A New Age (Part Four)

Jim tapped on the control panel, the door shut. Turning to Tom he said, “They have a radio, we can contact them when they’re supposed to come back.” Tom nodded gloomily.
Samuel sighed heavily and contemplated his position. He was surrounded by cat-people and reptilians, and he himself was not exactly human any more. Although to be fair it was for his own safety for which it was done.
Matt had explained to him that there was a glass orb full of gas that had changed him completely, the same with Jim. Tom and Clara had been fully changed while they were sleeping while in contact with Diamond-Eye’s diamond.
“What is all the silence about?”
The question made Samuel jump, he noticed Matt looking directly at him. “Nothing, nothing at all. I’m perfectly fine, other than the fact that the man I stranded in the Arctic Circle just jumped out the door before I could work up the courage to apologize.”
Matt nodded sympathetically; knowing that this man had already apologized to Clara and Tom, forgiveness for his wrongs against others was easy.
Samuel decided to watch as much as he could of the battle between the reptilians and the fleet of hovercopters. He looked in the rear screen. All four were still alive, although Carl had a burn on his left leg. He watched as John sent a hovercopter down to the ground frozen in ice. Another followed quickly after it in a ball of flame, Adam celebrated quickly and moved on to another. David would fly around a hovercopter a few times and knock it off course by creating a whirlwind. Carl seemed to be able to call down lightning to strike the plastic and metal hovercopters. He also noticed that they would stop sometimes to attack other smaller, flying shadows.
A cold voice sounded behind him, “What’s all this?”
Samuel whirled around. Clara was standing right behind him, staring into the screen. Her left arm was still bandaged and she seemed very weary. There was a scar where she had been shot, but it was fully healed otherwise. She had left her cloak in the sleeping quarters. Without the cover of the cloak her tight clothing showed her figure and deadly weapons, at which Samuel gulped quietly, easily; Samuel noticed Tom and Matt staring at her; Matt’s pupils were very wide, but Tom’s stare was a calm one. Jim had a suspicious eye on both of them, his pupils almost invisibly narrow.
Samuel took a breath, recovering from the surprise. “They were keeping the fleet away until you got back. We can call them back now.” Samuel felt very tired, but he kept talking, to the embarrassment of Tom. “John said that he would wait for you to make a plan. He said that Tom’s mind barely left you long enough to think clearly for one moment.”
Clara raised an eyebrow and turned to Tom, who was trying to look very interested in the control panel, with an expression of cold amusement. Jim started to chuckle and picked up the radio, “John, you can return, Clara’s up and ready.”
The reply came clearly, “Alright, we’re on our way back.”
Tom pressed a few buttons on the control panel, the door opened. John flew in first, followed closely by Carl. David and Adam ran into each other before they got in, which was mostly Adam’s fault as they both explained.
John took a breath and started to talk, “The dark figure’s name is Nocturis, her people are what we’d call bats. Apparently she’s brought a few of them over too.” He turned his right arm to show the thin cut. The others also had various cuts and scratches, John had the smallest wounds and Adam had the worst. John explained, “Adam started to attack the bat-people, or Nocturians as they call themselves, after he had destroyed two copters. They have pretty good dark magics; as in the evil type, not the elemental type you cats use.”
Clara nodded and asked quietly, “What about our plan? You said that you were waiting for me to make one.”
John nodded, “Yes, let us do this alone with the presence of Diamond-Eye, according to what Dracopoten says, he will be here within a few minutes.” John picked up the diamond and walked into the store-room, Clara followed close behind.
Jim looked towards Tom, “You and I also need to talk.” He nodded his head towards the sleeping quarters. Tom rolled his eyes and walked in, Jim walked in and closed the door. The door opened again and Jim put Clara’s cloak on a chair and walked back into the sleeping quarters and closed the door again.
Samuel sighed, things were getting a lot more complicated.
Carl tried to lighten the mood, “Who wants to play cards?” He pulled out a deck of cards, hardly larger than his finger. “Hmmm, just a second.” He waved his hand over the deck and it grew larger. “Perfect.”
Samuel sat down next to him, “What are we playing?”
Carl shrugged, “Whatever comes to mind.”
