[M][Earth] Of the People

[Victoria]

This was what she had been reduced to. There was a torrent of power bursting under the seams of her being, something so great, so unimaginable, and these people knew it. Victoria considered herself an immortal anomaly. She had faced death countless times only to survive and win. Thus far, all of her training and her dedication had made her a mighty warrior that couldn't be matched. This was her moment, to do what she always dreamed of doing, to prove her worth. Yet as the youth stood at the axis of her potential, her fingers wrapping around the humming coil of super condensed magnetism, she found herself within a world frozen in time. The beeping became drown out in a swimming swirl of lights and frantic stares past super-fused plexiglass and metal. A brilliance of core ki wildly flared around the girl, tossing long tresses aflutter in the conjured winds. Is this what I came here for? her thoughts rebounded within her head, and her crystalline gaze peered across the heated chamber where no-doubt her allies stood in eager anticipation of the main event.

All I ever wanted...

Three…

Victoria removed a hand from the coil, no longer dormant now, as it slowly began to alight with the hidden depth of fusion. Her hand delved beneath the slit cloth of her cocoa colored skirt as it hung alluringly along the right side of her thigh. Her fingers grasped at the clips along the belted section under the cloth, tugging free the small device already loaded with the ingredient that would produce unbelievable results.

All I ever needed...

Two…

Her motions were measured, fingers gripping the injection gun, ready to pull the trigger as it pressed against her left thigh. This would shatter the realities, the possibilities, bring about a world that Sigfried had dreamed of to bring into fruition. She was going to blossom with this phenomenon as it came to a head. Victoria would follow through, take her orders and remain diligent, despite her earlier misgivings. A battery...but what a battery. This is what she had lived for, to explode into chaos that could not be measured. Let them use her, let them see what she had been made to do. Jeremy would be proud.

Was to be like the stars...

One…

A rush of pure condensed energy flooded into her central system immediately following the pressure of her index finger on the trigger. The sound of a raging cry echoed within the sealed room, with its yellow and black stripped floors, and heavy machinery. Victoria's power erupted like a volcano, rising past her base capacity, towering into the thousands upon thousands until finally peaking at thirty-thousand ki. Her palms slammed onto the glowing conduit, now flowing with it's own source of life, burning the flesh upon her hands. Electricity flared around the room, snapping and cascading from the connection, and from her very figure. Light blazed around her body to obscure her, like an angel caught within the apex of a Big Bang. All of her world became a whirlpool of nothing but white, her flesh began to peel away from bare arms and legs, floating and dissipating as raw energy fluctuated around her, an ethereal light shimmering under the flesh of her being. The hunter became a star within space, exploding with true, awing force.

Victoria let loose another mighty bellow and pushed with everything she had. Energy collided from her damaged palms and into the channel, swirling and combining, until particles went to work in releasing the core into the oblivion. Clouds parted, a heavenly wrath was spent against Namek-sei's face, rocks split and bodies were disintegrated even before the ammunition met with the soil. Waves of water built into indomitable tsunami's that ravaged shorelines and toppled small off-coast cities. This was the Wrath of Kai, this was what they had come here for. Those lives lost today would be justified by the goals set forth by their mighty band of heroes. All would be set right.

The white of the room dulled, the light fading to show those bright stripes and the humming technology in her grasp. It was a grand design. She pulled her palms away, raw and bleeding, but all things healed with time. Victoria's energy burned like wings fluttering about from her body, cracked skin glowed iridescent like veins of mythril along her face, arms, and legs. A hiss notified her of entry into the room, a worker wearily checking in on their would-be power supply.

- -

She limped, gripping the male, her usual bubble-gum pink hair dulled to a light shade, nearing white. The reserves of her power were low, but slowly began to rebuild, using her inherit gift to heal at an expectational rate. Bright azure eyes peered down the long corridor, and she gently pushed aside the worker. “I'll be fine,” her vacant voice was a summer-soft whisper, etched by the unbelievable power surging through her veins. She was a star, and she had grasped the intoxicating strength with an iron fist, she wasn't done blazing in the night sky.

- -

“I'm going down to the surface,” her distant gaze was filled with some alien shimmer, a desire for more. This wasn't insanity, this was unlike her first plateau. Victoria needed to expend her energy, she had to save the planet. Their work wasn't done.

“The invaders are preparing weapons, we have to decide what action to take. The canon can't be used until it recharges, and we don't have anymore asteroids kicking around,” Daniel remarked, his gaze shifting to Captain Alexander and the others within the meeting room.

“We'll secure the space port,” Sigfried spoke up. “This ship wasn't designed to take part in aerial or space combat, you should take the rest of the crew out of Namek's space. We have no idea what those invaders have in store for us, and I don't think we want to find out, Captain.”

Victoria stared out the window, her aura continued to flow around her body. “The more help, the better, we need to save this planet. I won't stop until they're all eradicated. These aliens, invaders, they have no right to bring an onslaught upon such a peaceful planet. If they're conquering other planets I'll wipe them out.”

Everyone in the room watched as the femme fatal uncrossed her arms, crisscrossed by lines of corporal damage consisting of white essence, escaping the confines of her body. It fed into the wisp of energy like steam. “We have a planet to save.” She turned her head to gaze at the boy that had deceived her. She had no idea how far those lies went, how deep of a grave he had dug, but that was an issue for the morrow. Her haunting gaze flicked to their other companion; Jarka. Something had changed with that cook, not so much a cook now, there was more of an air about her that breathed confidence. Victoria smiled in the female's direction, these were her friends. “The alien's will have no idea what hit them.”

