Raptors and Secrets
July 13th, 2006 by Salem
Chapter 38 - RedRaptor finished building a rocket to send a satellite into orbit equipped with sensory equipment for mineral and air pocket detection in Mount Obelisk. Selene watched as robotic arms in a much larger room behind a very thick glass put some finishing touches to the rocket before more arms started to slowly load the folded satellite into the compartment on the top. “How did you build all of this or even get it all down here?” Salem asked Dark. “Terra helped us with almost everything. All we really had to do was construct the mechanical equipment and build the house that is above us,” said Dark as she walked to the enormous AliceBlade. The AliceBlade itself was inside a separate room behind glass. It stood against a wall. The other side of the room was very hard to see. It seemed to go into a long tunnel. “What is at the other end?” asked Salem. “What you see is the AliceBlade at the end of the runway. You see, the AliceBlade opens up high above an Earth city called New York in a country named the United States,” said Dark, “We load a vehicle we named the RaptorWing with what we need to take with us and launch it through the AliceBlade. The RaptorWing takes us to solid ground where we meet Commissioner Levin. Levin tells us why he called us and we take the case from there.”
Suddenly, the lights around them turn red and an alarm begins to sound. “Speaking of the Devil!” said Dark before running over to RedRaptor and Selene at the control panel.
“Red, Load the Cold Mobil, and the Purple Skipper,” ordered Dark, “I want you to stay here to launch the satellite and scan that mountain.” The lift door opened and BlueRaptor entered. “You’re staying here Blue and seeing to our friends as well as retrieving the JumpBlade from storage. I’m taking ColdRaptor, PinkRaptor and PurpleRaptor with me,” said Dark. “Understood Sweetheart,” said Blue, and then started to talk to into something strapped on her wrist, “Cold, Pink, Purple! Report to the RaptorWing NOW! You’re driving Pink!” “Finally!” yelled PinkRaptor’s voice through the small device. “You help the twins tell Christina what she really is,” said Dark. “You mean Christina doesn’t know she’s a Humo Raptor?” asked Blue while Dark changed into her uniform. “They tell me that Christina has been living like a human. You’re better at dealing with female and nurse emotions. I’ll try and return as soon as possible,” said Dark. “Understood Dark,” replied Blue. Dark jumped onto a platform resting on tracks and it whisked her away to the other end of the long runway where the twins assume the so called RaptorWing is waiting. “Cold Mobil is loaded and locked,” said RedRaptor. “PinkRaptor in RaptorWing and ready,” said Pink’s voice coming through the control panel Red was working on. “Purple Skipper is loaded and locked down,” said Red. A monotone voice was heard saying, “ColdRaptor and PurpleRaptor in passenger compartment and ready.” “DarkRaptor in vehicle bay and ready,” said Dark’s voice.
“Activating AliceBlade,” said Red as a large glass plate starts to move in front of the AliceBlade. “Why do you not already have that attached to the AliceBlade?” asked Selene. “You know that unlike the small handheld mirror type Accessory Blades, the large mirror type Accessory Blades require glass to work,” said Red, “As long as the glass is not attached to the AliceBlade, nothing can exit or enter the launch bay.” The sides of the large plate of glass attach to the AliceBlade and an image of clear blue sky appears. “AliceBlade is activated,” said Red. Suddenly, the twins could feel the ground under them begin to shake a little. “Thrusters are wide open,” said Pink’s voice. “Three, two, one, Launching!” said Red as she flipped some switches and hits a large red flashing button. The ground under the twins’ feet began to shake more and more. A light was coming from the far end of the runway. A very large and loud object passed them and through the AliceBlade. The twins were protected at the other side of a window, but they could still feel the heat that was being blasted out of the end of the large RaptorWing as it passed. “We are clear,” said Pink. “Deactivating the AliceBlade. See you when you get back. RedRaptor, out,” said Red. “Now let’s have that talk with Christina,” said Blue. “Mother,” called Red, “There is a disturbance in the house.”
Blue, Red and the twins return to the home above the secret base to find Vivien madly throwing things. “Grab her, but don’t hurt her,” ordered Blue. Salem jumps behind a wall where Jarody and David were hiding, away from the wave of destruction Vivien was making. “What happened? What did you do Jarody?” asked Salem looking angry. “Me? Vivien starts to PMS and you assume I have something to do with it?” said Jarody. “We were just sitting in the main room when she just went off and started to wreck the place. RedRaptor weaved and rolled to get to the angry vampire. Vivien grabs a lamp and throws it before jumping out of the way of BlueRaptor’s sneak attack from behind. Vivien pulls out her MirrorBlade and holds it in a very threatening manor. “Her sword cannot cut you! It will just pass through you and cause a numbness in wherever it hit. Vivien does a number of back flips down the central hallway slashing her Blade as she twists in the air. Red and BlueRaptor run after her into the hallway and fall into complete darkness. “What happened to the sunlight?” said Red. Selene stayed back to watch Red and Blue feel around the hallway, “Vivien used her MirrorBlade to cut the sunlight from the hallway! I can still see you and what is going on because I am not in the area she cut off.” “That is very fascinating BladeRaptor, but where is she?!” yelled BlueRaptor. “I cannot see her where I am!” called back Selene. “She is at the top of the stairs!” yelled Salem. Vivien was crouched down and looking extremely angry. Vivien’s face had contorted in a way where her usual innocent looking beauty was gone. Vivien had turned into the monster she was born to be. Her two fangs were extended beyond a point of belief and her fingers were also extended in an inhuman way looking ready to kill.
