Planet Chimera (22 page)

“You know, that is one thing I really don’t
know,” Zad replied, placing the tray on the side, his eyes looking
at the brown ceiling. “He was supposed to be brought to me, to be
punished for failing to detain you, but he never showed up. Oh,
well, I will send a party out to search for him, once this is
over.”

“You truly are a sick and demented freak,” I
sighed, shaking my head, with both of my eyes closed. “Shooting
down ships from the sky, kidnapping the passengers, turning
ordinary chimera into mutant freaks; a truly endless list of
heinous crimes. Do you really think you will get away with this? Do
you really think a group of death-row inmates, along with the elite
Vandrel Guards, can just simply be made to disappear without
someone raising an alarm over it?”

“Rave, Rave, Rave,” he chuckled, stuffing
his face the last piece of cake. “I have been doing this for fifty
years, on other planets before this one, and I have never been
caught, and I don’t intend to do so any time soon. No one will know
because no one, in your whole group, will survive to tell about it,
and that includes you.”

“My dear fellow, you might be the smartest
person I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, but you are not as
bright as you might think,” I responded, feeling my strength
returning and the pain fading. “Not everything goes according to
plan, Zad, something you should already know. It takes one small
piece, out of place, to change everything.”

“Surely, you jest, right?” he laughed,
making a mockery out of me, a thing he would live to regret. “Who
will stop me? Who among you has the ability to stop me now? You
failed to kill me before, a mistake that will not happen again, and
you will never get another chance like that again, old friend.”

“Perhaps,” I nodded, looking down, watching
the alien’s burning body crumble to ash without feeling any signs
of pity for him.

Turning his head, scratching away an itch on
his elbow, Derrick turned his attention to the two remaining
people—Jutcer and Salyanna. Terrified, they both leapt out of the
way, separating to the opposite ends of the room, their rifles
raised. Silence engulfed us, the wind stopping as if commanded to
do so, as a powerful amount of dark energy oozed into the air. It
was an amazing feeling, a pure delicacy for the likes of me, but a
terribly frightening aura for Salyanna and Jutcer. I fed on its
essence, using it to quickly heal all of my previous wounds, as I
felt my own power grow. The time for me to act was nearing. And
soon, I would open the powerful eye of the abyss and use it to
destroy all of my enemies. To kill Zad for the second time, to
destroy everything he had created, was certainly going to give me
euphoria beyond pure madness, something I hadn’t felt in a long
decade. Turning my gaze towards him, watching him stuff his mouth
with pastries like a disgusting pig, I smiled, knowing that his end
would come by my own two hands.

“Why are you smiling like that?” he asked,
glancing at me curiously, putting his empty cup down. “Is there
something you want to ask me?”

“No, I am just imagining ways I will skewer
you,” I sneered, giving him a look of pure bloodlust. “Your dreams
will end and die with you today.”

“I would like to see that,” he replied,
drawing a small dagger, from his left pocket, and placing it on his
lap, a cold smile on his face. “The time for us to finish this
draws closer, isn’t that right, old friend? For too long, your
betrayal haunted me, infuriating me to a point of anguish, and at
last, I finally have been granted one more chance to fight you, in
a battle to the death.”

“Don’t get so excited, it’s just a fight,” I
exhaled, my heart pacing, as I watched Derrick make his move.

Placing his hands in his pockets, looking
relaxed, Derrick plodded through the floor, making his way to his
cornered prey. He stopped in the center, looking left and then
right, trying to decide who he would kill first. He smiled,
withdrawing his right hand out of his pocket, raising it up and
pointing it at Jutcer. And as he did, Jutcer screamed, opening fire
on the death-row inmate, in a desperate struggle for survival. His
bullets bounced off the invisible wall, ricocheting in different
directions.

“Save me, please,” Jutcer screamed,
trembling with fear, as his gun slipped out of hands. “Help me,
Salyanna.”

In the instant he muttered those words, all
of the bones in his body were snapped out of his skin, his blood
splattering in every direction, and his head twisted backwards. He
fell backwards and did not move again. He died suffering in the one
of the most horrible way possible. Salyanna, dropping to her knees,
screamed out loud, her tears flowing like floodgates. Unable to
control her emotions, she tried to reach her hand for him, but
withdrew it at the last second. She wiped her tears away, standing
up slowly, her claws extended out.

