Three Square Meals Ch. 060

"Jade..." Faye wept, watching the horrifying outcome of the fight, while powerless to do anything about it.

***

Alyssa groaned as her eyelids fluttered open, and as she tried to move, she felt a heavy weight on her chest. She was in a darkened room filled with thick black smoke, and the tell-tale flicker of fire cast devilish shadows across the wall she was huddled up against. With a wave of her hand, whatever it was that had pinned her down rolled away, and she leaned up on an elbow, coughing fitfully.

Now that she could see a bit better, she recognised the object that had fallen on her as one of the sofa chairs, and her eyes widened as she surveyed the scene of devastation in the Officers' Lounge. The bar was on fire, and the emergency sprinkler system must have been damaged because it hadn't kicked in yet. She raised her left hand, and shrouded the flames in a telekinetic blanket of force, cutting them off from oxygen and swiftly extinguishing them. There'd obviously been an explosion of some kind, and as she seemed to be unscathed, she realised the large sofa chair must have shielded her from harm.

That momentary relief was short lived, as she felt a surge of panic rise in her chest. *Is everybody alright?!* she demanded with a frantic telepathic shout.

*I'm okay,* Irillith muttered, sounding a little dazed. *The blast knocked me back into the kitchen.*

*M-m-minor lacerations and contusions,* Rachel stammered, although she sounded weak and disorientated.

*What the fuck happened!* Dana snarled furiously. *And can someone get this fucking table off my leg, I'm trapped!*

Alyssa's heart lifted to hear her friends, and as she rolled to her feet, she listened eagerly for the others to check in too. When she was met with stony silence, she glanced around and called out in a panic, *Calara?! John? Jade? Let me know you're OK!*

"Oh God..." she cried out a moment later, as she spotted Calara crumpled in a heap a dozen metres away. Running over to the Latina with her heart in her mouth, she skidded to her knees beside her twisted body, and pleaded, "Please be okay, baby."

Reaching out with a trembling hand, she carefully floated the bits of broken table off Calara, and placed her hand on her neck, feeling for a pulse. Alyssa sagged with relief to feel the faint heartbeat, and her nervous tension eased a little.

Calara was unconscious, but she groaned when she felt the light touch to her neck, then rolled to her side, her right arm flopping across Alyssa's lap. What was left of it that is. Alyssa screamed in horror, her beautiful girl's hand was completely gone, leaving only a tattered stump that spurted blood at the wrist.

"No!" she wailed in shock, hugging her grievously wounded lover.

Turning back towards the dining area, she spotted Dana waving frantically from under the shattered dining table, so she flicked her right hand, lifting it clear. "Rachel!" she called out fearfully. "I need your help, it's Calara!"

Lurching out of the darkness, Rachel staggered towards her, and Alyssa was shocked to see the dozens of cuts the tawny-haired girl had received from flying glass. "I'm here..." she said, sounding a little stronger. "Sorry, I banged my head. I'm a little groggy at the moment."

Alyssa nodded distractedly, her gaze dropping to the critically wounded girl she held in her arms. "Calara's hand," she sobbed, her eyes filling with tears. "It's gone..."

Rachel gasped as she saw the scorched and ragged wound, and her eyes sharpened in focus as she glanced at the blackened door. "We've got to get her to Medical," she said curtly. "I need to treat her immediately." The brunette picked up a piece of shredded tablecloth from the floor, then darted over to Calara, and used it to staunch the bleeding.

Dana and Irillith staggered over to join them, with the Maliri girl supporting the redhead, who was hobbling along in obvious pain, trying to avoid putting weight on her left leg. "Holy fuck!" Dana swore as she got her first glimpse of Calara's ruined forearm.

*John!* Alyssa called out to him, her telepathic voice thick with emotion. *Answer me! Calara's hurt real bad.*

When her plaintive cry was met with deathly silence, she glanced at the others as a terrifying thought suddenly occurred to her. "John wasn't in here, was he?!" she demanded, looking up at their shaken faces.

They shook their heads as they watched Rachel pull the belt from her trousers, her hands moving deftly as she used it to apply a tight tourniquet to Calara's arm. Dana rasped through her gritted teeth as she replied, "It was just us. Jade was in bed, and John hadn't pitched up yet."

A squeal from the doorway drew their attention, and the smoke-blackened doors were forced open in a series of jagged tugs.

