Troy Zander and the Sign Of The Unseen by L.A.Immanuel - HTML preview

21 THE AWAKENING

“Behind the Cruiser!” cried Troy, grabbing Emilie’s hand and running to the other side of the Cruiser.

“It’s no use!” muttered Eva, spreading her majestic black wings.

“What the heck is she doing?” asked Troy, from behind the Cruiser, as Eva shot into the skies with a graceful blast of her wings.

“Saving us,” breathed Emilie, beside him.

Eva shot towards the Volskian ship, which started firing those black vapors at her. Eva gracefully avoided them and aimed the Cutie that she had in her hand, at the ship.

Just before she could fire, one of the black vapor shots struck her on her shoulder plate and she fell on the green grass with a dull thud.

Troy and Emilie were aghast seeing Eva crash onto the ground.

“She’s fine,” said Emilie, after reading Eva’s condition instantly.

“Those bastards!” cried Troy and started shooting his Cutie and his Blaster at the ship, which moved incredibly fast, staying clear of all of Troy’s shots, even with that amount of heavy damage, it had undertaken from the earlier battle. Their energy shields seemed to be down, allowing those shots fired by Troy, to dangerously fly past them.

“COME ON! TAKE A SHOT!” said Troy, grinding his teeth in frustration, as none of his shots so much as ever scraped the Volskian ship.

“We should get back a little now!” said Emilie, with sudden alarm in her eyes.

“Why?” asked Troy, with unrelenting firing at the Volskian ship.

“I think they are going to get rid of the Cruiser!” said Emilie, tucking hard at Troy’s arm.

“Whoa!” said Troy, as he lost balance and fell on his back.

“Quick!” cried Emilie, as she pulled hard at him, not realizing that she was not helping him get back on his feet that way. However, Troy didn’t tell anything to her and struggled, with her pulling him and still managed to get back on his feet.

At that instant, they heard the Volskian ship firing a noisy shot directed at the Cruiser.

“Down!” cried Troy, and pulled Emilie down with him, falling on the fresh green grass in a tight and protective embrace.

“When I say go, run towards Eva!” whispered Emilie as soon as they fell down.

“What?”

“Do as I say!” said Emilie, in a commanding tone.

“Why?” argued Troy, as Emilie pushed him away.

“NOW!” she cried, taking out the Cutie and Blaster from her side and shooting the Volskian ship which was now hovering right above the smoky remains of the Cruiser.

Troy took flight and sprinted as fast as he could, using the dense smoke from the Cruiser as a screen to hide his movements.

He broke his speed and falling on his knees and came to a stop, just near where Eva lay.

“TROY!” cried Eva. “Don’t let them get you or Emilie! Awaken the Chi’kara!”

“I don’t know how to do that!” said Troy nervously, as he pressed on Eva’s wound tightly to stop the bright red blood from flowing.

“The Unseen will guide you, Troy!” said Eva, taking laborious breaths between each word.

“The who?” asked Troy, in a panicked tone, worried about Emilie, whom he had left behind, at the mercy of the Volskian ship and Eva’s condition, who was right before him and looked pretty bad.

At that, Eva pointed towards the symbol, with her soiled left hand. Troy saw a symbol, dug on the earth beside her with her fingers. He was surprised at what he saw. It was the same symbol that he had seen in his visions before and in his dream.

“The Sign of the Unseen,” whispered Eva.

Shots abruptly distracted Troy from his path down his memory lane. Troy instinctively looked back, for Emilie but he found nothing and his worry grew exponentially. The Volskian ship and Emilie seemed hidden from his point of view, behind the smokescreen rising from the bygone Cruiser.

“The Unseen, known as the Fenoi, are ancient magical Volskian beings who bind tightly only to a worthy Volskian soul.”

“Volskian?” asked Troy, confused about the Volskian, thinking he might have heard it wrong and his interest was waning at the same time, as his worry for Emilie grew more and more with every passing moment.

“Yes, they have chosen you, Troy.”

I am fine, keep going! burst in Emilie’s voice inside Troy’s mind. Her voice strengthened him and he felt his confidence boosted up again.