“You will pay for this, you monster,” she
shrieked in fury, her eyes glowing, as her fangs came out.

Before she could charge, I made my move, and
jumped up to my feet in a swift motion. I spun around, dashing for
the window, and smashing through it, shard of glasses following in
my wake. I heard Zad shouting something, his voice dying out behind
me—my focus tuned on the fight below me. Landing on top the giant
gun, the force of gravity on my side, I caused the muzzle of the
gun to turn vaguely down. Derrick stopped his advance, his hands
besides his waist, looking up at me with a detached expression.

“Sorry, Derrick, but I will have to
intervene,” I yawned, dropping down to the ground, feeling fully
revived. “I hope you won’t mind if I take you on, will you?”

“Doesn’t really matter,” he groaned, looking
away, his arms folded. “It doesn’t matter who you are, what you can
do, because no one can touch me.”

“We shall see about that,” I added, flexing
my right arm up and down.

16

“No, Rave, he is mine,” Salyanna growled,
red fur starting to emerge on her smooth skin, and her ears
changing shape. “I will make him pay for everything he did to
Jutcer.”

Bending down on all four, assuming an
animalistic form, she roared like an enraged beast and charged
forward. I watched her move out of my range, her speed increased
threefold, as her mind was wrapped in pure wrath. She leaped in the
air, swiping her long claws at Derrick, but instead of hitting him,
her claws came into contact with his invisible shield, the force of
her own attack deflecting her back. Landing on her legs, roaring
fiercely, she presumed to attack him again, not planning on giving
him any time to rest. And like before, she was deflected back to
the ground, her claws oozing with blood. She mastered her pain, in
a truly admirable way, and charged again for another attack, and
instead of being deflected back, she came within inches of his
head. For some reason, Derrick, confused, jumped back to avoid her
lethal claws, which was something I could not understand. He looked
agitated and impatient; his once expression of pure boredom had
been replaced with fear and desperation. Salyanna sensed this and
pressed on, rushing in to attack even though her own body was badly
wounded.

“Enough of this, woman,” he bellowed,
raising his right hand, a look of focus glimmering from his cold
eyes.

Sensing the malice, I rushed in and kicked
the invisible shield with my right leg, drawing Derrick’s attention
towards me. He roared, swiping at me with his right hand, and
knocking me away with some sort of invisible wind. Little by
little, I was beginning to understand how his power worked, and how
his shield operated. The state of his disturbed mind determined the
strength of his abilities. Based on what I had seen, he had the
ability to conjure anything he wanted, using the power of his
imagination, and despite it being invisible, into existence. It was
a remarkable ability, far more dangerous than I was assuming, which
was bad.

“You are mine,” Salyanna boomed, appearing
behind him, her right claws extended out.

She nipped his neck a little, before the
invisible shield activated and pushed her back, sending her
crashing into the wall. Touching the blood on his neck, exhaling
heavily, he screamed in pain and turned his evil gaze towards her,
planning to kill her in cold blood. Upon seeing this, I stomped
forward, rolling on the ground and picking up the alien’s sword. A
terrible gust of wind suddenly rippled through the room, my fur
coat billowing against it, as I smashed the sword against his
invisible shield. Derrick turned around, facing me, with his right
hand pointing at me.

“Now, burn,” he screamed, looking agitate
and hostile.

“I am really the worst matchup for you,
Derrick,” I replied, watching the fire consume my body.

After being shot at multiple times, having
my head chopped off by a blade, this was nothing. From the fire, I
emerged in a triumphant walk, glancing down at the sword in my
hand, the fire still burning through me. Derrick, horrified, looked
at me with fear and began to take a few steps back, trembling. He
stumbled on the ashes of the alien he had killed, gasping heavily,
turning his head down, before balancing himself again.

“I can feel your fear, and the taste of your
anguish,” I giggled, walking towards him, the sword extended in
front. “This is the weapon that will kill you, Derrick, and there
is no shield that can protect you from it.”

“You lie,” he shrieked, his eye turning red,
gritting his teeth in a menacing way. “I will kill you.”