- -

Aboard the shuttle, filled with troops ready for combat, Victoria stood at the ramp as they headed to the surface. The world was in a state of insanity. Not only had the invaders come, but the sudden shudder of the planet by their attack had made everyone shake and tremble. Granted, their attack had slaughtered many aliens in the process, it was frightening and unreal.

The ramp began to slide open and she stared down, hair whipping about her muscular frame, her aura flickering with the teasing wind. Victoria tossed a glance back at her comrades in arms. “Let's light them up,” she said with confidence, and jumped out of the transport ship. Several feet she plummeted toward the city of Ja, the great wall erected to protect the spaceport was nearly in shambles. The woman fell, landing right at the edge of the once bustling town, now filled with invaders wreaking havoc, and attacking that wall with everything they had. The citizens were either dead, or dying, strewn over cars and dead on the sidewalks. It could have been from crossfire, or it could have been from the aliens, but this was war.

Victoria left a small crater where she landed, and slowly she straightened from her crouch. First was the spaceport, and then the city. With her aura igniting to full brilliance once more, her second level of power raging within her body, she charged through the ravaged city toward the vital perimeter of the wall. Flecks of flesh continued to tear from her arms and legs as she ran, her energy ripping at her seams, but it was all for the glory of battle. Victoria had never induced this much energy, she had only ever used the dosage Jeremy had instructed her to, but this was important. Her regeneration replenished her expended core, nearly peaking her toward her true potential, making her a white streak of dangerous light headed toward the focus of the war. Despite the invader ship looming overhead, she had to hope that other allies were dealing with that issue. Her thirst for dominance was here on the soil.

[Chubbs Story Account]

The world keeps spinning.

Victoria
*BUFF* OH SHI- | Victoria's CA is increased by an additional 15% for the duration of the Saga, becomes the focal point for all invaders around her, and inspires fear in the grunts.

[Sigfried Hunin]

“I'm going down to the surface.”

Victoria stepped in through the door, the room instantly filling with a dull white-blue glow. She seemed almost as though she had shattered and pieced back together with flowing ki for glue. Her eyes burned with the intensity that had always resided within her, and her flesh seemed to be in an eternal state of peeling away and healing back. Several long cracks and fissures ran over her, seething power rolling out in between. Her hands and feet seemed to be almost completely replaced with glowing replications of their original forms.

Sigfried raised his eye to the strange abomination of power as she loomed in the corner of the room. At least she seemed calm. In fact, more than calm, she seemed focused, euphoric even. Not that those facts made him wanna get in her way anymore but at least she wasn’t blowing holes in things just yet.

The Captain’s assistant, Daniel, spoke up first after the ethereal being that was Victoria had joined them. “The invaders are preparing weapons; we have to decide what action to take. The canon can't be used until it recharges, and we don't have any more asteroids kicking around.” He was an enterprising man, smart and to the point. You didn’t get this far ahead in the game by being a lazy retard though. In this case, he was right. The issue needed to be handled, and quickly. Losing the Utterance and the people that were currently on it would mean that the ECM would become nothing more than a bunch of peasants with rifles. Getting out of range of the weapons systems of the Grand Ship was to be a priority.

“We’ll take over the space port.” Sigfried drummed his fingers over the heavy metallic material of the table in front of him, his eyes floating around the conference room. “This ship wasn't designed to take part in aerial or space combat; you should take the rest of the crew out of Namek's space. We have no idea what those invaders have in store for us, and I don't think we want to find out, Captain.” They needed the space port, if they had any plans of getting the remaining soldiers off of Namek. It was unfortunate that they wouldn’t be able to rely in the might of the Utterance from above in their assault, but he was sure it could return and deal a heavy blow to the Grand Ship once it had gotten a good resupply of power.

He glanced over to Captain Alexander, who thumbed casually at his cavalry saber which he had brought with him to the meeting. The officer gave a short nod in agreeance. Sigfried was sure that if the man was given a time to collect his thoughts on the issue, he would be able to bring the ship down. His record and disposition lend him to being a master of orbital combat, a skill he was sure to use in a battle between the two large crafts.

“The more help, the better, we need to save this planet.” Victoria spoke up again suddenly. She looked out the clear viewport to the majestic, ravaged planet below. “I won't stop until they're all eradicated. These aliens, invaders, they have no right to bring an onslaught upon such a peaceful planet.” Her voice was lofty, as though she wasn’t truly even seeing things from behind her own eyes. “If they're conquering other planets I'll wipe them out.” When the woman moved, the veins of essence floated up out of her eerily. “We have a planet to save.”

Her eyes locked onto Sigfried, and he could feel her trying to burrow those white pupils into his soul. She wanted something of him, more than he could give her. She wanted the truth. A truth that had been so deeply buried, so far unreachable that no coercion could garner its release.

“The alien's will have no idea what hit them.” She said this matter-of-factly before striding out of the room, leaving streamers behind. As her feet struck the ground, little pats of blood were left behind, only to evaporate in the heat of their own radiance.

As the powered door sealed behind her, the Captain turned to Sigfried. “What the hell happened to her?”

Sigfried shrugged casually. “She had to put a lot into that battery operation. Maybe she’s pushed herself hard enough to transcend into something more, like the Saiyans do. Maybe she’s the world’s first superhuman.” Such an idea, and the name he had coined to describe it, were ridiculous even to him.

Alexander’s brow quirked and he reclined back in the chair, tapping the scabbard of his weapon on the ground. “Well I just hope she’s stable.” He tapped his temple with his index and middle finger gingerly. “You know, up here.”

