Sinful Entrée
Posted on Thu Feb 21st, 2013 @ 7:49am by Thane & Bomoor Thort & Berry & Sev Rezer & Morgo Le'Shaad
3,671 words; about a 18 minute read
Chapter:
Chapter III: Relics
Location: Ancient Temple, Tython
Timeline: Day Eleven
OLD
Rushing close behind but unwilling to go in, Morgo braced herself on the door’s frame, leaning all her weight against it as she caught her breath and looked into the trembling chamber, her gray eyes widening at the sight of the battle raging before her— chaos itself.
Thane, Bomoor, Kip and Sev, all warriors, fought fiercely against a dark and mighty power that violently thrashed and strangled, the very air seemingly thick with its black malevolence. And amongst it all, shadowed statues licked and danced like flame itself, never in one place in the same instant as they flitted about, their steps like flashes of death.
And the Lady dared not blink.
NEW
Sev Rezer opened fire, hitting the tendrils that came in his direction, but the laser fire went through the shadows. His eyes widened as he jumped backwards and brought his left arm up. The flamethrower came alive, licking at the tendrils.
Whilst the fire did not seem to cause any visible damage to the wispy and malevolent tendrils, it did seem to force them back, like a primal fear of the flames lunging forth at them. However, as the 'thrower subsided, they once more surged forward, one aiming directly for Thane.
As he darted about statues that shunted this way and that as his sight failed at moments, the lighting in the room almost phasing, the former Jedi brought his lightsaber up in a vain attempt to slice at the tendril, but found it impacting against something solid; one of the statues' blades had connected with his violet saber, the sheer brunt force causing him to stall for a moment. Well versed in the art of lightsaber combat and a natural warrior, the Caanan slipped easily into another posture to ease past the statue and swing at another dark side manifestation.
The blade passed seamlessly through the tendril - the slight contact with the shadow causing immense pain to Thane's skin - and something akin to a howling echoed about them, as if some great pain had indeed been caused, but the tendril had instantly reformed, and was now surging forth towards him once more. Thinking quickly, Thane resorted to the one idea he thought might prevail and raised his offhand and focused his will upon the Force.
With the heat of the battle and lingering emotions from what had already transpired this day, he pushed past any prior concerns of the dark side and let them flow through him in a decidedly more focused manner than ever before. A narrow but sharp line of Force lightning zipped forth from his hand and connected with the tendril, instantly causing another shrieking echo as it shrunk into the mass of shadow enveloping the walls and ceiling.
Bringing himself about, deciding that what he did was worth a few strict words with his fellows later, Thane called over to Bomoor. "Force techniques seem to be the only way to stop them!" But was only alerted just in time to avoid a statue's outstretched and now-taloned hands grasping him, even though the stone was as solid as before. He growled in frustration at the statue, slicing the ancient piece in half with his violet blade and flinging it backwards with a Force push.
His stance typical of Niman, he was prepared to face this constantly shifting threat, when he finally sighted a welcome sight off to the side: Bería and Morgo were here, the former having lunged quickly into the fray, no doubt keenly aware of the threat she was experiencing through their bond.
And suddenly, his eyes went wide as a statue appeared behind Morgo from the shadows. "Move!" He called, sweat starting to form on his brow, and the headache from Bomoor's earlier Force bellow beginning to return. Whereas before the dark aura that had engulfed this temple had been omnipresent, a heavy yet background noise of the dark side power that was manifested here, it now felt concentrated - enraged and bloodthirsty, yet entirely chaotic - within this chamber. It was as if the Force was screaming at them from beyond the physical realm.
It took Morgo a second to realize that Thane was looking at her, shouting in her direction. At the sound of his desperate command to move , Morgo immediately threw herself forwards, feeling something just scrape her shoulder as she rolled forwards. In a familiar and well practiced maneuver, Morgo let all her weight fall forwards, her grip on her staff loosening just enough to allow Morgo to brace herself on the floor to roll onto her feet, still crouched. Twisting round, spear raised, Morgo raised her eyes fast enough to see the stone statue lunge for her, hideous tongue lolling out demonically amidst a mouthful of narrow, sharp teeth, its mouth open as if ready to devour her, its clawed hand outstretched, touching the tail end of stray strands of hair that flowed behind her—that is, before Morgo separated its head from its stone shoulders in one swift cut of her spear. Had her foe been any other creature, Morgo would have rejoiced. But how does one kill something of both stone and shadow?