Stopping, I felt all of my bones being
twisted, my neck being moved out of line, as if something was
trying to break me. Black blood gushed from several openings, all
over my body, the pain nerve wrecking and yet amazing. I fell to
the ground in a trance of euphoria, his evil aura still seeping
into me, and laughed hysterically. It was working—as long as
Derrick was terrified of me, his powers were utterly useless.
Sitting upright on the ground, in my own pool of blood, my legs
spread apart, I inhaled deeply.

“You truly are a man worthy of being my
second,” I said, looking him in the eyes, as my body began to heal.
“Haven’t you been curious as to who I am, as to the identity of the
top wanted criminal in the Milky Way galaxy?”

“Filthy lies,” he replied, the confidence in
his eyes disappearing, moving back a few feet. “Am I supposed to
believe that you the infamous, murderous assassin?”

“No, but it was suppose to distract you from
that,” I smiled, pointing at something behind him.

Shaking in his boots from fear, he tried to
turn back, but was grabbed from behind by Salyanna, who sunk her
fangs into his neck, before choking him from behind with something
slimy. It was Tommy’s tongue, the part that had been cut off by the
alien, and it looked like her grief for Jutcer had consumed her. I
watched from the ground, with no intention of stopping her, with a
smile on my face. His face turned blue, sweat dropping from his
forehead, his eyes turning red, as he struggled for breath. He
tried to pull her from his back, but he lost his strength, and
dropped to his knees looking half-dead.

“Make him suffer, Salyanna,” I whispered,
taking pleasure in her carnage. “Make him pay for what he did to
Jutcer and everyone else.

She tightened her grip, bending his back
backwards, blood gushing out from the deep wound she had inflicted
on him. Tears dropped from his eyes, her fur receding into her
skin, as she slowly let him go, and let him fall to the ground. She
moved away from him, wiping her eyes with her right hand, and
trudged away from the unconscious man.

“What are you doing?” I asked, standing up
with anger. “Why are walking away? Finish him, make him suffer for
what he did to your friend.”

“I can’t, Rave, I am not a monster and I
don’t want his blood on my hands, too.” She muttered, dropping her
knees to the bloody floor, and pulling something from Jutcer’s
corpse. “I only wished to stop the madman; I never wished for this
violence, for this killing to befall any of us.”

“You idiot,” I spat, her soft attitude
infuriating me, and glanced up at Zad, who was making his glamorous
descent to the ground. “Your weakness will get you killed.”

Zad spun in the air three times, his new,
black cape flapping behind him, and landed roughly in the ground.
The mutant chimera squad, who had been protecting him, jumped down
next to him, clapping at every ridiculous pose he made with his
hands. I sensed something sinister around him, a powerful force
that rivaled my own, and it was oozing into the air. And even his
eyes had changed color, a dark, bluish color, his shoulders broader
and bigger, and his feet twice as long. The heels and soles, on
both his boots, had massive, silver spikes embedded into them,
increasing his height by a few inches, whilst making him look more
intimidating. Derrick coughed, still lying on the ground, and
opening one of his eyes.

“I don’t like to be interrupted,” Zad
yelled, rushing towards him, and smashing his head in with his
right boot. “I hope you will learn that next time.”

“He is dead, you buffoon,” I snarled,
disgusted by his intolerable actions.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot that I put on my spiky
boots. But, anyways, let us begin our last match.”

“About time,” I added, oozing with smoke, as
my bones had reverted back to their normal positions, and the
bleeding stopped.

“Kill them both,” Zad ordered, pointing at
us, with a serious look on his face.

Growling, his bodyguard
mutants took arms, charging at the both of us from different
directions. In this confined space, offering little room to
maneuver around or hide in, we were at a disadvantage. Suddenly, a
bat-faced, mutant chimera, jaws wide open, lunged at me with its
right claws, but missed me by a few inches. It turned its massive
body around, rocketing at me with its right leg for a second
attack. From behind, I sensed the presence of another mutant, lying
in wait for me with its flintlocks drawn out. I pivoted to the
left, taking a quick glance back, to see the beast behind me. I
heard three shots, a pain in my lower back, and I fell on one knee.
Panting, I saw a shadow standing over me, before this massive,
spiked boot was plunged into the right shoulder, sending me flying
a few yards to the right.
I really should
stop playing around and put an end to this
, I thought.