Samuel looked over at Matt, “You wanna play?”
Matt sighed, came over and sat down. The other two reptilians also came over; they were large enough to sit naturally at the table without a chair.

Wind blew hard through the hole made from the diamond-destroying gun. Clara shivered, she had forgotten to put on her cloak. Her tight clothing, she was told, was for flexibility not for warmth. She took off her tight belt, which she still hadn’t gotten used to, and placed it on the diamond. Diamond-Eye looked up at it and looked back at her with a curious look. Clara, looking at the body of Jones, grimaced and turned to John.
John was biting his lip, not knowing what to say. When he thought it to himself, he realized he was not one who could talk to a women when they were one-on-one without feeling a bit awkward. He couldn’t even create a skeleton of a plan in his head.
As if reading his thoughts, Clara spoke up. “Apparently I am going to have start us off, because it looks as if a cat has your tongue.” She smirked at a chance to get back at him for all his jokes. She sat on the diamond and knocked the belt behind the diamond in stretching her legs. She yawned showing sharp teeth and resumed talking. “The pursuing fleet is going to catch us sometime, this is obvious because we do not have an unlimited amount of fuel. The only one who can buy fuel from among our current group is Samuel, who still remains in human form. Letting him buy fuel would take too long and we’d be caught. Unfortunately, Diamond-Eye and Dracopoten don’t want us harming humans nor bringing harm to humans in any way, shape, or form, because they are the high-race and should not have done to them what Brownsnout has already accomplished. Nor should they be in the way of any magical battles, so we have to find a battle-field that would suit us without humans around.”
An idea popped into John’s head. “What if we use the weapons of the enemy?”
“That would not work.” Diamond-Eye stated. “Your magics would destroy the technologies.”
Clara looked thoughtful. “Then how does my sniper work? It’s technology.”
Diamond-Eye smiled, “I made the sniper part of you; however it will only work in your hands, which is the downside.”
A shadow entered the room. Landing in the far corner of the room, the shadow took shape. It resembled John closely, but it seemed to be made out of pure gold. Dracopoten smiled and walked over to the two startled beings. “Greetings, I am sure I have been introduced so let’s continue planning.” Pausing for a moment and looking thoughtful. “Or listening to Clara, I am quite sure it’s the same thing right now.”
Clara smirked again, John turned his head. But he turned back quickly, he remembered in whose presence he was in; he bowed deeply and stood back up. It seems as if everyone is picking on me now, John thought.
Dracopoten let out a loud laugh. “You brought it on yourself when you started to make fun of Clara.” This time Clara smiled wide, but quickly stopped when she started to gasp.
She reached down to her waist where the belt usually was, but not this time. John’s eyes widened, his concern and worry froze him to the spot. Dracopoten laughed at him, reached over and picked the belt from behind the diamond and handed it to Clara. She picked the mask of the belt and placed it on her face; her gasping receded.
Dracopoten turned to John, “You are going to need more practice taking action in a room alone with a woman.”
Clara spoke up, John thanked her silently. “Land here, we’re above a forest which would be to our advantage. It’s also night.” Pointing to the hole revealing the night sky.
Dracopoten agreed quickly. “Let’s do it, land the copter.”
Diamond-Eye shrugged; she seemed to know more than she was telling. John just sighed and accepted the plan; he certainly wasn’t going to come up with anything better. Clara removed the mask and placed it on her belt; she then placed the belt around her waist again. John opened the door and, picking up the diamond, walked out behind Clara; Dracopoten followed John.
The other three reptilians were playing cards with Matt and Samuel; Jim and Tom were not to be seen. On seeing Dracopoten, the dragon beings stood and bowed as John had; they didn’t sit back down. Matt reacted as Clara had, a brief greeting.
Dracopoten took command, “Land the ship, we’re going for open war.”
John walked over and pressed the combination for landing. When he turned around, Clara had put on her cloak and was walking to the sleeping area. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw her simply walk through the door. He snorted with laughter when he heard a shout of surprise and saw Clara back out of the room with an amused look on her face, sniper on her bandaged hand.
