Chapter 13 - Boogie Nights

Hopping out of a transport shuttle, Caleb, Jel, Veronica and Thatti took in awe the serene skyline. Out in Xi's Kaebr-Frell region, a massive astroid belt formed a ring around its solar system, populated and engineered by the orbiting space facility nearby. The residential homes, commercial districts and parks were all maintained by artificial atmospheric sky-membranes, bioengineered flora and Cascade-construct bridges to maintain easy transport. "Welcome to Kaebr-Frell, the 'Swellest' suburbs this side of the galaxy" said a greeter that hovered above the four of them. "It's so nice of you to drop by. Here are your passes, tours are at-" "Yeah yeah." Jel dismissed him.

"How'd you get us through the security without passes?" Caleb asked. "Amnesia." Thatti replied, smiling. The 4 quickly found themselves in a suburban-like area, the site of other meteors and neighborhoods directly overhead. "So this is society where boring adults go to die." Jel threw her arms up teasingly. "I can see the light. And I ain't going for it.

"More like, Society of the mind." Veronica snickered. She gave a brief summary about living in the community; the benefits of living in the suburbs, the downsides of living in a city near the major population Xi centers etc. "But we're really bored, we wanna do something fun." said Veronica, turning to face the street. Thatti and Caleb shared a look. Suddenly a hovering tourship passed by them, only a few meters off the ground. The group looked at each other and smiled. "C'mon, let's do this." Jel ran to get inside it.

The vehicle stopped at a nearby sightseeing station, its double-decker windows revealing passengers inside. Veronica quickly followed, climbing on the ledge of the ship. Thatti and Caleb were quickly after her, jumping on the tourship and running over 1 the ledge and to the top of it. Soon the 4 boarded inside while the driver was distracted speaking about the wonders of Xi to

an elderly couple nearby. Quickly the group snuck into a private seating area, Becca and Caleb using their powers to get past unseen. One guard saw them walk into the VIP area.

"Hey wait, st-"

 

"Forget." Becca poked him, then they went to very back of the tourship.

 

Strobe lights, a cybernetic DJ, two dancing holograms and numerous neon-lit plastic couches were in the corner of the room. Echo-Kai Starling playing over the speakers, the group looked at each other with delight. Becca quickly switched with Thatti, grabbed Caleb's hand and ran do the dance floor. "This is how you have fun, huh you guys?" Caleb was at a loss for words s. Veronica walked up to him. "Just don't embarrass us in the public, capiche?" "I will!" Jel looked in the direction of their seats on the deck above, climbing a ladder and emptying a bag of scorpions onto stuffy tourists above the VIP area. The Orchid girl and the Xi boy then turned towards each other, dancing freely. "We could start doing this a lot more often." Thatti whispered to Caleb seductively. She placed her chest close to Caleb's and the two swung from side to side together

in rhythm to the song. Caleb's hand went on Thatti's buttcheeks, Thatti's on his cheeks. The two were close, so close the others could feel their heat from where they were standing. As strobelights flashed over their face, the tourship accelerated and went over a nearby city on the next local meteor.

The music stopped and silence came over the cabin. Looking the two then at each other, Jel and Veronica shared a grin. "Aw that was so cute." Veronica said. "We can have our own little fun." Jel's rubbed Vero's chin. Vero kissed her cheek in response. "So is that a yes?"

Caleb and Thatti were a bit further, having a moment at the top of a sky-bridge road that was lit up with rainbow holograms and fireworks over the Kaebr city. "I really like you." Thatti said. "Thanks, I like you too." Thatti replied. Caleb went to Thatti and kissed her softly on the lips. "I mean, I like like you." Thatti looked down, her pink flapdome glowing slightly. "I like like you

too." She poked her chest out. "I really like you too, I want you to be my girlfriend." She smiled as Caleb picked her up, kissing her passionately.

Suddenly a loud THUD occured. "You lovebirds really are going to puke at this rate, bugaboos." A feminine voice said from behind. The two turned around. "P-Petal!" Petal stood with Diane and Lazuli, with Nefcy on Petal's shoulders.