"John? Jade? Is that you?" Alyssa called out to them. "We need to get Calara to Medical!"

A slightly disquieting smiling face poked through the door, and they all immediately recognised one of the maintenance robots. It glided in silently, the anti-gravity motors too quiet to be heard over the emergency fans, which had begun venting out the black smoke that shrouded the ceiling.

"No, it's me," Faye replied, her voice full of sorrow. "John and Jade are gone..."

Those icy fingers of fear were back, clawing at Alyssa's heart as she stared at the heartbroken little sprite. "What do you mean, gone?!" she snapped impatiently, her tone harsher than she intended, fraught as she was.

Faye's tiny face was a mask of grief as she mumbled her reply, "The assassin knocked out the Tachyon Drive, then went after John." Her voice faltered as she continued, "Deck Three... I had to watch, couldn't do anything... felt so useless."

Rachel placed her bloody hand on Alyssa's shoulder, and said urgently, "Go! We'll take care of Calara."

Alyssa looked down at the comatose brunette, her heart threatening to rip in two as she was forced to abandon her love when she needed her the most. Still, she had to know... what had happened on Deck Three?

Rachel knelt beside her, and gently lifted Calara's bloodied head from Alyssa's lap. Her voice was calm, soothing and professional as she said, "She'll be safe, I've got her."

Staggering to her feet, her legs feeling like jelly beneath her, Alyssa started to lurch for the door. Someone called out to her from back in the room, but blood was pounding in her ears now, and she couldn't make out what they said over the rushing sound that filled her head. She ran past the maintenance bot, with Faye perched on its shoulder, and glanced once at the tiny AI as she passed by. The look of abject despair on her purple sylph-like face, was so out of character for the cheerful and upbeat little sprite, that Alyssa's state of anxiety ratcheted up even higher and she began to run faster.

Diving into the red glow of the grav-tube, she leapt out on the deck below, then skidded on the slick trail of blood painted along the floor. Her eyes grew wider as she glanced about at all the red under her feet, then looked up slowly, following the trail back up the corridor.

"Jade..." she moaned in horror, spotting the once majestic tiger slumped on the floor.

Alyssa ran down the corridor, her heart pounding in her chest as she rushed to the fallen Nymph. She was lying on her side, and her big feline head was resting on the floor, her eyes closed and teeth pulled back in a half-snarl. It took mere moments for Alyssa to see the sword hilt sticking out of her chest, and the tip of the blade appearing up above Jade's striped green shoulder.

"No, Jade, please..." Alyssa sobbed, as she sank to her knees. Her face crumpled as she said brokenly, "Don't be dead... we love you."

She reached out to touch the tiger's soft green fur, gently stroking her heavy shoulder as she reached into her mind, desperately searching for any trace of her friend. It only took her a second to find the metaphysical representations of John and the girls, but there was a gaping hole where Jade's mosaic used to be.

Faye was right.

Jade was gone...

"NO!!" Alyssa wailed, overcome with grief, tears streaming down her face.

She sobbed wretchedly, but as grief-stricken as she was, she still had to find John. She called out to him again in desperation, but to no avail, her telepathic cry for help left unanswered. He wasn't on the ship, she knew that much. She sagged against Jade, hugging the fallen Nymph, and wishing with all her heart that she could bring her back. Sadly, her wish didn't come true.

But as she knelt there, heart torn asunder, something changed in the weeping girl.

A fierce white light flared in her cerulean eyes, growing brighter and more intense with every second. Her tears dried up, burned away by that glare, and she rose smoothly from the floor, her face twisted with rage. When she turned back to the corridor, Irillith and Dana were there, the expressions of grief on their faces changing to shock as they stared at her.

"What the fuck happened to your eyes?" Dana blurted out, but Alyssa ignored the question, storming down the corridor, and heading towards the grav-tube. Irillith and Dana turned around, gaping at the blonde, and Dana yelled, "Wait! Where are you going?!"

"To get John back..." Alyssa snarled over her shoulder.

Her voice had a deeper pitch to it now, a slightly disconcerting echo as if there were two voices speaking as one. She rushed into the blue lit side of the grav-tube, and floated up and out of sight.

Dana and Irillith shared a worried glance, and Dana said, "Go after her! I need to get to the Drive Room."

Irillith glanced down at Dana's leg, and asked, "Can you walk on that?"