“She seemed to be a little out of it, but I didn’t think she seemed that crazy.” Jarka spoke up for the first time in the conference, a topic of which she finally had some sort of authority. “If she starts freaking out, wouldn’t it be better for her to be on the planet anyways?” The dapper young captain smiled and tipped his wide hat to Jarka from across the room, acknowledging her input.

Sigfried glanced over to the man and tipped his chin upwards. “If you warped out and came back, do you think you could take the Grand Ship if we hailed you?”

He tilted his hand back and forth subtly and he toyed with his waxed beard. “Maybe. It just depends on the state of the net and the remaining drones and fighters. We can’t take on the smaller stuff with only four remaining ships. We just wouldn’t be able to keep up. If that blasted net is still operational there would be no way to get within range of the planet to fire down at the thing.” Planting an elbow on the table, he gestured towards Sigfried. “Not to mention we don’t even know what kind of weapons that thing is packing. If all it’s loaded down with is lasers and energy weapons we should be totally safe because they aren’t affected by the gravity of the planet. We’d just shoot ‘em down from just beyond the horizon.” With a long drawn sigh he quirked his neck in contemplation. “Then again they might just fling one big bomb at us and put us out of commission. I’d hate to find out what the atmosphere feels like up close and personal.”

Skoll glared out the window at the big blue and green orb strung out before them; Hati mostly stared at the people surrounding him. It was easy to tell they wanted to put in their two cents (one cent respectively) but it just wasn’t their place. They had their spots to hold in the echelon of authority, but they mostly served as Sigfried’s companions.

Sigfried already knew what they were thinking. Skoll wanted to either pick up and leave, knowing that the safest call was to simply not be there or to continue to go ahead and get shooting the damn thing down and get it over with. Hati wanted to take all the boys up and board the ship and show those stupid alien bastards who had the real nuts in the situation. Neither of their ideas were very good.

“I suppose the best thing to do is to just drop and hope for the best, then.” Sigfried did the best to make his word sound final. With a smooth salute Captain Alexander stood from his seat and began towards the stern of his vessel, already on to the next task of his mission taking his assistant Daniel with him. Skoll and Hati smirked and nodded to the red draped leader and then to each other, standing and returning to their respective quarters. All that remained in the room was Jarka and Sigfried.

The young man looked over to her and twiddled his thumbs nervously. “You know, you don’t have to go down to the planet with us. You can stay here with the boys and the Captain.”

“No.” She shook her head as she cast attention to his eyes. “No I want to go. This is my fight too. This is all that’s left for us, right?” A faint smile traced her lips as she spoke. “It’ll be a testament to… to something new.”

Before he could respond she stood and turned away, beginning towards the exit. “We’ll win, Sigfried. You know that.” She looked back one last time. “Just look what we’ve already done.”

The pneumatic hiss of the door indicated her departure, and he was left alone.

He stood slowly and paced to the massive viewport, the soft glow of the planet brushing against his face. What had he done to get here? What was he still even doing? Why was he here, halfway across the sector, fighting a war that he had nothing to do with? It was all politics, smokes and mirrors. The very things he had learned to disdain as a citizen he was no employing as a leader.

“It is not the truth that matters, but victory.” The voice emanated from his own reflection, though he couldn’t comprehend how it might have been his own voice.

He responded to the voice, though he knew not to whom he spoke. “But when does the world that I wanted come? When does the veil get pulled away? Will there ever be a time when people live enlightened? Why am I here, doing this, if it isn’t to make the world a better place?”

He waited a long time for a response, but it never came. He was alone in the darkness of space, about to land on an alien world for the first time. For the first time he would be on alien soil, and he would be bringing war.

--=~*/| o |\*~=--

The clattering of weapons being readied seemed to ring out over the thrum and vibration of the ship as it decelerated and headed towards the planet’s surface. Sigfried stood near the rear of the craft, with the soldiers and Jarka. Victoria stood upon the opened ramp, gazing madly out over the battlefield. Was she calculating a strategy for the upcoming battle, or simply foaming at the mouth, awaiting the taste of combat? Even Sigfried could not tell.

“Let’s light them up.” Her voice practically boomed through the drop ship. Her mythical presence seemed to both inspire and terrify the troops that had come down with them. An aura seemed to surround her as she prepared for battle, flickering as the winds kicked up.

She leapt from the transport ship and fell several meters before striking the ground, leaving a crater in the wake of her cracking might. Soon after, the ship’s altitude dipped down even lower and the remainder of the transport began to file out into the decimated streets of Ja City.

These men were veterans, each equipped with specialized body armor and weapons created by the Sentinels research department, each had seen battle too many times in their lives. These were the finest men and women that Earth could offer and by the hundreds, by the thousands the fell from the heavens on wings of steel to join Sigfried in battle.

Then there was Jarka.

A scared chef turned soldier, fighting for a cause she did not know that she believed in. She was loyal and smart and brave, but was she a soldier? Her eyes were filled with apprehension. He couldn’t help but wonder if she really belonged here, amidst all this. She never joined the ECM with hopes of being a warrior. At the most she should have been back on the Utterance cooking the meals.

Then again, she had chosen to be here. She was the master of her own path and there certainly wasn’t any turning back now. She would either fight or die.

“Come on!” Sigfried grabbed her by the collar and began to drag her from the craft and down onto the rugged roadway below. The two struck the ground with a huff of breath and looked around the scene.