Quickly, Morgo severed its clawed hands from its forearms, the length of her staff lending her the strength to sear through stone with just one slash. Now if the thing still wanted to kill her, it'd have to bash her to death with its stubby arms and crush her with its weight. The image of such a death, though grim, was still amusing enough to made Morgo smirk—a strange and stained smile, for she'd bitten her lip amidst the action, and crimson blood ran down her chin.
But without the power of the Force to finish it, Morgo was still vulnerable, and watching the ancient statue furiously reform itself with shadow, Morgo braced herself.
Bright orange streaked through the darkness straight at the statue, and a golden-yellow fist crashed through it. Berry moved faster than a being could with muscle alone, however, aided by water magic speed. And for a girl her size, her fists shouldn't have done much if they weren't surrounded by the Force of a fierce wave, pushing outwards in the direction of her punch.
Hence, the statue rock parts flew away from Morgo and into the oblivion.
Berry landed lightly in front of the lady, her hyperactive senses now serving her well in battle. It seemed counter-intuitive, that being distracted made her fight better, but her ability to keep tabs on everything gave her the best wiggle room for decision making. The part-Aquar glanced at Morgo, her tight-braid swinging slightly but her body unmoving as she continued facing outwards toward the stone enemies. "Hey, are you okay?? That was cool! But we gotta be careful! I can barely see in the water here, there's some major interference going on." And with that she winced slightly at the reverberations around her, making her head throb.
Initially shocked at the way she had been saved so unexpectedly, the way Berry had moved faster than the human eye could track, it was all Morgo could do not to stare. But Morgo quickly recovered, nodding lightly “Yes, I’m alright.”
Her eyes lowered, watching the dissipating shadow that had surrounded the fallen statue, “But you must be careful, Berry. This shadow is no ordinary thing of darkness.” Still crouching, Morgo was eye-level with Berry as she looked at the girl intently, “Had your fists touched the shadow when you destroyed it, there’s no telling what kind of damage it could have permanently done to you.”
Looking around, Morgo’s mind reached for the information she’d once filed away, “My manuscripts once described a Dark Force technique like this in its pages—at its most powerful, the shadow can disintegrate matter on contact, including flesh.” Morgo turned around, watching the ongoing battle and the dark tendrils at work, thrashing and destroying, “This is a much weaker, less potent form of the Dark technique, but it is no less deadly. You can’t let it touch you.”
And looking back to Berry, Morgo’s eyes flickered down to the lightsaber hilt on the girl’s hip, “If you want to stay alive, Berry, you must use the lightsaber to keep your distance. Infuse your water magic into every strike like you do with your fists, and it will be no different.” Morgo assured, using the girl’s own vernacular as if it were her own, hoping it would reverberate deeper in the girl’s mind.
Berry frowned, this time not stubbornly but out of thought. Yeah, Orza totally increased her range with her swords...so why couldn't she? The part-Aquar slipped the saber hilt out of its loop and brought it up to her face, her gaze stern at it as if there was some kind of dialogue going. All the rest of the world--the fizz-crashes, the weird water magic ripples, the explosions--seemed to melt away as she focused. Lightsaber Kovu said it was called. So did Thane and Bomoor. This technology...she still hated most of it, but really she knew that what she really hated were the hands that held them. And she knew her hand was different (besides not having webbing).
A split second later something flashed in her periphery, and Berry found herself lunging, the blade bursting into life and straight through the tendril in her vicinity. She could see it now, the swirls of water magic erupting out of the blade, moving with its momentum and pushing out into the darkness, piercing it. The tendril disintegrated and stayed that way--and Berry smirked. Cool. Then she grinned over at Morgo. "Hey! It worked! You're such a smart pers--!" She yelped and jumped to fight the tendril advancing on the Smart Shady Lady.
“Of course it worked.” Morgo said in that weary arrogant way, repressing a sniff that would’ve made her maiden aunts proud as she deftly dodged a dark tendril that sizzled the very air. Ply Berry with food, what simple logic the girl could absorb, the barest hint of concern, and the girl became rather amendable to instruction.
As Morgo fought, her movements fluid and precise, her footwork light, she kept an eye on Berry and her lightsaber.The girl was a fighter, a furious an unrelenting opponent, even if her unfamiliarity with a lightsaber made for a slightly clumsy image. Her technique was wholly unrefined and her movements crude and inefficient. But as the tendril dissipated into nothingness with Berry’s Force-infused attacks, Morgo had to admit that it got the job done.