Dracopoten seemed to notice the bandage for the first time. He walked over to Clara, “Let me see your arm”
She held out her left arm uncertainly. Dracopoten took it gently in his hand. John saw her furrow her brow. She removed the bandage, there wasn’t even a scar. She looked to where she had been shot earlier, it too had been healed fully. John noticed that even Diamond-Eye looked impressed.
Clara’s calm look came back. She spoke some words silently and the cloth that made her shirt extended itself to cover her arm. Thinking for a moment, she repaired the hole made by the bullet.
The hovercopter shook as it landed on the grassy ground. John turned back to the control panel, he pressed the button to open all copter doors. He saw Samuel come up to control panel, he pressed a button hidden underneath. A drawer opened up, it had two pistols and twenty cartridges. He placed the cartridges around his waist after loading the pistols.
John noticed that they looked like beam pistols, they shouldn’t need bullets. Then he noticed that they had two holes at the end of the barrels. They were the new brand of pistol, they could shoot either one or both at the same time.
Samuel rushed out of the copter towards the woods, Matt followed. Jim and Tom walked out of the sleeping quarters, both fully armed.
Carl flew out the door and looked up. He came back in. “The other copters are landing now, we better get out fast while they are unable to fire at us.”
Dracopoten vanished, supposedly appearing in the forest. Clara walked to the door silently, the sniper had been placed on her back over her shoulder. She ducked quickly, an arrow sprouted in the wall behind her. She flipped the rifle over her shoulder, aimed and fired. She then took off towards the forest. The reptilians flew out, including John. David and Adam had grabbed Jim and Tom, to speed their own run to the woods. John had turned to Diamond-Eye to take her along, but she refused saying she would join them in a few moments. So he just followed the others.

They sat in the woods in perfect silence. Clara watched as the first hovercopter landed. The door opened and a large number of beings rushed out; they seemed to have received military training in the flight from the mansion. Clara peered through her scope, she saw that all the beings were dog-people. It looked as if Nocturis had allowed Brownsnout reinforcements. Dark shapes flew out of all the copters, whether the copter was landed or not. Clara estimated that there were about 750 dogs and 300 Nocturians. She wondered where they had all come from, as there were only fifteen copters; that would mean that there were 70 beings in each one, which was a lot for the small hovercopters.
She peered through her scope again, searching for either the demigod or demigoddess. She saw the former first. He had removed his heavy cloak, but had taken up a futuristic gun. He also had some sort of a barrier around him.
She searched for Nocturis, she found her quickly. Nocturis had her wings draped around her made her look as if she had a black cloak. She was very black furred, her presence seemed to generate a cold feeling just looking at her. Clara shivered, a type of shiver she had not felt since before her transformation.
A flash from behind Clara startled her from concentration. She turned to see and was nearly blinded, but the light slowly receded. Diamond-Eye stood there; in half-cat form wearing clear, shining armor, obviously made from diamond.
Clara just stared calmly, taking this in. “Next time warn me when you do that. I was nearly blinded.”
“How would I have warned you?” Diamond-Eye’s voice was very light and a lot smoother than when she was in the diamond.
“You’re my goddess? Have you forgotten?”
“Right, and ruin the surprise.”
“I might have been pushed down to six lives from that shock.”
“Really? You look pretty calm to me.”
“Near emotionless, comes with my ‘medication’.”
“How could I have forgotten?”
Clara shook her head, her goddess was too good humored to feel any guilt at the moment. She turned her attention back to the gathering army. “How should any of us expect to survive this?” She said to herself.
The dogs in the front lines were kneeling down, aiming their guns to the woods, hoping to find anything to shoot at. Clara smiled grimly, they wouldn’t find any cat that way.
She looked to the Nocturians. They were just flying above the field, taking an aerial view to find any being in the woods. Unfortunately, they had seen the flash and were circling the area where Diamond-Eye had just recently appeared.
A loud explosion, Clara turned. They had destroyed the hovercopter that she and her companions had fled from.
She heard shouting; turning back to the battalions of dogs, she saw that they had drawn a type of sword. Crackling with electricity, Clara guessed that they were energy swords. Her eyes widened as she saw an important looking figure wave his hand towards the woods; they were going to charge.
She shouted in a whisper, “They’re going to charge! Aim towards the front line and don’t miss! We can’t afford to waste ammo.”
