Mania and the Executioner (6 page)

“Why thank you Tia! Nice job getting Chezarei all worked up. You should’ve seen it last night when Chezarei walked in on Cole giving m
e a massage. I took his hand, set it on my tit, and watched the fireworks!” Natasha says.

“What!?
Why don’t I remember any this!?” Cheza asks.

“DAMNIT NATASHA WHAT DID I SAY!? NOW COME UP WITH A REASON WHY CHEZA WOULD SUDDENLY FAINT!” I yell as I block the blood flow to Cheza brain again. I’m worried that there might be some long term effects if I keep
doing this…I catch Cheza before she hits the ground.

“And then he did that.” Natasha says to Tia.

“Cole…how did you do that?” Tia asks, looking very worried.

“I told you how I had to restart Cheza’s heart
, right? Well, last night I discovered that I can control my blood that is still in her so I kinda blocked the oxygen to her brain a little. I was hoping that she wouldn’t remember or think that it was a dream like you guys did to me.” I explain while looking at the ceiling.

“Oh
okay, good.” Tia says in relief and I snap my eyes back to her in annoyance.

“Okay
, good!? I’m forcing her to pass out when having her conscious is too inconvenient! Tell me to stop or that I’m a terrible person or something!” I shout at her, not fully understanding why I’m angry.

“Cole, I thought you were manipulating other peoples’ blood now. That would make the gods worried enough to destroy you. I’m relieved
that isn’t the case.” Tia says, forcing into my mind the memory of her crying on top of me while holding a knife.

“The only reason that you
are angry at me is because you’re projecting the animosity you feel towards yourself for having done something like this.” Tia says with a gentle smile.

“You’re right…” I say as I look down at Cheza’
s sleeping face. I take her into the bedroom and I tuck her in. I walk back out into the main room and I sit down.

“Hey Tia…if I could do something that I thought would make the gods
worried enough to destroy me…would you want to know?” I ask and Tia suddenly looks very worried again.

“I should say yes so I can know whether or not you are a threat
, but I am saying yes because I want to protect you. Natasha, stop being liaison for the next few minutes.” Tia says.

“Consider it done; can I stay and listen though?” Natasha asks. Tia looks to me and I nod the affirmative. Tia motions for me to start.

“Well, after Illapa struck Cheza and me with the lightning that stopped Cheza’s heart, something weird happened. I just completely lost myself and all I could focus on is how I was going to make Illapa suffer. Then I noticed these silver tendrils wafting from my cuts. They speared forward and lifted Illapa up off the ground, immobilizing him. I looked in my right hand and noticed I had made something that I’m calling the Mu-cutter. The Mu-cutter is basically a molecular cutter made of a string of silicon carbide molecules. I walked up to him, relishing in the horror on his face. He asked what I was before I sliced off his left arm. Then he called me a monster and said ‘they’ were going to hunt me down before I sliced his pelvis in half. Then he said that ‘they’ were going to kill ‘that little bitch’ of mine slowly before I slowly drilled a hole through his stomach, getting a primal pleasure from hearing his screams of agony. His entire body was flaking away before I divided him into quadrants and got the idea to save Cheza.” I explain, closing my eyes because I just can’t handle being able to see what’s on Tia’s face right now.

“There, it’s alright now Cole.” Tia says soothingly as she comes over and hugs me.

“Have you been able to create the Mu-cutter since that time?” Tia asks.

“I haven’t tried. From what Airi said
, it uses up 1.8 Liters to make and the tendrils used up a total of 2.0 Liters for eight of them, I think.” I tell her.

“Could you try and make the Mu-cutter now?” She asks while pulling back from me.

“I would but I’m about a liter low right now; I had to fill my stomach with blood so I could vomit up the bullets and I’ve regenerated about half a liter since that time. Add another 1.8 Liters to that and I’ll likely pass out before it is complete.” I tell her.

“Let’s try another time then.” Tia says while warmly smiling at me.

I feel that Cheza is waking up so I head into the bedroom.

