Kevin’s mood changed as her question reminded him of his Father and what he found out about himself. He thought about how he punched his father before he left. He didn’t think straight at the time; he then remembered his Father saying that he was trying to protect him; he felt guilty.
"No, my father did this to protect me, I think. I didn’t realize until now." Kevin said softly. "I learned I’m a half breed and that the Advant guard takes people like us away. Because of the seal, I’ve been able to live like a normal person, until now; but I’ve seen what I can do. When I find a way to get home, I want to save the others that are like me on Earth, ya know?"
Rika nods to Kevin in agreement, as she looked at him, a part of her was glad she made the right decision to trust him despite his rude introduction. She was going to ask him about the sword when they heard beeping coming from the control panel of the ship. Vinnie watches the screen as he sees the red dot flashing in one area, the place that they recently left where the destroyed village once stood, and they are heading closer to it.
"The Tracking device stopped at the village we were just in. Replied Vinnie. That must be where their nest is located."
***
"What are you talking about?" The Princess replied.
"That beam of light, that destroyed my army of Lurkers." Exclaimed Laban. "How did you get such power?"
The Princess then realized he was referring to Kevin when he arrived in their world. Before she could answer, they both heard a muffled beeping noise nearby. Laban looked around till he noticed something red flashing from the corner of his eye. He looked in the direction of his Alpha Lurker to see something floating in its body. He quickly removed the Princess from the Alpha’s grip. Once he separated them, a couple of beta Lurkers emerged from the floor snatching the princess and held on to her. Laban reached into the Alpha and grabbed the small red blinking device from its body. He opened his hand to reveal the tracking device.
"It’s a tracking device." Laban answered. Laban crushed the device and looked at his Alpha. "You allowed yourself to be followed and brought them to the fortress!" Laban raised his voice in anger.
Laban quickly kills his Alpha by blasting it with reiki energy; the Apha shrills in pain till there was nothing left of it but burnt scorch marks on the floor from the blast; Laban then regained his composure.
"Alpha number 2873 approach." Laban commanded.
Another Alpha Lurker emerged from the ground, but this one had a more well-built body than the other. Once it came out of the ground, it bowed to its master.
"We will have visitors soon; prepare for their arrival." Laban Ordered.
"Yes, my master." The Alpha replied. It then left the room the same way it arrived.
Laban looked back at the Princess still held by the other two Lurkers.
"I’ll make sure to give your knights a proper welcoming."
Laban’s eyes quickly glow bright and before Anya could react, he uses his reiki to knock the Princess out; her body relaxed as the Lurkers continued to hold her supporting her weight.
As for you, little one, you will make a fantastic Alpha Lurker. Laban replied.
With a flip of his wrist, Laban orders the Lurkers to take the away. The Lurkers respond as they drag her away, taking her to the end of the assembly line for her to become a Lurker.
Laban leaves his factory, preparing to meet the knights, while the two Lurkers close the door behind him continuing to guard the factory. Vinnie followed the tracer’s signal closely until he saw it disappear from the screen. With that happening, Vinnie knew what that meant.
"It looks like they found the tracer." Vinnie reported.
"Doesn’t matter; we know where it came from." Caleb replied. "We’ll just follow that, and we should be fine."
It wasn’t long till they returned to the demolished village, but there wasn’t anything there. They hovered over the site, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Where are we?" Kevin asked.
"This is where we found you, when we were attacked by hundreds of those creatures, but then you came." Rika answered.
Suddenly Kevin and the knights see a flash of light in the sky. The floating fortress unveiled itself, removing the cloaking device it had to conceal itself and revealing how massive a fortress it was compared to their flying aircraft. Our heroes were awed by the reveal of what looked like an impenetrable fortress.
"It’s a floating fortress!" Exclaimed Caleb.
"That’s where the signal was before it disappeared." Said Vinnie. "That has to be where those things came from."
"And that’s where we’ll find the Princess." Rika exclaimed.
The fortress’ defenses came on as several gun turrets were activated, aiming their barrels at the hovering aircraft. Once locked onto their target, the turrets opened fire.
"Hang on!" Warned Caleb.