The destruction spanned the entire section of the city, but apparently it had been even worse in others. When they flew over, he had received reports that half of the city had been lifted up off of the map by some sort of nuclear attack of unknown origin. The invaders may have used it as a shock tactic or perhaps the locals had dropped the weapon on their own in hopes to catch the foe unawares. In any case whatever half of the city that remained was now swarming with yellow.

The hastily constructed wall that surrounded the borders of the space port were filled with pock marks and craters. A large jagged crack opened up off to the left of the drop site, and within it could be seen the writhing masses of the Invaders climbing and snipping and biting like ants.

Victoria had already begun to sprint wildly towards the breach of the barricade, ki flowing from her in great spanning wisps. Chunks of her skin seemed to molt off as she grew ever more powerful, ever more hungry for slaughter.

Sigfried twisted about and locked eyes with the Sergeant in charge of the retinue of people. The Q-waves were flowing out from every hub coordinating the troops through the city as the other drop ships landed in roaring bursts. “Take your men and do your work.” He took a hold of Jarka’s wrist and turned away once again. “We will move ahead and clear your way.”

With that the young chef found herself upon the back of a great and terrible beast, swooping and panting as it chased after Victoria. Her terrified fingers clung and dug into his back, eyes beaming with rage and hatred as it swooped into the fight. “Sig...” He heard her murmur from above, but she was talking to the wrong entity. This beast was just that: the beast. No matter how much Sigfried was and could not avoid being the mind behind the creature, he lost himself in the form.

This creature was born of some dark dream, some drug-induced insanity that broke free of him when the glare of the sun was just right. It was the tension and hatred and confusion that arose when he could not bear to look upon his own heart. It had a voice, calling out from inside him. It told him things he would never utter to another soul, lest they be of his most trusted companions.

“I am darkness, this is my path. My friend... I will never lose the light of my eyes. I am the death that awaits the weak. I am strength that humans ought fear. I am the terror in the heart of man when he faces his own limits! My name is death.”

As this beast rose up through him so did a mighty caterwaul, bounding behind his glowing companion. As she burst through the remainder of the crumbling wall, a horrible chain of lightning sprang forth from her hands and enveloped one of the troops in front of her, consuming him and casting his form to ashes before it bounced and danced between his allies.

Sigfried raced up to her side, his red hood fluttering behind as Jarka attempted to catch up from behind, her ride suddenly no longer present. Something about the beast had changed him, rattled him, twisted his nerves in just the right way to allow him to flutter through and beyond the fact that they might die here.

He looked behind to Jarka and tilted his head towards the oncoming maelstrom of warriors. “Are you ready?” She didn’t seem to him that she was ready. She seemed afraid, as though this was all unreal. She clutched at the weapon she had been assigned, a hefty hand canon of a pistol, the clip full of ki-tipped rounds. He furrowed his brow in frustration and pointed towards the yellow. “Well, you’d better get ready.”

With that he faced the crashed waves of the enemy and bellowed out, “My name is death!!”

[Victoria]

Brilliant cracking of electricity sparked over the battlefield that had once been a space-port. Victoria's ethereal energy spewed off like smoke from an engine, wisps of white, unable to be contained in such a small body. Cracked skin continued to deteriorate and her body fought to repair its own destruction. This woman was nothing but a powerhouse ripping through little peons with strength unmatched. Even her white blotted eyes gave no glance to the sky, the shadow of a ship smoothing away like a wandering storm cloud. It was only that shadow she cared to notice, and her care was minimal. Pale pink lochs danced in the torrential breeze that kicked up from the raw energy swirling through her being. Victoria was a flashy girl, this was what she had been made for, and Kai knew she deserved to have fireworks.

“How many are there?” she asked herself, ignoring the fighting ensuing behind her. Swarms of the yellow-clad aliens fled toward her in some vain attempt to save their efforts. This war had been lost the moment her feet touched the soil of such a beautiful planet. Although spots of blood dripped and dribbled with her footsteps, she pressed on to enact the wrath of the Kais.

Intense polarized energy brightly lit each palm, Victoria stood atop one of the lower buildings, having jumped up with ease. She pulled the black energy forth and it exploded against the ground where invaders stood in panic, mere Grunts. The energy singed and absorbed into their entities only exciting more distress in the troops. The white energy in her other palm was brought so that both hands could collide, and the positive power enveloped her cracked appendages. With a graceful flip she landed on the ground and shot off toward the frantic aliens. Now each crack of her fist would hurt with the force of a spaceship rather than a truck.

An invader fell, face half obliterated by the impact of her jab. Victoria turned and snapped her leg into another. The alien flew across the battlefield, rolled, and remained a limp broking toy left behind. She grabbed another foe, pulled him down, and broke his face entirely on her knee. The burning of her energy ate away at the cloth of her hunting attire. Beautiful lace and leather paled, the color sucked away in the chaos. Seams ripped and seared, literally dispersing into nothingness as her core blazed with the raging intensities within. Victoria didn't care about this either, even as blood from her enemy turned to foul steam as it splattered her legs and arms.

She had recalled the sounds of her allies. There had been a disturbance, she couldn't feel it, but that cry had been unnatural. The hunter had wondered for a brief respite if Sigfried had also unleashed his true potential. That had been his voice. What of their small female ally, would she burst into light, bring down a world of pain against their enemies? That youthful girl held the potential to slaughter without touching blood and gore. Victoria knew the strength in telekinesis. The girl feared, and respected her mentor for his skill in power over the weak, this was his greatest skill. Jarka would be a powerful fighter, but Victoria knew in the back of her mind, that girl belonged in a kitchen.

