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Sorry about that. sweatdrop It was in proper order before. I dunno what happened. Well, here it is:
"Put--me---DOWN!" the dark-haired girl shrieked, kicking and wriggling to get down. She was hanging over his shoulder and was being carried up some steps to his office-suite in a very demeaning manner. He grinned toothily at every employee he met and at his chief-of-security, John Clayton.
"Inform the Pharoah: I have her," he ordered smugly, and the man responded with a light snort and bowed gracefully in rei before leaving. He watched Clayton take his leave before ordering the sentries posted outside his office-suite to let him in. The girl on his shoulder blushed in her palms, humiliated when she heard the two sentries chuckle as they let them through.
"GO TO HELL!!!" she snapped tersely, showing them the finger on both hands, but she became incensed even further when they simply laughed in response before the doors slid shut, denying her her satisfaction.
She was dumped sprawling into a couch and he leaned over her, his palms at the sides of her head and his knees gripping her hips.
"Thought you could escape me, Kitsune?" he taunted. A smirk spread across his lips and his dark eyes met her emerald ones. "The Pharoah has already announced our impending marriage, and there's no way in hell I'll ever let you go!"
"Hey," his fingers gently tilted her chin upward and she met his dark eyes. "You better come willingly or I fear things could get very ugly, my love," he warned solemnly, making her eyes widen.
A knock abruptly sounded on the door and he eased off her to leave her to think that over in his office. She got up and sank onto the plush, white carpeting, shifting to sit on her legs. She was shivering in fear at his threat. Damn him. Damn him to hell! Her mind came up nought for a plan, and there was nothing left for her to do but weep.
"You can cry your heart out, if you like," It was her father, the Pharoah Khafre, who spoke when he entered the room a few minutes later, with Kenji in tow. " But just know that your tears mean absolutely nothing to me," he almost hissed as he observed her slumped form on the floor.
She was violently sobbing into her hands, sitting in rei and her body heaving with her sobs. She was truly a pitiful sight and that was the most vulnerable that anyone had ever seen her as, dressed in her regal Egyptian garments and mourning her inevitable fate.
"I'm not trying to get to you, old man," she thought, as the Pharoah, in his royal robes, folded his powerful arms across his broad chest. She was hoping that Kenji would see her feminine vulnerability and call-off their wedding.
"Heh." She heard him slowly approach her and felt him kneel before her. Was this success? "Can it, woman. I am not swayed by your tactics."
"Damn!" she swore, throwing her head backward to look at his handsome, devilish face.She sprang to her feet. "Oh well!---It was worth a try, anyway!" She side-stepped the kneeling Kenji and approached her father, who was wearing a very aloof expression on his handsome face.
"Hmmm?" he asked, still aloof, with his arms folded and looking down at her out of the corner of his eye.
She snatched his royal cape and quickly wiped her face and blew her nose in the white, silky material. Then she tugged on it, throwing him off-balance in that he was forced to lean over towards her.
"Hi, Daddy!" she said saccharinely and swiftly planted a kiss on his cheek. "Buh-bye!" She shoved him with a great heave, and he collided with a then-standing Kenji and bowled him over. She turned tail and ran straight through the open doors and down the long corridor, towards the elevators. Her father and Kenji picked themselves up off the carpeted floor and gave chase, along with the two, astonished sentries who had been posted outside the office-suite. They were too late by the time they had reached half-way down the corridor. She had already dived into an elevator and was waving at them.
"By-ye!!!" she waved, a broad smile on her lips. "See ya!" she called, and blew Kenji a kiss just as the elevator doors closed.
Kenji stopped and stared at the closed elevator, a toothy grin slowly spreading across his handsome face.
"She's heading down to the floor below! Let's go! I'll take the stairs, you two take the second elevator!" He ran down the stairs as the two sentries got into the opposite elevator.
Kenji got there first, just in time for the first elevator's doors to open. The two sentries emerged from the opposite elevator a few seconds later.
"Nanda---!?" One sentry exclaimed.
"Where'd she go?" The other one asked, puzzled.
The elevator was totally empty. The two sentries stepped into it and looked around with perplexed expressions.
"HEH..." A lazy, wry smile spread across Kenji's lips. "So, Kitsune...It has come down to this: a simple cat-and-mouse game?...So be it! I WILL find you!"
"TEE-HEE!" Kitsune giggled as she hung onto the elevator cables in the dimly lit elevator shaft. She looked down at the elevator below, giggled again, and then set off climbing the cables to the roof-level.