“Why me?” asked Troy. “I’m not Volskian!”

“You are half-human and half-Volskian, Troy,” said Eva, her guilty look coming back again.

Troy literally felt his physical world shudder for an instant, before he came back to reality.

“What!” exclaimed Troy, his head spinning like a top, knowing not how to react to that at all.

Help me, Troy! cried Emilie, inside his head, at that moment.

Troy immediately took his hand off Eva, and placed her non-soiled right hand on her wound.

“Press tight!” said Troy. “I’ll be back! And play dead!”

Eva nodded slowly and held his hand just as he was about to leave.

“Awaken!” said Eva, for one last time and she let go of him.

Troy gave a brief nod and shot like the wind towards where Emilie was. He sprinted and got past the smoking Cruiser and saw Emilie at last, about a hundred meters away from him. She was lying down unconscious.

“EMILIE!” cried Troy, on seeing her lifeless on the ground. The Volskian ship seemed to be using some sort of a yellowish beam to teleport her aboard their ship.

“EMILIE!” shouted Troy and ran madly towards her, as she deatomized right before his eyes. With a surge of uncontrollable rage, Troy took out his Cutie and shot at the Volskian ship. The twin bullets containing the antimatter suspended in vacuum whizzed through the air and blasted as it reached its target, tearing open one side of the Volskian ship.

Troy’s nanobot suit reacted with a quick reflex and formed a protective helmet over Troy’s head. The Volskian ship started spinning on its own, slowly spiraling to the ground. The Volskian ship finally rammed onto the ground, sinking a bit into the soft earth.

Troy started firing, running around the ship, blasting open the walls of the ship, trying to get Emilie’s location. He, at last shot near the dark tinted windows at the front of the ship, which revealed Emilie being held captive by the Volskians, who were dressed in black armor and black helmets. Their helmets had no visors and the helmets had two large vents at its sides. They were seven Volskians on the level where Troy had exposed them. Three of the Volskians immediately spread their wings and flew towards Troy, shooting vigorously at him. Troy jumped, taking turns to shot and roll. His shots didn’t make any impact on two of the three Volskians coming. However, Troy got the third Volskian, the one who was the closest to him and who looked like he had a leaky armor, with greyish vapors coming off from the sides of his abdomen. That Volskian exploded in midair with the shot from Troy’s shot. Troy used that Volskian’s explosion as a distraction and ran towards the smoking Cruiser, to take advantage of the smokescreen that it provided.

“Max! Help me!” whispered Troy onto this transmitter, taking cover behind the smokescreen.

“What do you want me to do?” asked Max, at once.

“Give me the location of the Volskians beyond the smokescreen, right now!” said Troy.

“I can’t do that!” said Max promptly and with a touch of nervousness to her voice.

“Why-Damn! Forget it!” said Troy. “At least get this helmet off me!”

Then he shot both his Blaster and his Cutie randomly through the smokescreen, breathing the fresh air, as the helmet retracted back. Suddenly, he saw two shadows fall on him, as if something had passed over him.

They’re here…

“Oh! Dear Mermaids!” muttered Troy to himself and twisted his body to shoot at the Volskians who had passed over him, to attack him from behind him.

He expected the Volskians to get to him first, but he was stormed by what met his eyes. He saw Eva standing over the bodies of those Volskians who had passed him just a few moments ago, with her hand over her wound and looking extremely pale.

Eva then threw two small grey guns, she had salvaged from those Volskians. The guns had unusually long muzzles and rest of the gun almost straight except for a little bend at the end, for holding.

Troy caught those two guns and looked at her. Eva motioned towards her wound. Troy understood the reference. Only Volskian weapons can penetrate Volskian armor.

Troy held the weapons with some difficulty and slowly proceeded through the smokescreen. Troy had no idea as how to proceed, he didn’t want to run towards them, as it was the stupidest thing he could do to get himself killed very easily. He had to get a distraction. He looked around in the smokescreen aimlessly for a distraction. As Troy was unsuccessfully trying to get an idea for distracting the Volskians on the ship, he felt something whiz past him, in the direction of the Volskian ship. In a flash, Troy realized who it was and ran out of the smokescreen.