She reached down to make sure that she had enough bullets for her sniper. There wasn’t even a single cartridge. She turned to Diamond-Eye, “Does this thing still require bullets? Or can I just use it without?”
Diamond-Eye shook her head, “No, you still need the ammo.”
“Dang.” Came Clara’s terse reply. After checking how much was still in the sniper, twelve shots, she aimed to those she deemed to be generals, trying to figure out which one to shoot first. She decided on the one leading the charge. Making sure the cross hairs were over his heart, she fired. Direct hit, she smiled as the blue coated dog fell to the ground clutching his chest.
The smile faded as the dogs who were under his command charged anyway. She put her sniper on the ground behind her and drew a dagger and a bottle of red liquid. She threw the glass bottle hard at the ground in front of the chargers; a red cloud went up, dropping any dog who entered it to the ground. She pulled out a second dagger, so she had one in each hand.
She looked to her left, Samuel was in a clearing, aiming carefully with one of his pistols. Beyond him was John, katana out and ready in one hand, an axe in his other. Matt was up in a tree, two short-swords given to him by Diamond-Eye ready for action.
She looked right. Tom had his whip and a sword, his hands were flaring with fire. Jim held a broadsword in his hands, his tail was twitching angrily. The other three reptilians were nowhere to be seen. Clara looked up and saw why. They were up in the trees, ready to fly or defend at a moments notice.
At least all sides were protected. She crouched in the bush, waiting for the dogs to get to her. The dogs’ shouting could be heard all over the battle field, movement from above distracted Clara again.
The Nocturians were diving at them from above, while the dogs charged from below; it was a joint attack. A black figure landed next to Clara; a hole in its side, the Nocturian stared at her open mouthed with a blank face.
The dogs got to the wood line, Clara ducked as they swung their swords wildly. She rolled towards their rapidly moving feet; timing it just right so that she rolled past their feet to the ground behind them.
Stabbing one in the back and slashing another’s neck, she killed two of them before they realized she was behind them. They seemed held to an honor of their own. They fought stiffly, using only one arm to swing their sword. Almost like a respectable gentleman; except they were going for blood and death, not for honor and for the defense of it.
Clara wouldn’t criticize, she was fighting for her life; she had no care whether or not they were swinging at her or her companions, they were going to die.
She didn’t see a single live Nocturian on the ground; they had their arms full with the four reptilians flying among them, at least until they were dropped from the sky. She focused on the four dogs around her. They seemed to be following a pattern, a sword drill, and not fighting according to their opponents weakness.
Using one dagger to block the blades, she aimed for the throat with the other. One down, three to go, she thought. A blade narrowly missed her tail; the owner fell to the ground clutching his heart, a red spot slowly forming. Clara instinctively ducked, despite being surprised about the random death. The other two blades zapped together right where her head was. She spun herself on the ground, tripping one and emptying the contents of the stomach of the other. Turning to the last one she saw her work had been completed, the dog had impaled himself on his blade trying to twist himself to land on his arms and legs.
She wiped the daggers on the ground and prepared for the next wave. She saw the dogs aim their rifles, she drew in a slow breath as she Nocturis and Brownsnout ready to lead the next wave.
Clara quickly formed the next plan. “Fall back to the woods! Prepare for defense!”
She leapt backwards into the woods, hiding in the bush again. She picked up her sniper and aimed to Nocturis. Nocturis was now holding a very large sword in one of her hands. Clara bit her lip and put the cross hairs over Nocturis’s heart. She closed her eyes and fired.
For a moment there was quiet, then there was screaming. Clara opened her eyes, a Nocturian had flown in the way to protect his goddess. The screaming was caused by Nocturis rallying her troops for a full powered assault.
Clara turned to Diamond-Eye, who was now holding a shining double-bladed axe. “Now what?”
Diamond-Eye glanced towards Samuel, who was loading his pistols. Turning quickly back to Clara she said, “Now we fight to the death.”
Clara nodded sullenly. Picking a bluish-grey liquid she readied it for throwing. Aiming for about the middle of the army, she threw. It landed and exploded, the liquid was not able to touch the minerals in the earth without this effect.
