CHAPTER 9

 

            The creature circled Blossom and Buttercup slowly…they were aware it was doing so, but didn’t know where it was exactly.  Blossom listened carefully, hoping to hear any kind of sound that would give away its position, but the creature moved with stealth, leaving no tracks and making no sound, a phantom just beyond their senses.  They both knew it could strike again at any time…

            “What now?” Buttercup asked, trying her best to mask her fear.  She had never felt so helpless in combat before…this thing had nearly paralyzed her with one attack, and if it hadn’t been for Blossom’s intervention, she would surely have died right then and there.  She felt weak, powerless…a mere child, up against someone of superior strength.  Though in the past she would have hated to rely on Blossom’s aid, she was dependant on it here, and didn’t think twice about it.

            Blossom continued to listen carefully…it was hard to pinpoint any sounds, what with all the background noise in the halls of this temple.  Water dripping, gusts of air, the distant rumbling of the city far above them…she narrowed her eyes, though, and focused on the gusts of air.  They seemed at first to be merely wind, perhaps drafts from these tunnels, but she began to sense a rhythm amongst them.  Is that the creature’s breathing? she wondered…No wait…no, it’s just a draft…  She was getting too edgy…every little noise was starting to sound threatening, imagining hundreds of these things surrounding them…

            She glanced down at the Tome of Eternal Darkness, still in her hands.  She recalled something from it, a spell which could force the unseen to reveal itself, and closed her eyes to focus.  Drawing on the power of the Tome, she stretched out with her spirit and called forth the old ones’ powers.  Buttercup fell back slightly in awe as a circle of five runes appeared near Blossom’s feet, casting an unearthly blue glow into the air above them…a voice, which Blossom now recognized as Ulyaoth’s, echoed each rune as it activated in succession: […narokath… redgormor… pargon… Ulya--…]

            Before it could complete, however, the creature suddenly slammed into her, causing her to yelp in surprise.  She was knocked away from the circle of runes, which immediately disintegrated in a brief shower of sparks…the Tome flew from her arms, and as she hit the ground from the blow, it landed across the room, sliding across the stone floor until coming to a rest.  The creature, in the meantime, had become partially visible, pulling back its arm in preparation to strike at the stunned Blossom with its claws.

            Buttercup yelled, “No!!” and leapt towards the creature’s back, hoping to deliver a solid punch to it.  Noticing her out of the corner of its eye, however, it spun to face her, using the momentum to swing its bared claws across her chest.  With a cry, Buttercup felt the claws rake through her flesh and backed off, clutching her midsection.  This had given Blossom time to recover, however, and she got up from the ground, flying over and grabbing the creature by the arm.  She pulled with all her strength, lifting it up from the ground and hurling it as hard as she could against the wall.  It struck against the stone with an audible *crunch*, collapsing in an immobile heap on the ground.

            Blossom let out the breath she was holding, and flew over to help Buttercup, saying, “Are you all right?”

            Breathing heavily herself, Buttercup lifted her arms away from her chest, looking at the deep cuts the beast’s claws had left.  “I’ll…I’ll be okay…” she said, looking back up at Blossom…as she did, she noticed that her sister looked particularly drained, as she was sweating heavily.  “What’s wrong?” she quickly added.

            “Nothing, it’s just…” Blossom replied, then cut herself off to wipe the sweat from her forehead.  “It’s just, trying to cast those spells is a bit draining, that’s all…listen, I…I don’t think I can heal you again just yet…”

            Nodding, Buttercup said, “All right…I’ll be fine…”  She didn’t really want to admit how awful she really felt…surges of pain were jabbing her every few seconds from the wounds, and it took a lot of effort to steel herself against it.  The effort was sapping her strength, but she ignored it and said, “Now what?”

            “I don’t know,” Blossom said.  “I just don’t know anymore…it was a big mistake to come here, I know that all too well now.  Who knows what we’re…”

            “Shh!” Buttercup said, waving an arm to quiet her, cocking her head to listen.  Blossom fell silent and listened carefully as well, trying to see if she could hear whatever it was that Buttercup had heard.  There was nothing but silence, and the background noise she had heard before, but a second later, it came again: a low, faint moan in the distance…not an unearthly sound, but rather, a human one…

 

*          *            *

 

            Bubbles kept her teeth clenched as she flew into the room where she had heard voices shortly before.  The Cabal members had already left, but their work was still around the room.  There were small stone altars, arranged in a circle around a pedestal in the center, upon which runes were carved.  They seemed to glow faintly, but Bubbles didn’t know if she was imagining it or not; she was becoming less and less sure of her senses with every passing moment…

            There was something on a few of the altars, covered with sheets.  Most of them were man-sized, and she knew what they probably were…sacrificial victims, to whatever horrid ritual they were doing.  As she looked across them, she saw bloodstains soaking through the tops of the sheets, and knew that her intuition was right.  More death, she thought.  No, no more death…I…I have to stop this, before even more people die…  In a way, she felt as though she was failing as a superhero, to have such terrible things happening right in the city she was protecting.

