As the force of the wind pulled his jacket and her cloak towards their target with storm force winds, he sighed, “Alright, so he is eating pretty well. Shame its all junk food.” A flame briefly forming in his hand before he closed his hand around it, a faint shadow of concern on his face as he did so. He grumbled, “No one asked your opinion.” Anisa leaned forward before raising a curious brow. He held up the green crystal that contained Cyrus and she gave him a small chuckle. He sized up the threat and pointed to it while speaking softly, “See that? I call that an Event Horizon.”
“So a black hole?”
He rolled his eyes and scoffed, “No… black holes are transparent. See, they bend the light around them-” He growled, and narrowed his eyes at the gem. “Fine. Not completely transparent but she gets the point.” He held his head and explained further, “The fact that we can see him floating in the middle of the black portion of the event and that silver light around the edges of it…”
She nodded quietly as she understood what he was describing. “Null resonance refines the light in the dark. This denies it.”
“More than that. Tears everything down to one unrealized possibility.” He stood up and sighed as his veteran eyes assessed the situation. “Now we have a few options but at the end of the day, there is only one way to save him from this. I just have to get close enough. If this was just about beating him in a fight, this would already be over. But due to my promise, this is going to require a bit more tact.”
Moving on reflex, he shifted his stance and blocked the shot with Cyrus Crystal. As the golden missile subsumed the gem and shifted to a deep emerald hue, Shawn watched as Cyrus stood in a refined metallic form. He turned and sighed, “About time the Cavalry showed up.” Shawn looked to Anisa who seemed just as confused as he was but far more accepting. Cyrus laughed derisively at Shawn, “Your dog and pony show was nice for the rest of them, but our crew solves these things together.”
Shawn watched as Katsi arrived in her golden glittering armor with annoyance and total bafflement. He sidestepped her attempt to land intentionally on his head, much to Katsi’s annoyance. She turned and pointed a finger at him, “You! You put me into R&D!? Really!?”
Shawn stepped forward as he glared Katsi down, “Are you kidding me?! You are a total loose cannon! I can get away with it because I spent over a decade getting away with things no one should! I needed eyes on you to make sure you didn’t get yourself killed.” Anisa couldn’t help but laugh at the exchange, watching as Shawn defended his stance well but clearly wasn’t used to being called out so directly by the girl.
When a Bear model starfighter made a rough landing behind them, he grumbled at the voice that came out of the lowering ramp, “Hey, Boss. I would have called ahead but you would have told us to stay home.” Dean laughed as he rolled his shoulders, Pine and Gavin walking out behind him. Cyrus looked worried but Dean motioned him to calm down, “Narine is on the ship. We are all still a little winded from the fighting. Still, you should go and see her before we take care of this.” Cyrus nodded and ran into the ship without hesitation.
Shawn held his head and grumbled, “Dean, you should know better. And Ani, you have to tell them to get out of here.”
She shrugged with a sly smirk, “They are all adults. They can make their own decisions, same as you and me.” When his concern mixed with his anger, she stated firmly and without restraint, “You do things your way. I do them mine.” Her narrowed eyes drove the message home. She knew better than anyone that she never would have been able to get this far without them. Never would have broken his script and gotten her friend back. And now she would defend them as much as she did him.
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Realizing this was a losing battle, he relented, nodding quietly as he focused his eyes back on the target, one that was too busy absorbing all of the negative emotions that had spilled out of him and across the entire system, “You know, I used to think there was only so much darkness one guy could carry. I’m willing to bet the same thing is true here.”
Anisa watched as Cyrus stepped out of the ship, a crying Narine in tow. Once everyone was here, she spoke with a voice that wouldn’t tolerate any dissent, “Listen up! You don’t have to leave, but Shawn knows more about this mission and this person than any of you. Yes, that means you to Cy.” She motioned firmly, “You will follow his instructions as best you can and don’t get in his way. Shawn is taking point, we are the support crew. Are we clear?”
Gavin laughed, and stepped up, Shawn being the one to raise a brow as the former smuggler shot him a knowing look before backing his captain up, “You heard Cap. Communicate, coordinate, and run any crazy plans past Shawn before you do them. And above all else, make sure to get out of this alive. We didn’t fight this hard for nothing. Today of all days, everyone lives.” Cyrus looked ready to complain but upon seeing everyone else settle, he locked eyes once more with Shawn and the two turned their focus to the figure in question.
Shawn spoke without looking, his tone shifting low and serious. “This man is an Enzelur. Unlike Corvana, he is whole and unmechanical. That means he can channel and manipulate emotional energy better than anyone else, but it also means he is more sensitive to it than anyone else. Since none of you can do cross-resonance or Null Resonance, getting close to him is out of the question. Trying to close that gap will only end with you torn apart at a conceptual level.”
“That’s not true! We have the Fugue boosters that Dean and I made!” Katsi’s tone was offended but spirited. Shawn raised a brow before Gavin tossed him his. Looking it over, Katsi made her case, “I mean, if we channel our energy intensely enough-”
“This is nice work, but Fugue isn’t enough. It is just shooting a fire hose into the grand canyon.” He tucked the device with the Tal stone into his jacket before puffing his cigar again. “It isn’t about the amount but the nature of it. The only thing that cuts through an Event Horizon like that has to be very potent. Null Resonance builds a tolerance and forms a hardened point in the dark. Cross resonance gets you closer to the raw uncut energy from a Goddess Elevator.”
Dean laughed passively at the concept only to realize Shawn was being serious. “Boss, you can’t possibly be expecting that you figured out how to do one of those on command!”
Shawn nodded, “Yep, I haven’t… not yet. But as he is now, that might just kill him. We need to bleed off the energy first. It won’t be enough on its own, but I know I can manage that. I’ll take the lead on assault, Ani will shadow me as I do it. If you see a clean shot, take it. Otherwise, keep your head on a swivel and saturate the area with as much ambient emotional energy as you can. With all of us here, it should be easy to set up what I’m after.”
He walked closer and then asked with a playful smile, “So… are we going to do a sound off? Where we all transform at once and do our poses?” Everyone looked around confused and Shawn furrowed his brow, “Ani! You didn’t teach them!? And Dean! You can’t possibly have failed to train them! It’s super important!” When he realized that he was the only one who felt this way, he grew annoyed and stated without any room for deviation. “We aren’t doing something like this without doing it properly! And once you have, you will understand! This is what real heroes do! Time for a crash course from the pro.”