Namek's crust cracked as if small asteroids pounded against the soil. Victoria ran, and as she did, invaders followed with their guns and their energy attacks. A horde surrounded the youth as she stopped within the open space where ships had once sat in wait for voyage. The girl lifted her hands and her aura flared to new heights, wisps of energy flitting about as if wings ached to be free from her backside. “Tonight you all die, you have no chance to beg forgiveness. This is my mission, and I never fail!”

Aliens topped in the first row of the ring surrounding her. A free-for-all broke out, intense energies collided with her body, weapons were fired, fists were thrown. Victoria moved gracefully, taking hits, and using her arms to defend herself against punches and kicks. An alien was gripped by the front of his armor, and abruptly flailed as pure electricity surged through his form and he exploded into bloody glitter in the air. The femme fatal moved again, stomping through the aliens as if they were insects. They fell around her, and she periodically bent down during kicks and sweeps, slapping her palm against the ravaged cement. This went on around the open landing strip. Cracks of lighting snapped off her body, searing nearby foes, the fireworks of her efforts.

The hunter back flipped and landed further away. Her traps were set all around her, perfectly placed in a sphere that encompassed the landing strip in a neat circle. The aliens continued, some stayed back, working strategies as they yelled into communication devices. Victoria had spotted in the distance, other groups of the invaders, they were like gnats. The large mass that fought to take her down was large, and she used her bright body, her power, as a distraction for destruction. The intense little charges littered the battlefield, sparking faintly from how much power they were imbued with. The static Latency that pooled out of her, keeping them like waiting bombs, made her feat possible. She waited.

Come closer, like lambs to the slaughter.

Victoria had tapped and slapped several invaders, whom considered themselves lucky to still be alive. Surely, in their little alien heads they wondered, why had their brethren exploded into clouds of gore when they still lived?

Closer, right into the depth of Hell.

It was for this reason. Energy bubbled within her, ready to spill out, and consume everything, even her very form. Victoria would never claim herself a title like her leader, she was not a Reaper. She was just a hunter, a killer, a girl formed into a tool. What gave her the right to love? This was her purpose and calling. None of it mattered, as her body glowed from the inside out and her once proudly worn gear disintegrated into dust, cracked skin showing light like never before. Joal had never mattered, her master and leader, Jeremy, never mattered, and Roy Munin didn't know the truth, he didn't matter now...the better for him. They were all in the past, and this was her birthright. The Company mattered. Victoria knew this, as her heart was closed off to the world and her energy exploded forth as a dome of static that encompassed the surrounding hordes and the triggers she had placed.

Everything cracked, a mighty shattering explosion, it was filled with light and fire. Chunks of concrete flew up with broken bodies and bloody pulp. The dome of electricity hissed and contained the smoking destruction, before sucking inwards like a deadly bomb. Winds kicked outward from the resulting blast, and the battlefield was truly claimed. The massive crater was a smoking burial ground. Victoria's mind floated within the center of the abyss, thoughts, and feelings. She didn't mind the idea of death. Her body had never failed her before, but she wondered in this still silence of light and energy, was she really immortal?

[Jarka]

There was no sense trying to comprehend her surroundings. Bodies pressed, marched, pulsed past her and into the fray. She was lost. Jarka was a single, insignificant, foolish little girl surrounded by soldiers. Killers. Weapons. She would die, and she would be forgotten, barely a blemish on the battlefield.

She could hear yelling, the barking of orders through communicators. It meant nothing. They were words for those that mattered, those that understood their place. The warriors would have their commands; she would be alone with her terror.

Then there was Sigfried. The boy turned to her, gesturing towards the battlefield. His words were distorted long before they reached her ears; the tumultuous expression contorting his face was all she needed to understand the gravity of the situation. She had never seen him like this. He seemed so raw, so bursting with energy and rage and bloodlust. Ready to tear out the throats of their enemies, the berserker let forth a blustering cry.

The waves of battle crashed forward.

Jarka clutched the gun she had been assigned as she stumbled ahead. The weapon felt clunky in her hands, like trying to wear mittens filled with marbles. It was wrong. This wasn’t where she was supposed to be. Greens and greys and yellows and sickening wet reds splashed across her vision.

She felt a monstrous arm clutch her waist and toss her aside. The ground her feet had been resting upon only a second before exploded with enemy fire. The red of Sigfried’s hoodie flashed for a moment before a rhinoceros decimated their attackers.

A lecherous buzz zipped past her head. The girl fumbled with the weapon in her hands, failing to discern the origin of the shot. Bodies and bodies and figures and death surrounded her. She couldn’t tell who was on her side; it was all a disgusting blur of sweat and color.

The fearsome shriek of a falcon preceded the fearful shriek of an invader. Sigfried found the shot.

Nauseous, the girl squinted at the tangle surrounding her. She had to find a strategy. Had to find a way to fight. To win.

It was useless. Jarka was no soldier. She could not comprehend the ebbs and flows of battle, nor determine what might be an opportune time to attack or defend. One might as well expect an ant to understand the rules of chess because it had passed over the board.

A flash of red. Sigfried. The girl fixed her eyes on her fearless leader. Her friend. He turned to her, eyes pleading. Anxious. Worried for her.

Jarka watched as the boy beckoned to her. She watched as his mouth traced a wordless call to arms, a call to action, a call to survive. She watched as the grenade plummeted towards him, bouncing once at his feet. He didn’t see it. She watched as the energy expelled, tearing apart Sigfried’s limbs and mixing them with the clods of dirt and blood. Flash.