"GAAA---!!!" she gasped as she tried to pull the doors apart, whilst balancing herself with her feet on a narrow ledge. The doors slowly slid apart and sunlight poured into the shaft. She emerged into the sunny afternoon, the bright light making her squint a little, and she placed her hand to shiled her eyes. The breezes on the roof were warm, and she smiked in satisfaction as she observed her total isolation on the roof. She was sure that, by then, Khafre had put the entire building on high alert and that he had every single person looking for her.
"Let them search all they want," she thought grimly. "They'll never find me. There's no way in HELL that I'll ever marry Kenji!!!" She UNFINISHED PART! When I figure it out, I'll fix it! In da mean time, check out part 7!!!
"Did you hear? The princess has fled and the entire interplanetary transport system has been shut down until she's been found! I guess our moon-hopping trip through the eighteen moons this summer is cancelled!"
Two middle-aged Hyperian men sat on a bench at the train-station and discussed the headlines in the international newspapers. The one who had spoken looked up from his newspaper as his friend began to speak.
"Whoa! Shuttin' down the Space-Shuttle Service?---THAT can't be good for the Hyperian economy! Let me see that thing, man!" He grabbed the newspaper from the other man, then wolf-whistled when he saw Kitsune's picture below the headline,
'Missing Princess, Royal Palace in Uproar.'
Kitsune's picture was next to one of an apparently displeased Pharoah Khafre.
"Wow, she's a real looker! The Pharoah's probably willing to risk it ALL to get his once long-lost daughter back. But all the same, he can't shut down ALL hyperia's facilities!---People gotta work and commute!"
He handed his friend back the newspaper. The other man took it and smiled grimly, "I guess they'll just hafta stick t' monitorin' all sations on Hyperia. Man, I bet HE'LL have a few things t' say when they DO find her!" He pointed to a rather very smug-looking picture of Kenji Sasaki. "Oh! The train's here! Let's go, Dirge! We got plenty t' do!"
The two men got up from the bench and rushed towards the track where the train was going to settle.
A sinister-looking character clad in a trench-coat and hat emerged from the crowd arriving at the platform, and moved over to the bench. The stranger picked up the folded, discarded newspaper.
"'Royal Engagement Post-poned.'" The stranger lowered the newspaper and looked up with a smirk on her lips, her face cast in shadows. "Hmph!'' She pulled on the rim of her hat and lowered it over her face, then lifted the collar of her trench-coat to conceal as much of her face as she possibly could.
The train pulled up quietly and with a light "WHIRR!!!", it settled down gently on the track and the doors automatically opened, releasing a throng of Hyperians and immigrants going about thier daily commute. Almost immediately, a crowd started pushing its way into the train, amidst the exiting commuters. The two men and the trench-coat clad stranger joined in the confusion.
Finally, the doors closed and the train lifted off the monorail track, and within a few moments, it was speeding along lightly through the city. The trench-coat lcad stranger sat at the window, opposite Dirge and his friend. She sat with one leg over the other, staring out through the window.
*** *** ***
"Hmmm?" It was an hour later and the trench-coat clad stranger was slowly opening her eyes. The train had come to a complete stop. "What?!!!" She jerked out of her daze and leaned closer to the window.
The train was halted above the bustling metropolis below. People in the bust streets were looking up at the stopped train, murmuring to each other.
"Why have we stopped?" the stranger demanded angrily.
The two men who had been at the station that were currently sitting opposite her, shrugged. They had both been asleep as well. The one named Dirge yawned and stretched his arms above his head.
"Beats da heck outta me, princess," he murmured, crossing his legs that were stretched out before him and folding his arms.
The stranger flashed him a look. Could he know? But upon further consideration, she realized that neither man had the slightest clue. Their faces bore a lookof utter apathy.
Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream sounded from the street below. The trench-coat clad stranger immediately slid open a window and almost hauled her entire body out ot the Maglev train. Her hat blew off by the sudden rush of breeze that hit her fae and her jet-silk tresses unfurled in all their glory. Down in the street below, she observed---
"Oh crap! It's the Royal Guards!" she muttered under her breath. They were swiftly making their way up the street, side-stepping pedestrians and stretching over vehicles with their long, slender, shape-shifting bodies. They looked rather like Egyptian mummies wrapped in their grave-cloths and wearing their imperial Nemes head-dresses and gilded loin-cloths covered with Lapis Lazuli. Each guard bore an Egyptian halberd and a sword, both glistening like polished bronze.
Startled pedestrians dropped what they were carrying and scambled out of the way. Others, mainly women, shrieked and fell to the ground, squeezing their eyes shut and clutching at their chests.
"Hey, Miss?" Dirge's friend called from behind her. "I think you should sit down. Those 'Guards seem to be on a war-path. No tellin' WHAT they might do!"
