Absolute Vertigo
Chapter 5
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."
- Janis Joplin
~Lin Kuei Headquaters~
"I will NOT let this travesty go unpunished!" Oniro
screamed, upon slamming his right fist onto the wooden table below him.
Seated around the table, the rest of the large room's inhabitants flinched
just slightly. This was the Lin Kuei's high council, the remaining members
of the Lin Kuei nobility. They consisted of his wife, Sicily, his two sons,
Eric and Shane, and Sage, his late brother's adopted son and the clan's top
doctor. On the far end of the table was a scout group assembled by Oniro
himself, including his two bodyguards, Pyro and Havoc.
Sicily closed her eyes as her husband slammed the table with his
fist. "Let me remind you, dear," she said, calmly. "of what little choice
Vertigo and Toxin had."
He glared at her, and red flashed in his eyes. "He attacked my
warriors, killed most of the group in the room at the time, and completely
demolished my throan room! And worst of all, he left the clan! Broke the
first and most important oath of a Lin Kuei ninja. He betrayed his clan!"
"As far as I can see it," Eric, aka Eclipse, interrupted. "YOU
betrayed HIM. You had his father murdered, and then sent your goons after
him for trying to protect Kain."
"Let it go, dad." Shane continued. "I really doubt Quinn'll be
giving you any more 'trouble'."
Oniro glared at all of them, and their blank faces. "I should have
you all beheaded for this." he said, quite calmly. He looked around the
table silently, and his gaze fixed on Sage, sitting quietly by himself.
"You have said much during this meeting, Sidney." he started.
Sage looked up at him, shocked. Very rarely did the Lin Kuei leader call a
clansmen by his or her first name. "Is there anything you'd like to
contribute? Do you possibly know where Vertigo and Toxin could have gone?"
Sage leaned his head back away from Oniro's face just slightly. As
the ninja leader stared at him, Sid shot glances around the room. All the
other faces were demanding that he keep his mouth shut, whether it cost him
his head or not. he told
himself.
"Don't have a clue..." he said quickly, trying to look as calm and
serious as possible.
Oniro groaned loudly, turning away from the table. He stood, his
back to them, for a minute or two, before turning around again, quickly.
"You!" he yelled, pointed at the scout group standing silently
before him. "I want you all to find them! I don't care WHAT it takes, find
those two! I don't care what you do with the girl, but I want Vertigo alive.
Do you understand me?"
The group nodded, except for Havoc and Pyro.
"Good," Oniro continued. "Havoc, Pyro, go with them. You seem to
be the only things that can contain my nephew."
The two ninjas bowed, turned, and with a shouted order, led the group
from the room.
Anna ran around the other side of the wall as Havoc exited the room.
She waited for the entire group to pass before making her way back to her
room. For twenty minutes, she has listened silently to Oniro scream at his
family, planning the demise of his newphew. Quinn's royal family had done
a good job of keeping his whereabouts secret, but Havoc was smarter than
Oniro, and he could figure out on his own what the leader tried to pry from
his relatives. And she knew that Quinn's family wasn't about to risk
warning him, so she decided that was something she'd have to do herself.
As she shut the front door to her room, Knightshade faced the
cocked-eyebrow face of her husband. Cyrax looked at her oddly, noticing
the thoughtful expression on her face, the way she was slightly biting her
lower lip.
"So, what'd you find out?" he asked.
She looked up at him suddunly, her trane of thought broken. "Oniro's
sending a scout party out to find Quinn and Olivia. They want Olivia dead
and Quinn back alive. Havoc's leading the party. He isn't as dumb as Oniro,
he knows exactly where Quinn is."
"Meaning....?" Cyrax continued, although he already knew the answer.
Anna slightly smiled. "Meaning, my darling, that we hafta go to the
OutWorld first and warn them."
~OutWorld - The Living Forest~
Ivy waded her bare feet in the water of the pond below her. She
smiled, and took a deep breath, taking in the fresh air of the forest. It
was early morning in the OutWorld, and Ivy and Quinn were the first ones up.
