Absolute Vertigo
Chapter 4
"It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees."
- Dolores Ibarrori
~One Year After Chapter 3~
Olivia woke up in a familiar place. She opened her eyes, and as they
adjusted to the light, she saw a quarters not her own. She saw her clothing,
draped over a nearby chair, and another's clothes next to her's. She turned
over underneath the warm, thick, comforter, and saw that Quinn was still
sound alsleep. She lay there was a few more minutes, just watching him, then
finally moved up enough to see the digital clock on his headboard. It was
nearly noon. Sighing deeply, Toxin turned over again, threw the covers off
herself, and sat up in bed. Her legs hanging over the edge of the tall bed,
she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and ran her fingers through her shiny
black hair. She got up and headed to the shower, shivering as she hurriedly
turned on the hot water. She washed her body and her hair, then just stood
there for awhile, enjoying the feel of the hot water.
Finally, she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower,
wrapping a navy blue terry cloth towel around herself. She dried off, exited
the bathroom and began to get dressed in her battle fatigues. She was
pulling on her right kombat boot when there was a very loud knock at the
door. Quinn woke up with a jolt, sat up in bed, and rubbed his eyes.
"What the hell...?" he mumbled under his breath as he focused in on
the world again.
Olivia, still in shock from the suddun knocking, continued to get
dressed.
"DAMNIT, QUINN! OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!" a farmiliar voiced yelled,
pratically bashing down his door.
Vertigo jumped out of bed and grabbed his uniform, and started to get
dressed. In the meantime, the screaming and bashing at the door continued,
as they both hurridly got dressed. Quinn put his mask inside of his
overmantle as he reached for the doorknob. Opening the door, he saw the
frantic face of Knightshade, panting heavily and looking as if she had just
seen a ghost.
Quinn's eyes narrowed, and Anna was about to open her mouth again,
but then they suddunly widened in fear.
"Quinn.." she gasped, trying to get the words out.
"Anna.. what's wrong?" Olivia asked, staring at her strangly.
"It's..-" she started, but Vertigo had already read her thoughts,
and he pushed passed her frantically and was gone.
"What the..? QUINN?!" Olivia yelled, grabbing her steel bo and
heading for the door. She ran out of the room in pursuit of Vertigo, leaving
her bewildered cousin in the doorway.
Toxin followed a fast running Quinn all the way to Oniro's throan
room. She caught up to him when he reached the entrance, and grabbed his
shoulder before he went inside.
"Honey," she said. "What's...?-" Before she could finish, she
heard loud arguing from inside his quarters. They both turned to the door,
and Quinn pushed it open and ran inside.
"DAD?!" Vertigo yelled, seeing his father, standing before Oniro,
and his two boyguards, Pyro and Havoc. His father turned around, saw his
son, and his eyes windened in fear. He turned to Vertigo and ran toward him.
"QUINN! NO!" he yelled. "GET OUTTA HERE!"
Oniro's eyes narrowed. "PYRO! HAVOC! KILL HIM!" he screamed, and
the two ninjas smiled, heading for Vertigo's father.
"DAD! NO!" Vertigo moved for his father, but before he could reach
him, Havoc was on him, shoving the serrated blade of his sword through his
back. The tip tore out his chest, sending sprays of blood over the dying
ninja's body. He gasped and fell to his knees, the smiling face of Havoc
holding his bloody sword behind him.
Vertigo's eyes flashed red and burned into Havoc's face. "YOU SON
OF A BITCH!"
Havoc smiled, removing his sword from Quinn's father's back, and
held it in front of him. "Come and get me, big boy." he teased.
"Jack off, Havoc." Vertigo replied, flicking his wrist in front of
him. Havoc was suddunly hit by a blast of telekinetic energy, and thrown
across the room and against a wall.
Pyro looked back at his fallen comrade and snarled. He cocked his
fists at his sides, and they both erupted in flames. Vertigo sneered,
thrust a fist in front of him, and sent Pyro back against the other wall.
He then turned to Oniro, his face filled with hatred and disbelief. Oniro
looked around. Pyro and Havoc were moving, but slowly. He turned and ran
from the room.
Vertigo watched him leave. "Coward." he said as Oliva ran to his
side. He then looked at his father. He fell to his knees beside the man,
shocked to still see him alive. Olivia knelt down beside him.
"Dad?" he whispered, his eyes welling up with tears.
Toxin was shocked. In all the time she had known Quinn, she had
never, ever seen him even come close to crying.
His father wheezed, trying vainly to hang onto life. "Quinn..." he
started, and coughed up blood for his effort.
