Invitation to the Black Ball
Season 1, Episode 5
Bahmol [capital city], Jastool [planet], White [star system]
20 December; 12:48:11 Hours
A world of tan and brown as sand was the eternal home of a people who lived in blissful compliance while terror and fear loomed over their shoulders in the form of weathered Jastoolian Elite Dictum flags flowing in the dry breeze. The only emerald that managed to bloom was there, within the high walls of an oasis, Bahmol, where the Guerrilla Force marched the stone streets. There were smiles and laughter, children playing as they kicked a ragged ball around just outside Hau’muul Cafe where there were tables set up under a canopy.
“<Isn’t it quite something?>” a woman said before taking a sip of her drink. “<They all seem happy here, while oblivious to the pain outside of these stone walls.>”
“No, not really Mya,” Gabe said, subtly shaking his head while watching the children.
“<Why?>”
“Well, if you were one of any of these people whose home was here within the walls and you’ve never journeyed outside: Why? Why would you ever think that the world was any different elsewhere?”
Mya, pale skin with subtle beige freckles and silky pitch-black hair, rubbed her forehead as she puckered her crimson lips to the side. “<Okay, you have a fair point.>”
“A fair point?” Gabe chuckled. “No, Mya, I’ve just made a logical observation.”
She rolled her eyes at him before taking another sip of her drink.
“You know, this also isn’t so different from many other parts of the Uni.”
Her eyes squinted. “<What do you mean?>”
“I’ve seen this many, many times before while on tour with KOG.”
“<Well, you did something about each time, didn’t you?>”
“It wasn’t that simple,” he noted.
“<Not that simple?>” Her brow scrunched up as strands of her hair blew in her face, now lowering her voice to a snappy whisper, “<How could you let people suffer like this? That’s not what you and Shaomhov do!>”
“Don’t be naive, girl.”
“<Naive? Don’t you dare say I’m being nai—”
Gabe placed his left hand on the tabletop just hard enough that Mya’s eyes opened a bit wider than normal and she looked him in the brown eyes. “Listen to me, and listen very carefully… The very reason Talius, Barret, and I founded the Shaomhov Quarter was exactly because of my time with KOG. I, nor Talius or Barret, could not simply continue on without doing anything to help all those oppressed by their world’s power structures.”
“<I’m sorry, Gabe,>” Mya sighed and bowed her head.
“No, no,” he motioned his hand upward, saying, “Every new Fang struggles with history, at first.”
Mya took another look around the square; still, the children kicked the ball around, women were shopping at the local farmers market across the square, men were working on a stone statue at its center, and she couldn’t help but look back at Gabe with her eyes squinted again.
“<So why are we here?>”
A smirk slowly crept over Gabe’s face as he pointed to the statue. “That.”
“<Because of a statue?>” Mya again sighed while rubbing her temple.
“Open your eyes, it is more than a statue we are here for.”
Mya shrugged before humoring him and looking back around again. But now as she looked out to the square, her head perked up and her eyes locked onto a group moving out toward the statue that was being built. There she saw ten elite members of the Guerilla Force who were escorting the Supreme Ruler up to what would be a display of his superiority. She quickly turned back to Gabe with her eyes open even wider than just seconds ago, and she whispered, “<Are you serious?>”
Gabe now shrugged at her with a full-blown grin on his face.
“<That’s Gansto - The Supreme Ruler of the Jastolian Elite Dictum! We cannot simply march up and assassinate him, and then make it off-world alive!>”
“What would make you think that’s what I would do?”
“<That’s what Shaomhov does… Isn’t it?>”
“When the variables allow it.”
“<Oh-okay,>” she stuttered before taking yet another sip of her drink, trying to wet her throat that had gone completely dry.
“But see, other times we must be more calculated than a simple broad daylight assassination.”
Mya squinted. “<What then?>”
“Fighting beside my brother, well, you’d know him better as Beelezika - He taught me a great appreciation for snuffing out evil with extreme prejudice.”
“<W-what does that mean?>”
“Sometimes there needs to be a message that is sent when you eliminate someone,” Gabe explained as he turned slightly to the three men sitting at the table to their right and nodded to them. “When KOG was sent to terminate Malko’vEa of Bru’hom, we were planning a simple assassination but Thuh— Heh, I mean, Beelezika sent a message through the way he took Malko’vEa out.”
Mya’s heart started to pound as she watched two of the men get up from the table as they made their way to the children playing at the edge of the square. “<What did he do, Gabe?>”
“Beelezika has his way - sludge and Kalber,” Gabe chuckled as an emerald aura surged through his veins, “and I have mine.”
She had watched the men urge the children away and to their parents at the market, but then quickly she turned back to Gabe who was now standing up from his chair. Mya shook her head and grabbed his hand, saying, “<I thought you said no simple broad daylight assassination!>”
“There’s nothing simple about this.”
Mya’s eyes remained wide open as his hand slipped through her own, and Gabe started to walk away toward Gansto and the Guerrillas. She could hear her heart pounding with every second that went by, but then she heard the third man call out as he shot up from his chair.
“<Gabe! Wait, Gabe!>”
Gabe stopped and looked over his shoulder with his eyes squinted. “What?”
“<You,” he stammered, “you need to see this!>”
Gabe gritted his teeth as he watched Gansto and the Guerrillas begin to make their way back in the direction they had come from earlier before he reluctantly made his way toward the man. He stopped beside him, who held his tether out, explaining, “<Kuofer - a sleeper plant in Ravelous, he just sent this…” a three-dimensional hologram of a black invitation materialized with white script across its face, “… It’s an invitation to the Black Ball.>”
“<The Black Ball?>” Mya looked up to Gabe with her head clocking to the side.
“Well,” Gabe slowly looked at Mya, smiling as he said, “Do you have a gown?”