Ivy kicked her feet a little more, splashing up water, and looked over at
Quinn. His face was blank, his eyes emotionless. He sat, dressed only in
the lower half of his Lin Kuei uniform, leaning against the back of a tree,
seeminly in deep thought. This was normal for Quinn over the last year since
him and Oliva had arrived in the Living Forest. Maybe a year in the sunless
Living Forest had taken its toll on this earthling. When he arrived at Ivy's
place, Quinn, despite having lost his father to a brutal crime, seemed
full of life. His eyes were bright, but still mysterious, and he had a deep,
dark tan. Now, a year later, his eyes were even more distant and
mysterious, and a little dimmer. His natural skin tone was now showing
through, although it was darker than any OutWorld native, and he would be
easy to pick out as a earth realmer.
Ivy sighed. She had tried many times before to get through to Quinn,
to try and get him to talk to her, but it never seemed to work. Nonetheless,
she never gave up trying.
"Quinn..." she asked. "Are you okay?"
His head jerked up as he look at her. "Uh.. yeah.. just thinking.."
he replied, his eyes beginning to drift off again.
"You do that a lot, Quinn. Are you sure you don't want to talk to
me? I'm here if you need me..."
He looked up at her again. "I know, Ivy. And I thank you for that.
But there really isn't anything you can help me with. I'm a private person."
She nodded, looking down at the ground. "Well," she said, finally
climbling to her feet. "I'm going to get something to eat. Are you hungry?"
"Not really..."
Ivy sighed deeply again, and turned back toward her home.
Vertigo watched her leave, the turned back to his view of the pond.
He let his mind wander, which unabled him to sense the presence coming up on
him until it was right behind him. His mind sparked, and he turned around
sharply, but he was facing the presence behind him. A Raptor. A female.
She hissed at him, and smiled beneath her black mask. She moved toward him,
looking him over the entire time.
She looked up in his face, and grinned. "A heathly, ssstrong, human
male is a delicccacy around here."
Quinn cocked an eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest. "Is that
so?" he quipped.
"Yesss," she replied, her smile widening. She poked his upper right
arm with her gloved hand. "And one with asss much... meat... asss you, would
feed my family for daysss."
"Feed?" Quinn's eyes grew larger, out of amusement. "So your
planning to eat me..?"
"Precccisssely."
"Delightful.." Quinn mumbled. He saw the Raptor woman's hand move
toward her back, toward her weapon, a wooden bo, and he reached slowly for
his dagger, hidden behind him slipped inside his waistline. He reacted the
same time she did, when she suddunly reached behind her back and pulled her
weapon, he reached behind him and pulled his dagger. They both fell back
into deffensive battle stances.
He eyeballed her for a minute, picking her apart with his mind and
looking for a weakness. She looked him over, and snarled, never letting down
her ground. He felt her movements before she flinched, and she was going to
jump at him, try to take him by surprise. He prepared himself to counter
attack, when he suddunly felt another presence, not to far away.
"LIZ! NO!" the voice of the presence yelled, making itself visable.
It was another Raptor, Vertigo sensed, but this one in his human form. He
stepped toward the female. "Don't attack him." he continued, walking toward
them. He could have been mistaken for Lin Kuei, with his ninja garb, but
Vertigo knew better.
Liz's mouth fell open. "B-but, Reptile, hisss body will feed our
clan..-"
He held a hand in front of her, cutting her off. "He is to be
married to Ivy's sister."
Liz turned to Quinn. Her eyes were huge. "I-Ivy?" she sputtered.
Suddunly, as Quinn watched in shock, she reverted to her human form. Her
hair remained black, and her eyes green, but her skin melted into a pale
complection. "I-I had no idea." she said, looking him in the face. "I'm
sorry."
Vertigo scowled. "You were planning to eat me, and all you can say
is sorry?"
"Lin Kuei ninjas don't last long in this forest, Vertigo." Reptile
said calmly.
"How the fuck did you know my code-name?" Quinn snapped, turning to
the other man.