The explosion caused devastation among the army. Immediately the dogs charged, even without the permission of Brownsnout.
Clara picked a handful of shurikens from her belt and threw. Each one found a target, killing it immediately because of the poison on the blades. More enemy targets fell by David’s deadly arrows, and more often than not he took out more than one with a single arrow.
Clara heard Adam take in a breath. A stream of fire spurted from one of the trees and created a firewall in front of the charging army. Nocturis stepped through it as if it were a doorway; the moment she passed the fire vanished and the army continued its charge.
Clara saw John fly above her head, an icy wind blew towards Nocturis. The dark deity simply absorbed the wind as Clara would enjoy the wind from a fan.
Carl flew at Nocturis with an unmatchable speed, lightning crackled around him. Nocturis just ducked out of his way, causing him to slam into the unfortunate dog behind her. This resulted in an explosion; Carl was hurled backward, dazed but alive. He flew awkwardly back to the woods.
Dracopoten stepped out of the woods, a large golden blade in his hand. He rushed at Nocturis, swinging hard. She parried and struck one of her own, parried easily by the golden reptilian. They continued in their endless duel, neither could kill the other.
Clara didn’t dare shoot at them, she could easily end up killing Dracopoten. As she lowered her sniper, Samuel rushed out of the woods. He was running a bee-line towards the dueling deities. A dog tried to stop him, Clara watched as Samuel shot the dog in head and took the energy blade, placing his pistol on his belt. Another dog got in the way, Samuel waved his hand and the dog flew backwards knocking down some of his companions.
Clara was frozen to the ground where she stood, she didn’t know how to react towards Samuel’s daring charge. She held her breath and watched.
Samuel raised a fist, a stream of fire shot from it going through the gap between the deities. Dracopoten and Nocturis stopped, Samuel did not. Raising the sword above his head, he leapt at Nocturis. He brought the sword crashing down on her surprised face, cleaving through it.
Clara gasped, she saw the dark point protruding from Samuel’s back. Samuel fell on top of the body of Nocturis, the force of his leap causing him to bounce and fall a farther distance away. His stomach had a large hole, blood flowed freely.
The whole army saw this; they started to rush back to the hovercopters, including the dogs. Brownsnout followed slowly, not believing what he saw. He started to run with the others. The air started to swirl, the army vanished, a quiet settled over the field.
-5 years later-
A small kitten runs across a sunny yard, a lynx is rushing after it. The kitten looks back and, seeing the lynx so close, runs faster. A panther is sleeping in the shadows of a nearby tree, the kitten pounces to her. The panther leaps up in surprise and calms down when she sees it’s only a kitten.
The lynx rushes up to the panther, panting. Tom reforms, his breathing is heavy. “Your son is very fast. Almost too fast.”
The panther seemed to smile, standing up, she stretched. Lying back down, Clara spoke to Tom in his mind. You were always faster than me, his speed is your fault not mine.
Tom scratched the back of his head. “I want to know how a panther-” Seeing Clara stare at him, he corrected himself. “Okay, I want to know how a black leopard and a lynx give birth to a fishing cat.”
Clara reformed back into her half-cat shape. “You’ve asked that at least once a week since he was born and I’ve given the same answer; genes have no effect into what a kitten will be.”
Tom scowled, “I know, but the scientist part of me wants to believe on what I know about this.”
A small brownish cat rushes up to the trio, an Egyptian Mao. Matt reforms, “Diamond-Eye has finally come to see your son.”
Clara and Tom go back to their cat forms; Clara picked up the kitten and ran with Tom and Matt back to the house.
Coming up to the large house, the three slow down; they had a large yard and it took some energy to run across it. They had bought the house after Tom and Clara got married. There were 15 rooms, not counting the four guestrooms or the three door rooms. Eight of the rooms were bedrooms; the kitten still did not have his own separate room yet. Three rooms were filled with books on magic and history; not as many would have been required, but John, Adam, Carl, and David had decided to live with them. The other four rooms were the kitchen, the living room, the fireplace area, and the kitten’s soon-to-be bedroom.