The redhead shooed her away, saying "I'll be fine, I'll get Faye to assist. Go! Help Alyssa..."

Irillith gave her a curt nod, then sprinted down the corridor, nimbly dodging the bloody trail that marred the otherwise spotless floor. She stepped into the grav-tube, and glanced up, just in time to see Alyssa's foot disappearing through the doorway into the Bridge. Floating up after her, she rushed out onto the Command Deck, where Alyssa was darting into the Ready Room.

When she ran into the room, she found the blonde girl stepping out of an armour equipping frame, clad in a suit of Paragon armour. Irillith got a brief glimpse of Alyssa's face as she turned towards the weapon racks, and the look of pure fury twisting her features made her heart skip a beat and goosebumps prickle across her arms. She gave the girl a wide berth and stepped into another equipping frame, slotting her hands and feet into the gauntlets and armoured boots.

She saw Alyssa reach for a punisher rifle, load it with ammo, then grab a few more magazines before dashing out of the room. The robotic arms had brought the armoured plates down into position over her body, so Irillith hit the thumb control that would seal the plates together. As soon as she heard the rippling series of metallic clicks, she stepped clear of the frame, and reached for a Justice Laser Rifle instead, figuring it would be faster than having to collect ammo too. She grabbed the big weapon, then rushed out the door so she could catch up with the sprinting blonde.

An image of Faye suddenly appeared in her HUD, and the sprite said in a rush, "The assassin took John, and dragged him onto a shuttle. Another ship jumped in, a big one, and the shuttle docked then jumped out!"

"Alright, thanks, Faye!" Irillith said to her breathlessly as she dived into the grav-tube.

She just caught a glimpse of Alyssa's white Paragon armour as she ran out onto Deck Nine below her. The floor of the tube was covered in red, where blood had dropped down in the anti-gravity field and pooled below. When Irillith reached the bottom level and glanced down the corridor, she saw that the blood trail led out towards the airlock, which was currently sealed. The door to the Hangar Bay was open however, and that was where she found Alyssa.

The blonde girl was looking at the Punisher rifle in her hands, and she let it fall to the floor with a noisy clatter. Now her hands were free, she raised them in the air towards the Raptor, and Irillith did a double-take as she saw a white nimbus of light shrouding Alyssa's gauntleted fingers. She could only watch spellbound as Alyssa made an impatient gesture with her right hand, and sucked all the Crystal Alyssium plating off the gunship in one long stream of liquid metal.

The viscous white alloy formed a huge perfect sphere, which rotated slowly before them, sparkling as it caught the light. Alyssa gestured with her hands, and it began to flatten, spreading out as it formed an enormous portrait of a girl's face. Irillith stared up at the picture in wonder, but she suddenly recognised the girl, and felt her throat thicken with emotion.

It was a perfect representation of Jade, her beautiful unmistakeable features lifted up into the glorious smile that Irillith had seen so often. The picture froze for a moment, before shifting again, the expression changing to one of maternal care that Irillith remembered well from the times the Nymph had nursed her. She could feel tears running down her cheek now, as she let out a quiet sob, the exact replicas of the Nymph's face making the terrible sting of loss feel even sharper.

Irillith glanced over at Alyssa, blinking though the tears. She couldn't see the Terran's face as she was standing in front of her, but she could see her armoured shoulders trembling as she manipulated the images. The picture changed again, and again, cataloguing Jade's many expressions until it finally settled on one final image; the look of pure devotion that the Nymph only wore when she gazed at John.

After a long moment spent staring at the image, Alyssa turned back to the gunship, and she gestured to the Raptor with her hand. The image began to slowly dissolve, trickling away from the bottom first, and covering the gunship in psychically-shaped armour plating. Jade's eyes were the last things to melt away, and Irillith stared up into those lovely cat-like orbs for the last time, until they finally faded into a stream of metal and covered the last of the ship.

"I promised her I'd do that," Alyssa said softly over her shoulder, before turning and stalking towards the Raptor.

"Your rifle?" Irillith managed to choke out as she stumbled after her.

"I won't need it..." Alyssa muttered, her voice throbbing with rage.

***

The Master of Assassins known as Amatsu Mikaboshi gloated to himself, a broad grin of satisfaction on his face as he watched Shinatobe's shuttle dock with his ship. He sat on the Command Throne up in the dimly lit Bridge of his Battlecruiser, 'The Amaterasu', and stared at the system map that hovered above him. It was centred on the glossy white assault cruiser, the Invictus, which was becalmed in the blackness of space.