Morgo’s entire body hummed, ever nerve alive and alert, feeling that familiar burn and ache in her muscles. But amidst the raging battle, Morgo recognized the signs of her body tiring. Her entire physique, after all, was completely laughable compared to the sleek strength that characterized the rest of the crew—Thane, Kip, Sev, Bomoor, and even Berry, had honed their bodies into weapons themselves.
“Sith hell, I’m going to feel this in the morning.” Morgo breathed, to no one in particular. That was assuming that she even survived this fight, of course.
Across the room, Bomoor was fighting off shadows of his own. Two statues had swelled up before him, with tentacles seeping out from the stone and grasping towards the Ithorian. The dark power welded with the physical and Bomoor had to push his focus to the limit in order to separate out the manifestation from the confusion.
Like Thane, his lightsaber had done little more than fizzle the dark tendrils so he now held his viridian blade away while he attempted to hold back the menacing spectres with his Force Techniques. He was painfully aware that his friends were all in equal danger. With the return of Morgo and the young Beria, he felt an overwhelming urge to protect the part-Aquar. However, his present situation kept him pinned in the opposite corner.
A focussed blast from his palm blasted away a section of the murky apparition shrouding the statue. It was enough to allow the Jedi to swing his weapon about and slice through the physical statue. A dull scream resonated through the halls as the stone fell apart and its possession fled, leaving only one figure threatening the Jedi.
"Thane!" he shouted, now with a clearer view of his fellows, "We should try to group together. The Force is working but we need to focus our powers."
Automatically, Thane had found himself shifting his position to fend off further attacks towards Morgo, his battle intuition leading him into a defensive posture by the Dromachean, his lightsaber sliding seamlessly around his body to slice at tendrils, buying him time to unleash his primitive form of Force lightning in between swings.
The dark side technique was coming to him more easily now as he learnt how to better channel and focus his feelings into its use, the white-blue sparks becoming more efficient with each successive use, but he could feel himself becoming drained at the continuous use of the ability. "Get to the centre!" He called to his Ithorian friend, and decided to try pushing the thought into Bería's own mind through their link; if he could get it to work in a crisis, he knew he could use it at other times.
The girl seemed to be shifting herself towards the area with Bomoor, anyway, whether it was as a result of his telepathic suggestion or not, Thane did not know, but he found himself feeling a grim pride at her use of his old lightsaber, and how she seemed to be tapping into her abilities. And a good time to, as well. "You too, Duchess," he then grumbled with some self-satisfaction at Morgo, slicing away one more tendril before snatching her up with the Force, and thrusting to the ground near Bomoor and the others.
However, now that they had moved off and Morgo had been inelegantly shoved to the centre, Thane found himself more exposed than the others, and the tendrils seemed to pick up on this. Whilst the statues (albeit far less of them) seemed to shift about, perhaps more slowly than before, the shadows began their approach towards the rogue Jedi.
Deciding to go onto the offensive to get to his allies, Thane altered his grip and posture, falling into the adapted seventh form, Vaapad, and began rapidly slicing and weaving his way through the evil manifestations. The world became a blur to him, himself still energised by his insanity-fuelled rage from earlier, and it was only a few seconds before he came to a halt by the others, sweat beading on his forehead, where the headache from earlier was returning with a vengeance, Force healing techniques or not.
He rose to his full height, panting slightly with his blade clasped in two hands, once more defensive. His mind, at this proximity to Bomoor's, touched the familiarity of the Ithorian's. The tendrils were moving about them, almost as if they were regrouping, and the remaining statues crept in between shifts in light, encircling them once again. Silence fell as the Red Raptor crewmen eyed their enemies.
"What's your plan, then?" He half-whispered to Bomoor, the humming of the trio of different coloured lightsabers now the loudest noise, amongst the almost-whispers of the shadows. Bomoor was the more capable in terms of Force techniques, and it would not have been the first time he had merely supported his old friend's abilities, so long as the Ithorian led them.
Sev Rezer voice came low and menacing from his helmet. "They're blocking our way or they are protecting something. Either way, we go through them and into that blocked room. Now."
Morgo dealt with being so unceremoniously manhandled with as much grace as could be afforded in a situation like this, regaining her balance quickly as she eyed the back of Thane's head with such frigid ire that the temperature of the entire room probably dropped a few degrees.