"Dad... I..." Vertigo stuttered, unable to find any words. His
eyes were sad and wet, an emotion his family wasn't used to.
"Quinn.." his father pleaded. "I love you, son. You... you have to
get out of here.... or he'll kill you too. Get your mother.. get her out of
here..." His words began to fade as he strained to speak.
"Dad?" Quinn gasped, a tear rolling down his face. "DAD! DAMNIT,
DON'T YOU FUCKING LEAVE ME!"
His father grabbed his wrist tightly and looked up at him. "I...I
love you, son. Don't you ever forget that..."
"I love you too, dad." Vertigo sobbed, knowing now it was way to
late to save his father.
The ninja gasped, gripped his son's hand tighter, and Vertigo watched
him die.
Olivia slipped an arm around the trembling ninja's shoulder. "Oh,
Quinn..." she said, unable to find suitable words. Vertigo didn't react;
to her touch, or her voice. She heard scuffling behind her, and when she
turned around, ten Lin Kuei guards we in the room. Pyro and Havoc were also
getting up by this time. Quinn seemed to be completly out of it, looking
down at his dead father's body, trying to convince himself of the truth, but
not being able to.
Olivia stood up and faced the group. Her face hardened, and her
hands were covered in a thin layer of toxins. Two of the guards charged her,
and she held up her staff horizontally and ran between them, slamming them
both in the throats with an end of her bo. She swung it around off her hand
and threw the bottom half at the next closest foe, hitting him in the shins.
As he was stunned, she swung it around her wrist again and whacked him in
the head, knocking him on his back.
Toxin flipped backwards as the remaining eight guards came at her.
Landing in a stance, she took the time she earned to untwist the tops of her
staff, reviling long, thin blades on both ends. She began to twirl it around
in her hands, and it slowly began to pulsate a misty green aura. As two of
the group reached her, she spun it at them, slashing one across the stomach,
slicing through the tender flesh of his stomach. The other end hit the
oppisite ninja across the chest, spilling his blood on the ground and taking
him to his knees. She back flipped out of the way of the six remaining
ninjas and began to again concentrate on the toxic fumes around her hands.
As one of the assassins charged her, the cloud of toxins grew larger, and
engulfed the ninja. He gasped, wheezed, and coughed, finally falling to the
ground.
The five assassins left stayed away from her for only a second,
before they finally ran at her all at once. She stepped back and raised her
hands. The earth suddunly began to shake and crack, and a split under her
feet ran underneath the other ninjas. Vines erupted from the cracks,
shooting straight up into the air and catching two of the ninjas off guard.
The vines wrapped themselves around the ninjas, holding them away from Toxin.
Then then began to pull at the assassins and slam them against the ground.
While Toxin was concentrating on calling Mother Earth to her aid, one
of the three ninjas got in close to her and slammed her in the jaw with a
well-placed roundhouse. Olivia was sent backwards, and landed on her rear
next to Vertigo. Her fall seemed to break him out of his trance. He looked
at her, saw her rubbing her cheek, and glanced back at the ninja. As Toxin
flipped to her feet, Quinn reached behind his father's back and grabbed the
hilt of his sword. He heard a loud *shing* as he pulled it from its sheath.
It was a long sword, with a thick blade. The hilt was two, long, intertwined
black dragons, with their tounges wrapped around a large, shiny sapphire.
With his other hand, Vertigo reached inside his father's overmantle and
grabbed his dagger. The dagger was long and thin, with a serrated blade and
a black handle with a silver dragon cut into it. He slipped it into his
right wrist guard, acknowledged his father's spirit one last time, and stood
up to fight. He turned to see the ninja that had attacked Olivia coming at
them. He spun the sword around his wrist and he turned around, and then
slashed the blade at the assassin. He caught him in the stomach, spliting
his skin and sending him doubling back. Vertigo then moved in and kicked
him in the stomach hard, knocking him to his back.
The ninja squirmed, and tried to get up, but Quinn straddled him
before he could move. The assassin looked up, and saw the point of a sword
staring down at him. He looked up at Vertigo and his eyes narrowed.
"Go to hell..." he said, trying to muster up the courage.
"I'll meet you there.." Vertigo snapped, and brought his sword down
on the ninja's chest. The blade pierced his flesh, and plunged into his
heart. As the ninja gasped and died, Quinn turned to see Havoc running at
him. Vertigo moved his hands around and flipped over the hilt of his sword,
landing above the ninja's head and allowing the serrated blade of Havoc's
sword to rip into the assassin's body. Within seconds he was dead.