Selene knew there was a way to safely catch Vivien but what was that command called? Selene searched her memory to find it. It had been a real long time since she had to call it. Salem ran from the wall and into the hallway with her GunBlade out in a defensive position. When Salem passes the threshold of the door, she was not prepared for the absolute darkness she ran into. “GothRaptor, un!” yelled Blue. That command hit Salem like second nature and she quickly ducked as Vivien passed over her. RedRaptor jumped over BlueRaptor and transformed into her Velocir form to collide with Vivien in midair. Vivien grabbed the transformed RedRaptor’s left arm and threw her to the steps behind her but is hit on the head by Red’s thick tail. “How do we get light back into the hallway?” called Blue to Selene. Salem blindly jumped up and over RedRaptor who was still flying to the stairs. “You have to make her drop her Blade!” replied Selene. Salem landed awkwardly on the floor still not being able to see. She felt something next to her foot and quickly kicked what ever it was. Vivien rolled with the kick to her side and was about to stand up again when BlueRaptor tackled her from behind and hit her sword hand against the wall three times before Vivien let go. The MirrorBlade hit the floor and the light filled the room as if it were a fluid. RedRaptor changed back into her normal form and pounced from the stairs to Vivien who was fighting with BlueRaptor. Blue moved out of the way to allow Red to pin Vivien down and hold her. Vivien was kicking and writhing on the floor trying to get loose, clearly still angry. BlueRaptor left the room to retrieve something from an overturned shelf and then returned to place it up to Vivien’s neck and used it. Vivien continued to kick until whatever it was Blue gave her started to work. “She’ll be out for an hour,” said Blue, “Take her to the med ward and strap her down until we can get some answers.” “Wait. She does not need to be tied down. I am sure there is a good explanation for what happened,” said Selene. “Where is everyone else?” asked Salem. “They all ran outside,” said David. “Take her to a couch, I’ll get the booster to wake her,” ordered Blue.
Vivien was placed on one of two couches that escaped the destruction. RedRaptor held onto the vampire’s shoulders to hold her down from behind as BlueRaptor got the antidote ready. “What happened?” Selene asked Christina and the others when they came back inside. “I knew she was looking a little angry, but she exploded without any explanation,” said Christina. “There is no way Mage Khet will come back inside with Vivien here,” said Zealot. “Good, I was getting sick of his coin trick,” said Blue, “What mage hides a coin behind his paw?” Blue used the device filled with antidote on Vivien. The vampire slowly woke up to see everyone standing around her with their eyes fixed on her and RedRaptor’s large hands pressing down hard. “Are you going to keep yourself under control Vivien?” asked Selene. Vivien shook her head, “Yes.” “I want an explanation for the destruction of our home,” said Blue. Vivien looked around. It felt more like a dream to her but she knew what she did. Looking around at the trashed home just made the act more real to her.
Vivien started to sign with some difficulty because of Red’s continuous hold on her. “I was angry at you,” translated Selene. Vivien began to cry as she continued, “Thinking that you were all dead was a comfort for me until now. It is not fair that you live in safety now and in this comfortable place when my clan is dead.” “Her clan?” asked Blue. “Vivien is the only survivor of her Clan. They were killed by mercenaries hired by a nearby village,” explained Salem. “So she’s a natural born vampire and not a person who was turned by them?” growled Red who was now pushing down on Vivien’s shoulders more, hurting her. “Red, at ease!” ordered Blue. “Yes, mother,” replied Red as she lightened up on her hold. “Will you stay sitting down if Red lets go of you?” asked Selene. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Blue, “You see, we are the ones who wiped out that nest of vampires. They were praying on villages in the area. We were told that they would sneak into a village at night and kill the weak like women and children. This was about two months after PhoenixRaptor was killed and De La Groot was still at large, killing pure blood Raptors off one by one. Needless to say that Dark’s frame of mind at the time was not at it’s best. I tried to talk her out of an all out extermination and wanted her to consider negotiating with the clan leaders. She would not hear me out and the mission was carried out. It wasn’t until later that we had found out that the villages women and children were only in hiding and none had ever been killed. It was only the foolish who ventured too close to the nest that were killed. The clan mostly prayed on their livestock’s blood and never took enough to kill the animals. What made the villagers angry was a disease that was killing the livestock they believed was being spread by the vampires. The illness continued to spread after the clan was killed off. It wasn’t them that were passing the sickness to the livestock. It was coming from another bloodsucker, mosquitoes. In fact, it was the vampires that were keeping the illness from taking more livestock. With the vampires gone, all the area villages lost their livestock in less then a week to the mosquitoes. We had learned a valuable lesson then.”