The woman slid back into the compartment, straightened her coat and then turned around to face the two men.
"What?" she asked, suddenly unnerved. They, along with a few other passengers that were around them, were staring at her with open mouths. She was quite a captivating sight. Her brilliant emerald-green contrasted against her knee-length, jet-black hair and her healthy, golden-brown complexion.
"Uhhh...Konnichiwa?" she said, hesitantly, and stared to a side out of the her eyes. She even held up her hand to wave at them.
"Are you da Princess?" Dirge asked, gaping and pointing at her.
"She felt a sweat-drop move down the back of her neck. The game was over. She was caught.
"Oh, so sooonn...?!" she wailed in her mind. Then, suddenly, a thought hit her: "When in doubt, denial, denial. DENIAL!!! HEH! HEH! HEH!"
Outwardly, she giggled like an idiotic school-girl. "Who?---Me? Oh nooo...I could never be!" She giggled again, "However, since she arrived on Hyperia, I've been getting that ALOT!!!"
Did they buy it? They all wore a llok of uncertainty on their faces. Kitsune stood there, very awkwardly, for a few lingering moments before everyone returned to their own business. Kitsune resumed her seat opposite Dirge and his companion.
She sat with her emerald-green eyes narrowed and her long, sweeping lashes lowered, aware and uncaring of the stares she was receiving. Those Royal Guards were only a few moments away from the train. They must have caught her scent whilst the train was travelling through the city, and they must have immediately ordered the train's stoppage.
She bit inot her lowere lip. How could she forget about Khafre's Royal Guards?!!! They guarded the Palace Complex and constituted the bulk of Hyperia's great army. They were the equivalent of hunting dogs on Earth, with their excellent olfactory capacity and their high level of endurence. They would not stop until they succeeded in whatever mission they had to complete.
What was she to do?
She sat wondering about that question and suddenly----
SKCREEE---EEE---EEEEEE...!!!
A horrible metallic noise screeched outside. Many of the passengers yelled and stopped up their ears with the palms of their hands. Kitsune almost jumped out of her seat. "Why are they doing this?!!!" She stifled a gasp, wide-eyed in horror.
The 'Guards were pouring over the train, and their scampering feet and shuffling limbs could easily be detected. Kitsune realised that the great, screeching noise was a direct result of a piece of the monorail track being ripped right out of the rest of the concrete supports. She saw one of the 'Guards smush his face right up to a window and bare his teeth.
"Ugh!!!" a woman behind her shuddered, and how rightfully! His mouth was disgusting! His teeth were stained brown, his thin lips had a huge gash running through them, and the sides of his mouth were torn. There was no saliva: the ' Guards were dead Hyperian warriors who had fallen in battle and were bestowed, posthumously, with shape-shifting abilities and super-strength. They felt no pain and were capable of maintaining battle until their enemies had died of exhaustion.
Why would the Pharoah deploy these creatures to track down his daughter? They were notorious for killing and feasting upon the flesh of their quarries.
"Father!" Kitsune gasped as sheer and utter fear and panic gripped her chest.
"Kitsune..." the 'Guard peering in at the window whispered gruffly, sending an icy chill down her spine. She met its eyes, those glowing, yellow, eagle-like eyes, for only a fleeting moment, but it was enough to totally chill her spine. It disappeared, and then they heard it move on the roof of the train.
"RRROOOWWWWRRRrrrrrr...!!!"
A nerve-shattering, pulse-quickening roar rent through the entire train and sudddenly, every 'Guard was imitating it. The train's passengers were panic-strickened, yelling and screaming, whilst their knees went weak and they were all sinking to the floor, leaving Kitsune as the sole person standing.
"Huh? Wha'---?" she looked around at them, bewildered. Why did they all have the same reaction? And why didn't she---?
She didn't have time to finish her thoughts. The 'Guards were on the move again: they all had disappeared, but for just one solitary nanosecond, and then they were all smashing in the windows, sending shattered glass all over the inside of the train. People were cowering in fear, awaitng the very worst.
"Why have you come?" someone demanded.
It was Kitsune. They looked up at her as she faced the entering Guards, a look of pure determination on her face. She had no alternative: the lives of many rested in her hands, and her hands ALONE.
The Guard who had whispered her name stomped his way over and drew himself up to his full height, to tower well over her. He was about six feet taller than her, so he appeared very imposing indeed. His height, coupled with his strong scent, threatened to overwhelm her, but she refused to be intimidated. She stoically withstood his stench and glared him in the face.
"For you," he gruffed.
"What the heck's wrong with the Pharoah?! Sending all of you to capture just one girl?!" she almost shouted.
