Episode Five

[Velociryx]

Episode V - At the Crossroads

He was on a roll and he knew it, so he did not stop. His rowdy dance number had no sooner come to an end than he launched into another piece he’d written. It was slower and sultry. Almost bluesy. The crowd settled down and began swaying more slowly on the floor, couples holding each other close. Those not dancing watched the musician on the stage, his eyes closed, brow creased in concentration, head down, pouring his essence out, channeling it through the instrument before him and enthralling the crowd with the sounds he created.

They were captivated, and his bluesy piece was so soulful that by the end of it, there were tears shining in several people’s eyes. Gayle’s too, he noticed, and it made him smile.

As his third number came to an end, he was treated to another standing ovation, and Gayle waved at him in the midst of it. He read her lips as she whispered “I’m proud of you” over the applause and blew him a kiss.

Right then, something changed in him. A fluttery, quivery sensation ran all through him, and it took several seconds for him to realize what it was. He had never felt love before. He stood and blushed hotly, intending to make his way through the crowd and to her.

Before he could even stand completely though, something shattered the front window and thick, white smoke began filling the room.

Then things got worse.

More glass broke.

Someone screamed.

People began to panic.

As a single group, the audience he had captivated only moments earlier turned into a panicked, stampeding herd, and they all tried to make for the exit at the same time.

Frantically, he glanced around the room, trying to get a fix on Kevin and Gayle. He saw them in the corner, being shoved mercilessly toward the door by the surging mass of humanity all around them. Kevin tried to grab Gayle’s arm to stay with her, but she was shoved ahead and out of his reach, and then he was tripped up and fell.

No one stopped to help him to his feet.

He tried to stand on his own, but was trampled back down.

Velociryx saw him try to rise again, a nasty cut on his forehead. “Kevin! Gayle!” He screamed from the stage as he leapt into the crowd.

He was a fairly large, imposing man, but even considering his size and strength, he had trouble forcing his way through the crowd and keeping his balance.

After what felt like an eternity, he managed to make his way to Kevin’s side and hauled him to his feet. “Kevin....is it bad? Can you walk?”

He nodded weakly. “Find....Gayle....I....I tried to keep her with me, but....” He shook his head, sobbing now. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll find her and then I’ll find out.....are you going to be okay?”

He nodded, wiping some of the blood from his forehead onto his shirtsleeve.

Velociryx nodded and turned away, striding into the depths of the crowd again, making his way to the door.

His breathing and heart rate were both elevated, and it was getting harder and harder to control his Psi-talents, but he fought it. Now was not the time. The crowd was already in a frenzy, and if he lost control....

Someone shoved him hard from behind and he stumbled forward, caught himself, and then choked off his instinctive Psi-Defense. He punched the offender instead and continued on his way. “Gayle!” He called out to her above the noise, but there was no answer.

Finally he made the door, and blinked in confusion. Everything was in chaos. People were running through the streets smashing things and each other. Fighting. Looting. It was insanity in physical form. He scanned the crowd for Gayle, hoping to find her quickly and get her away from all the craziness, but then his Cybernetic enhancements kicked in.

***Firearm detected....twenty meters. Category - hand gun, Classification - Shredder Pistol, model MK-9, Defense option Zulu-Prime, Psi-Blast, Maximum Intensity***

He felt his Psi-Defenses powering up, and he tried to fight them back down, but found his control slipping. The Cybernetic portion of him had detected a threat, and would not be so easily thwarted. “No!” He shouted to himself in frustration. But his control slipped further.

Then he saw her. Gayle. His beautiful Gayle.

Their eyes met.

His control began to reassert itself. He could control it. He could control it for her, if nothing else.

He waved. “Stay there, I’m coming!”

She smiled nervously and waved back. There were tears in her eyes, and she had a cut on her cheek, but she was okay. It was all going to be okay.

***Firearm detected, ten meters and closing***

“Not now,” he muttered, and continued shoving his way through the crowd.