Caleb steers the craft to avoid the first group of shots but continues to fly closer to the fortress. Soon more turrets appeared, continuing to open fire at our heroes. Vinnie activates their ship’s weapons and fires back, destroying some of the turrets but more appear to be replacing them. While Vinnie shot them down, Caleb continued to maneuver and dodge the fortress’ attack.
"I can’t shake them off for long." Warned Caleb. "We need to find a way in."
Suddenly the base portion of the fortress opened up, revealing a large laser cannon charging up and preparing to fire. Caleb realized they were in the range of their cannon’s fire and tried to fly away from it.
He steers the ship away, hoping to move out of range, but as the cannon releases its enormous laser beam, it manages to destroy the back wing of the ship, causing them to lose altitude. The ship, though still flying towards the fortress, was slowly nose-diving, but Caleb was trying his best for them to stay afloat. Knowing they had very little time before their ship would soon descend, Rika had an idea.
"Vinnie, makes a way in by blasting the fortress’ wall. Caleb try to fly in." Ordered Rika.
"Right!" Caleb and Vinnie said in unison.
The two complied, doing what Rika ordered in a timely manner. Vinnie’s starts shooting at the east side of the castle, it wasn’t long till his shots finally penetrated a piece of the fortress. The Lurkers in that area were hearing a rumbling noise as the stood near the wall out of curiosity. Suddenly there was an explosion as a piece of the wall was destroyed killing some Lurkers as the rubble collapsed on top of them. Those that manage to worm their way out of the rubble look towards the damaged wall as they see a ship flying towards them.
"Everyone, brace yourself!" Caleb yelled as he glided the ship towards the hole.
Caleb flies inside; the Lurkers see their enemies but can’t move in time as Caleb flies in, destroying them and several rooms that were in the way of their crash landing. Their ship came to a halt clearing the lurkers that were in that area. Inside, Kevin and the knights were ok as they were strapped securely into their chairs; they were only shaken up and slightly sore from the landing.
"Is everyone ok?" Rika asked, groaning as she unbuckled from her seat and stood up.
"We’ll manage." Caleb replied, unbuckling himself and getting up from his chair.
Everyone got out of their chairs and managed to come out of the ship carefully checking to ensure there was no one waiting for them when they came out. Seeing no sign of the enemy, they examined the exterior damage from their ship. The crash not only caused scratches, dents, and tears on the ship, but they noticed where the laser beam damaged the back wing of the ship and a part of the engine that was near the wing.
"What do you make of this, Vinnie?" Rika asked.
Vinnie looked at the damage and then took out his holographic computer to calculate and estimate the damage on their ship.
"We lost a part of an engine and the back wing." Vinnie reported. Vinnie then examined the hole in the wall and the material the fortress was made of. Seeing that the material showed signs of metal Vinnie smiled. "If I use some of the fortress’ rubble, I think I can get our ship back in the air." Vinnie replied.
"Alright, then it’s settled." said Rika as she made a quick decision. "Newbie, stay with Vinnie and help him repair the ship; we’ll need it to escape."
Kevin looked at Rika, confused as to why she would make that choice; he wanted to help.
"Wait, why?" Kevin asked. "Let me go with you; I can help. He pleaded."
"You wanna get killed shrimp?" Caleb asked. "Then be my guest."
"Will you get off my back, you muscle-bound idiot!" Kevin retorted.
"Idiot?!" Caleb exclaimed. Insulted, Caleb draws out his giant hammer, ready to pummel Kevin to the ground.
Rika stood in Caleb’s way once more to stop him from moving any further.
"Knock it off, you two; we got no time for this1" Rika exclaimed. "Vinnie needs someone to help him fend off those creatures while he repairs the ship."
She looked at Kevin calmly but stern; he realized then how serious her request was.
"Newbie, I know you want to help save the Princess. Being a hero and wanting to save everybody is one thing but being a team player is important too." Said Rika. "This ship is our only ticket out of here; without it, we’re screwed."
Kevin knew she was right, they needed to escape, and Vinnie couldn’t fix the ship on his own. He let’s out a big sigh knowing what he had to do.
"Fine, I’ll stay; just be careful out there." Kevin replied.
"Thank you." Rika softly said. She then looked at Caleb, who looked back at her, ready to move. "Let’s go."