“NOOO!” he cried, as he saw Eva take shot after shot, before she fell limp to the ground with a heavy thump. Aspiring to not let her death be in vain, Troy used those two Volskian guns to shoot at the four Volskians aboard the ship in quick succession. Only one was killed on the spot, while the other three took shelter in the darkness of the ship, dragging Emilie along with them. Troy immediately ran towards the ship strapping those two Volskian weapons to his waist belt. On the way, he saw a Cruiser coming towards his location. Paying no attention to the approaching Cruiser, Troy jumped onto the ship and started climbing using the rough edges of the ship to get to what seemed to be the Bridge of that Volskian vessel, where they were hiding.

The Cruiser landed as Troy made to the top level of the Volskian ship. There were no lights aboard the level. Sunlight bathed the place, where he stood with its warm glowing light. Troy looked around him. It was very silent. It was completely dark, beyond half a dozen footsteps from his location, in any direction. There was debris everywhere and the body of the dead Volskian at the edge of the darkness. He kept his weapons at the ready.

From the ground, he heard familiar voices calling out to him.

“TROY!”

“EMILIE!”

It was Kru and Holloway, who were outside their Cruiser, about halfway between the smoking Cruiser and the Volskian ship. Troy looked at them and motioned towards them to be patient and to stay where they were.

“What the hell is he doing?” asked Kru, looking at Troy showing his palm from atop the Volskian ship.

“Shouldn’t we go and get him?” asked Holloway, fidgeting beside Kru.

“He told us to wait here,” said Kru. “Let’s go in, if things go out of hand.”

Meanwhile, Troy took careful steps, towards the darkness searching the dark for Emilie and the Volskians who held her captive. He couldn’t see them anywhere.

“Where are you, Emilie?” muttered Troy to himself, as he frantically searched the level.

Then, abruptly Troy was caught, as a Volskian jumped at him from the ceiling, nailing him to the ground.

The Volskian smashed Troy’s head with many blows, until blood broke forth from the cuts he had sustained to his head. The Volskian then made him stand and punched him repeatedly again and finally ended with a couple of undercuts to the jaw to knock him out.

“Stop before you kill him!” said a low, grim voice from atop the ceiling. “The Lord desires him alive.”

It was the voice of the Commander of that Volskian ship, who emerged slowly from the dark ceiling along with the other Volskian, holding Emilie in his rough hands. He was burly and taller than the other two Volskians with him. He asked them in the Volski tongue to wake Troy up and put him on his knees. The Volskian, who had brutally attacked Troy, shorter compared to the other two Volskians, then slapped him to wake him up and made him kneel before the Volskian Commander, after he stripped him of all his weapons and tied him with a sparkling black cord on both his hands and feet.

“Look!” spoke the Volskian Commander, whose name was Tez Ohnal, in crude Standard Order English. “We have you and this girl! We have captured you!”

With drool falling out of his mouth and blood dripping from the cuts above his eyebrows, nose, ears and mouth, Troy looked at Emilie, who was sobbing very bitterly, at his sorry sight.

“Shut up!” said Tez and struck Emilie on her head, to stop her wailing.

Troy’s blood boiled at Tez assaulting her but he couldn’t do anything, his head felt completely messed up and felt no longer in control of his body.

“We see your friends have come for you in a nice ship. We need it,” Tez continued in his very crude accent. “Tell your friends to surrender as well so that they can take us to our station in space.”

Troy just looked at him, still drooling and his eyes half-shut.

“Are you listening to me?” shouted Tez, tightening his hold on Emilie’s hair, making her scream in pain.

Troy growled and said, “Or else what?”

“What did you say?” roared Tez, removing his helmet with fierce ferocity and throwing it away into the darkness. He looked atrocious with cruelty and terror written all over his face, with his bald head and one side of his face completely tattooed white and yellow.

“OR ELSE WHAT, COWARD?” said Troy and spat his blood on the floor.

Tez’s golden brown eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets and he commanded the other Volskians under his command,

“FETCH THOSE SCUMS THAT HAVE COME FOR HIM!”

The two Volskians flew at once towards where Kru and Holloway were.