“Mmm…Cole?”
Cheza sleepily asks.

“Hey, how are you feeling? The fatigue must have caught up to you and you fainted.” I
lie.

“Cole…I know you manipulated your blood that is in me to make me faint…” Cheza says.

“H-how?” I stammer, slightly afraid for my life.

“For the same reason that I know that you’re a little afraid of my
impending reaction, but don’t be; I also know that you feel guilty about it, so I forgive you. And I know that you are low on blood, which most likely having something to do with the reason there are three bullet holes in your stomach that are still healing. Cole, why did you lie to me about getting shot?” Cheza says quietly.

“I just don’t want to make you worry…” I tell her.

“Cole, I love you. It’s okay for me to worry; I just don’t want to be in the dark anymore. Also…why won’t you have sex with me?” Cheza asks.

“I, uh…how do I say this…” I stumble
along.

“Still see me as a little sister and not as a woman.” Cheza answers for me
, looking downtrodden.

“I guess I’ll just have to work on that.” Cheza smiles
, but it seems somewhat insincere.

(Can she hear me as well?)

As soon as Airi says that, I feel my mind connect with Cheza’s.

“
WHOA! Was that Airi!?” Cheza exclaims.

“Cheza, can you hear me too?” I think. Cheza eyes go wide as she nods in response.

“Stay here, I’m going to test something.” I think as I race out of the room and down the hall to the elevator. “Can you still hear me?”

“Yeah…
Cole, this is a little freaky.” Cheza replies in my mind.

“Airi, can you close the link?” I ask. I feel the connection between Cheza and I close. “Open it again, please.”

“Cheza?” I think as I start walking back down the hall.

“Yup
, I can hear you. That’s good that we can close it; being able to constantly hear each other’s thoughts would get embarrassing.” Cheza replies.

“Yeah it would!
I think we should tell Tia about this.” I think as I re-enter the bedroom. Tia probably should know and since this seems like a day for sharing things…

“Wow! That’s what happened while I was dead!?” Cheza asks out loud.

“What?” I ask.

“I just saw your conversation with Tia from your point of view.” Cheza replies.

“Airi, close the link.” I think as I shout “Tia!”

“What’s up? My guess is that Chezarei can somehow hear Airi and you were testing to see if Cheza
rei could still hear her if you were far apart.” Tia asks.

“Close.
Airi can open a connection between us that allows us to telepathically talk to one another and Cheza was just able to see my memory of the conversation that we had a little earlier.” I inform her. Tia looks a little shocked by the news.

“Okay, just one more thing that we are not going to tell anyone else
, besides Sara.” Tia says and then gets a mischievous look on her face. “Chezarei, I have something that I need to talk to you about. Cole, leave.”

I really don’t like the look on her face, but I do as she says. I’m tempted to listen in but I know that Tia w
ill give me hell for it if I do…or worse: she will tell Cheza. Cheza knowing about my extrasensory hearing is definitely something I don’t want. I grab a glass of juice to try and help my blood’s recovery while Natasha talks on her phone. Cheza and Tia walk out of the bedroom as Natasha hangs up.

“Tia, we may need to postpone that trip to see Pele. I just called The Agency’s local office to inform them of what
’s happened, and they told me there have been indications that a coup d'état has been staged within the Hawaiian pantheon. Kamohoali’i is most likely the leader behind the coup” Natasha says. Tia pulls out her phone and starts texting.

“Okay, Pele just told me that they are having a debate to decide what side to go with in this war. Pele: head of the pantheon and Goddess of fire and volcanoes, Hi’iak
a: Goddess of water and Pele’s favorite sister, and Kahoali’i: God of the underworld, are firmly with The Faction. However, Kamohoali’i: Shark god and Pele’s brother, Ku: God of war and one of four Greater gods, Paka’a: God of winds, and The Poli’ahu: four goddesses of snow, are against us and are throwing their bid in with the Norse. This debate isn’t just for the Hawaiian sect though; it’s for the whole Polynesian pantheon. The stakes are high in this so Kira wants all of us to attend. She told me to text her to port us out if things start to go south.” Tia informs us.

