stall it for a few minutes. Under no circumstances can you allow it to leave that hanger, understood?"
"Sir, with all due respect, I won't ever slow this thing down, so that backup better get here fast."
"Not to worry, sir. I'm already on my way. They're having some strange readings from Malachi, but the doctors tell me he should be fine once they find out what's wrong. I'll be in the hangar in less than a minute." Joshua told the captain before he was even told. Whatever was in that hanger, if it could take on a twelve-man security team, it would need his personal touch.
The twelfth man moaned, and Tamar pushed him over onto his back with the toes of her right foot. He looked up at her, hate in his eyes. Not that she cared. He was lucky to be alive. They all were. So, she simply stepped over him, worked her way over to their leader, who was just regaining consciousness, and picked him up by his tactical vest.
"I'll going to ask you a simple question and depending on how you answer you might make it out of this hanger with the same number of bones you entered it," she pointed back towards the hunk of metal that was once Malachi's fighter. "Where did they take the man who came inside that?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Even if I did, I'm not telling you anything, bitch!" He spat in her face, and her eyes narrowed.
"I'm trying to be nice, but if my questions will only be answered with pain, then I'm okay with tha..."
Tamar had never been hit so hard in her life. She'd thought Malachi had hit her hard, but he must have been pulling his punches. This was like being hit by a sledgehammer, if the sledgehammer weighed a ton, and was wielded by a giant. When the world came back into focus, she saw that she was at least a hundred yards from the man she'd been questioning. Coming to her knees, she checked her body and wondered how she hadn't broken anything. Everything was intact and functioning, and that's when she caught her first glimpse of him. He was a blur, like Malachi was a blur, and her heart soared. Until he came to a stop. In her clear vision, she knew straight away that this was not her Mal. His suit was similar, but not exact. It was gray with ascents of dark blue, and he was a bit taller and slimmer than Malachi. Who he was didn't matter. She could guess his intent and her control shattered. If this man was even half as tough as Mal, she could cut loose on him without fear of killing him, and that suited her just fine.
Coming to her feet, she crouched low as the man approached. When he was about thirty feet away, he stopped. He was appraising the situation, just as her Mal would and that was when something Malachi told her rang in her head.
"There's only one person faster than I am, and he's not planet side right now."
This had to be his brother. Her spirit lightened.
"I have to find Malachi. He's the one who brought me here. He needs me." She spoke hopefully.
"You are not leaving this hangar. After what you just did, I should just clap you in cuffs and throw you in a detention cell. But I want to know how you got up here." Tamar's mouth fell open.
"I just told you how I got up here. Malachi brought me here. Now tell me how to get to him or so help me I'll..."
"You'll what!" The man roared. "You might do well against my men, but you will not give me the beating you gave them. Now how did you get up here, and don't tell me my brother brought you? He has never been interested in females, so why would he bring you up here? What did you do to him?"
Tamar saw red. This man was accusing her of hurting Mal, her Mal. A light went off behind her eyes and, without thinking, she ran straight into it. Her entire body convulsed as if she'd hit a high voltage wire. The power pulled her to her feet, a power the likes of which she'd never know poured through her. She was like a tiny leaf cast into a river at flood stage. The power filled her until she felt like she could do anything, be anything.
"HOW DARE YOU!" she screamed and flew at Joshua.
The stunned young man was just able to bring his hands to guard before he was picked off his feet and throw across the hanger. His wings blossomed from his back, righting him in the air, settling him to his feet. The instant he touched down, the creature was on him. All teeth and claws. It struck with such power and speed he couldn't manage to mount a counterattack. He spent too much time doing his best not to be cut in half.
"WHERE IS HE!? WHERE IS HE?!" The thing only spoke three words, but the force behind them shredded the floor, put dents in the walls. It was as if he was hearing, no it couldn't be.
Joshua managed to wedge one of his legs between the two of them and heave. The savage girl tumbled one way, he the other. By the time he regained his feet, the girl was charging headlong at him, her black hair trailing behind her like the tail of a comet. Before he tried anything else, he studied her for a second. As she struck, he dodged, shot a handout and pulled her face towards him. He froze. Coming from around her eyes was the same substance that covered his brother. But before he could investigate further, the very deck beneath his feet began to tremble.
What began as a tiny shake soon became a rumble, then the enormous hanger bay deck began to distort into a futuristic sculpture. Metal bent like doubt in the hands of a pizza chef, men were pitched off their feet, battered as the very deck on which they stood came alive. Then the noise began, a muffled roar the likes none of them had ever heard. The noise broke upon the hanger like a crashing, unstoppable surf. Men clung to the sides of their heads, then hit the deck in convulsions. It was the roar of the beast hunting its prey, of a panther at bay, of the mighty bear when at bay before the hounds.
Joshua looked over at his tiny opponent and gasped. She was taking the worst of whatever this was. Her huge mouth was snapped open in the contorted howl of the dead. The woman's spine was bent so far that the top of her head was on the deck along with the tips of her toes, and her spine was being bent further with each passing second. If it went any further, it would snap.
Then, as fast as it started, it was gone, leaving the hanger in a statue park of twisted metal and moaning men. Joshua got to his knee, shaking his head. The only thing that had saved his hearing was his suit's acoustical dampeners. Looking over at the small girl, he watched her roll onto her side and look over at him.
"He needs me," she mouthed to him.
"I am sorry, but you are not leaving this hangar. I have my orders," and before he had come back to his feet, she was on him again.
This time, though, she wasn't even half as strong as she was before. He blocked her strikes with ease; her kicks he just sidestepped or bent out of their way.
"As fun as this is, I really have to get back to medical, so." With a lighting quick move, he pulled a pair of stun cuffs he'd been carrying and slapped them on first her right wrist, then her left.
Taking off balance, Tamar sprawled on the deck, taking a bit of skin off her chin when she hit.
"Don't do this, please. You have to let me get to him, please!"
"I don't want to use these things, but I will if I have to. They administer a mild shook, just enough to sedate you until we can get you to a cell. Now will you come quietly?"
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Tamar screamed. She knew what she'd done before, how much it had taken out of her Mal. Knowing that she was now determined to not touch their power again. They could do anything to her, but she would not put him in danger again.
So, when Joshua hit the button on the trigger, she snapped when the charge hit. It wasn't that the pain was anything new to her; it was the fact that she'd been treated like this before, like an animal.
"Never AGAIN!" She roared and the metal of the cuffs was so much tissue paper between her hands.
This time, when the girl hit him, she took him off his feet, slammed him to the deck hard enough to put a dent in it. Even her roar had taken on a different tone. It sounded electronic and distorted.
"Where is he?" Tamar screamed into Joshua's face, her grip crushing down on his windpipe.
Then her eyes suddenly opened wide, really wide, and she dove off him like he was on fire.
"No," she whispered. "Don't," and the huge room turned upside down once again.
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