Post by StoryGirl83 on Nov 9, 2011 14:40:34 GMT -5
Chapter Nine – Biology
and two demons
Max stared across the field at the two demons. There was something familiar about them. He hadn’t noticed when he had been trying to follow them, but now that they weren’t shimmering all over the place he had an uneasy feeling that he wasn’t going to like what he learned.
Next to him Brianna was trying to focus on them, but her powers didn’t seem to be doing much good. “They’re so confusing,” she whispered. “It’s like they are bouncing their emotions back and forth between them. It’s a rather weird sensation.”
“It’s a good thing I took that blocking potion in January,” Max mumbled resigned to what he knew had to be true.
“Huh?” Brianna looked at him surprised. “What has that to do with this?”
He sighed, unsure how to explain it. He didn’t really want to explain, but there seemed to be no other way.
“Max?” she looked at him concerned. “You’re worrying me. What do they have to do with the blocking potion?”
“Actually, it would have been good if you had taken one,” he commented. “They’ll be able to track you, but it’s way too late to worry about that now.”
“Track me?” She looked at him confused.
He nodded. “They can track emotions.”
“Does this have anything to do with the underworld tracking the infamous CT Bennett?” she asked in a mocking whisper.
Max rolled his eyes. “Of course not. They have nothing to do with Ben.” He scowled. “They’re Synergists.”
Brianna blinked and looked at him surprised. “So that’s what this is,” she whispered, recognizing the name. “They’re family.”
“No, of course not,” Max disagreed instantly. Not that it mattered much. “Just because they are of the same species as my mother does not make them family.”
“Then, I still don’t understand,” Brianna admitted. “They tried to kill that girl.”
“She has a name you know,” Max reminded her, trying to get her off the subject of his much unloved mother.
“Well, Ben didn’t say which girl,” Brianna argued.
He’d told Max. “The youngest one. Pearl, I think.” He’d known it was the one argument that could stop Max’s every disagreement, but now that he knew they were Synergists it was a lot more complicated than his friend had realized.
“But you understand why we can’t let them continue on,” she pressed.
“They are no longer a threat, Brianna,” Max disagreed. Not to Pearl Halliwell there weren’t. No, the threat wasn’t to her now. Now, he was the one in danger.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered confused. “If we don’t they’ll hurt someone else.”
“They’re in hiding, Brianna,” he argued. “They aren’t planning to hurt anyone.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You don’t understand the Synergists, Brianna,” he disagreed. “They’re . . . different then other demons.”
Brianna frowned. “Then, tell me what I need to know. You keep that part of you quiet. We know all about your father’s side, but you never even mention the Synergists.”
“That’s because it’s too dangerous,” he admitted.
“To talk about them?” she asked in a slightly amused whisper. “Honestly, Max, it’s not as if they are going to lock you away for mentioning them.”
“Maybe not,” he admitted, “but at the same time when you’re one of them you don’t want to anger them, especially if you are only half Synergists. I can’t fight back.”
“Fight back?” she queried. “But what can they do?”
A disembodied hand grabbing her by the leg and pulling her down answered her question. The sound of Brianna crying out shocked Max into action. He may have wanted to avoid this confrontation, but that was no longer an option. He shimmered out and reappeared behind the two Synergists. The air around him shimmered as he transformed into a large snake.
Brianna scrambled up. She pulled a potion out of an invisible belt she’d enchanted for use. She threw it at the demon that Max wasn’t fighting with.
To her shock the demon froze.
“They’re lower level!?!” she demanded of the coiled form of Max as he squeezed the second demon.
He turned his snake head toward her and flicked out his tongue. It was an odd thing to see his head wag back and forth in a negative.
Brianna sighed as pulled a potion out of a different spot on her belt. She needed Max in humanoid form so she could get complete answers from him.
The Synergist unfroze and lashed out a disembodied hand at Brianna.
Max lashed out his tail in the air between the Synergist and its hand.
Brianna blinked in surprise as it caused the hand to drop down and recoil at its owner. A grin popped onto her face. “Invisible forces in the air; show yourself, we’ll see you here. Demonic forces to hide the truth; allow us to see you beneath this roof.”
Max squeezed the demon within his grasp tightly enough to knock it out. He let go and returned to his humanoid form.
Brianna watched amazed as extra limbs appeared all over the two demons. She turned a glance at Max. “You?”
He shook his head with a slight grin. “Nope.”
“Still.”
He chuckled.
“Ideas?” she asked as she dodged one of those extra limbs. She was knocked off balance a moment later by a second limb coming at her and fell to the ground.
One of the extra limbs wacked Max in the back hard enough to knock him down before he could answer. He heaved in a breath before he pushed himself back to his feet.
Brianna rolled over and jumped to her feet. “Not what I meant.”
Max chuckled some more as he dodged another limb. It was immediately followed by another that split the air between the two and rammed into the wall behind them, getting stuck.
“Don’t touch it,” Max directed her.
“Problem?”
“Electricity,” he informed her as he ran toward the limb crackling with electricity. He took half a second to savor the startled look that crossed the Synergist’s face before he shifted his body back into that of a snake.
The Synergist started shooting limbs at Max, unsure what his intention was, but sure it wasn’t good. He ignored Brianna all together as he tried to stop Max’s progress, shooting limbs at Max which were all avoided with ease.
Brianna felt fear emanating from the Synergist to the point where it immobilized her. The demon was terrified.
Max slithered along, dodging the limbs, trying to stop him with speed that was almost a blur.
Brianna couldn’t move, the fear coming from the demon overwhelming her. She couldn’t even see what was happening, it was so fast.
As Max slithered toward the Synergist at lightning fast speeds he ran electricity through his torso, rapidly building it up to deadly levels. A Synergist could kill another Synergist, but it was at the cost of their life. Being only half Synergist Max couldn’t predict the result.
He shot his electrically charged body into the air and wrapped it tightly around the limb still stuck in the wall. Even as the demon finally managed to dislodge the extra arm and try to escape, Max just coiled tighter and tighter, pulling the demon at him.
Brianna forced the Synergist’s fear and her own to the back of her mind. She still didn’t know what Max was up to, but she could see the sparks rising from the two combatants and she could see the second synergist beginning to stir.
She reached into her belt to grab a potion just as an explosion emanated from where Max and the Synergist were fighting. It filled the entire cavern, slamming Brianna into the cavern wall, knocking her unconscious as blood began to seep out a wound in her head.