"The Badge of Alpha?" The Duke of Washington was shocked, "I thought it was destroyed!"
I was confused, "What do you mean destroyed?"
"The last time I saw one up close was when I was younger. It was the year 2041 just before the Third World War when the Government at the time was experimenting on… are you Mopy's boy?" he asked.
My eyes shot open, "You knew my father?"
"Yeah!" The Duke said, "He was a warrior, he fought with honor and compassion," he said, "He was a hero, and yet you wear his badge."
"So you're not after my badge?" I asked with worry.
"After it?" he laughed, "I have my own thank you very much!" he said showing me his - oddly colored badge. His badge was the same shape as mine; a circular, metal badge much the same but the rings around the edges were raven blue and inside the circle was black. The vertical rectangle on the center was the same color as the ring on the edge of the device.
"What kind of badge is that?" I asked.
"I guess that you're still ignorant about the Talismans huh?" he said, "Well mine's the Badge of Kappa, unlike yours it can turn me into a..."
Then suddenly, we heard someone cry.
"What was that?" I asked.
"I don't know," The Duke replied.
We got up from the steps and started to investigate; we followed the cries all the way to the end of the pool to see a battered woman sitting on a fetal position just inches away from the column. She was covered in dirt and bruises. She was really beautiful to say the least, very beautiful. She looked at us with innocent eyes as a plead for help. The Duke and I exchanged glances.
"One of yours?" I asked.
"No," he said looking at the woman, "Every guest that comes to our homes gets reported to me. I know who is in this house. This woman, I have no idea who she is and I highly doubt the Mr. Dalton knows."
Suddenly, We all turned to Mr. Dalton arriving to the show carrying two glasses of red wine.
"Okay I'm back, I just left from a meeting and I was wondering if you guys would care for a..." he stopped midway and saw the woman on the ground, "What the hell happened here?"
...
"Susie led me to a room made of entirely out of glass, the color however was not in a uniform transparent blue but of different variety of colors: the walls were black, the floors were brown, and the ceiling was green. The only set of walls that were transparent were the walls facing the outside world. They were at the end of the room. Even the furniture was made of glass: the chairs, the shelves, the cabinets, everything! Even the TV!
"'You sure love glass,' I said.
"'Yeah,' Susie said, 'It's a rewarding treasure. But I advise you to be careful because you can still be shredded to pieces. Just a head's up!'
"'Okay,' I said looking around, 'So where are the weapons? - aside from your room?'
"'Right here!' Susie said pressing a button right next to her at the glass wall. The walls began to slide open to the left to reveal guns. And lots of them of all brands! Rifles sat at the top royally staring down at us from their pedestal, then came the handguns, and the like.
"'We got handguns, rifles, bombs, swords, you name them we have them!' Susie said.
"'How can you afford all of these...can you even operate these?' I asked.
"'Pretty much,' she said, 'Have you handled one before?'
"'No,' I said, 'Michael said that guns are too dangerous to operate and should only be used as a means for self defense against an opponent who's armed. Not for...'
"'Yappity yap yap,' Susie said cutting me off, 'So basically your brother is acting like Daddy right?' she joked.
"'Well yeah,' she said, 'We're sharecroppers not hunters.'
"'I know silly!' Susie said, 'But sometimes you gotta have some fun every now and again.'
"'Well yeah but...'
Then we heard it.
"ROAR!
"The roar sounded like a man blowing on a horn, but with the tone turned low. The roar sounded a mixture of demonic and animal. The roar cracked some of the glassy walls. Susie and I froze.
"'What was that?' Susie asked. We turned around to the wall facing the outside world; what we saw was something horrifying. A monster.
"Approaching us was a glowing green, giant lizard monster. It had radioactive lime-green skin with a blue line going horizontally starting from its eye orbit down to the tip of tail glowing brightly like Christmas lights. It came charging at us like a lion pouncing on its prey. And we were the prey.
"Is that a T-Rex!" I screamed in terror.
"No, it's a Supersaur! RUN!" Susie screamed.
...