"You!" Thatti reached for her wand.

 

"Don't worry, we're just here to relax. It’s a total coincidence I swear." Petal assured her, patting Nefcy's ears softly.

"Speak for yourself!" Diane extended her claws and wings. "Give me your wand, or pay the price! Mwa~"

"Bah, what are ya'll doing here?" Caleb said rolling his eyes. "Haven't you given it a rest?" Diane hissed. "Never!" She launched herself at Thatti, who switched with Becca and turned headhunter into a shield. "You two have fun with that." Petal winked and sipped a glass of some exotic drink. Her and Nefcy climbed down onto the lower levels, back into the clubbing room and sat on the plastic couch next to Jel and Veronica. Caleb patted Becca on the shoulders and began climbing down too. "You've got this!"

"Hello dears, don't mind us. C'mere sunny." Petal sat laid down on both their laps Petal sipped her drink with a straw while Nefcy cuddled up close to Petal, leaning on her.

Upstairs on the ship's roof, Diane and Lake were shooting a combination of fire and ice at Becca. "Code 19: Eternal Wall!" She shouted, her body becoming metallic. The girl charged through both their attacks, clocking Diane in the jaw and Lake in the tit.

"Ugh, get her!" Diane shouted.

"Y-yes boss!" Lazuli swallowed. "Frozen Bubble!" She shot a orb of slush forward at high velocity, Becca tackling until her body shred it into shimmering snowflakes.

"It's useless!!" Becca roared. "Cuz I'm invincible!" Becca responded, charging towards them. The two braced for impact, when a black streak from the sky shot down, jolting the tourship from its slow cruise, descending like a meteor.

The group looked down to see a black silhouette of a humanoid monster with horns, long hair and sharp claws on her body. "Who are you, and why did you crash our little party?" Petal laughed. The figure looked at Petal briefly, taking her drink and crushing it. It began to crawl up the ladder and upstairs, leaping high and gaining demonic black wings. She looked towards Thatti. "This stops now!" Her voice yelled out, deeper than anyone else had heard. "Oh it's.. you! I almost didn't recognize you, after you ogre'd out." Becca turned Headhunter into a powerful spear. "Ey, Jetti? Back for another round?"

"We meet again." She smirked. Lazuli shot a frostbolt at the girl, but it swerved it away with its fist, punching the frost through the streets. Becca shot a laser beam from Headhunter's speared tip, only for the beam to bounce off its body. The girl charged over, the numchucks swinging with a glittering light. "Or I guess, 'you' are Jetti right now." She looked at the Num- chucks. "And that would make you, her Perceptcival."

"Name's Spirit Chaser." She said, holding Jetti.

 

"Get out of my WAY!" Diane leapt from behind at the 7' tall girl, only to get her face grabbed, Snatcher violently tossing her far out into the skyline. She pointed Jetti at her. "Code 6: Voltfire! Obituary Oblivion!" A beam of electrical inferno erupted from the num-chuk’s swing and engulfed her in an explosive roar above, Diane's body began to shred apart, turning into a pile of dust. "B-boss!" Her red jewel fell like a falling star until Lazuli caught it.

"Wahahaha! Get dunked!" She looked towards the others on the ship, her tail flicking her tail wildly. Jetti in her hands began to crackle uncontrollably, the energy backfiring and exploding. When the flash cleared, a coughing Jetti was in her former lithe shape again, holding Chaser in her hands. "Ugh, we overdid it with that spell. Still not used to holding that for long." She held out her numbchucks menacingly. In front of her, Becca with Headhunter and Lazuli with her scythe all eyed each other.

"Ohh!" Lazuli screeched. She took a hit in the ribs from Thatti, the spear scraping her. "What?! Wait, I'm your friend!" She whimpered. "I was on your s-side!"

"The hell you are!" She yelled.

 

"I was only following Diane’s orders! But after the B-boss got taken out, I switched to defend your honour!" Diane's gem still in her pocket.

