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Divisions Of Reality
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CHAPTER THREE - UNPLEASANT SURPRISES


Angel curses angrily under her breath as she makes her ship do a sharp turn around a large meteor in an attempt to outrun the ships pursuing her. As AC-Free she has just destroyed the biggest women slave camp in the universe, which is over on Pluto. It wasn’t easy either. This was after she freed the prisoners of course and got them safely on a ship. They got away while she distracted the emperor’s men. She sighs; this time is different from the others though. She’s having more problems than usual in trying to ditch what she assumed to be Zenok’s lackeys. Angel’s been trying to loose them for two hours now, and they’re still on her tail. Usually she got rid of them in no longer than thirty minutes. She growls as her ship shakes suddenly from the Oryan-missile that has just hit her ship. This is the first time she’s ever been hit; typically she was able to dodge them easily. She glances back in surprise, and her eyes widen when she notices the symbols of the ship when they are in her view. These weren’t just any old ships; they have symbols signifying people of power in Zenok’s empire flew these. She clenches her teeth with frustration for she did not expect this. She been doing this kind of stuff since she turned fifteen and this has never happened before.

“Damn.” She mumbles, “These aren’t some goons this time. I need to know who these guys are.”

She presses several buttons on her control panel and it begins to hum. There is a small device that pops out of the ship and attaches itself onto the window of the leader of the three aircrafts behind her. A moment later a small screen pops up as she goes into a large hole inside a meteor in attempt to lose them. The man piloting one of the enemy ships appears on the screen. Angel gasps in recognition of the man.

“Oh shit, that’s one of his best assassins!” she yells, “That bastard Zenok must really want me dead.” She flies out of the crater of the meteor and off in the other direction as she sees the assassins turn and come back towards her.

Angel groans as she uses the computer to map out her location in an attempt to find a quick way out.

“Okay, I’m in the milky way galaxy,” she tells herself quietly. “Great, I don’t even have home field advantage.”

She grins as she sees the levers for the gadgets she had just had added into the spaceship. Because she is a White-Angel, she does have access to high tech equipment. She smiles as she spots what she needs, a cloaking device. Having this is very rare for such a small sleek craft like her own, but she knew she might need it in an emergency so she made sure she had it installed.

“Perfect but I need a place to go before I use this otherwise it’ll do no good.” She spots the rings of the nearest planet to her, Saturn. She flies towards the rings, which are made up of floating rocks in all reality. She lands on one, and prays it will be stable long enough for her to get away.

She activates the cloaking process and prays she will survive. A moment later she watches the hired killers fly right on past her and turn in the other direction, towards Venus. Angel was right in front of them but the device caused her ship to camouflage with the rock, and no one would think that small a ship had a cloaking mechanism. She exhales deeply with relief as she lifts off from the rock. She begins to fly towards Uranus where she hides her AC-Free ship in an old abandoned garage. The planet has long been abandoned since the great war of 3002 happened there and destroyed all natural resources. It is the perfect place to hide it cause everyone avoided the planet like the plague. As usual Angel will switch ships of course and then go home to Standara in her White-Angels Space plane as Angel Cantrell. What makes her giggle is that the emperor still doesn’t have a clue. She frowns, realizing how close she was to just getting killed. She’s never had that close a call before in her fourteen months as AC-Free.

“It’s worth it. Freedom and justice against that emperor bastard is well worth the price I pay.” She assures herself softly again and begins to fly there happily as she starts to sing along with the radio.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Beads of sweat form on his forehead as Nick runs frantically from the armored men chasing him. He turns by a nearby house not knowing what else to do. In the two months he’s been on his own everything went fine and he had a blast on his sixteenth birthday. The road has not been easy however and Nick now knows it isn’t easy living on his own. But the other day he realized that some of the emperor’s men had been questioning about him and his known whereabouts. He saddens knowing they had to have gone to earth first and now Demitrius is probably dead. Throughout the fights and anger Nick had loved him for he was the only father Nick had ever known. The only family Nick had and now he was gone. Nick shakes his head and pushes his golden blonde locks out of his face. He can’t think about this now. He needs to find away to escape those mysterious men. He sees an enormous crowd of people in Saturn’s main market place. He nods to himself and runs straight into the crowd and keeps an eye out for those men. Nick smirks, it’s not like they blend in well. It would easy to keep track of them in this place. He goes further into the mob of people, how he can get away from them. He sighs with relief as the men talk with each other in attempt to figure out where he had gone and he was in fact increasing the amount of distance between them. He slips out of the throng and down a narrow alleyway, realizing they would figure it out soon. He checks behind him to see if they had spotted him at all yet, and ends up crashing right into another person. Nick looks down and bends down to help the man up.