Using their reiki, they quickly leave in a flash quickly darting out to explore the castle in search of the Princess. Kevin was surprised at how fast they left as they were just there and then reappeared far into the hallway of the castle until they were out of sight using their reiki again. Wow, I wanna learn how to do that. Kevin thought to himself. Vinnie went back into the ship to get his tools to start repairing the ship.
"Let’s get started." Vinnie ordered.
Kevin followed Vinnie inside to help out; unknown to them; they were being watched through a security camera. Laban was back in his main quarters, watching our heroes from several cameras. He zoomed in on the ship as Vinnie and Kevin came out to start working on the ship. He monitored Kevin as he remembered him before as he appeared after the pillar of energy dissipated. He was the one his Lurkers were supposed to capture, and they failed.
"We have a new player in our game." Laban thought to himself. "This could be interesting."
Laban presses a button on his control panel that connects to all his Lurkers in the castle via their built-in commlinks.
"Our guest have arrived." He announced. Find them, hunt down our intruders. Laban ordered. "Make it slow and painful."
The Lurkers shrill with lustful excitement for blood and destruction. They began their search for their intruders. Meanwhile, Caleb and Rika race down the hall, slaying Lurkers along the way, trying to find any sign or hints of where the Princess could be located. They ended up in a large room filled with many paths leading to many other places in the castle. They stood at the center, looking at the several different hallways trying to find out which way to go. Caleb then points to a random path.
"I say we should take this path." Caleb suggested.
Rika agreed, and the two ran into the chosen path. As they continued to run through the hallway, the path changed as it led to stairs leading downward. They then began to hear people trying to calm down children as they were crying and wining from a distance.
"Do you hear that?" Rika asked.
"Yea." Caleb answered. "This must be where they’re holding villager. The Princess may be down there too."
Rika and Caleb followed the sounds as they continued running down long, winding stairs. They arrived at unguarded double doors. Caleb was about to open the door till a Lurker’s head emerged from the door scaring Caleb and Rika. The two knights jump back, taking out their weapons as the Lurker comes out from the door, and suddenly more emerge from the floor and walls of the castle.
"Not this time!" Exclaimed Caleb as he charged up his weapon with his reiki.
He held his hammer by the leather strap and swung it around, slaying his side of Lurkers, destroying their faces. Rika was destroying her side of Lurkers using her reiki-infused hook swords. Other than physically destroying their masks with her weapons, she would also throw large crescent-shaped energy blasts that would wipe out large groups of Lurkers. It wasn’t long till there was nothing left of the Lurkers but their ashes on the ground. Rika and Caleb opened the double door together to discover several large groups of Zonian and Seirei Jin villagers behind bars, some from other villages that were reported to be missing and several from their latest mission. Once they saw Rika and Caleb, they began to plead for help with tears rolling down their face.
"It’s the missing Villagers." Rika exclaimed.
"Are you here to help us?" Asked a middle-aged woman.
"Yes, we’re the knights of Auran. We’ve been looking for you."
The villagers cheered, praising Rika and Caleb for coming and them being saved. Rika quickly hushes them, so they don’t make any more noises.
"We’ll get you out, but you must remain silent so not to alert the enemy."
"Please, you must also save the others." A middle-age woman softly exclaimed. "They’ve been taking large groups of us away. They just took my son Callon. What do they want with us?"
Rika and Caleb looked at each other, thinking about what they should do next. They needed to find the Princess but also take these villagers back to their airship.
"Rika, take them back to the ship. I'll look for the Princess." Caleb suggested.
Caleb?! Rika looked at him, surprised that he would suggest splitting up.
"Caleb, is that wise?" Rika asked. "We can regroup and find the Princess together."
"We may not have much time if we do." Caleb replied. "I’ll be ok."
Rika knew Caleb was right; anything could be happening to the Princess right now; Rika nodded as she understood what needed to be done.
"Just be careful out there." Said Rika.
Caleb gave Rika the thumbs up and started running back upstairs, returning to the room with several pathways leading to other areas of the Castle. Rika faces the villagers as they patiently wait for instructions.
"Ok, everyone, rest assured we will find those who were taken." Rika confirmed. "In the meantime, please follow me and stay together."
Rika encourages the villagers to follow her as they head back towards the airship before any more Lurkers would arrive.
