Prey, Part I

Season 6, Episode 4

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A’tep [town], Kandok [planet], Baultrek [star system]

19 June; 11:33:27 Hours

Flesh to steel, Kyra’s hand transformed as she reached out and held Klaus’ hand which was scorched and radiating a powerful heat that coursed up through his forearms. She glanced back over her shoulder quickly, to see Farah and Amelia who were walking ten yards behind, before she rested her head on Klaus’ shoulder. Kyra then softly said to him, “Lover, what’s wrong?”

Klaus just chuckled as if to try to brush off her concern.

“Something’s wrong,” she pushed, “I can tell.”

“Okay, what gave it away?”

“What? You want the obvious reason?” Kyra now stood up straight as they continued to walk down the street, saying with a bit of sass, “You’ve been burning ever since we landed, or do you want the less obvious? Like how we’ve been zig-zagging for the last six months when we knew we wanted to get here.”

He let out a brief breathy chuckle before he stopped in the middle of the street and turned to his fiancée. “What? I guess you could say I’m a bit like my brother.”

“Klaus…” she snapped and looked at him with her brow scrunched and eyes a bit narrowed.

“Heeeh, alright, alright… We’re being followed, Kyra.”

“Fuh-followed?” and he nodded to her before she reiterated her now spiked concern, “Wuh-what? Followed? Are, are you being serious?”

“Yeah, I’m being very serious.”

“Even, um, even now? Like right now?”

“What’s wrong, Kyra?” Farah asked as she and Amelia came up on the two, Amelia looked at them with her left eye narrowing while Kyra stumbled to say to Farah.

“Ruh-wrong? Um, nuh, uh, nothing. Nothing’s wrong, Farah. Um, nuh-nothing.”

“Damn, and here I thought that Theo was a terrible liar,” Amelia scoffed.

“Lying? I’m not—”

“She’s not lying,” Klaus cut her off and sternly suggested, “Let’s keep moving.”

“Oh no, we’re not going anywhere until you two let us in on the secret,” Amelia snapped as she folded her arms, and Farah sassily repeated her.

“Yeeeeah! Let us in on the secret, Klaus!”

He was irritated and raised his voice at the two, “No! There is no secret, okay?”

Farah’s eyes sunk as she pouted. “Why did you yell at me?”

“Wuh-what?” he stammered, “Yell? Yell at you? Nah-no.”

“Yes, you did, Klaus!” Farah whimpered, tears welling up in her eyes as she turned her back to them and Amelia stepped up to him.

“What the hell is going on, dammit! You two are acting way off! And now you’re yelling at her and me! What the hell!”

“Listen to us, ‘Melia,” Kyra lowered her voice as she leaned in toward Amelia, “We’ve got a tuh—”

“You’ve got pretty eyes, muh-Mister,” they heard Farah say to someone and immediately all stopped.

“<Not as pretty as yours,>” the man, who was crouched down before Farah, said back to her as Klaus and the others turned to see the two.

Without hesitation, Klaus stormed right over to Farah and the man, where he put himself between them, and slowly the man, Baontun stood up. His piercing blue eyes looked Klaus in his burning red, only for Baontun to leave out a smirk; from the small crowd of Astronauts off behind Baontun emerged a silver-haired woman, Velliyah Somb and the eradicator droid, Vrut-92r. Kyra, though, hurried over beside her fiancée and whispered to him, “Is, is this them?”

Klaus subtly nodded to her while his attention remained locked on the three before them.

“<You have something that belongs to us,>” Baontun chuckled.

“Something?” Klaus said while clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles cracked.

“<Hand it over, or believe me, we’ll take great pleasure in taking it.>”

“It?”

“<His speech was not impaired,” Vee stated while scanning the four in front of it, “and by my vital scans - Your cognitive activity is functioning properly… Abort these linguistic games you’re attempting, immediately!>”

“<He’s stalling for time!>” Velliyah growled as she placed her hand upon the hilt of her buster tanto blade.

Amelia placed her arm around Farah’s shoulders as she pulled her close, hearing Klaus bark at the three, “You all need to turn back now!”

“Heeeeh,” Baontun sighed, “<You Humans… You all believe in this myth, this myth of the indomitable Human will but you all fall eventually!>”

“If you don’t listen to me, you’re gonna find out how much of a myth the indomitable Human will really is!”

Baontun’s smirk grew into a larger grin as he took a step toward Klaus, growling, “<You’re not> Beelezika, Bouhrdih’Dyr!”

Amelia’s eyes were pinging around as she tried to gauge the severity of their situation, but she noticed Kyra who motioned her hand down at her side in a shooing manner. Amelia’s heart sunk and her eyes grew teary before she heard Farah softly whimpering. She looked at the girl and forced out a smile before whispering to Farah, “Come on, we got to get out of here…”

“Buh-but what about Kyra and Klaus?” she asked while Amelia turned her and they started to hurry off toward the growing crowd at the rear.