            One of the victims drew her attention…it was a lot smaller than the others, child-size.  The fact that they would use children in these rituals just made her all the more sickened by it, and yet, she felt a draw of morbid curiosity, wanting to know the identity of the child, to see if it was someone she knew.  She wanted to look away, but her eyes were cringing, she flew over slowly, and reached down to pull off the sheet to get a closer look…

            What she saw caused her to cry out in shock.  The child under the sheet was herself…the unmistakably large blue eyes were rolled back in her head, mouth frozen in what was probably a cry of pain, blood streaked across her blonde hair and the remains of the blue dress she wore…there a gaping wound in the center of the chest, and it looked as though her heart had been cut out.  But it was her…the sight of herself so horribly mutilated caused her to hover back, covering her mouth even though it did precious little to stifle her cries.  No no, this can’t be! she thought…I-I’m…I’m…I’m n-not dead…I’m not dead!  I’m here, I’m not dead!!

            Bubbles approached it again, and suddenly realized that it wasn’t her…the little girl had blonde hair and pigtails, similar to her own, and even had blue eyes.  How she mistook it for herself, she didn’t know…but she came to realize that it could just as easily have been her.  If the Cabal caught her, would they sacrifice her like this?  In fact, would they cut her chest open to get at the essence of Ulyaoth that she carried within her?  The thought made her shudder violently, and she whisked the sheet back over the girl, turning away and closing her eyes.  Still, she couldn’t put the thoughts out of her mind…

            Her head was pounding…she held the sides of her head as her thoughts spoke to her: You can’t stop them, they’re going to kill you…No, they won’t kill you, you’ll be a zombie, or worse…It won’t stop with you, it will only start with you, and continue to every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth…You can’t let it happen!…You can’t stop it!… It was becoming difficult to sort them out, which were here own thoughts and which were voices that she was hearing, from within or possibly from around her…

            At that moment, footsteps alerted her, and she snapped her head to the direction it came from with a gasp.  Two men had run into the room, stopping when they caught sight of her.  Both of them were clad in the same garb as the Cabal member she had seen before.  They must have recognized her, because they kept their distance.

            They did all this, Bubbles thought.  They’re the ones responsible… She wanted to fly over and beat them senseless, make them pay for what they did, but she stayed where she was, her thoughts from before whirling through her mind.  Everything was happening way too fast for her…she no longer knew what to think, or what to believe…

            One of the Cabal members spoke up, “What are you doing here?”

            “I…” Bubbles started to say, then she took a deep breath and tried to focus, staring intently at them.  “Professor Utonium…where is he?”

            The second Cabal member replied, “I don’t know who you’re…”

            “You’re lying!” Bubbles cried out, flying over and grabbing him by the shirt.  The other Cabal member tried to grab her, but with a quick backhand, Bubbles sent him tumbling across the room.  He hit the wall and slumped to the ground, unconscious.  Bubbles turned her attention back to the man she held now and shouted, “He came here earlier!  Do you know where he is?  Tell me!  Now!!”

            The man was startled, but he stammered, “W-we…we captured s-some guy earlier that was s-snooping around…”

            Bubbles nodded, “And?”

            “And…” the man continued, “…and…and my lord Ireseth…o-ordered his…his sacri-…sacrifice…”

            Hearing this, Bubbles stared wide-eyed into the man’s eyes, horrified…in a very small voice, barely a whisper, she said, “…no…you…you couldn’t…”

            “I’m telling you the truth…” he insisted.  “It was an hour ago, so he’s long dead, girl…you’d best leave, and not come back…”

            “No…no!”  Bubbles said, releasing him and backing up.  She couldn’t believe it, not after all this…not that mankind would face its darkest hour now, outside of her control to stop it.  And the professor, the one person who could help, was dead?  She wouldn’t accept it, she told herself over and over, No no no, it isn’t true…but it is!  No, it’s not!  It’s not real!  IT’S REAL, FACE IT, you and everyone else are dead!  You’re living and breathing, but you’re dead!  Nothing you can do will stop them!  You are all going to die, you are all going to face unspeakable horrors and DIE!  There’s no avoiding it anymore, you never had a chance, END IT you will not stop END IT ALL maybe the other girls NO can save NO THEY CAN’T…

            Bubbles grasped her head, which was pounding again, throbbing as her own thoughts hammered her without mercy…she lowered to the ground, falling to her knees and cried out, the cry of a tortured mind.  As she cried out, a blue fire burst into being around her, setting her aflame even though she didn’t seem to notice it, and obscuring her from the eyes of the Cabal member, who stared on uncomprehendingly, listening as her cry echoed down the corridors of the temple…

 

*          *            *

 

            “That voice came from this way!” Buttercup called out, heading down one of the nearby passageways, with Blossom right behind her.  This corridor seemed different than the others…it was a long one, set with several dozen small doors on both sides, heavily barred doors that were shut and locked firmly.  A dungeon, Buttercup thought.  So many of them…is this where they kept people for their rituals, like the Professor was saying?