“I say Vivien deserves a long hard punishment,” said Jarody. “Sex is not the answer to everything,” said Salem. “I wasn’t talking about sex. I just wanted to slap the fuck out of her,” said Jarody. Blue looks at Vivien and says, “I would be lying if I said I’m not angry at what you did. Punishment does sound like a good idea, but considering what we put you through in the past, I think we can call this even with us still owing you a favor. You are very fortunate that Dark wasn’t here to see this. She wouldn’t have killed you, but you would’ve wanted to be killed after she was done with you. That is why we’re not going to tell her what happened here. Do you understand?” Vivien shook her head, “Yes.” “Good. Now will you help to clean this up?” asked Blue. “Vivien answered, “Yes,” again and Red let go of the vampire. “Let’s pitch in and get this place cleaned up before Dark gets back,” ordered Selene. “Christina, I need to have a talk with you and the twins outside,” said Blue. The four women exit the house leaving the other Blade Masters and RedRaptor to do the clean-up. Outside, Mage Khet was practicing a trick RedRaptor had shown him. He had a ten collon bill on his fist and was poking holes in it with a plastic modern world pen. “Haven’t figured how to do it yet?” asked Blue. “How does the paper stay whole?!” asked Mage Khet. “What is this all about?” asked Selene. “After Khet showed us his coin trick, Dark had shown him another trick,” said Blue, “I’ll demonstrate. Do you have a collon bill?” Salem hands Blue a new ten collon bill and Blue takes the pen from Mage Khet. “I make a fist and make sure the pen can fit into it, and then place this collon bill on top of my fist,” says Blue as she describes what she is doing. Mage Khet takes a close look at what Blue was doing, determined to figure out the secret. “Now I take the pen again and I punch it through the collon bill,” says Blue as she punches the pen through the paper and shows them that the bill was now stuck in the middle of the pen. “As you can see, the pen went clean through the collon bill,” said Blue, “Now I pull the pen sideways freeing the collon bill.” The others could hear the collon bill tear as Blue yanks the pen sideways out of it. “And behold, the collon bill is not torn and there are no holes,” said Blue as she shows off the undamaged collon bill. Mage Khet grabs the bill from Blue and examines it to see if it was indeed undamaged. “Go inside and help with the clean-up and I will tell you how the trick works,” said Blue, “I have to talk to Christina and the twins.
Mage Khet goes inside the home and the four women start to walk out onto the wide open grass field. “I can’t think of a way to make this any less a shock to you, Christina. I respect you so I will be blunt about what I have to tell you,” said Blue, “You know your mother was a Raptor.” “Yes, she was PhoenixRaptor,” replied Christina. “Raptors only give birth to Raptors no matter who or what the father was,” said Blue. Christina was shaking her head yes, absentmindedly agreeing with Blue. “You know what that means?” asked Blue, feeling that Christina is not getting what she was saying. “This is blunt?” whispered Salem to Selene. “Christina, what I am saying is, you are not a human. You are a Raptor,” said Blue. Christina stopped dead almost causing Selene to bump into her. Blue turned to look at her and said, “Any questions?” “But I don’t have markings on my back,” said Christina. “Humans have only two sexes in their species. Raptors have three. Male, female, and the third are called nurse,” explained Blue, “The roles and purpose of the separate sexes are not observed by us. You see, the male Raptors impregnate the females and guard the family territory, the females do the hunting and the birthing, and the third sex, the Nurse Raptors care for the younglings. Nurse Raptors, unlike the female raptors, cannot be impregnated nor can they impregnate a female Raptor.” “But there are no more male raptors to guard the land,” guessed Christina. “Umm,” said Blue, looking at the twins and back at Christina, “Dark is a male Raptor. Humo Raptors all look female to humans but it is the marking on our back that give away our sex,” said Blue. “Are you sure Dark is male?” asked Christina. “More than sure, Red and Pink are our children,” said Blue, “Dark and Cold have stripes on their backs showing that they are male, Red and I have spots on our back showing that we are female, Pink and Purple have no markings on their backs making them nurse.” “So what you are saying is I cannot have any children,” said Christina. “Not from a male Raptor,” said Blue, “You mother’s sex was nurse,” said Blue, “She had no markings on her back. Do you think she could have spied for us as an exotic dancer if she had markings on her back giving away that she was a Raptor?” “What does this mean for me?” asked Christina. “Dark suspects that not only have you inherited your mother’s looks and, ahem, ample endowment, you could also have your mother’s abilities,” said Blue. “Abilities? What abilities?” asked Christina. “That is why we are out here. First to see if you do have her powers and how you can bring those powers out,” said Blue.