Chapter 9
Z
“Well, Z, you’re as worthless as a saddle on a Hool’s back I see no pristine logic or even one pure thought in anything you’ve done or are doing,” snapped Coup as he glared at Z. “I feel a sickness in my heart just having to have to share breath with a fool such as you. Vanity…in all forms is corrupt, and you, Z, are as vain as a mirror admiring a mirror. I say this to lessen the burden you’ve heaped upon yourself. The love man shares with only himself is a love with no beginning and a horror to behold,” said Coup sharply as he nudged Peastro’s forearm.
“My mind, Emperor, is a place where only I reside and you are not welcome! Your divinity is a crime upon the Builder and your reckoning is at hand!” said Dr. Atorn fiercely as he glared at Coup. “I know a place where dream killers go to hide and you will be there soon. That place is Terious and all your Vindijan friends are awaiting your arrival!” thundered Dr. Atorn as he jumped into the cube in front of Coup and Peastro.
When Coup saw this he pointed his right hand and jumped through the wall and into Z’s cube. Peastro saw this and did the same.
Z kicked Coup in the stomach as he entered the cube. Then Z shot over to another cube 50 feet away. Coup was knelling on the floor of the cube when Peastro came into it. Coup said quickly,” Don’t worry about me go after Z.”
“Alright,” said Peastro as he pointed at Z’s cube and jumped through the wall.
Z sees this and pulls a diamond edged blade from his hip.
The blade is a foot long and has a silver handle.
Peastro enters into the Z’s cube and Z slashes at him, slicing his chest. The wound isn’t deep, but still drew blood.
Peastro ducks his next swipe and kicks Z in the throat. Z gathers himself and jumps through the wall behind him and into another cube. When he gets there Coup is waiting for him. Coup punches him in the mouth and asks,” How’s my fist today sweet or tart?”
“Keep smiling you can laugh your way to Terious!” shouted Z as he slashes at Coup barely missing his throat.
Behind Z Peastro comes into the cube. Z sees Coup’s eyes light up when he does and he jumps into another cube before Peastro can shoot him.
“We can’t let him escape the war depends on it!” shouts Coup as he looks at Z.
Peastro and Coup jump through the wall, but when they get to Z’s cube he had already jumped to another one. They see Z jump through the bottom of a cube and disappear in a flash of light. They jump to that cube and see that is has a square portal on its floor that is revolving, it has a cloudlike appearance. Whereas Coup says,” Well this is where our divinity gets truly tested.”
Coup jumps through the portal and emerges on a castle balcony. Peastro follows shortly thereafter, but there is no sign of Z. Coup looks around and he spots a staircase.
“I don’t know where we are, Peastro, but we’re here,” said Coup with a smile.
“If we’re here then Z’s here, let’s try the stairs,” said Peastro as he goes for the staircase.
The castle itself is built into the side of a mountain. The walls are pale red rock and are made of hexagons. From the balcony can be seen an endless forest with a large flock of Amoss birds flying above it. There are no other shelters of any kind that can be seen.
Coup goes down the staircase as he charges up his Goalla gun, as does Peastro. At the bottom of the staircase there is an opening into a grand ballroom. Inside the ballroom there are waterfalls on either side. There is also 20 beds, 10 per side, that are filled with lifelike plastic dolls. The dolls are all positioned as if they are sleeping or about to get up. Coup is startled at the sight of them and says,” Those are the only people who’d spend time with his sort.”
Peastro laughs and replies,” Make your own friends, now that’s progress.”
As they walk through the ballroom they notice that the ceiling is breathing in and out. Coup says anxiously,” Something is amiss here keep your wits about you. If we get separated fight your way home.”
“Absolutely certain, I’ll leave this place with my faculties intact,” said Peastro as he looks around the room.
When they get 2 thirds of the way through the room they see that there is a large window in the floor beneath them, allowing them to see into the room below. There are boxes of stuffed animals piled up on top of each other in the room below. Coup and Peastro look at each other not knowing what to make of it. They stand on top of the window and look for Dr. Atorn.
Coup sees eyes looking a t him in one of the boxes and then Dr. Atorn jumps out of the box and runs for it. Coup sees this and blasts through the window with his Goalla gun and just misses Dr. Atorn, hitting a box of stuffed animals and vaporizing them.
“I almost got him! We need to get down there. I think those boxes will break our fall,” said Coup.
“Let’s jump for it,” said Peastro, then he puts his Goalla gun back in its holster.
“Alright, but be ready to strike when we hit those boxes,” said Coup sternly.
Coup and Peastro jump through the broken window and land on top of the stuffed animals. And as they do the stuffed start attacking them
“These things are alive, run for it!” shouts Coup as he fights off one of the stuffed animals.
Coup jumps to his feet with a teddy bear’s claws digging into his back and another biting his neck.
He quickly levitates and spins in a circle at blazing speed. This sends the stuffed animals flying off of him and into the wall.
Peastro is being attacked by half a dozen miniature Vindijan royal family dolls, he can barely stand up. Once he gets to his feet be starts levitating and spinning as Coup has done, sending the mini Vindijan’s flying.
“How do you like my friends? They sure love you,” said Dr. Atorn as he laughed loudly and ran through a doorway.
“I am going to banish him to dust,” said Coup.
“We’ve got more pressing matters,” said Peastro anxiously.
Every box of stuffed animals and every doll jumps at Coup and Peastro’s feet. They see this and float over them and go after Dr. Atorn. They follow him into a room as he tries to escape. The room is small, only 20 feet long, and the walls are lime green with 2 paintings on opposite walls. The painting on the right is of an old man with an endless beard sitting on top of a pyramid of stairs. His teeth are clenched and his eyes are bulging out.