“I’m sorry sir.” He says breathlessly, “Let me help you up.”

The man shakes his head as he stands, his face hidden under the hood of his dark cloak. Nick looks at him with confusion. There is something strange about this guy…

“I’m quite alright. Come with me Nickolas. I’ve been expecting you.” He glances at his watch. “You’re about five minutes late though.”

Nick’s crystal blue eyes widen with surprise. “What? How do you know my name? What do you mean? How did you know I would be here?”

“Calm down Nickolas, no wait, Nick, that’s what you prefer. I know a great many things. Things you would not believe. But you must trust me and follow me if you want to remain undiscovered by Zenok’s men.”

Nick sighs and begins to follow the strange man before him. ‘It’s not like I have a choice.’ He thought with annoyance. They go into a small quaint home and they settle onto two leather chairs in front of the fireplace with a cozy fire lit inside. It’s a cozy, well lit, modernized home. Nick gazes about with amazement; this is not what he had been expecting.

The man chuckles, “Not what you thought huh? What you thought it would be old, creepy and lit with many candles? Sorry to disappoint you Nick.”

“I want some questions answered and now. WHY-”

The man shakes his head sadly, “So much fury. You always were the angriest of the three.”

“What are you talking about?”

He pulls off the hood. His tan skin gleams within the firelight. Black unruly curls fall down softly on his shoulders. His youthful appearance shows Nick that he is only twenty-four years old, much younger than Nick had anticipated. His kind coffee brown eyes stare at Nick with concern. “My name is Howard Dorough Of Cataris.”

“The planet of the watchers. That’s where Demitrius was born.” Nick gasps; knowing whatever is going on it has to be big. “I’ve heard of you, you’re the most powerful warlock alive. What are you doing on Saturn? Wait a minute, many watchers betrayed us and turned on us. There are few true watchers and protectors of good left. You’re powerful, so Zenok would want you on his side.” His eyes narrow with suspicion. “How do I know you’re not working for Zenok?”

“You don’t, but you must trust me. I have information that will change your life.”

Nick leans forward, his eyes blazing. “ And what if I don’t believe you.”

“That is your choice, but you will risk the welfare of all things in existence.”

“Fine, tell me then I can go for a little story telling. Maybe this will amuse me.”

“Such anger in him.” he mumbles and then clears his throat. “You were told your triplet siblings were killed and that isn’t so. They are very much alive and well. Separated from each other for protection as you were. You were told this so you would not search for them and unintentionally reveal them to the emperor. But you must not be apart any longer. As you know, it is now the year 3999, we only have one year left before the millennia comes and the walls begin to crumble. You must find them and unite or all will be lost. If you are not together to keep the realms separate, the walls shall crumble eventually anyway and chaos will conquer us all.”

“I’m not the only Carter alive?”

“No.”

“So you want me to find them?”

“Yes.”

“And I know you’re not lying how?”

“Search your feelings, you have always known it deep down that they are still living. That is all the proof you need.”

Nick stands up, a look of shock coming across his face. He did always feel that way. Joy began to fill his heart. ‘I still have family! My brothers are alive? It shouldn’t be hard; I only have to look for people identical to myself. What can go wrong?’ He thinks blissfully.

“Go, the emperor’s men have long gone from here, they believe you were able to sneak off to some other planet. You will be safe to leave here.”

Nick nods and rushes out the door. Not saying another word to Howard, for he still did not trust him. How did he know it was not a trick? He can’t take that chance.