“Alright, so when is the debate?” I ask.

“Tonight at Pele’s home in the Halemaumau Crater.”

Chapter
5: Aggressive Debate

Tia tells us that we still have a few hours before we have to leave so I decide to
fit a nap in to make sure my blood recovers, in case I end up needing it. I take off my shorts and jacket, lie on my back, and start to drift off to sleep when I feel Cheza climb into bed next to me. She snuggles in to my left side as she tries to open our connection.

(Mr. Treyfair, you have a call on line one. Should I tell them that you are busy?)

“No, go ahead and put them through. I can stop trying to putt a golf ball into a coffee cup for five minutes. Oh, and Airi?”

(Yes Mr. Treyfair?)

“When I’m finished with this call, come into my office and help me cheat on my wife.”

(Yes Mr. Treyfair; I
’ll bring the ping pong paddle)

“Hey Cole, are you asleep?” Cheza thinks
, her concern for me is blatant through our link.

“No, but I’m trying to be. What’s up?” I think.

“I don’t want you to take any chances tonight, okay? You aren’t allowed to get hurt.” Cheza thinks while sniffling out loud.

“Everything will be fine Cheza. I’m sure things will work out. You know, I really hate to see you cry.” I reply.

“I know, but I can’t help it. You’ve been hurt too much already…” Cheza’s thoughts trail off as I feel my chest get wet.

“It’s going to be alright Cheza.
I’ll be careful, I promise.” I think as wrap my left arm around her and drift off to sleep.

…

I wake up alone six hours later at 5:30pm. I put on my armored jeans, a white t-shirt, my holster, and finally my jacket that now has ten circular shapes impressed on it but still no holes; I remember to zip it up this time. I switch the rounds in my gun to JHP and I holster it before walking out into main area where the girls are already waiting.

“Hey sleepyhead!
I was just about to have Chezarei go wake you. There’s a helicopter waiting on the roof and it will take about an hour to get there so we should leave about now.” Tia says.

We
walk through the broken door and head right, towards the elevator. Something is amiss but I can’t figure out what…

“
Where are all the bodies?” I ask, figuring what is amiss.

“The Agency’s people came by while
you were sleeping and hauled them all off. They’ll fix the door and the bullet holes while we are gone.” Natasha answers.

We go up to the heliport where there is an ‘executive’ style helicopter
waiting for us. Ten minutes after settling in to the comfy leather seats, we’re on our way. When we get close, I can see lava spewing out of the Kilauea volcano and into the ocean. We start to land near the crater and I see half a dozen other helicopters that are similar to ours. I also see that there are tiki torches to guide people from the landing zone; my only question is how they stay lit with the helicopters kicking up so much dust upon landing.

“Okay, here is the game plan,” Tia says when we land but before we have left the cabin. “Keep quiet and let me do the talking. If shit hits the fan, we
leave.” We nod in response. We walk into this cave as Tia and I fall back behind the girls by about ten feet so we can talk.

“What can I expect
if things go wrong?” I whisper at a volume that I know Tia will have no issues hearing.

“We will end up fighting
our way out.” Tia answers at a similar volume. I don’t like the sounds of fighting that many gods.

“So we will have to fight through over a dozen Illapa’s? I vaguely remember breaking a bunch of shit when I fought
the singular version a few days ago.” I say sarcastically.

“Don’t worry! Illapa was a pantheon head from a stronger pantheon than this one. Our chances still won’t be good but at least they will be existent!” Tia says.

“What about in terms of speed and strength?” I ask.

“
Since I haven’t seen you in action since you merged with your Drive, I’m not sure about you. However, I should be able to match them in speed, except for Pele, and Pa’ka. As for strength, I should be able to match them except for Ku and Pele. However, I am hoping that two hundred years of friendship will mean something to Pele and she will at least buy us time to escape.” Tia responds.