Downstairs, Caleb was sitting atop of Petal and Nefcy, who sat over Veronica and Jel, squishing them.

"Boy, you're being very rude!" Petal pouted and scratched the back of her head. The tourship swerved and rocked, both from its path and the rumble above. "They're getting really rough up there, pfufu~" Nefcy said.

"Hey, who cares?" Caleb shrugged.

 

Nefcy turned and put her paws to his cheek. "Boy, don't be a bad boy, be a good boy." She glared at him menacingly. Caleb chuckled. "I'll be on my best behavior."

"Hey I've been meaning to say this..." Lazuli placed a hand on her shoulder. "I've never seen you guys fight before, how did you guys meet each other?" Thatti leaned into her.

"We... sorta..." Becca turned to face her and then towards Jetti. "Killed each other? Back when Thatti first found me. She appeared out of nowhere and tried to murder me, said it was in the name of 'Granny Grim' or some nonsense."

Jetti's right eye glowing white with light, her body pumped with life. The determination of justice flowed through her.

"Sounds, familiar." Lazuli responded.

 

"Code 9: Ion Immensity! Jetti let go, glittering shards of blacklight enveloping her whole body. She rapidly sped towards the two. "C'mon you got nothing!" Thatti cried as she swung Headhunter, while Lazuli shot a blast of ice at Jetti, knocking her backwards. Becca jumped, her boots kicking her onto the ground, spinning into the air with a somersault. Jetti yelled. "Code 3: Black Eclipse!" A massive swirl of shadow-light surrounded Becca, engulfing Lazuli in it and throwing her far. Jetti was relentless. "Code 17: Tundra Shockblast!" She shot a static-charged cyan orb into the air at Lake, the cold air turning her into a frozen statue, and slamming into the streets below, her body shattering into pieces, gem tumbling to the ground along with Diane's.

Diane's gem flashed, her body slowly reforming finally. When her body was restored, a masked figure pulled their zipper, lips breathing neon steam. "Such an embarrassment.." She opened up an umbrella and began to pursue the tourship.

The tourship began to rock harder and harder. As she looked up, Petal's face went white with worry. "Oh my, this girl is quite strong!" The two above were going at it, Jetti being struck down again and again, but Becca was taking a heavy toll too. Both swung and charged at the other over and over while trying to maintain footing, the tourship entering a tunnel on one meteor along a Cascade-hardwave highway.

"Hey, is one of you two going to help me or what?" Becca yelled to Petal below. She shook her head, Nefcy still on her lap, Caleb on Nefcy's shoulders. "We're fine for now."

 

Jel snorted and began laughing, snapping her fingers. The ship rocked and turned, it's lights flickering. Explosions rocked everywhere. The tourship began to spin, flipping and rolling. Thatti and Jetti were still going at it, while the group below tumbled and spun, hitting the walls and ceiling. Jel got up and started laughing hilariously.

Upstairs, Jetti was able to dodge most of Becca's attacks and finally able to pin the girl down, though it wasn't until the girl lost her footing and fell that she nearly stumbled. She grabbed Headhunter and pointed it at her. "I win! You are the fiercest opponent I've had so far! But I am the justice's delivery. There is still room for improve-" Another Tourship overhead sped from behind and hit Jetti, sending her tumbling right out of the tunnel. "Geez.." Becca leapt off the bus and walked towards Jetti, who was still dazed from being rammed. The tourbus soon slowed down a block ahead, coming to a stop.

Her numchucks glowed. "Jetti, are you ok?" Chaser asked.

 

"Y-yeah.. I think I broke my hip. Healing spell.. gotta remember, what was my.." The sound of latex boots crunched along the highway pavement beside her. Becca picked up Headhunter from the translucent blue road and squinted, the girl's her face hidden by her rubber hood.

When even the slightest flicker of recognition sparked in her eyes, her body began to get chills. She found her transformation reversing, Thatti shaking face to face with the figure ahead. The girl shook so much, voice cracked.