The area they lived on was a total of 16 acres, half of it being woods. In the forest was a training ground which was to be used to train the kitten correctly as he grew. It was also to train the other eight beings, but the kitten was its primary purpose.
The three companions reformed; Clara took the kitten out of her mouth, chuckling at her forgetfulness. They walked in the large door-way; made purposely so for the reptilians. Inside was the living room and on a couch was where Diamond-Eye sat, looking a lot healthier than she had five years before. She was wearing a long, white, flowing robe, it glinted the colors of the rainbow.
Diamond-Eye smiled as she saw the kitten. “A fishing cat, how nice!” She saw Clara’s happiness, “They say that a kitten can melt even the coldest heart.”
Clara nodded, “I believe it.”
“How old is he?”
Clara answered the question quickly. “Three years, four months and almost two weeks; Tom never allows me to forget.” Tom grinned.
The white cat-goddess took the kitten in her arms. “Have you named him yet?”
Tom spoke this time. “We named him before he was born. We decided quickly on the name Samuel.”
Samuel purred in Diamond-Eye’s arms, batting at her whiskers. She smiled wider, “Have the other five seen him? Or is this house so large you haven’t found them yet?”
Matt chuckled. Tom rolled his eyes, “They’ve seen him. The reason you don’t see them is: John spends most of his time in the library with Jim; Carl and David are always down on the training grounds; and Adam sleeps all the time. Matt was here to find us because he is always watching TV.”
The white-clothed goddess stared down at Samuel. “Why did you name him Samuel?” Looking up at Tom and Clara. “He’s not dead.”
The three looked shocked; Samuel purred harder, flicking his tail. There was a knock on the front door. Matt hesitated for a moment and went to answer it.
Opening the door he saw a strange sight. A man with an unkempt beard and wild hair stood there, looking very tired; but even still, it looked as if there was something about him that glowed. His attitude seemed to brighten however, when he saw Matt. He spoke with a raspy voice. “Is this the residence of John Gilth?”
Matt furrowed his brow and replied a little uncertainly, “Yes.”
The man’s weariness seemed to melt right off. “Then you should know me as one of his friends.”
“I don’t believe so…” Matt said warily.
At that time, John came into the room from the library right next to it. He looked at the man standing in the doorway. He too furrowed his brow, but not in confusion. He spoke questioningly, “Samuel?”
The ragged man at the door almost flew; actually he did, thought Matt looking at Samuel’s feet. With a grin that showed unusually clean teeth, Samuel spoke. “You moved, I traveled back to Quincy only to find out that you were gone. I did get lost a few times, which is why it took so much of a year to find you. But when I found out that you had moved to Philadelphia, I was very happy. I guessed that you would have taken a large house so it was very easy to find you.”
John and Matt invited Samuel in quickly. They walked into the living room, causing Tom and Clara to jerk to a sitting position on the couch which they had relaxed upon, with shock and confusion. Tom spoke for them both, “Who are you?”
Diamond-Eye smiled when she answered their question. “This is Samuel, the dead one you named your kitten after.”
Clara stammered, “But…we saw the sword, and we found your body…it was cold. How the heck are you standing there?”
Samuel smiled and sat down in an easy chair. “I did die and indeed I was gone for a time longer than you cats usually are when you die. But I am not a cat, I am a human. I had to face a judgment which I will have to face again, but the next time I’ll be ready.
“I had to face the judgment of God. But he let me go, realizing that Diamond-Eye had given me a second life to use.” Turning to Diamond-Eye he said. “God thinks very highly of you I assume.” The white goddess said nothing, she just stared, a glimmer of a smile on her face. “Anyway, I still had to face torment in Hell.” His eyes widened a bit saying this. “Never again, I have submitted my second life to Christ.” Pausing for a second. “Brings a whole new meaning to being born again, doesn’t it?”
Clara stretched her legs, her feet touching Tom’s knee. She grinned at him. Carl and David came in the back door, both were covered in sweat. Jim walking in to the room to see the commotion. Only Adam stayed where he was, in bed.
Reintroductions were made and joy filled the room. It was so loud that a very sleepy Adam finally arose from his tomb, as John put it. They celebrated all night. All of them except Clara and her son, who went to bed, and Diamond-Eye, who returned to the world in-between.