"Take us out of here, Servant Kasai," he said to the ship's pilot. "Set a course for Yomi-no-kuni."

"Hai, Idaina-sha," the man replied with a curt bow, before turning back to his console and plotting the course to their base.

Mikaboshi rose to his feet, and descended down the steps from the Command Podium, his long black garments flowing around him as he prowled over to his personal room adjoining the Bridge. Now that his prize was secured below-decks, he would finally be able to take his time, finishing this job in the most satisfying way possible. Shaking his head with barely controlled anger, he dreaded to think how much this supposedly simple assassination contract must have cost him in money and reputation. He strolled over to his desk to collect his tools, but stopped for a moment, savouring the thrill of these emotions as all that anger coursed through his body.

Despite the quite shocking costs to fund this enterprise, he was forced to admit to himself that hunting down John Blake, the supposed Lion of the Federation, had ultimately been extremely satisfying. He felt alive again for the first time in decades, the boredom of watching the years roll by, finally abated by the challenge of a worthy foe. Mikaboshi was actually looking forward to meeting the man in person, this enigma, who had proven to be such an incredibly elusive target. It had taken months to track Mr Blake down, as one attempt after another had been foiled.

He collected his velvet wrapped bundle from the desk, and walked purposefully into the private elevator that led off from his Ready Room. He hit the button for Deck Six, and as the lift descended, he tapped his index finger on the velvet bundle, hearing the satisfying clink of metal. The elevator came to a halt, and the door slid open quietly, revealing a gloomy corridor that stretched away into darkness.

Mikaboshi had no fear of the dark; the things that lurked in darkness knew well enough to leave someone like him alone. He glided along the corridor until he reached his destination, and pressed the button outside the interrogation room. The door slid open smoothly and efficiently, well-oiled and silent. He immediately spotted his quarry restrained against the far wall, and his pulse quickened at the sight.

John Blake was tightly secured, his arms and legs chained to the wall, but he was unconscious at this moment, with his head slumped forward. Mikaboshi spotted Shinatobe standing nearby, and he frowned when he saw one of her arms hanging limply, her nanoweave suit badly shredded, scorched, and covered in blood. The mask of her suit had been torn away, leaving her pallid skin exposed to the spotlights in the room. Finally, her nose was broken and badly smashed, with dried blood smeared all over her face.

"You ran into difficulties?" he asked in surprise.

Shinatobe was his most trusted agent, racking up nearly as many successful missions as he had over his long, shadowy career. If she had struggled to subdue Mr Blake, then perhaps he was even more impressive than he had been let to believe.

The lithe woman turned her head towards him, bowing respectfully before she spoke in her flat, unemotional voice, "There is more than meets the eye about this target, Great One. He possess freakish, unnatural strength, and was somehow able to attack me with lightning, like Raijin himself."

"How fascinating," Mikaboshi replied, walking across the room, and placing the velvet bundle on the nearby table.

She turned towards her prisoner, and intoned quietly, "I took the extra precaution of adding further restraints to keep him in check."

Sure enough, Mikaboshi could see multiple sets of chains pinning John's arms back against the wall. He approached warily, head tilted to one side, so that he could get a closer look at the man. After staring at John for a few minutes, he shrugged, not finding the prisoner all that impressive. He was reasonably tall at six-foot-two, and fairly well built, but not excessively muscular. In fact the man seemed quite unremarkable except for his unusual pointed ears.

"Leave us, Shinatobe, and have your wounds tended," Mikaboshi ordered, dismissing her with a sharp wave of his hand.

She looked up at him, and said impassively, "I'm not sure that's wise, Great Master."

Amatsu Mikaboshi drew himself up to his full height, and said in a deathly cold voice, "You have grown bold indeed if you think to defy the orders of the Divine Lord of the Heavens, Shinatobe..."

Her blank, dead eyes darted downwards as she bowed her head deeply, and said, "I meant no disrespect, Idaina-sha. I only urge you to show great caution around this target."

She could feel the palpable waves of anger and displeasure radiating from her Master, so she bowed one final time, and backed out of the room as he had ordered. She knew full well not to provoke him at the best of times, but she had never seen Amatsu Mikaboshi like this before, and beat a hasty retreat.