"I know you." Her three words felt like a dagger from the devil. "Yes, we have met. I am-"

"YOU'RE.." The placed her umbrella aside. Her rubbery zipper-mask flapped off, revealing an obsidian gem, skin polished and glassy like a dark black marble.

"YOU!!"

 

"You're the one who took him away."

 

"No-" She reached out her arm. "I-I was-" She was silenced by Thatti's grip. The group ran up the steps and reached towards her. Thatti's grip tightened and clenched, crushing the figure's windpipe, slowly suffocating her.

"I-I-I'm..." Thatti started to cry. "Am going to kill you!"

 

She shrieked, her body slowly starting to glow, her hair shimmering with starlight. The group from the tourship caught up and looked on in horror.

The Obsidian gem shuddered, her face frozen in agony as Thatti was squeezing her body to death. Tears laced with a multitude of colors shed down, a sharp pang from her mind returning to her. "Wait! H-hold on, I-I didn't..." She began to hyperventilate and cry, her body in a dazed state. "I-I'm sorry, p-please don't hurt me!" Thatti, in all of her misery found it in her to relax her grip.

The girl's eyes were still for a second, a golden flicker in them, she clutched her own head as that golden glow began to shift into multicolors. "N-no momma.. please.. she said to.. to.." She fidgeted, internal conflict broiling over. "N-no, I'm not.. not gonna kill you!" She whispered, her expression changing. "I'll just.." She took out her umbrella - a Perceptcival weapon, removing the handle from the top and shifting it. At once, it became a steely crowbar.

Speeding quickly at Jack, gem, Thatti rapidly gave thrusts with headhunter, changing from a sword, to a spear, to katana, a scythe and mace. Every attack, Jack turned into a blue and purple flash of afterimages, time warping around them as they easily dodged Thatti’s attacks, seeming to move right by them as if they light dancing out of harms way. They sped up, dozens of images of Jack rapidly trailing in a full circle around Thatti until she was overwhelmed.

“Thatts, kid c’mon! You cannot beat her, you have to switch with me! She’s going to murder you

if you don’t-“

 

Jack flashed forward, her crowbar coming down near Thatti with no warning.

 

Thatti took one look, one single look at the metallic stick and "CODE 26: ABSOLUTION OBLITERATION!" shouted out of her tearful hysteria, a massive wave of charged light tearing through the ground like a tidal-wave, drilling smack into everything around her. An earthquake sent shockwaves throughout, the bridge construct was collapsing. Caleb was sent flying to one side, Petal barely caught Nefcy's body, Jel and Veronica held onto each other. The shockwave tore through the streets, the highway bridge collapsing below, nearby ships hit with debris and bursting into flames falling onto the skyscrapers just beneath. The rubble was everywhere, falling into the city housed on the meteor below. "Code 9: Avalonia! Icarus Overdrive!" As wings thrust out her back, Thatti began to fly from debris piece to debris, landing and bouncing on each to pursue and reach the obsidian girl, getting closer with every ricochet. "JACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She

shouted as she crashed into the city below, landing atop of the girl's body. With rainbow crystalline eyes, Jack threw Thatti off with a burst of freakish strength, the dust from the destroyed Cascade-bridge looking like moonlight in the cityline. She started stumbling towards Thatti. The latter turned Headhunter into a katanna and charged ahead. "Jack!! JACK!" She screamed. Her eyes, full of water. When her blade reached for her neck, Jack blocked it with her crowbar, her mouth started to whimper. Then, chuckle abit. Finally she giggled. "Code 3: L'étrange." Black spikes shot out from the ground and instantly impaled Thatti across her shoulder and legs.

“JACK. JACK JACKJACKIHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHATE YOU I. HATE. YOU. JAAAAAAAAAAAAACK JACK JACK JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK JACKFMMKINJACKJACKJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK! DIE DIE DIE”

Thatti went berserk. "AAAAAAAAHHHGHHHHH-" She swung Headhunter wildly, losing all composure. "Kill you, I'll KILL YOU!" She flung the blade towards her face, Jack ducked. When her headhunter-blade hit the umbrella-crowbar, it flipped. Jack easily overpowered her.