            A quick glance through the barred windows on each door as they flew along told them that most of the cells were unoccupied…likely, if they were used, their occupants had already been removed.  Or perhaps they weren’t used at all.  Blossom hoped it was the latter…she didn’t want the Cabal to have claimed this many victims, even though she knew it probably paled in comparison to their victims over the years.  These cells were empty, but one of them had to be the source of the moan they heard…

            “Over here!” Buttercup shouted, stopping by one door.  “Look!”  Blossom flew over and looked into the cell Buttercup was looking through, and brightened slightly as she saw the occupant.  Professor Utonium was lying on his back on a plain metal bed sticking out of the wall…he looked injured, but otherwise alive, although he looked barely conscious.  Without any further hesitation, the girls unlocked the door and pulled it open together.

            The professor stirred, rolling his head to the side to see who was coming in.  With a look of amazement, he grunted, “…G-girls?”

            Going up to him, Blossom nodded and said, “You’ll be all right, Professor; we’re here to rescue you…we read your journal, and knew we’d find you here.”  She looked over his wounds, noticing that he had been beaten pretty badly, and said, “What happened to you?”

            “I…I tried to…to stop them…” the professor told them.  “But they’re…too many of them…couldn’t…and then Ireseth, h-he…his men caught me…trying to steal the…the essence of Mantorok…”

            “You didn’t stop them?” Buttercup asked.

            Shaking his head slightly, the professor continued, “No…I tried…but they…they locked me up…sent me over here for…for a sacrifice…but then the…the minions of the…old ones…started to show up…and they just locked me up…in here, instead…”  He tried to sit up, but winced in pain and laid back down.

            “Take it easy, Professor,” Blossom told him.  “We’ll get you to safet—…”  She hesitated for a moment, as the thought occurred to her…He never stopped them.  They’re going to unlock the powers of the essence, so there is no place safe…not anymore.  Tucking the Tome of Eternal Darkness under one arm, she picked up the professor’s arm and hoisted it over her back to lift him up, with Buttercup following suit with his other arm.

            The professor looked relieved, but then said, “I told you not to…to come after me…why did you?  Didn’t you realize…the danger…?”

            “We could never leave you behind,” Blossom said.  “You mean too much to us.”

            Nodding, the Professor glanced around and said, “…but where’s…where’s Bubbles?”

            “We got separated,” Buttercup said.  “I don’t know where she is now…we were going to look for her once we get you out of here, and…”

            Despite his pain, the professor’s eyes widened in shock, and he spoke strongly, “No, we have to find her…fast…”

            The urgency in the professor’s tone made Blossom hesitate…she knew that something was wrong, and that despite what she had learned from the Professor’s journal and the Tome, she may not have fully understood something.  With a feeling of dread slowly creeping across her, she asked, “Why?”

            “You remember how I said…in my journal,” the professor answered, “how your personalities are…are what’s keeping the essences…contained within you under control?”  The girls nodded, and he continued, “It is Bubbles’ emotional strength…her very sanity…that’s keeping Ulyaoth’s essence contained…it was the perfect counter to Ulyaoth’s power…but in the halls of this temple, she…she could lose that control.  There are those that strike…that strike directly at your mind…if her control slips, all it would take is…something to shatter it…and the results would be catastrophic if it happens…”

            Buttercup felt cold now, too, and said slowly, “…What would happen?”

            The professor started to answer, but before he could, he stayed quiet, in shock, as did the other girls.  They all heard it faintly…a scream of terror, echoing through the halls in the distance…a scream that was familiar, but at the same time so vastly different than they remember.  All three of them glanced at each other as they listened, and the scream fell silent a moment later…

 

*          *            *

 

            As Bubbles got back to her feet, the blue fire that surrounded her slowly vanished, although an aura of energy remained.  She lifted her head and stared out at the Cabal member, who took a few steps back from what he saw.  She had changed...her skin was grayed and looked thin, almost to the point of transparency.  Her hair had streaks of silver throughout it, with the pigtails undone, and her mouth was unsmiling, carrying the slightest of frowns.  Most changed, however, were here eyes...two black pools of darkness, yet with a piercing blue light emanating from the center.  She opened her mouth and spoke, her voice echoing both as Bubbles and Ulyaoth together: "Now begins the Eternal Darkness, and the suffering of all mankind..."

 

TO BE CONTINUED…