Quinn ripped the blade from the ninja's chest, and took his battle
stance. A deep hatred boiled up inside of him for Havoc, the assassin had
mercilessly taken his father from him, and enjoyed himself in the process.
Vertigo pointed the blade of his father's sword in front of him and charged
at Havoc, a stupid move, controled completely by Quinn's rage.
Havoc stepped to the side, twisted around, and kicked Vertigo in the
back of the head. Quinn stumbled forward, but recovered in record time.
Havoc chuckled, cocking his head to one side and spinning in Vertigo's
direction. Havoc's snickeres suddunly broke out into laughter.
"You're too WEAK, Vertigo." he said, an evil smile spreading across
his handsome face. "Your hate keeps you from being able to defeat me. Your
good, but not good enough. And while your revenge is kept from you, it'll
only get worse." Havoc smiled one last time, saluting Quinn as Pyro appeared
beside him. Pyro turned his head slightly to the side, raised one hand, and
snapped his fingers. Flames engulfed the pair, but neither was harmed. With
an evil laugh echoing through the air, Havoc and Pyro were gone.
"FUCK!" Vertigo yelled, tossing an invisable telekinetic force ball
at the spot where Havoc had been with his mind. When the force hit, the
earth shook and cracked, sending pieces of stone into the air.
He sheathed his sword and reached up to rub his temples. That blast
of telekinetic force was a very large impulse of anger, and it strangly
drained him. At merely twenty-one years of age, Vertigo's mind was still
growing, and growing stronger at that, every day of his life.
He sighed in dispair, and turned to find Olivia. He saw her
standing behind him, about ten feet away, standing over the remaining of
Oniro's guards. The blades of her staff were splattered in blood, and she
too noticed the blood on Vertigo's hands.
He saw again his father's body, and the sadness overwhelmed him. He
tried to hide it, looking away from her, but it did no good. A tear forming
in her eye, Toxin walked up to him and hugged him tightly. Quinn inhaled
deeply, sucking back tears, as he held her.
"Quinn.." she whispered, placing her hand behind his head. "We have
to go. There will be more of them soon."
He shook his head. "No, Olivia," he said. "I can't. That bastard
has to pay for what he did before I leave this clan. If I can't have Havoc's
blood, I'll take Oniro's."
She pulled back and looked up at him. "Oh Quinn.." she said, shaking
her head. "Revenge is sweet, isn't it? But once you kill him, then what?
It'll still hurt, and nothing will have changed. It's only a temporary pain
reliever. It doesn't solve anything at all. If we stay here, we'll be
killed, and that's not what your father wanted. He wanted you out of here
alive. Please Quinn, let's get out of here."
He looked at her, his eyes wet with tears, and nodded slowly. Olivia
half smiled, took his hand, and began to lead him from the room, when they
both heard yelling and footsteps behind them. They turned to see at minimum,
fifteen guards, pouring through the doors behind Oniro's throan. The leader
of the group saw Vertigo and Toxin, pointed to them, and yelled for the group
to attack.
Olivia looked at Quinn, and saw that he stared at the assassins with
no trace of emotion on his face. Instead of attacking in a blind, bitter
rage, like she expected of him, Vertigo simply pointed a finger and the
ceiling, and with what seemed like no effort at all, caused the roof to
callapse. The ceiling shook and cracked, and finally caved in, causing
quite a racket and one hell of a mess as the dust settled. The screams and
curses of the ninjas on the other side were muffled by the crashing stone.
Vertigo and Toxin exited the room by the same doors they came in,
and met Vertigo's mother directly outside the room. She was panting
heavily from continuous running, and had a frightened look on her face.
"Quinn.." she gasped. "What happened? Anna told me something had
happened..."
Vertigo looked down at his feet. "It's dad," he said solemnly.
"He... he's dead.."
Nira gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Her eyes welled
up with tears immediately, and she began to sob. Quinn moved forward to hug
his mother. He held her tightly, trying to comfort her without words. He
was capable of verbal comfort. Olivia was.
Toxin put her arms around Nira shoulder and leaned in close to the
woman and her son.
"Nira," she said softly. "We must get out of here now. It isn't
safe. I know a place where we can go."
Nira, between sobs, nodded slowly. She pulled off her son's
shoulder, but let him hold her up. She couldn't seem to do it herself.
* * * * *
~OutWorld - Outside the Living Forest~
Olivia, Quinn, and Nira arrived in the OutWorld, and stood outside
the living forest, watching the living trees before them.
"Olivia.." Nira asked, looking over the landscape of the forest.
"Where are we going?"
Toxin turned to Nira, and glanced up at Vertigo. He knew, but his
mother didn't. "My sister. She is the guardian of this forest. Ivy will
take us in."