She clutched her head. "N-no, stop.. run.." Her body began to vibrate, crackling with multicolored circuits throughout her body and a growing intensity, brightly illuminating the city. "Snff.. hii..hihi.. hihihi..” Once again, her whimpers turned to giggles, then her mouth began to charge an orb of dense vibrancy around her mouth, glowing every possible color. The girl turned the brightness up to overdrive, this sphere growing so large that it dwarfed her head. She swallowed it, shook as if struggling to hold it in, and then finally like a deluge of dragon's breath, she unleashed the motherload. A missile ray of rainbow energy twirled and expanded towards Thatti, the explosion tearing apart cityblocks as it ripped through the night.

It was all in slow motion. Everything, everyone, every light and sight was so clear to Thatti, yet everything seemed so far away, like her brain had just hit the freezing point.

When the explosion subsided, Jack fell to her knees, her mouth smoking. She looked up at the sky, tightly holding the crowbar and began crackling, howling like a hyena's laugh. Her face, as if painted with an intense rainbow aura twisted into an expression of pure ecstasy, cruel and sick.

"Code 2: Lightdisc Emitter." With a quick flick of her wrist, Jack shot a lightblade towards Thatti, the impact exploding against her body and sending her tumbling into a building, crumbling the structure. The light then shifted and formed a giant rainbow sphere, the same size as before, but more intensified. Jack giggled again and laughed maniacally, then with a flick of her wrist, the sphere rolled towards Thatti, crashing her again and again until the ground collapsed. She began trudging the broken path around the crater where Thatti laid, picking her up and shoving her dark, sheeny fists into the girl's face, punching her again and again until she broke her nose. "Pain.. more pain!" She stomped on her chest until blood squirted out of the girl's mouth, then held her up by the neck and continued shifting her fists into her face.

"Should've stayed home tonight! SUGAH, NOTHING TO REGRET! EYAHAHAH, SO MUCH PAIN! IT'S DELIGHTFUL! KISS THE PAIN!"

Jack slammed Thatti against the ground again, causing her body to shatter, a rainbow glass mess of dust. "Bitch, you ain't even worth.. AAAAAA-" Thatti took a heavy breath and slowly opened her eyes, they flickering into rainbow multicolors before going solid with the colors. She picked up her crowbar, swinging it at her temple- right before Thatti grabbed it, trembling. "Just like that night.." She remembered it all, the party, that night, they should've never left. Her mind flashed back, that crowbar.

The same one that came down and cracked his skull.

 

“You recognize this don’t you, Thatti Fatti?” Jack asked, holding it for her to see with a twisted expression on her face, callous and sadistic. She twitched, eyes flickering.

Suddenly Jack Rhosella's expression shifted. "Th-Thattin?" She asked softly, her voice breaking as her eyes became teary and pained. Why was she trying to hurt her again? The dust began to settle, debris from the highway and collapsed Cascade-constructs piling the ground. Thatti took a heavy breath and Jack slowly opened her eyes, they flickering into rainbow multicolors before going solid with golden color. Thatti was looking right back up at her, the same expression and rage in her eyes.

"S-Stay away, I'm sorry.." Jack's body quivered, she slowly lowered her blade. "I'm sorry.." She whispered to her, softly. "Thattinnfff?" She said, her hands quivering, holding the crowbar. She started to back away and then ran back, running as fast as she could.

Thatti's face dripped with blood. All her emotion poured out of her, and she collapsed on the ground. On another tourship Petal hijacked, Caleb hopped out along with a concerned Petal and Lazuli. Thatti couldn't even stand.

"It was her.." She spoke with a broken voice. She turned to Caleb. "The monster. The one that killed my brother..." The blood poured out of her mouth, she coughed several times. She sniffled.

"Caleb... she murdered Nathan."