A flash of red. Sigfried. The girl fixed her eyes on her fearless leader. Her friend. He turned to her, eyes pleading. Anxious. Worried for her.

She had seen the future. She could change it. She could save him.

With no time to warn him, her eyes darted to the sky in anticipation of the grenade. The tiny explosive sailed almost innocently through the sky. Two steps and a jump and Jarka reached out her mind’s hand. Her mind’s fingers grasped the orb for a moment before pitching it back to its origin. The psychic landed on her feet, her body twisted in a mimicry of the mental exertion she had put forth.

Sigfried stared at her in a strange conglomeration of wonder and gratitude as the grenade exploded into a heap of invaders behind him. He opened his mouth to speak.

The sudden pain took Jarka by surprise. It was a strange burning just beneath her left collarbone, followed by a sharp stabbing as she exhaled. She twisted her neck to the source. A seeping crimson trail lead her to a tattered hole in her chest.

Shot. She had been shot.

Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the ground. Her left arm flopped limply across her stomach. It hurt to try and move it. The pain was getting worse, expanding to her shattered shoulder blade and rippling through her chest cavity. Ragged wheezing led to the taste of blood led to panic and fear.

“Ssss...” She couldn’t manage the breath to say his name. She wanted to scream. To cry. She couldn’t. She had to save her breath. Had to hold on. Had to save herself. Her mind was clear. It just hurt too damn much to breathe.

Sigfried.... I don’t want to die.

[Sigfried Hunin]

Victoria had gone off somewhere, the world too afraid to stop her. It was as though the entire planet had spun this long so unhindered and unabashed of itself only so long enough for them to show up. It seemed they had lost all this time to the boiling down of moments, almost as if Namek’s history had not mattered until that moment.

The blackness that welled in Sigfried’s heart mirrored Victoria’s brightness. It dripped from his very being and blood fell from his fingers. Sanguine covered his face and neck now, his body constantly caught between the image of a man and a monster. He was quite unsure now, honestly. Something on this battlefield called to him. The smell of pain and anger, of sweat and death, they all drew him in closer and he drew it in with great huffs into his nose. It was intoxicating.

Once again, Sigfried was Red, not a dull Grey, his eyes full of life once more. Having the two of them with him was always confusing. All of those thoughts they had, memories, feelings, desires and complexities that even Sigfried had only brushed against within the depths of his mind; they flooded over and through him. He wondered why they had left him, why he needed them to leave, when the euphoria of madness was so sweet.

Things didn’t have to make sense in this place. The distractions were there and they were good. They pulled his mind away from scrutinizing every thought, from tempering every feeling. Why was it that Sigfried felt so at home when he was not himself? When he was somebody with two other elses, with two people entirely separate? Maybe this was what it meant to be whole.

His wandering eyes found their way to Jarka, huddled in some corner of cover near the edge of the street. She looked like a moose in a desert, completely out of her element. Her very body trembled as she fumbled over the rubble, the massive pistol between her fingers seeming so out of place.

He took a step towards her, lifting a hand to guide the poor thing through the terror that enveloped every waking moment. A queer expression crossed her face but for one half of an instant, and then a look of shock. His brow furrowed as she took the pose of a shot putter, hurling her hand up and over. Turning his gaze upwards revealed some alien device hovering over his head before being flung back over the wall of its origin.

He didn’t know just quite what to say, the words all crumpling up in a pile near the back of his brain as he attempted to convey his feelings. A little smile had begun to spread over her lips. It was a look of pride, of satisfaction and glory. It was her moment to shine within the conflict.

He didn’t even hear the shot. A spattering of blood erupted from her chest, the frothy pink already gathering around the entrance wound as the lung deflated with a gasp. She crumpled backwards into the ruin of a spherical building, knees caught up on a chunk of wall caused that her legs to kick out dramatically from under her. Her head struck the ground upon landing. From behind a stone, her pleading eyes poked out, a tiny dribble of water creeping out of one and rushing to mix with the dirt below.

He could see her lips moving, uttering something that he couldn’t quite hear. She gagged on a bit of blood that had run down her trachea, choking the other lung. She closed her eyes tight, and her shivering ended.

The boy turned away, tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. He felt the smoke begin to erode the air around him, ozone and the sickly tang of sulfur gracing his nostrils. Something surged up from within him, grief and rage and terror all balled into one. It clutched at his throat, each emotion a finger taking hold of him and squeezing. Falling to his knees, he gagged and sputtered, vomit spilling out from his lips. He didn’t want to breathe because if he had to breathe that meant that the moment had passed and the things he had seen were real.

His hands clutched at his chest wildly, as though he could end the pain that throbbed by pulling his heart from beneath his ribs. Tears slowly fell into the boy’s hands, each pattering past and striking the dry earth with a puff of dust and smoke. His innards writhed as he felt his body rebel against him. The voices swelled up from within and screamed his name, chanting doom with every breath that he forsook. It was but the very thinnest strands of reason that sutured his mind together, the pressure of the moment tugging away at the threads as his heart exploded.

Sigfried… I don’t want to die.

With a horrible scream his body tore itself apart in a fountain of blood and biological debris. The battlefield soon filled with shrieking terrors, each with a different face and shape. They flowed and writhed between every inch of the battlefield, leaving thin red trails behind them that soon trickled off into vapor. The howling echoed so loudly through the sky that one might wonder what other than Hell itself could inhabit the poor surface of the planet.

The tainted creatures ran together like rambling sentences and when they were not screaming incoherently they babbled on in never ending loops, discussing topics and emotions that had plagued the young boy for so many years. These were not complete creations like Skoll, Hati or Roy. They did not even wield the basic cognizance that the snipers had, instead simply the unfinished half-birth of garbled theories and unrequited loves. Each was the tiniest shard of Sigfried.