Howard shakes his head tiredly as he watches him leave. “He is the fire of the three, that’s for sure. Go Nick; she’s waiting for you. It’s time for you to meet her. Too bad you don’t know it yet. “


~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Zenok sits in his throne comfortably waiting for news of the newly found triplet Nick. Maybe he can have two instead the pitiful one he possessed. He knows it will not work alone, but maybe it will work if there are two together…

He hears a chime from the door and eagerly called for the person to enter. He hopes that they had already caught this Nick. His eyes shine brightly with greed. The unbelievable power is minutes from being within his grasp. Euphoria again starts to consume his dark and twisted soul.

Yenon walks into the room slowly. Fear is clearly evident in his face. Zenok narrows his eyes; this did not look good to him. If this news disturbed him, there would be hell to pay. “S-sire?”

“Yes Yenon and this better be good.”

“We have news of AC-Free.”

He grunts with impatience, “It better be that she is dead.”

Yenon clasps his hands together nervously. “No sire I’m sorry. She just destroyed Camp Plutron and had escaped even Malicious and Shane Hiergun. She is more difficult and a better pilot that we thought. The hired murderers told me that they never seen anyone fly like her before in their life. They tell me it will be almost impossible to kill her in her ship. That they will have to do it when she is on land. They ask for identity-”

An evil look comes across Zenok’s face. It is of pure hatred and fury. His eyes are as fiery as the depths of hell. “SHE WAS ABLE TO DESTROY OUR LARGEST SLAVE CAMP AND GET AWAY! WE CAN’T FIND HER ON LAND; WE DON”T HAVE IDENTITY! WE CAN ONLY SPOT HER BY HER SHIP! I DON”T CARE HOW GOOD A PILOT SHE IS, I WANT HER DEAD!”

“Ye-yes s-s-si-sire.”

“She slipped through their fingers?!”

“I’m afraid so.”

Malicious and Shane Hiergun are the deadliest assassins in the universe. There was not one person who did not fear them. No one has ever been able to escape their grasp before. Zenok had hired them in hopes AC-Free would eliminated once and for all, but that was not what was to be.

“That wench is going to pay. When I get through with her she will wish she stayed in her place. I want her dead Yenon.”

“Of course, b-but there is more news sire.”

“WHAT NOW?”

“We had found Nick and had followed him to Saturn. We caught a glimpse of his ring. He IS one of the triplets. Unfortunately, we underestimated him and he escaped as well. We should never sent someone that low in our ranks.”

“Yes.” He replies, scratching his head, “That mistake will not be made again. Nick will soon be mine. Sentence the men who lost Nick to death. I will not stand for idiotic bumblings to occur in my empire.

“Right away sire,” he replies and begins to leave the room.

“Oh Yenon? Bring Brian to me as well. I will have him try to activate the ring again.”

He nods and rushes out of the room. An hour later Zenok gets impatient and calls for Yenon appears in his room. His head is bowed in shame. His body shakes in fear of death. He approaches the emperor slowly.

“Yes s-sir?”

“Where is my son?” he rages, as he stands from his throne. He walks up to Yenon methodically, his eyes glittering dangerously. A cruel smile appears on his dark face.

Yenon bows his head, “He is no where to be found. We have searched the entire planet for him and he is not here. We did find one of our ships missing, so he must have taken it. Sir, he must have thee ring with him for that cannot be found either.”

“WHAT!!”

“Sir, we shall find him-”

“I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOUR INCOMPETENCE AND STUPIDITY ANY LONGER! YOU HAVE JUST LOST THE ONE RING I DID POSSESS! YOU HAVE COST ME MY POWER!”

“SIRE!”

“NO LONGER! NOW YOU SHALL PAY!” He roars and rushes a blade into Yenon’s abdomen. He forces it to slice his body up his throat. Blood pours out like a river as he chokes on the blood desperately for a moment before he slumps to the ground. His organs slip out of his corpse as if they are trying to escape. The ribcage and spinal cord are clearly visible and shine eerily in the dim light. Undigested food begins to spread onto his floor from his sliced stomach, mixing with the blood and other bodily fluids. Yenon’s body begins to take on a yellow tinge, as a bubble of blood forms on his open mouth. His eyes stare blankly at nothing; a stunned look now permanently set on his face. Zenok kicks the body aside with disgust.

“So the brat decided to run away. Fine he can join his siblings in their inevitable torture and demise. When I’m through with him and his damn siblings they’ll wish I had killed them before they were ever separated eleven years ago.”



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