Troy coughed up blood and wished he hadn’t flared up the conversation. Tez stared furiously at Troy until the Volskians returned with Kru and Holloway completely stripped of their weapons and tightly bound in the same sparkling black cord that bound Troy’s hands and legs. The Volskians threw them on the ground, beside Troy, while they went and stood on either side of their Commander.

“Now, look here!” Tez roared again, this time at Kru and Holloway. “Get us where we have to go!”

“What if we don’t?” spoke Kru, quite boldly, as if he had faced situations like these before.

“WE KILL YOU, SCUM!” bellowed Tez, tightening his hold even more strongly over Emilie’s hair, making her moan loudly.

“We’ll die before we help you!” said Kru and looked at Holloway, who burst into tears on seeing him.

“Is that your final decision?” thundered Tez.

“Yes,” replied Kru, Troy looked at him and nodded ambiguously.

Kru nodded back and faced Holloway.

“It’ll be alright, Holly,” whispered Kru. “I promise.”

“Your friends are greater fools than yourself,” mocked Tez. “Kill them!”

The two masked Volskians drew their weapons and shot at Kru and Holloway, who closed their eyes to accept their fate.

Troy acted faster and fell in between the shots and his two friends, taking their fate upon himself, succumbing to those shots. He died even before he hit the cold floor.

“YOU IDIOTS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” cried Tez, on seeing Troy lying dead before his eyes.

“Our Lord will have us for this!”

Emilie, Kru and Holloway were more than shocked to see Troy lying motionless and bleeding before their eyes. Emilie ran towards him, shaking him as if she were trying to wake him from a deep sleep, as the Tez started slamming the other two Volskians for what they had done.

“We at least have the girl alive, Commander,” argued the shorter of the two Volskians.

“But the boy was the real deal!” shouted Tez. “Go and fetch the girl from that carcass now!”

The masked Volskians started towards Emilie and tried to take her, as she kept hugging Troy’s lifeless body, sobbing and refusing to let go of him.

“Let go!” said the other masked Volskian, hitting her so as to make her let go, but Emilie refused to let go of Troy. Kru and Holloway looked on, dumbstruck and totally unable to move because of the horror that faced them.

“LET GO!” shouted both the masked Volskians and pulled Emilie, who continued to hold Troy’s body tightly and at that moment, some sparkling purplish dust floated inside the Volskian ship from outside with a gentle cool breeze. Emilie saw the purple dust and calmed down. The masked Volskians were surprised at what they saw and stopped what they were doing. The purple dust slowly landed on Troy’s forehead and got absorbed within him.

“Commander! Something’s strange happened right now!” said the short Volskian.

“I saw it,” said Tez, his voice a little shaking. “It was the-”

A sudden dazzling purple blast blinded everyone for a couple of moments.

“What happened?” asked Tez, blinking.

The other two masked Volskians looked around and the shorter one reported, “The girl and the other two are right where they were before the blast!”

“What about the boy’s body?” asked Tez, looking at his fellow Volskians.

“It’s not here!” replied the short Volskian.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S NOT HERE?” asked Tez, fear and fury mixing together in his voice.

“It’s really not here!” insisted the shorter Volskian. Emilie, Kru and Holloway were alarmed too on the disappearance of Troy.

“WELL! DON’T JUST STAND LIKE STONE STATUES! SEARCH THE SHIP!” commanded Tez, as he withdrew slowly back into the darkness.

“HE’S BEHIND YOU!” cried the shorter Volskian suddenly, at which everyone looked at the place where the Volskian had indicated. Tez also turned around to see. Out of the darkness, came out Troy completely bare. As he emerged onto the sunlight bathing the battered Volskian ship, he tied a torn black cloth around his waist and tightened the knot.

“YOU!” said Tez, completely shaken on seeing him. “How did you-”

Troy ended Tez’s question prematurely by landing a hell of a right cross across his cheek. Tez fell onto the floor, spitting blood. By then, Troy was completely in the sunlight. The sun bathed his well-cut young body and made it look glowing. All his head wounds seemed completely healed and he looked perfectly healthy again. The other two Volskians started shooting at Troy at which he jumped onto them and knocked them unconscious with single blows to each of them.

