Tuesday, May 4, 2004

^__^
Well, today's the day of the uber-challenging Spanish AP final. Here's hopoing I do well. See ya'll later, if I survive.

Sol

IX

Simon yelled out an indiscernible yowl when Tybalt lunged at him. He stumbled backwards, barely avoiding his opponent’s thrust.

Don’t panic, Simon, he told himself. This is your life now. This is what you have to deal with. You can get out of here alive. Just focus…

He fell backwards and shoved his feet into Tybalt’s chest. Grabbing Tybalt by the wrists, he tossed the fighter over himself, and then got to his feet.

Discerningly, Tybalt easily landed on his feet. “Interesting,” he said. “Your reflexes are far too fast for a creature of your strength level and muscle ratio. The Sol system has already markedly enhanced you, after less than an hour. It’s a very worthy prize.”

“Yeah, well, if it were up to me, you could just have the damn thing,” Simon snapped. “I sure didn’t want it!”

“We must play with the hand life has provided us,” Tybalt sneered, forming a new plasma blade.

“That’s easy to say when you’re not the one who needs to die- watch out!” Simon ducked down quickly to avoid Tybalt’s next attack. The demonic-looking warrior could spar with the best of them, and Simon certainly wasn’t the best.

“Flippant, aren’t we? I would meet my own execution with more dignity, but to each their own…”

Simon hatched a new plan: run like hell. He made it about ten feet before he felt the impact to his back knock him to the ground. Tybalt had leapt after him and executed a perfect flying kick. “Executed” sounded like poor word choice to Simon, but he had more pressing concerns.

Tybalt raised his plasma sword high, and then plunged it towards Simon’s chest. Simon used his metallic right arm to try and block the blow, but Tybalt kept pressing harder. Simon was slowly but surely loosing ground.

“…And the rest is silence…” Tybalt muttered, sure of his victory.

“Go @#$%^ yourself…” Simon shot back.

Tybalt snickered at his foe’s tenacity, but something caught his eye. Suddenly, he whipped his left hand out, intercepting Von’s staff. The reptilian pilot had tried to attack while Tybalt was preoccupied, but he wasn’t fast enough.

“Oops…” the lizard muttered.

“You could have left; I had no further use for your tracking device,” Tybalt said, irritated. “Yet you interfered again. I can’t comprehend your motivations.”

“He helped us…” Von explained shakily. “I wasn’t going to sit there and let you kill him…”

“Noble, but stupid…” Tybalt sneered. Simon, however, took his opening. While Tybalt was distracted, he kicked at his feet, trying to knock him off balance.

It didn’t work. Tybalt held fast. “Opportunistic, aren’t you?” Tybalt lifted Von into the air by his staff, and then tossed him into a nearby
building. “There. Now, if there are no further interruptions…”

“There will be!” Rena’s
voice called out. She charged Tybalt from behind, shoving him off of Simon and smashing his face into the concrete. She lifted his face up and began to slam it into the sidewalk repeatedly.

“You think…you could ignore…a warrior of the…Ichnet Clan?” she demanded as she pummeled his head. “You will…be lucky…if I let…you escape with…all of your teeth!”

“I take it you overcame the gas…” Tybalt muttered. Flipping around suddenly, he backhanded Rena off of him. “Well, things just keep getting more complicated. It’s time to simplify the problem!” He formed a plasma dagger and shoved it to the back of Rena’s neck. Still slightly disoriented, there was no way she could turn around in time to block him.

Simon saw all this, and was filled with a desire to help her. Desire and action are two different things, however; he was too far away to get there in time. He held up his right hand, the palm open. It was as if he expected his mere motion to stop Tybalt. The urge to get him away from her was predominate in his mind, which explains what happens next.

The entire part of his arm that the metallic Sol system covered began to feel warm and tingly, as though it had put on a sweater on a dry morning. His fingertips began to glow, and a strange orange ball of energy formed at the center of his palm. It grew in size until it was as large as volleyball; then, it was launched at the target with astounding speed.

This all happened in less than a second, so Tybalt had time only to glance at the approaching attack. Just before his dagger could pierce Rena’s skin, the energy connected. It burned into Tybalt’s muscular torso, which was still sore and shirtless from Simon’s antics with the flare gun earlier. The burning sensation, however, was nothing compared to the concussive impact: he was thrown off of Rena and sent crashing through the front window of a dingy five-and-dime.

Simon was in shock, as was Von. Von, however, had a goofy grin on his face, like a child seeing a new toy. “That’s it…” he whispered, the mechanic in him fascinated beyond description. “That’s the power of the Sol system…”

Police sirens in the background quickly brought the pair out of their daze. Tybalt got to his feet and swore. “Scuz…it’s too early in the mission to involve local authorities…it might be prudent to make myself scarce for now…” He leapt into nearby shadows, and seemed to disappear.

Simon didn’t notice this
as he rushed to Rena’s side. “Hey, Kit-Kat, you still with us?”

She got to her feet as though nothing had happened. “Sol being, what do those sirens indicate?”

“Uh, my name is ‘Simon’, and that’s’ the police. We should leave…”

“Very well. Von! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine…how are you two…”

“Tolerable. Come on, we’re leaving.”

“Jeez,” Simon muttered. “Who died and made you queen? Come on, we got rid of Tybalt!”

“Are you really so dense?” She asked indignantly as they fled. “Tybalt has merely experienced a setback. He won’t give up until he has the system, and he has much more cunning methods of getting it. Need I remind you that you have to die for him to get it?”

“You mean it’s not over?” Simon panted, crestfallen. Behind him, Von shook his head.

“Over?” Rena scoffed. “Sol being, it’s barely begun!”
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