They carried swords and whips, shields and pistols and a thousand other terrible devices. Some bore horns or halos, others simply the grin of a madman and each perched atop a structure that could be spawned in the mind of a man shattered. Their fiendish weapons clashed with those of the yellow garbed aliens and pierced their flesh mercilessly. When one would fall to the hands of an Invader, it would simply recorporate with its closest brother before devouring the creature that had put it down the first time. The streets red ran with blood; it colored the sky and filled the air.

Jarka whimpered and clawed at the ground, unsure of what was happening, only vaguely aware of the torturous existence that was Sigfried’s spawn. The pain seared through her as her breathing became more and more labored. Each breath was short and shallow, a lightheaded euphoria making it difficult to concentrate. The gun was too heavy in her hand to lift and bear witness to. She hadn’t even gotten to fire the damn thing, and here she was dying. Dying alone.

The sudden cessation of sound caused her eyes to open even in her delirious state. What she saw above her wracked her body with such horror that she went to scream, a visceral pain pressing down into her chest as she attempted. A terrible red demon loomed above her, golden eyes flickering as a tong, snake-like tongue lapped at the air. Blood trickled down from its face as it leaned in to deliver the kiss of death.

She whined and moaned, her limbs shuffling feebly about beneath her in an attempt to escape the beast, but its clawed hands pressed down onto her arms. “Shhhh…” it whispered with split tongue. “Everything will be just fine.”

Sigfried fettered and gnawed at his cheek nervously, anxiously. He wondered about the complications and what might happen to poor little Jarka. Could he help her? Was he even capable? His confusion wriggled and squirmed about in his head, pulling his eyes in every direction like worms tied to marionette strings. The shimmering images of a thousand eyes pressing into his consciousness and demanding his attention.

What if she died where was the enemy who was he fighting was that a grenade what was wrong with Jarka why was the sun still blue on Namek I wonder what the halflife of this energy cell is how do you tell what a day is on a planet with two suns who to kill next who to kill next who would be dead next?

As she pried her eyes open one last time, she saw Sigfried's face as he gently pat her down. “Where are you hurt?” It seemed like a stupid question to anyone who had just watched the poor thing get shot in the chest, but the fact of the matter was that things could be much worse if she had gotten a concussion or fractured her skull.

She disjointedly placed her finger near where the bullet had torn through her body as he began to gently cradle her head and neck, squeezing softly as he checked for fractures. “How is your head?” He didn’t allow her to even attempt at answering before he followed up. “Just tell me if it hurts, ok?” His thumbs pressed down on her cheekbones, forhead, brow, maxilla. His thumbs gave slight pressure at her jaw line before he moved down her neck, checking for stepoffs in her vertebrae.

Now would be the time in where he would check her chest and ribcage, but he decided to leave that for last. Never hurt your patient right away. Check the rest of them first.

Next his hands pushed up into her armpit of the unaffected side, quickly retracting out as he searched for blood. He gripped her arm and tugged in opposing directions as he moved away to the distal tip of her limb. When no blood or fractures were located he slipped down around her waist.

He grasped the cusps of her hips and pressed down and in, waiting for the sound of crunching or a shriek of pain from the chef. At least her pelvis wasn’t broken. A similar treatment that he had given her arm was given to her leg, assuring it wasn’t shattered or bleeding. With a wince he glanced up to the young woman and coughed. “Sorry, Jarky, this isn’t personal.” He jammed his flat hands up into her groin, the space between her leg and crotch, insuring that her femoral artery hadn’t been opened up.

The other leg was given the same treatment and soon he was meddling with the arm of her affected side. She whimpered and huffed painfully as he manipulated the limb, her injured chest pulling as he fiddled with it. He didn’t want to hurt the girl any more than she had to be. Yet, if she was injured more than he had expected, she could be in far greater. It was always better to check.

Placing one hand on top of another, he rolled them over her belly like he was kneading some unseen dough in her gut. When his fingers reached their tip and he was pressing down with just the points, he quickly lifted them and checked for rebound tenderness. He felt no hard balls or pulsating masses, and so her abdomen seemed good enough for now.

He returned to the chest once again, staring down to her bloodied top. He knew what he was going to have to do, but he still didn’t like it. Injuries were always so damn messy. Placing his hands together as if he was praying he placed them on her sternum and slid them down the strait bone after a firm press, repeating the sequence until he met the process at its bottom. She heaved and gasped as he pressed into her, almost assuredly sporting a broken rib. He wrapped his wide hands around with wide of her chest and squeezed, moving up and down her ribs until he met the actual entrance wound. Now her face contorted and she shrieked shortly, the broken rib wriggling about under her skin.

He shook his head slowly and cast his gaze up to the sky. “This really isn’t personal Jarka.” Removing a small knife from his pocket he slid it up the front of her shirt and into the sleeves, cutting away the fabric. Thankfully, she was wearing underwear beneath her top. He didn’t feel too bad when he tossed away the bloodied shirt. If she wanted a memento of the event, she could refer to the hole in her chest. He rolled her onto the injured side and once again the poor creature let out a moaning whimper. The exit wound that had left her scapula wasn’t much larger than its entry, but it almost certainly fragmented the paper-thin bone that rested where the gory blotch of mangled flesh rested.