Emilie and the others were flabbergasted by what they saw. Troy was alive and looked absolutely alright. They had no idea as to what had happened but they were glad that it had happened.

Tez, by then had recovered and tried to smash Troy’s head with a heavy pole that was lying among the debris. Troy stopped the swinging pole with his hand, pulled it from him and struck him across Tez’s temple with it. Tez didn’t speak again, as he lay still on the floor.

Then Troy turned to face the three and as he had turned, Emilie sprang onto him, hugging him and kissing him passionately. Troy held her tight and buried his face on her shoulder, taking a deep breath of her fragrance. To him, it seemed right then, like the sweetest fragrance in the whole world.

“I love you!” he whispered onto her ear, lightly kissing and nibbling.

“I loved you first!” replied Emilie, tears bursting forth with a smile, looking into his ocean blue eyes, which still had the golden flecks.

Troy chuckled at her reply and kissed her back.

“You came back!” shrieked Holloway. “You saved us!”

Troy and Emilie looked at her and smiled in response.

“What happened?” asked Kru, grinning and his hands rubbing his back as he came near the happy couple.

Troy looked at him and answered, “I awakened the Chi’kara.”

“How?” asked Holloway, who was wiping her tears too.

“I could never awaken the Chi’kara on my own, I needed to die first willingly to harness the Chi’kara, and then I needed the help of the Fenoi.”

“The what?” asked Kru, getting baffled at the name ‘Fenoi’ being mentioned.

“Fenoi are formless magical Volskian beings that, in certain instances, bind themselves to a worthy Volskian soul,” replied Emilie, much to the surprise of Troy.

“You knew all along?” asked Troy, looking at her.

“Eva insisted that I know the truth,” replied Emilie.

“Wait! Are you saying that it was the Fenoi that stripped you of your clothes and made to appear just behind that Volskian bastard?” asked Kru, hesitantly.

Troy nodded positively.

“Which means you’re Volskian? That’s completely nuts!” said Kru, aggressively.

“According to Eva, I’m half-human and half-Volskian,” said Troy. “And it wasn’t an illusion of any kind, me popping just behind that Volskian Commander. I just don’t know how that happened!” said Troy.

“So, are you half-Volskian?” asked Kru, his curiosity peaking.

“I have no idea,” said Troy, in a darker tone. “Guess I’ll have to find the truth behind that.”

Troy looked at Emilie, hoping that Eva had shown her that too, but Emilie nodded her sideways slowly, indicating no.

“So you’re saying you died and came back from the dead?” asked Holloway, her brain picking up a little late on the current conversation and also unable to close her mouth looking at Troy.

“Something like that,” said Troy, smiling handsomely at her.

“I’m finding this really hard to believe,” said Kru, tapping his temple. “It’s too much to take in.”

“It is,” said Holloway. “And I also mean that you have such a well-cut body, Troy.”

Kru got alarmed by the direction in which his girlfriend’s conversation was going and quickly scrambled his waist pocket that was lying beside the pile of their weapons and banged a small silver cube onto Troy’s chest. The nanobots rearranged to form a silver body suit over Troy’s body. The suit had the word Valkurie written on the left chest side of the suit, with a coolly designed dark star glowing above it.

“I made it in my free time,” said Kru, looking proudly at the suit he had designed and the fact he had stopped Holloway’s admiration of Troy’s body.

“It’s very cool!” complimented Emilie, looking at the design of the suit and their logo.

“Thank you,” said Kru, going all grins.

“It is much more than cool!” said Troy, feeling its smooth texture.

“Ah! The most important question-” said Kru, only to be interrupted by Emilie,

“Where’s Sniffles?” she asked frantically.

“He’s asleep in the Cruiser,” answered Holloway.

“That’s a relief!” said Emilie. “He’s safe!”

Kru finally got to ask his question then, “Did you find what the Chi’kara is?”

“No, I still don’t know,” said Troy, in a flash, shrugging.

“Then what was all that drama of dying and coming alive again for?” asked Kru.