His glowing eyes narrowed. Then Kitsune found herself being lifted off her feet and facing him at eye-level, as his hand gripped her coat by the lapels. He had a lantern-jawed face, as did the rest of the Guards, but his was the most defined. She eyed him, unperturbed.
"He didn't send us," he informed her in his rough, low voice. This baffled her. Who else had the authority to dispatch the Royal Guards but the Pharoah?
But before she could ask, his eyes glinted maliciously and his thin, parched lips smirked. "You will be transported to the Master. He has very special plans for YOU, little one."
Special plans? Could "the Master" be Kenji Sasaki? Again, she had little time to ponder this as the Guard continued,
"Fellow Warriors, we have succeeded in our mission to locate and retrieve the Princess. Let us celebrate---with a feast! Let us feast on the flesh of all humans here!!!"
He roared the last part and Kitsune's emerald eyes widened in shock. The other Guards ululated and the train's passengers all screamed as mass hysteria took over. They all tried some mean of escape: running around frenziedly, screaming, crying, wailing---as the Guards chased after them, bounded in front of them, grabbed them by their necks or ankles, threw them around in the train...and to Kitsune's horror, some of them tried to escape by jumping from the train: they'd rather be dead than be tortured and eaten!!!
Tears streamed down from her cheeks, converged at her chin and dripped onto the floor. She had her head lowered and her eyes squeezed shut, afraid to look anymore. But she could hear. Ohhh, she could hear! The cries, the screams, the blows landing, the sickening, gut-wrenching cracks and crunches as bones were snapped and limbs were torn from living bodies.
All this was HER FAULT!!! ALL HER FAULT!!! All this would rest on her conscience forever! She dangled in the air, grasping the Guard's arm as his fingers curled around her neck. She was unable to lower her head and was forced to meet his glare. His eyes taunted her, and he laughed at the pandemonium happening around them, his entire being enjoying what his race was capable of.
"Stop them...Please!" she gasped, the tears still running down the sides of her face. "They...*gasp*...don't deserve this! They're...*hic*...innocent!" She had to cry out as his grip around her neck tightened. He told her to shut up in the most obscene way imaginable and then stretched his flexible arm longer and higher, so that she dangled above him in the air, her head touching the roof of the train car.
She squeezed her eyes shut again; this time, her mind was made up. She had to do it!
She focused her mind, trying her best to muffle out the chaos happening around her, and the pain she was experiencing. Telepathically, she called for the Pharoah. She found him sitting on the throne in his palace, awaiting news as his officials conducted a world-wide manhunt for his missing daughter.
She floated down before him, dressed in her regal garb. She had projected her mind to the palace and right then, she was standing before him as a transparent image, her jet-silk tresses flowing around her and her striking green eyes deeply saddened.
"Father!" she cried.
The Pharoah immediately looked up, aware, for the first time, of her presence. He appeared very solemn and imposing in his regal Hyperian garments. He caught her frightened expression, and his hard emerald-green eyes softened, and his harsh features melted in compassion.
"What is it, my child?" His voice was edged in concern. He stretched out his arm towards her and she reached out and pressed her hand against his, and both of them closed their eyes. She transferred her memories to him, but only those of being on the train. Khafre's face grew softer and softer as he felt all her pain and fear. He observed everything through her mind; he was present with her in the train, but only for a brief moment, in which he saw everything.
Slowly, both father and daughter opened their eyes. Kitsune's hand lifted away as she rose to hover before him. Khafre was observing her face, his own expression was one of complete sympathy and concern for his daughter: her eyes were welling up with tears.
"You realize," he spoke almost in a whisper, as he arose from his throne to stand before her. "...today you have finally called me 'Father?' " He smiled gently and continued in the same soft manner, "I release your powers! Fight until my soldiers arrive!"
"Thank you, Father," she spoke with a slight crack in her voice, bowing gracefully in rei. Then she turned her back and floated off lightly, and disappeared before her head touched the ceiling.
Halfway across the city, she reunited with her body on board the train, still in the grip of the Royal Guard. When she awoke, she found herself an inch away from his face. Ugh. He was glaring at her, having realized that she had the telepathic abilities of all true Hyperians.
"You little witch," he growled, his hand tightening fiercely around her, crushing her fragile human body. His thin, parched lips twisted into a sickening, wry smile, as he observed her succumbing to the unrelenting pain.
But, just like a typical woman, she was only faking it.
"HEH."
She flung him off by throwing her arms wide apart.
"What the---!" He was momentarily stunned, but then his face contorted into a mass of sheer anger. "You filthy half-breed. You have all of your father's powers. You deceived us all!"