Was it too much to hope that while playing hero, the man would be skewered like the presumptuous swine he was? But as the Mandalorian spoke, Morgo filed away the pleasant image of Thane dropping dead for a later time, her gray eyes flicking from Sev to the enemy. He was right, the placement of the shadowy tendrils had seemed random before, but now seemed to come together around a single spot, just as the crew had.
"I can feel that Morgo," Thane said, smiling tightly as he sensed her annoyance with some amusement, but he didn't take his attention away from the enclosing mass, nor did his posture shift.
Berry burst into laughter, almost snorting and dropping her saber.
“Darling, if you survive this, that won’t be the only thing you’ll feel.” Morgo bit out, flexing her fingers, wrapped around the staff in her hands. Mind racing as Morgo surveyed the surroundings, all possible courses of action flashed through her mind as she calculated the chances of success.... and the likelihood of death. Old battle tactics flew through her mind, strategies and formations of ancient wars, of the defeated and of victors.
Then, pitching her voice to be heard by everyone, Morgo spoke, “I suggest we keep this cluster formation. Since the tendrils seem to be most affected by Force abilities, Berry, Thane, Kip and Bomoor should stand at the vanguard and rush the enemy, overwhelm it if at all possible, while Sev and I follow. If we move quickly, perhaps it won't have the chance to flank us.”
And looking at Sev, Morgo arched an eyebrow, “If those Dark tendrils are indeed guarding someone like you said, I suggest you use your heat sensing technology as we near to see if you can look past those tendrils and pinpoint the man’s exact location, go around, and flush the bastard out with everything you’ve got—kill him if you can. With a Force technique such as this one, he can’t be far." Morgo added grimly, knowing full well that she might've just given a man permission to bring down the entire temple around their ears. This 'trusting' business was far too foreign for Morgo's liking.
With Thane, Berry, Kip, and Bomoor at the front, and Sev as their makeshift army's lancer, they had a chance of coming out of this alive.
Watching the dark tendrils regroup with a growing apprehension, Morgo's voice was hard, “If anyone has a better idea, speak now or forever hold your peace. Because we'll all be pretty corpses if we don't act soon.”
Berry shrugged. "Um I don't wanna chop Bomoor and Thrane up since I'm bad at this light stick business so...I'm gonna go hang out with Armor Guy okay?" She began to slink to the back, eyes still watchful.
"No," Thane declared firmly to the young Near-Human, his eyes still leaving the looming threat, the very image almost exhuming dread. "We'll need everything we've got in terms of Force power to even try and get past... this." He gritted his teeth, willing Bomoor to start the technique before these things were fully rallied and ready to assault them. By the way they had built up, he was certain there was a very small margin for error. "Now, Bomoor."
Bomoor, now clustered together in the tight formation, began to feel reassured by the surrounding group. As a whole, he felt a strength from them and he drew himself up and energised himself with the force, "Everyone stand firm and keep them at bay. I have a technique I'm hoping will work."
He quickly deactivated his lightsaber and put it onto his belt. Then he stretched out his arms and closed his eyes, again trying to untangle the web of Dark side energy before them but, this time, he looked deeper. He stared into the demons themselves and felt for the link between them and their puppet master.
There it was. A weak Force Bond willing these apparitions into existence. Gathering all the strength he felt from himself and his companions, Bomoor reached through the link just long enough to channel his immobilising ability into the wielder in an attempt to break the connection. With a snap, his mind shot back through and he opened his eyes just in time to see the statues wither and decay, shrinking back into the ancient shapes they held before.
His eyes shot to the group. Berry was standing in an odd combat stance with her lightsaber flourished in anticipation of another attack and Thane, while in a far more practised stance, still looked wary. Nobody seemed to believe the sudden departure of the threat but Bomoor was pleased to see that nobody was wounded as far as he could tell.
"I broke the Force connection, but I don't know how long it will take for our attacker to recover," Bomoor realised he was panting rather heavily as he spoke, "We had better catch up to him before he does."
With his senses still warning him of impending danger, although there was clearly nothing to be seen before him, Thane kept his violet blade engaged as he turned to his friend, giving him a small respectful look. "You're going to have to teach me how to do that," he commented, genuinely impressed by the Ithorian's displayed Force talent. He looked to Bería, but was cut short as he opened his mouth as another voice interrupted.
From the gloom beyond, their tormentor came forth.
TBC
BERRY
▬ Force Speed Increase
▬ Force Push Increase
THANE
▬ Force Lightning Increase
BOMOOR
▬ Force Stun Increase
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