Reptile remained calm. "We know a lot about your clan here. Like I
said, Lin Kuei ninjas don't last too long around this forest."
Vertigo's eyes narrowed. "I'm not a Lin Kuei anymore." he said
simply.
"That's what Ivy told us." Liz continued. "But I didn't now that
YOU were the Li--, er.. ex-Lin Kuei she was talking about. I am sorry for
attacking you."
Quinn smirked. "How do you two know Ivy so well?"
"She helps us. We help her. She gives us food, the dead bodies of
tresspassers to the forest, in exchange for our protection and friendship."
Reptile explained.
"That sounds kinda funny coming from the same people who were gonna
shish-ka-bob me and feed me to the family for dinner."
The green-clad ninja shruged. "I apoligize again for my sister. She
simply didn't know. Their just isn't much food around here. You outta be
careful. A heathly human male running around the forest by yourself. That's
just asking for trouble."
Quinn sighed. "I'm PERFECTLY capable of taking care of myself."
Reptile grinned. "So I've heard."
Quinn stared at him oddly.
"Come on, we'll take you back to Ivy. Wouldn't want Olivia's future
husband getting hung from a tree by nomads by leaving him here, now would
we?" the lizard-man smiled.
Vertigo snickered as he followed Reptile and his sister back to
Ivy's.
"What are you trying to say, Ivy?" Olivia asked, sipping her drink.
"I'm saying,.. do you really know him well enough to marry him?"
Ivy sighed, holding up her hands to her sister. "He seems so mysterious...
And his personality is far from perfect.."
"And what exactly IS the perfect personality?" Toxin scowled.
Ivy sighed again.
"Besides, Ivy, mysterious is good, right? It addes to his attractive
nature." Olivia smiled, but Ivy's face remained the same.
Toxin sighed. "Ivy, I love him more than anything. Isn't that
enough?"
Ivy smirked. "I suppose it is. He isn't a bad kid, considering
what he's been through."
"Kid? I think not.."
Ivy's mouth turned into a half smile, but she then looked behind her
sister over Olivia's shoulder and it faded.
"Uh oh.." she mumbled.
"What?" Toxin said, her eyes narrowing. She saw where Ivy was
looking off to, and turned around. There was Quinn, heading for their table,
escorted by Reptile and his younger sister. Her immediate reaction seeing
the Raptors was that something was wrong. She jumped from her seat and ran
toward them.
"Quinn!? Are you ok?!" she yelled, grabbing both his bare arms and
looking him over.
He gently pushed her off of him. "I'm fine, baby. Settle down."
"What happened?" Ivy asked.
Quinn frowned, and glanced at Liz. "She tried to eat me.."
Olivia glared at the two Raptors. "She tried to what?!"
Liz backed off a few steps. "I'm sorry, Olivia, I didn't know who he
was.."
"Do you normally go around eating random earth males?" Toxin
snapped.
Liz opened her mouth in protest, but her brother cut her off.
"It was an honest mistake, Olivia. She didn't know he was your
fiance."
Quinn glared at him. "I don't take lightly to being someone's
supper. And its a good thing you figured it out, or SHE would be filleted."
Ivy sneered, crossing her arms over her chest. "I suppose we're
past the point of figuring this out like civilized adults?"
Vertigo looked over at her, but when he caught her gaze, his mind
caught hold of something close by. He concentrated on it, and then began to
blindly go toward it.
"Quinn? Where on earth are you going...?" Olivia asked, seeing him
head off in the other direction.
He was too busy homing in on the presence to pay attention to her
words. He narrowed his eyes as he thought. The presence was... extreamly
farmiliar. He stopped.
"Anna...?" he thought aloud.
Ivy and Toxin looked at each other.
"Anna?" Olivia asked. "What would Anna be doing here?"
Vertigo looked back at her. "Anna and Cyrax, actually..." he said,
heading into the house to grab the rest of his uniform and his sword. "And
their in deep shit."
End of Chapter 5
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