Nira sighed. "I can't go with you. I have to be on my own for a
while, to think things through. To figure out what I'm going to do with the
rest of my life." She reached into her uniform as she spoke, and pulled out
a large crystal attached to a metal chain.
Vertigo tried to protest, but before he could, his mother spoke
again.
"Here, Quinn." she said. "I want you to have this. Sorcery is
VooDoo's repartee, but she isn't here, so I'm giving this to you." She
handed him the crystal. "Maybe someday you'll become a powerful sorcerer,
hmm?"
Vertigo snickered, holding the crystal in his palm.
His mother hugged him once more, then hugged Olivia, before turning
to leave.
"If you ever need anything, mom..." Quinn said after her. "Just
think me a message. I'll be there."
His mother smiled slightly. "I'll be in touch."
The trees of the Living Forest seemed unusually calm as Toxin and
Vertigo ventured through the woods. Olivia told Quinn that they knew her
quite well, obviously, and remembered her as a friend. She also told him
that he was going unharmed because he was with her.
The forest continued to grow more dense and dark as the two traveled
through it. The trees moaned, and an eerie wind blew through the leaves.
The clear path ahead of them seemed to continue on forever.
Quinn felt a sharp ring in the back of his brain, the feeling that he
had come to associate with a warning for his telepathic mind. He looked
forward, and the clear path suddunly began to take great change. Vines
erupted from the ground, forming a wall in front of them, blocking them from
continuing. Vertigo reached behind him on instinct and unsheated his sword.
Olivia abruptly held a hand in front of him.
"No." she said. "It's okay."
"Who are you?" a female voice boomed from the other side of the
vines. "And why do you come to my forest?"
Toxin took a step forward. "It's me, Ivy." she said. "Olivia."
There was a pause, and then as suddunly as they had come, the vines
around Olivia and Quinn vanished, pulling back into the ground they came from.
"Olivia?" the same voice asked, seeminly bewildered. A figure
appeared where the vines had been, a tall female, clad in the uniform of
OutWorld female ninjas in green. She had brown hair, and dark green eyes.
Her features were strong and attractive, and she looked a bit like Olivia.
Ivy's body was wrapped in green vines, which continued to surround her staff.
She took a step toward them.
"Sister." she said, smiling under her mask. "It's been a long
time."
"It has." Olivia replied, smiling and hugging Ivy tightly.
When Toxin pulled away from her sister's embrace, she held a hand out
to Quinn.
"Ivy," she said. "This is my fiancé, Quinn." She smiled, and
turned to Vertigo. "Honey, this is Ivy, my sister."
"Well," Ivy smiled. "I'm sure any man Olivia picks for her husband
must make a very good brother-in-law. Welcome to the family." She held out
her hand to him, but to Ivy's surprise, he hesitated to shake it. He looked
deeply into her eyes, stayed there for a second, and finally, after what
seemed like eternity to Ivy, his deep blue gaze left her, and he reached out
to shake her hand.
"Nice to meet you too." he said, grinning widely. The smile seemed
genuine enough, but Ivy was unable to convince herself that it was.
Toxin rolled her eyes, and the side of her mouth curled up. "Quinn,
you don't have to 'check' every person we meet. Especially my sister." she
laughed as Vertigo simply shrugged his shoulders.
Ivy's eyes narrowed in confusement. Olivia placed a hand on her
shoulder. "I'm sorry, Ivy. You see, Quinn is a telepath. And he has this
nasty habit of probing peoples' minds."
Ivy smiled. "That's quite allright." she said. "So... when are you
two to be married?"
Quinn and Olivia's faces fell.
"Well.." Toxin started. "Our wedding was to be next month. But...
that's really why we're here."
Ivy's smile faded, and she looked at her sister with deep concern.
"What happened?"
"My father was executed today." Quinn said simply. "Put to death
for protesting a terrible idea that my uncle, the leader of my clan, wanted
to put into effect. I watched him die before we were able to escape the
clan."
Ivy's eyes began to show sorrow. She covered her mouth with one
hand. "I'm so sorry." she said. "You two can stay here as long as you
want. The forest will protect you."
Ivy then turned to lead them to her home. Olivia turned to Quinn,
smiled slightly, and took his hand. As he was led to his new home, he took
a look around his new home. Dark, gloomy, demeaning. The living trees had
been rumored to feast on the flesh of any other organism that invaded their
space. Quinn wondered how long he would be there, and without the
understanding of nature that Ivy and her sister had, would it be as lovely
as they made it sound.
End of Chapter 4
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