He needed something plastic. And thick. It would also probably need to be sterile. After a moment of shuffling around in the filthy space, he remembered his rations for the day and pulled the tiny plastic bead from his pocket. Depressing the button and tossing it onto the ground in front of a him, the capsule exploded in a cloud of smoke. When it cleared, a freshly wrapped plastic MRE sat readily.

His knife sliced into the package, carving the walls into easily managed slabs. He secured the brown plastic on all four sides with thick tape. “Okay, if you can, give me one big exhale and hold it, ok?” Keeping her rolled on her side, he supported her with his knee. He placed the other square over the hole on her front again, tape sealing each edge.

He tapped her face gently a few times and smiled. “Jarky? Hey, Jarky, are you feeling okay?” He hefted the young woman to a sitting position and ran his hand over her hair.

“Better get a move on, boss.” Skoll’s voice was taught as it called from the wall just a few feet away. He stood inside the structure with only his eyes peeking out into the scene, a combat rifle in his hand.

“I think we’re clear to head back towards the troops if you think we should.” Hati scrambled around the space and gestured towards the breach, cocking his oversized handgun. “I think you cleared it out pretty well for a few blocks.”

Sigfried nodded and threw Jarka’s arm over his shoulders. “Come on now, Jarky… We’re goin’ home, ok?” He cast a glance between the two brothers, his eyes telling a tale of worry. “She’s still not breathing right. I think she’s got a-“

“Tension-pneumothorax.” The two responded in synchronises as they covered either side of the exit point.

Sigfried darted up to the large hole and glanced back and forth for any Invaders that felt like taking a second shot. He brandished Jarka’s pistol as he ran from his cover into the shell of another building. The sights of the weapon raced, sweeping for a target to fire upon. Soon, though, he found himself under concealment where he waited for his splits to follow. His weapon flashed down the other direction into the danger-zone.

The two others crossed the gap and they began to race through the city, now propelled by both a new sense of urgency and a new-found sensation of humanity. Jarka’s breathing only became more labored by the moment, frantic gasps resulting from her chest cavity filling ever more with air. It would start to build pressure around her heart soon enough.

The sounds of gunfire surrounded them quickly as the group crossed the breach of the wall. Squads of veteran soldiers coated in new-age armors with ki-tipped rounds sprinted around the ever-changing battlefield, securing the perimeter of the massive structure surrounding the space port.

“Mr Hunin!” The voice of one of the men called out to him, and the quartet looked over to the structure from which the voice had called. The striped sergeant wearing a South City uniform heralded them over as several men fired covering shots on either side, allowing them to cross. As they hit the tile of what used to be an office lobby, Sigfried released Jarka and propped her up against a wall in the corner.

“Are you alright, Mr. Hunin?” The men receded back into the building and covered their entrances, some reloading and others tending to other small matters in the short period of rest.

Sigfried nodded and looked over to the man. “Yeah I’m fine. Thanks, Sergeant.” He gestured to the small pouch on the man’s waist and beckoned him over. “Let me see your jump kit. She needs a needle chest decompression.”

The non-commissioned officer removed the small packet and tossed it over to his leader before turning back to the battle at hand, barking out orders. Sigfried popped it open as Skoll and Hati helped support and comfort the woman. He pulled out the thick fourteen gauge needle, catheter set, and a small alcohol swab, ripping the covering off with his teeth.

“I’ll need to go into the fourth intercostal.” He swabbed a tiny circle low on the girl’s ribcage, below her armpit. Firmly tugging off the cap, he cast it to the side as he began to line up his shot. He placed his thumb on her rib and slid the needle down along the bottom of it, careful not to strike the bone itself. The barb sunk into her and all the way into her chest cavity. He grasped the catheter and pulled the needle out, leaving the plastic tube in place. A long hiss escaped the hole as the pressure in her chest was released; her opposite lung was allowed to fully expand once more.

It wasn’t long after he had taped down the catheter that her bleary eyes began to look around the room once again, her heart back to pumping at full capacity. She grumbled something unintelligible and her head rolled around limply. Sigfried looked up to his brothers with a look of terror once again and pressed his fingers to her wrist.

“What’s her heart rate, man?” Hati’s voice carried too much worry.

“Too fast and thready.” Sigfried backed up off of the woman and started to look around the room for additional supplies.

Skoll brushed past him with a transparent IV bag in his left hand and a bundle of supplies and needle in the right. “I’ll handle her from here, Sigfried. Go and handle the situation on the front.”

Hati ran his hand over hers and nodded to Sigfried. “Yeah man, we can handle this. You’re needed elsewhere. You don’t need the distractions right now.”

Skoll nodded firmly as he set up the IV. “You don’t need the distractions.”

Sigfried trotted up behind the sergeant and patted him on the shoulder firmly. “What’s the situation on the space port? Do we have security?”

The gruff man glanced spitefully over to the hooded boy with a wary glance. Sigfried could taste his distrust on him, as obvious and blaring as the sun. It was good to have fewer distractions again. To be sliced into easily digestible pieces and allowing the bits to organize themselves… the gift of multitasking. The gift of clarity.

“We’ve got men moving on target now, but we’ve been getting a lot of feedback. The Invaders are flooding the area, and we’re picking up a huge surge of power from right on the tarmac. We believe it’s Victor-“

The hardened soldier was cut off by a blinding white light that seared over the entire City of Ja and a thunderous shockwave that spread out from its epicenter on the space port. Electricity arced from metallic surfaces and shocked the troopers as the current rushed over everything within their field of vision. A massive orb of power exploded outwards deep within the walls of that the defenders had built.

Soon, it was obvious to everyone involved what had transpired. Victoria had cleaned out the Space Port.