The other painting is of a young man with orange hair, who has circles shaved into his beard as he is riding a wheel less bicycle. The road he is riding on is made of naked people lying face down with their faces in the mud. In the background there is a tree playing flute as it dances.
At the far end of the room there are 4 blue doors with green doorknobs and the words,” Left to here,” written on each of them.
Coup and Peastro pause for a moment to take in the room before they move. Then as Coup looks at the painting of the old man, it looks back at him and says,” Hi, I am Tesk and I am older than I look.”
“Don’t believe him those are some old bones over there,” said Retc as he smiled.
“Now the paintings are talking, I’d half expect the wall to kiss my cheek,” said Coup as he looked quizzically at Peastro.
“The wall won’t but if you pucker up just right Retc will believe me. I’ve lost more paint to that man,” said Tesk as he winked at Coup.
“Don’t you believe it, I wouldn’t touch such a thrown together painting like that,” said Retc.
“Thrown together, where’s that paint remover. I had it here somewhere,” said Tesk as he pretended to look around his painting.
Coup and Peastro just smiled at each other, not knowing what to make of the situation. Then Peastro asked,” You wouldn’t happen to know where Dr. Atorn went?”
“Paint remover, I’ll burn your canvas, Old Man. You’ll be smoke in my pipe,” said Retc as he ignored Peastro.
“Old? Young paint burns much quicker, so don’t you get me fired up or we’ll both be smoke,” snapped Tesk.
Coup and Peastro look at each other for a second, smile, and then walk over to the 4 blue doors. Peastro opens the first one and it has a staircase that goes upward.
Coup opens the next two and in the second is a black tunnel with torches lighting the way. In the third is a multi-colored slide that twists downward.
“Well let’s see what’s in the final door,” said Coup sheepishly.
He swings the door open and it is a cloud covered yellow portal.
“Well which is it?” asked Peastro as he looks at the doors.
“I’ll tell you which one it is. It’s whatever one gets me the Terious out of here. I’m tired of chasing the Neff,” said Coup as he let out a loud sigh and bent over and grabbed his knees.
Neff’s are a rat like creature that would run sporadically in every direction when approached.
“I say this, a portal got us here and that’s the only way we’re getting back. Those stairs will probably just take us further into the madman’s labyrinth. The tunnel will probably collapse as soon as we enter and the slide probably leads to a pit of knives. So that’s my thinking what are you leaning towards?” asks Peastro as he is obviously exasperated.
“I say when we get back we do something fun like dig a ditch,” said Coup sarcastically.
Peastro let out a huge uncontrollable laugh and Coup soon followed.
“I agree, but we’ll use spoons instead of shovels,” said Peastro as he smiled.
Coup laughs loudly and then says,” Let’s get the Terious out of here. We’ll go through the portal at the same time and with weapons drawn. Anyone waiting for us at the other end will shortly be dust.”
“Agreed,” replied Peastro.
They charged up their Goalla guns and stepped up to the door. They stepped through the portal and a second later were in a busy kitchen. There are chefs and wait staff hustling about preparing meals. A few of them look at Coup and Peastro briefly but then go back to work.
The kitchen has a long silver grill that runs the length of it. On the other side is a gold freezer with see-through doors filled with every variety of meat and a large assortment of desserts. In the center there is an island where every few seconds food is placed there, then quickly taken away by the wait staff. The ceiling is high and arching as Coup notices the crest of the Vindijan Line.
“Isn’t that hilarious, this is one of our restaurants,” said Coup softly.
“Better ours than theirs, needless to say I could use something to nibble on about now,” said Peastro as he walks over to the freezer.
“You aren’t the only empty stomach. After that last fiasco my resolve has been weakened. Let’s…grab a table and see where we are,” said Coup as he walks through a doorway.
Peastro grabs a Sland ice cream and follows Coup out of the kitchen.
Sland ice cream has no fat and very few calories. It tastes like chocolate and strawberries combined.
They walk through the revolving doors and enter into the dining room. Coup looks around in amazement as he sees all of the Vindijan royal family and several generals eating breakfast.
“I can’t believe it, we’re inside the royal dining hall. Now that’s a trick of sheer brilliance,” said Coup as he waves to General Ruebluff.
The room is in the shape of an octagon with twelve tables in all. There are no walls, only windows so as to let in the T sun’s morning rays. The floor is beautiful lush 5 inch thick blue carpeting with the faces of the Vindijan Emperors sewn into them. Everyone is seated in floating brown leather couches.
One by one they look at Coup and Peastro in bewilderment, because they are wearing Kaa army fatigues. Coup and Peastro can only smile and wave. Coup spots Mela walking up to him.
“Coup, Darling, is everything alright? We had heard you were still on your mission,” said Mela as she kisses Coup.
“It’s alright now my love. Let’s just say Dr. Atorn, or Z as you know him is dancing without a partner.”
“Really he’s completely deranged, was he shot with a Petifee you think?”
“No, I think he’s just accepted his own form of reality. I came so close to killing him with my Goalla, another inch to the left and he would be no more,” said Coup plainly as he grabs at the air around Mela’s shoulders.
“You should have seen his castle of treachery,” said Peastro.
“Well I can tell your condition that I’d rather not walk those hills,” said Mela as she kissed Peastro on the forehead.
“I fear Dr. Atorn is convinced of fighting this war to the infinite discovery. For us to defeat the Kaa we’ll have to fight a more cerebral battle. We’re going to need to get 4 moves ahead of this man and when he gets there be ruthless!” said Coup sternly.