“They’ll be fine - I’ve seen them fight far worse than those nobodies!”

“Oh-okay,” Farah smiled, but that tone shifted to a gasp as Amelia and she slid to a stop as a woman and an Arpin, an ape-like astronaut, emerged from the thick.

The woman, Lev Drugov licked her teeth with a big smile while Grap’rik grit his teeth with intense glaring eyes that honed in on Farah. The two slowly moved toward Amelia while she positioned herself in front of Farah, with Lev softly saying with a thick Russian accent, “Ohhh, did you think you could escape? Oh no!”

“Heh, hah, hah, ha!” Baontun laughed as he saw them try to flee, and he redirected his attention to Klaus who he smugly told, “<So much for that indomitable Human will, aye?>”

However that was the very moment, Klaus shot forward while he clocked his fist back and unleashed a shockwave rendering punch on Baontun but as the boom ripped through the street and windows shattered - Baontun stood unfazed as he caught Klaus’ fist.

A blitz followed the clearing smoke with Velliyah charging Kyra, while Amelia was forced to shove Farah back as Lev and Grap’rik converged on her. Amelia quickly drew her curve blade, Dakmaar which she used to deflect several charges from Lev who fired her Kramat PS22 pistols before she then raised her blade to meet Grap’rik’s snub saber. Clang ripped out just before sparks rained down on Amelia who twist spun off to her right where she pivoted her feet and used her momentum to swing Dakmaar up at Grap’rik. He was slightly faster than her though, as he backflipped away from the blade while drawing several kunai which he threw at Amelia mid-flip.

Tink, tink, tink shrieked out while Amelia twisted and spun around Dakmaar as she blocked the kunai. Farah watched each one deflect before they hit the ground around Amelia, though her attention shifted to Vee who was carefully circling around to her. She shook her head quite frantically and screamed, “‘MELIA! ‘Melia! He’s coming!”

Klaus heard Farah and quickly glanced over his shoulder. “Far?”

Amelia, though, viciously front-kicked Lev in the chest and sent her flying back nearly seven feet to the ground before quickly turning to block Grap’rik’s blade yet again. This time, she thrust her left hand down to her side where she clenched it tightly with Kalber grains pulling from a pouch on her belt that solidified upon her fist. Amelia then released the blade lock which sent her spinning counterclockwise, allowing her to deliver a powerful backhand that struck Grap’rik on the side of his head and threw him to the ground. Amelia quickly shot back up, trying to catch her breath as she was ready to turn to Farah but before she could, Amelia was blindsided by another woman who thrust her shoulder into Amelia’s side.

The dark olive-skinned woman, Cort Willow who had long black hair with the right side of her head shaved, whipped her head to her left and locked eyes with Farah. The girl’s eyes tripled as she stammered while Cort started to make her way toward her, “No, no, no, no, no!”

“Klaus!” Kyra screamed, her skin completely living-steel as she blocked Velliyah’s buster tanto blade with her forearms. “Amelia’s down! Klaus, she’s down! We need to do something, now!”

Klaus grunted as he and Baontun each clenched the other’s fist, but Klaus couldn’t manage to outright overpower the Drespin who brandished his fangs at him.

“Don’t make this difficult, kid,” Cort warned Farah who was crying. “Believe me, I don’t want to kill you!”

However, something snapped in Farah as her eyes went completely blood red. The young girl let out a thunderous scream at Cort who flinched unsure of what was happening, as she then found it difficult to step closer to Farah. She even began to shake her head rapidly with every step as if to shrug off the tingling sensation that was quickly flooding her body. Cort coughed once at first but then coughed again and again as she now started to bleed from her nose, and she said to herself, “Wuh-what? What’s hap-happening?”

Farah stood up, her eyes locked on Cort who dropped to her left knee before she looked back up at the girl. Her mouth and chin were covered in blood that she struggled to wipe away, but then she flickered in and out before she completely shifted from her knee back to the spot where she had blindsided Amelia. Cort still could not shake the shooting pain as her vision grew blurry and she swayed side to side, but then in an instant, it stopped as Vee struck Farah in the back of the head.

It was now Farah who’s vision was blurred, as she struggled to look up from the ground at Vee while she slipped in and out of consciousness. Her head was pounding, ears ringing, and she reached out grabbing Vee’s steel foot. The eradicator droid tilted its head slightly to the left as it looked down at her, its glowing white eyes locked on Farah and it said, “<Your curse is ineffective against my circuitry and steel, Blood Witch—” but a shrieking hiss ripped out as Vee bluntly stopped, whipped its head back, and a brilliant purple glow ripped through its chest.