They surged forward again, and Gayle was shoved further away from him. For a moment he lost sight of her and thought she might have been shoved down as Kevin had been before, but then he caught a glimpse of her, pressed in among a number of heaving, sweating bodies all trying to occupy the same space at the same time. He growled and animalistic growl, deep in his throat and two people near him stepped away. They were hurting her. Scaring her.

His Psi-Defenses began ratcheting up again.

He shoved his way closer.

Twenty feet.

Then ten.

Now just over five.

And then the crowd began to part, and he could see her clearly. She was frightened, but she never looked so lovely to him as she did right then.

***Firearm detected, proximity warning, proximity warning, alert, alert, alert....***

There was a shout behind him. Two people fighting. Arguing.

He spun about to look.

The one facing him, less than five feet away had a pistol. He raised it.

Took aim at his adversary.

Someone jostled him from behind.

He fired.

The popping noise was small, and almost comical sounding considering how deadly the weapon really was. Velociryx flinched and glanced down at his chest just to make sure. He was not hit.

Neither was the man the gunman had been arguing with.

The gunman took aim again.

“Ve....” The voice behind him sounded strange. It was Gayle’s voice, but thicker. Almost liquid.

His heart dropped a foot in his chest and his stomach turned a flip. He did not want to turn around, but he felt himself moving.

Turning.

He saw her, and the grimly beautiful patch of red blossoming out from her chest and throat where the shredder bullets had found their mark.

“Gayle?” He said softly, not quite comprehending.

She stumbled forward, toward him, and he reflexively reached out to her. Caught her.

Felt her essence soaking into his shirt, hot and sticky. Her life blood.

It began to sink in then.

“Oh Gayle, no....no....”

She looked up at him. Touched his cheek.

Tried to speak but wound up coughing. Choking on her words and the trickle of blood which ran from the corner of her mouth.

She tried again. “You are....Beauty.” She whispered.

He felt her slip away a moment later. Eyes still open, staring at him as he held her, but there was a moment when she felt different. Less alive. And then there was nothing. Nothing at all.

For a long moment, he stared into those lovely, now lifeless eyes. “No.....” He whispered.

“No!” Several people around him looked over at him in a mixture of surprise and fear.

“Noooooo!” And this time, when his Psi-Defenses began building, he did not even try to stop them.

He gathered Gayle’s lifeless body up in his arms and turned around to face the gunman.

His eyes locked onto the gunman’s.

Held the man’s gaze.

***Target Acquired....Psi-Levels at 315.....355.....400....435....490....525....***

The Psi-Energy began taking on a tangible force, and the people around him were shoved back a step by its strength and intensity.

***Psi-Levels at 565....580....605....***

The crowd around him stepped back again, and now several people near him began experiencing the effects of exposure to that much Psi-Energy. Several noses began to bleed, and more than one person had Fairy Tears running down their cheeks.

***Psi-Levels at 660....700...725....775.....Peak Level reached***

He held it, glaring at the gunman with pure hatred in his eyes. It would have been so easy just to let it go. Crush the terrified man in front of him. Boil his brain right out of his head and leave him as he had left Gayle. Beautiful Gayle. Gone.

He looked down at her, lying in his arms, eyes still open. Growing cooler by the second.

Another wave of hatred washed over him, this one even blacker and more vile than the last.

He locked eyes with the gunman again and took a step closer, growling that deep, feral growl in his throat again.

“Drop it or die where you stand.” His voice was barely intelligible over the growl in his throat, but the man understood.

He dropped the pistol.

Velociryx’s stare intensified and the man grabbed his temples, then sank to his knees, groaning softly.

He was shaking from head to toe with the effort to control himself, but he did not attack. He stared at the man for a long moment, and then let out a long, anguished wail, which he punctuated by kicking the gunman in the sternum, hard enough to crack several ribs.

Then he ran, the crowd parting for him as he carried Gayle’s body away....