I'm so fucking bored. It had been like what? Nearly an hour and still no sign of the kids! Oh hell where could they be. This is a dangerous night to go into some kid's birthday party. Jullian pulled out her badge to try to locate the guys. She was still in shock when she discovered that Michael was indeed the Alpha user. Hell, she still does not believe it. The Vendor however, well he was still being a weird hippie who kicked a truck in the highway.
I'm just so fucking bored.
"Found anything?" I asked Jullian.
"Sit down and relax Pappy. You'll kill a dinosaur soon," she said.
"Who says I want to kill a dinosaur?" I asked in protest.
"You did!" Jullian and the Vendor said in unison.
"Well fuck y'all too!" Pappy said.
"Not if you paid..." suddenly, Jullian's badge started to glow bright, "I found something."
"My bloodthirst?" Pappy asked.
"No - what? No! Sit the fuck down!" Jullian said.
"Well it better be good because I didn't go and raid a Dino-Camp just to play..."
"I found an unwanted guest, genius," Jullian said as she and I partook on an argument to which The Vendor rolled his eyes. He focused his attention to the unwelcome guest. She was a fine piece of ass I won't lie. She had on little to cover up her figure. She was a Badgette much like Michael though. She was walking straight for the stairs; however we weren't aware of her presence until we began to hear footsteps.
Giant footsteps.
Everyone fell silent.
"Oh shit," I said.
"And my kover vas blown. Nice vorrrk. Georrrgia should have planned ahead beforrre invasion. Turrrns out..."
"Georgia," I said after I heard her from the silent majority.
"Grrreat, now Georrrgia's kancerrrous ex-boyfrrriend is herrre. Gee, I vonder what kind of stupid komment vould kome of him," she said as if I was not there.
"Shit, you don't have to shit on me love," I said pulling out a gun from my holster.
"Another one from your whorehouse Pappy?" Jullian asked.
"Yep, meet hoe #1006. Georgia Fitzgerald. She's Russian you know," I winked at them.
"Does he have off switch?" Georgia asked.
"The better question is," Jullian powered up, "Tell me how much this gonna hurt! I'm thinking of not holding back!"
"Give me brrreak. Georrrgia's not looking to starrrt fight vith angrrry white voman, psychic, and macho, black asshole prrretending his gun is of him. What Georrrgia is looking forrr is imporrrtant. Someone named, Mopy? Yeah, zat's of him," Georgia said.
"He's dead, you're fine as fuck, but still crazy as ever. Why did we ever break up?" I asked.
"Why are you still alive is beyond me. But perhaps, I think I should do what God has failed to do."
"What me giving you the penetration?"
"Killing you," she said powering up.
"Way to go dumbass," Jullian said.
"Hey, setting up the mood bitch," I said.
TWENTY-SEVEN
“MY KING MUNGFALME, Lord of 24 Realms, Conqueror of 12 Lands, we have started our invasion at the Villa. Your army had spread terror in your name. Your rule will once again be unchallenged. The terrified screams of the humans reflected your feared glory. The Alpha Badge will be yours soon, my Lord. I swear of it. I led this march towards the Palace growing closer to the yard.
"Th
ese weak humans fired at us; the Neomen, with your superior genes could deflect their worthless bullets, charging them with a tremendous force of power, knocking them over like a row of bowling pins; these Sky-Titans, the terrorists you feared, lost in the woods of their failure. They must have fled, abandoning the people they promised to protect. Too afraid to face us again since they wrecked our camp.
"The Yalen has failed us, he must have been helping these terrorists to stall for time. Looks like it was too late. We came into the Villa by force, plundering everything in sight. Their men, their women, their children...everyone was either captured or killed. The roars of bullets subsided, the Supersaurs burst through the forests eating the survivors; a few of them acted like flame throwers, exterminating these insects, forcing them back to hell. Our forces bombed the walls of the palace, we screamed in victor seeing the walls explode, watching the glass on the top floors pour down to the floors flooding the green grass in an ocean of shards. The raptors fired plasma at their mouths at the Mercenaries guarding the palace.
"The human woman Yalen dragged along was a nuisance. A distraction - however she's powerful. More powerful than you think. We need to get that Badge and the girl. Once we find the girl, we'll kill her before she inflicts any damage to your re-emerging empire.
"The world will be yours again, sire...
...