“Heroes are neither born nor created but resurrected,” said Troy. “You said it yourself, Kru.”

“Tsokay, now that’s sounds so narcissistic coming from you!” replied Kru, playfully.

Troy chuckled and looked at Emilie, for her to explain it to Kru.

“Only when you die to your weaknesses, will you rise, Kru,” said Emilie.

“Rise where?” asked Kru, who was bad at understanding metaphors.

“Rise towards your true power,” said Emilie.

Kru didn’t understand what in the world they were talking about yet, but he didn’t dare to ask any more questions. It made some vague meaning but beyond he was still confused, all that they had said, it felt almost like a fantasy. He looked at Holloway, who looked as puzzled at him.

“Like I said, the Chi’kara could never be unleashed unless I died. I had to trust in it to unravel itself in my death,” said Troy, suddenly everything starting to make sense to him, remembering his strange dream of the Fenoi.

“How did you know that you had to die to get the Chi’kara?” asked Holloway, still wiping her eyes.

“I didn’t,” replied Troy, making his friends, wander in suspense for about a moment, “Until after I had died.”

The other three looked at him and felt a difference in him, though what he had just said sounded insane. There was something different about Troy, all of a sudden. It was if he was suddenly magical.

“Did you see anything, if you know what I mean?” asked Kru, curiously, referring to the other side.

Troy smiled at him and replied, “It’s the same side.”

“Which means…” said Kru, lingering on for Troy to complete the sentence and satisfy his insatiable curiosity.

“Let’s get down to Eva and Sniffles,” said Troy smiling, smashing his hopes and climbed down the ship, in a couple of swings, landing majestically on his one knee and one hand.

“Bummer,” muttered Kru, looking disappointed.

“Wow!” exclaimed Holloway, looking at Troy’s crazy feat, getting down along jagged ends of the ship.

“How does he expect me to do that?” asked Kru, getting frustrated that he can’t do the same thing to impress Holloway.

“We can fly, darling!” said Holloway, tapping gently on Kru’s chest.

“That’s right,” said Kru. “I forgot!”

“Come on!” urged Emilie, as she jumped off, from the ship.

Meanwhile, Troy ran to where he last saw Eva fall and lifted the body.

“It’s not her?” said Troy, relieved and confused at the same time.

“I’m here,” coughed a faint voice, from some distance beyond him.

“She’s over here, Troy!” said Emilie, as she flew over him, pointing towards the burnt remains of the Cruiser.

Troy at once, jetted towards the place where Emilie was pointing to.

“You’re alright?” asked Troy, looking relieved to see Eva, who was able to sit up with Emilie’s help.

“I’m still in one piece, if that’s what you mean,” replied Eva, smiling beautifully at him, holding her wound which seemed to have stopped almost bleeding “Thank you, Eva,” said Emilie, expressing her gratitude.

“I think we should all thank Troy,” said Eva, in return, looking at him with that motherly look.

Troy looked a little uncomfortable but he managed with a smile.

Holloway and Kru arrived at this time, with Sniffles and a tiny medical box.

“Let me apply this,” Holloway said, taking a small ointment from the box and applying it over her wound.

“This is good medicine,” said Eva, immediately. “It’s feeling better already.”

Holloway smiled at her and Sniffles found his way back to Emilie’s long legs.

“Sweetheart!” said Emilie, kissing him and lifted him.

“MMMMMMMMA!” said Sniffles, grinning and showing off all his teeth.

“Seems like you awakened,” said Eva, smiling at that happy scene and while at the same time, taking their conversation to a more serious level.

Troy gave a short serious nod. He had saved the day but he knew this was just the beginning of the end.

“They are coming,” said Troy, walking away from the others and looking at the blue sky. “Olscuro is coming.”

“It means war is coming,” said Kru. “But we neither have the technology nor the resources to fight such a superior race.”

“The fight isn’t against an entire race, Kru. It is against one Volskian. Olscuro,” said Troy, looking deep into the sky.

“We will take him down at any cost,” said Eva, getting up, as she already started feeling better.

“What do we do, Troy?” asked Emilie, coming and standing beside him.

“We arise,” said Troy, taking her hand and merging it with his own.