Taboo Descendants and the Multi-Dimensional War

The blood orange light illuminated his placid face as the orb passed over him. The glow did not awaken the consciousness trapped inside of him. Norberto was just as stone-faced as he had been the moment before.

The orb bounced lightly in the air as it moved towards us. Ary and I were practically wrestling each other down the hill, me pulling her towards the car and her fighting to get back to Norberto.

The orb floated ten feet away. Then five. One.

Ary’s outstretched arm, drenched in orange light, seemed to shine in the solid darkness on the side of the hill. I pulled her other arm towards me with all the strength I could muster. I heard her shoulder pop as the orb lowered itself down level with her face and began to pulsate in royal blue. The blinks became rapid as if excited by some new discovery.

I felt temporarily blinded by the brightness of the blinking, blue strobe. I willed my contacts to adjust accordingly and they promptly obeyed. I covered my eyes as the pain subsided, but it took some time before I could see again.

The blue orb sped off towards the closest hovering saucer. I knew that it intended to report back to its operators.

We had been discovered.

I let go of Ary’s arm, defeated, and she ran back to Norberto. I was the only one that had realized the severity of the situation. I felt alone and helpless in that knowledge.

As I stood there shrouded in doom, I looked around me and waited for the hammer to be lowered. Ary had at least gotten Norberto to look at her. He seemed to have thawed and began to realize that we were all in danger. She got his feet to move again and they caught up to me.

I was so grateful that I did not yell at them about before.

We ran again, this time full speed, back to the parked vehicles only four hundred meters away. I only looked over my shoulder when I realized that I ran alone. Ary and Norberto were a few paces back staring up at something.

I followed their eyes to a dark spot in the sky. At first, I thought it was nothing, but that was the problem. There were not stars, no planets, no sky. It was all too dark. We stared at a large, black triangle of nothingness.

I screamed back at Ary and Norberto, “Let’s get out of here you two before something else happens!”

But retreat was not an option.

A beam of light shot out from the bottom of the triangular craft. It looked crisp and pearly with well-defined limits, but somewhat opaque. Four bodies descended from the dark shape above engulfed in the snowy light. I noticed that one of the individuals wore a white jumpsuit.

“It’s her—oh God, it’s her! We have to escape now!” I exclaimed in a panic.

I took off only glancing back once to see that the other two followed me. We made it to the car, but we did not beat her there. I noticed that her nose had returned to its original size since her encounter with Sbapoid. I had hoped that his blast had permanently disfigured her perfect face.

General Hayami was escorted by three men. I assumed they were the same three men that had accompanied her to this site before: Commander Yuda the fire demon, Fetu the Earth-shaking Geologist, and Vadim the wind-wielding astrophysicist.

There we stood alone and feeling vulnerably human.

“Kaya Jerito, again. What a pleasure,” General Hayami uttered in a disgustingly sweet voice. She donned a wicked smile that twisted at the edges

“How—how do you know my name?” I replied, trying to build up my courage.

“Your son and I have developed quite the nurturing relationship,” she said with a chuckle.

“You better not hurt a single hair on his head! Or I swear on everything that I’ll—”

“Or you’ll what? There’s nothing you can do! Besides, I wouldn’t dream of hurting my sweet, little Jarrice. He’s like a son to me now.”

“I gave birth to him! He’s my son! You kidnapped him from me, you sick tramp!”

“Language, Kaya, language,” she chastised. “We don’t want to set a bad example for the children.”

“What children?” I spat.

“The ones we’ve been collecting.” She gestured up at the craft that hovered above our heads.

A flame began to burn in my chest, hot and smoldering. “You won’t live to see the end of your scheme. Whatever game you’re planning, you’re going to lose.”

“Big words for such a pathetic, little Earth-Human.” She took a step towards me.

“Stop where you are!” I pulsed with anger. I placed both hands on the sides of my head and concentrated on one thing. We needed help.

Iris? General Iris Okin, can you hear me? She’s here—Hayami and the three guys from before—I’m going to kill her or die trying, so I suggest you hurry!

“You look so cute when you’re frustrated, Kaya,” purred Hayami. “I just want to give you a little kiss on the lips. You wouldn’t mind that, would you?”

She took another step towards me.

“I’m warning you—”

I felt fired up now, like I had been before in the church. Fight or flight kicked in and I was no longer in the running mood. I would rather die protecting my friends and avenging my mother’s death.

She took another step towards me, only six feet away now. She lifted her foot again to take another step when I snapped.

“I said, STOP!”

I felt a wave of fury from deep within my soul burst forth from every pore on my body. I had never been this upset before in my entire life. I felt a single tear run down my face as I screamed from the pit of my diaphragm. The single drop of liquid felt hot against the coolness of my cheek, chilled by the late winter air. The single tear was not a symbol of sadness.

I felt furious.

I waited for her to advance again, but she did not. I stared at her for three whole seconds, but she did not budge, her foot still suspended in mid-step as if frozen.

The men standing behind her finally stirred. They looked around at one another as if confused, but they could not have been more puzzled than I was at that moment.

“What are you waiting for, General? Finish her!” commanded Yuda in an angry voice.

“I can’t move,” mumbled Hayami. Her lips barely quivered when she spoke.

“What was that, General? I tire of these games!” he cried exasperated.

A silent conversation between the commander and his general followed. Seemingly without reason Yuda questioned Hayami aloud shouting, “What do you mean you can’t move? That’s ridiculous! She has no power over you!”

Even so, General Hayami did not move a muscle.

“I will deal with you when we retire to our voyager!” He began stalking towards me. “I can kill this insignificant Huzeen mutt myself.” His skin began to glow as if heated by glowing hot embers. He turned his head to the sky and let out a tremendous fireball.

I stood my ground as the gap between us grew ever smaller. I could hear Ary let out a small whimper behind me.

Don’t worry, Ary. I won’t let him hurt you. I tried to tell her. I was not sure if she could hear me or not.

“You will die this night, pesky Huzeen!” Yuda announced to me loud enough for all in attendance to hear.

I felt someone brush past me as Ary stepped in front of me. “I won’t let you hurt her!” she screamed at Commander Yuda.

“Ary, what are you doing? Get out of the way,” I pleaded.

“No!” she yelled at me. “I’ve seen what he can do, Kay. The stone showed me. This man is dangerous.”

“Which is exactly why I need you to step aside!”

Commander Yuda laughed, “Look at them squabble. Ha! There is no danger here. These Huzeen are as pathetic as their Earth-Human counterparts.”

He lowered his hand, fingers spread, and pointed it at us. I had watched him fight Nevaeh, so I knew that he could shoot fire from his palms. I pushed Ary to one side and dove to the other just as a stream of fire streaked past us.

I heard Norberto scream. He had been standing behind us when Yuda’s blast advanced, and due to shock, had not moved as it hurdled towards him.

I flipped onto my back and watched in horror as Norberto ran away, his body aflame. His agonizing shrills pierced the air like no other sound could. Ary scrambled to her feet and ran towards him, pushing him onto the ground in an attempt to put out the fire that engulfed him.

I could hear Yuda and the others laughing at us all. I pushed myself to my feet and stepped towards them, sick of looking at their mocking grins.

It was at that moment that I felt a hand on my shoulder. I swiftly turned my head and looked behind me. To my surprise, Rahim was there.

“Let us get you out of this mess, shall we? I promised Jules that I would return you back to him in one piece.”