"We ran to the basement running from the Supersaur, Susie quickly grabbed a gun from the wall and shot at it as it tunneled its way through the building. Three men emerged from the hallways and fired rocket launchers at the creature. The monster roared as blood sprayed on them.
"Run!" they screamed as they continued to fire upon the beast. We ran as fast as we could; I turned my head around to find the creature fighting, holding its breath, its eyes turning black.
"'Susie!' I shouted, 'It's holding its breath!'
"'Hold on!' she yelled, picking me up as she body slammed her body to the floor forcing us to fall to the next floor. On our way down, I heard terrifying screams from the men who fought the creature, their bodies, reduced to charred white ashes. We crashed to the next floor above us. It wouldn't take long for the Supersaur to crash over to our level. We ran before it had the chance to get back up.
"'What does it want from us?' I asked with terror dominating my voice.
"'Kill us probably!' she shouted, 'Follow me, I got a plan!' I asked no question about what that plan was. I was too scared to ask, my mind was still on getting away from the monster chasing us. I did not understand where this thing came from. I hope my big brother's okay from this chaos.
"All around us, the hallway was collapsing under its own weight. The palace was falling like a house of cards; fire spewed from the walls spraying on the monster. Wires snapped from their places attacking and tangling the creature behind us. We slid to the next hallway as the monster screamed black fire at us drilling a hole to the wall. I scraped my knee along the way. It hurts. It hurts terribly; blood seeped through my broken skin. I was on the ground struggling to get up.
"Susie turned around just as though as she was about to keep running. She held my arm and carried me to the aquarium hallway where I awed at the sea creatures swimming. We kept running through the halls as the creature behind us exploded from the cords, blasting to the aquarium; what it didn't know was that we lured it into a trap.
"Once the creature followed us to the aquarium, the glass ceiling cracked. Water was seeping through the cracks. Susie held my hand and slowed down as the monster pursued us. We reached the end of the hall and the monster slowed down.
"'What are we doing?' I asked in fear.
"She said nothing. We backed up as the creature in front of us stared us down, ready to pounce on us. My heart pounded fast as if trying to knock my chest open. I was out of breath, going blind by my ever increasing fear. Our fears pinned us against the wall.
"As the creature got close, the aquarium cracked; the creature came running. Susie and I closed our eyes; as the creature picked up speed, the water poured. Pints soon turned to quartz as more water broke free from its glass prison. Then, the unexpected happened.
"The creature was about to eat us until a giant shark bursts through the glass grabbing the creature by the neck, drowning it as the water exploded from the glass case. Sea creatures poured out from their prisons as the chaotic current ran towards us.
"We hastened away from the surge; but, we turned around to see that the water blast through the walls falling to the depths of unbelievable heights crashing to the mountainous layers of cake; it melted as the water pounded on the giant dessert. The water melted the sweet, colorful frosting, breaking the bread apart as the once majestic dessert flopped to its doom. It buried the No-Landers in the deep, soggy layer of bread as the water washed the icing away as it drowned the guests. We tried to outrun the chaos, but we were soon pushed through the monstrous waves, exploding from the walls behind us. We held on to each other as the waters pushed us down to the soiled, bloodied ground below.
"Suddenly, a bright jade light blinded us. We were soon swept from the watery slide by a green-glowing bald eagle, the same eagle that saved me. It dropped us off at the opposite end of the Fourth Floor rails. I stood up and took a quick glance at the bird. Soon, we were blinded by emerald light. When the light died down standing before us was our school teacher. My mind sunk to the watery depths of confusion. She gave us that same sunny smile; her eyes were lit in viridescent flames.
"'Hi! Enjoying your stay? I know I have!' she said panting.
"'Ms. Julian? How...?' Susie and I asked in unison.
"'Long story,' she said; suddenly, her smile soon turned sour. She held us, pulling us away to whatever she was seeing. We turned around and saw a figure gliding towards us. Once the mysterious figured landed, it towered over us.
"This man was no man. He looked human but he had scales all over his face. He looked more like a lizard than a human. He had on all black with red laces in his outfit. He was very young looking, about my brother's age if not a little younger. A year at the most. He looked royalty, more like a prince or an earl or something. I wasn't sure. But just by looking how fearful Ms. Julian was looking, he was more monster than man.