She was hovering before him in the air with her arms folded, smiling openly, knowing the can of whoop-a** she was about to unleash on all of the Guards. They were still devouring the dismembered bodies of the killed train passengers and terrorizing the few who were still alive.
"You contacted the Phaoraoh," he staid, one of his glowing eyes popping open wider than the other.
"Right, again!" She swung back and forcefully drove her clenched fist right into his jaw. The blow sent him crashiing into the side of the train, the force of the collision knocking him right through the metal wall, and he fell all the way down onto the street below, and the screams of the people on the street were heard.
Smirking wryly, Kitsune straightened up and her feet touched down. She squared her shoulders and turned around, slowly, to face the other Royal Guards. They had all stopped moving and were staring at her, visibly enraged. She removed her trench-coat, revealing her black sleeveless, turtleneck sweater and her matching bikerpants. She crouched down in a fighting stance and beckoned with her hand.
"Come on!" she said coolly. "I don't have all day!"
"Git outta here, you good-for-nuthin' lowlife!" A fry cook roared at the door to his eat-in diner, gripping a man by the belt.
"But I swear I'll pay ya all I owe---when I find the money, that is," the man pleaded and then muttered the last bit under his breath, turning his head away.
"WHAAAT?!!!" the fry cook bellowed, his expression quickly growing intensely fiendish. He viciously shook the man, making him wail. "No cash?---NO FOOD!!!"
"YAAA---!!!" The man screamed as he found himself being hurtled through the air. "Ohhh..." He landed face-down onto the side of the road, his legs sticking up in the air.
HOOONNNKKK...!!!
A sudden, furious car-horn sounded. The guy's eyes popped open, and beneath his skin, through his flesh and under his ribcage, his heart quadrupled its rate, effectively swirling fear and adrenaline through his veins.
"YAAA---!!!" he screamed again, scrambling out of the car's path, and in the most pathetic manner, scaling up the traffic pole and hugging the lights, his chest heaving greatly as he breathed in and out, his heart still pounding rapidly. "Whew!"
"Idiot!" yelled the driver as he sped away, shaking his fist in the air. "Watch where you're walking, you a*****e!"
"You watch where you're driving, you jerk!!!" the guy shouted back from up on the pole. He watched the car as it sped away, swearing and cursing at the driver. "Stupid Earth imports!"
Down on the pavement below, Kitsune passed beneath him, unaware and deep in thought. She was dressed, once again, in her trench-coat and matching hat, her hands buried deep in the pockets of her coat. There was no expression in her emerald-green eyes as she walked the chilly Hyperian dusk, in utter silence.
She continued walking along the pavement, oblivious to the people passing her by, and to those that side-stepped around her. It was late in the evening and Hyperia's hectic nightlife was about to be awakened. Nightclubs and eateries were opening their doors, preparing for those seeking pleasure and relaxation after the long work-day.
When Kitsune had first arrived on the planet, she was struck by the remarkable similarities between the Earth and Hyperia. It would seem as though people were the same, no matter which part of the universe they belonged.
She stopped at the doors to a nightclub that was illuminated by the glow of multi-coloured fluorescent lights.
"..." She was taken aback by the giant picture of herself painted across the double doors in brilliant, reflecting colours. Red stole into her face as she observed the picture more closely: she was in the nude!
"Excuse me," a man suddenly spoke up behind her in a very gruff voice, "but do you mind?" He was a tall man with wide shoulders and a portly body, dressed in a smooth, black, immaculate business suit. Kitsune sweated, having noticed, with the aid of the fluorescent lights, the two women attached to his arms: they both had long black hair and wore green contact lenses in their eyes.---They looked like her !
She stood there, flabergasted. One of the women was attired in a military uniform similar to Kitsune's when she was on-duty, and the other woman was wearing golden Hperian regal robes.
"Are you going in, or not?" the man demanded angrily. He shook one of his massive arms free of the woman holding onto it and shoved Kitsune roughly up to the doors. Then he grabbed one of the door-knobs that were disguised as Kitsune's nipples in the giant picture of her, and turned it, making the real Kitsune shudder visibly at its shocking vulgarity.
"Hey!" she yelled out as he gave her a hard shove through the doors. She almost landed on the floor of the nightclub, but she maintained her footing and straightened up. The man chortled as he led his women past her and disappeared into the crowd in the dimly-lit room. She fixed her hat on her head and adjusted the fallen collar of her coat.
"Hey, Kitsune!" a brash masculine voice hit her ears over the blaring music, catching her off-guard. Her eyes widened in shock and she whirled round to see who had seen through her disguise.
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