"'Good evening, Ms. Julian,' he said, 'Fancy meeting you again after all those years.'
"'14 years to be exact,' Ms. Julie's said in a hostile tone in her voice, 'I bet hell wasn't enough for you isn't it freak?'
"'Oh how much I miss the fierce nature of you birds. Now here you are teaching children how to read and write. Where's the rest of your friends? I would like to question them,' he said.
"'Question them about what? Stringy and Mopy are dead. You heard of the news?'
"'Oh quit stalling, you know why I'm here,' he said, 'Why else would the Empire return?'
Ms. Julian had a venomous look across her face. Green fire slowly swirled up her arm.
"'I know and you're not getting him,' she said.
"'I'm not asking permission.'
"'I never assumed you did.'
"'You know you can't win if you fight me. Iotas are weak beings.'
"'I can make time, like old time's sake,' she said getting in her kata, 'Besides, I've gotten stronger since you disappeared.'
"'Let's see,' said the man giving Ms. Julian a kissing gesture.
TWENTY-EIGHT
"OH MY, OH my. Georgia, Georgia, Georgia. How can I ever do for her? It wasn't that long ago when I dated this psycho bitch. Not that long ago. I was in Russia hunting down a few vampires you know. One of my many hobbies when I'm not slaughtering Dinosaurs. She herself was a vampire hunter until she went fucking psycho. I mean she was crazy before, don't get me wrong now! She's crazy with the guns and blades; and in on my dick. Oh, wait did I say that out loud? Hehe, well the problem was this bitch was too crazy! I mean crazy as in when you want to get yourself a tray of chocolate chip cookies and milk, but instead of the milk, the butler gives you a cup of ketchup to dip your damn cookies.
"Tha
t crazy! Wait not crazy enough? Okay imagine yourself standing in a Deli waiting for the baker to finish decorating your cake right. The baker turns around and you see your name. Now you see red, liquid oozing out of a finger. Then you ask, 'hey did you cut yourself?' and the butler answers, 'No, I cut off my finger to spell your name in my blood to wish you a happy birthday' and the candle's from of his own earwax.
"That fucking crazy.
"Georgia pulled her dual blades out and stood on her kata preparing to fight. Me on the other hand, I could not give a flying crap on a helicopter on fire. I just want to do some hurtin'. Blades? Pfft. I got guns motherfucker; the fuck she think this is? Hehe.
"'Can we talk about this?' I asked with a mocking tone in my voice, 'There's so much we should catch up on!'
"'Can you flirt later, Paul?' Julian bitched, 'I mean we have an emergency here!'
"'Come on, trying to break the ice babe!' I said.
"Julian groaned.
"Sorrry, not interrrested,' Georgia said, 'Besides, big guy's paying me grrreat deal forrr me to get zis bounty if I help Earrrl. And since you'rrre herrre, why not vaste opporrrtunity to turrrn you into vorrrm food, no?'
"'Oh baby! You're breaking my heart!' I said with a smile, pulling out my dual pistols, 'But don't worry, I'll sew it together...one bullet at a time!'
"'Tch, you arrre full of stupid jokes, but if you insist,' Georgia sprinted, charging at me with her blades. I wasted no time but to shoot at her. No lying, she was pretty good at deflecting my bullets with her swords. Damn she was not playing. Well...she was never playing around. I kinda forgot how she was in her fighting. What the fuck am I saying? I got a bitch to kill!
"'Julian, Vendor, try to find Michael and company! I'll handle Russian Barbie doll here!' I said charging over towards her, dodging her swings while she countered my aim.
...
"The Vendor and I, as rare as we do I know, followed Pappy's ordered. It was one of those few occasions where his judgement was selfless and heroic. He was right, I had to go and find Michael and Nya before more shit happens.
"We were caught up when a Velociraptor-Riding Neoman came at us with a sword at end. I dodged the initial strike. The Vendor jumped on the guy's sword and swung a perfect kick straight to the guy's face, breaking his skull, punctured the Velociraptor's back knocking it out. Another rider sprinted at us, this time he had his raptor fire energy blasts from its mouth. I jumped out of the way, pulled out my badge and powered up.
The Son of Alpha (The Legend of the Sky-Titans Book 1) Page 17