James Somers - The rise of Lucin

The shots pelted the snow and timber around him as he dodged through the trees evading the attack. In a moment the bikes would overtake him. Kale flipped back on the pursuer bearing down upon him and made one exacting strike as he tumbled past him in the air. The rider's body fell into the snow as the hover-bike veered and slammed into a tree.

The woods, beyond their home, flashed with an explosion in the night as Olson and his family peered out the large window in their main room. Elam made his way onto the porch, startling the family inside. "Everybody back," Olsen whispered to the others as they made their way through the dark house. Elam looked through the window. He had seen the family go in here and they could not be left alive. No witnesses!

Elam summoned his power. The entire window and the wall holding it, shattered into pieces before him. He walked in through the rubble, trying to sense where the family had retreated. If they reported the attack, it might turn all of the civilian populations against him. The allegiance they gave him as protector, not to mention the great wealth and power he had accrued, might cease.

Kale used the night to his advantage. The headlamps on the hover-bikes crossed back and forth more slowly through the snow covered trees as they searched for him. His black uniform perfectly suited the dark. Several hover-bikes grouped together. Kale decided to become the predator in this scenario.

Kale's kemstick flashed on and off as he jumped on behind the rider of one of the bikes passing nearby. He pushed the body off and took the controls of the speeder-the snow swallowed the rider whole, leaving no trace. Kale steered the hover-bike toward the other speeders still searching for him.

He lined it up and slammed the throttle forward. The hover-bike sped away on a collision course. Kale guided it almost all the way to target-long enough to see the expressions of horror as the headlamps spotlighted the faces of the other hover-bike riders before the impact. Kale leaped away and sailed through the tree limbs to a perch nearby as the speeder collided and ricocheted across several of the vehicles huddled together.

Shots rang out through the darkness into the trees around Kale as another Guardian spotted him. The blasts became more focused. He bolted away. The hover-bike came almost on top of him when he dropped to the ground below and sank completely into a drift of cold powder. As the bike sailed over, Kale flung an ignited kemstick up through the bottom of the vehicle piercing the under plating and severing the left leg of the rider. He wailed and lost control. The whole mess crashed into a nearby tree and burst into flames.

Then Kale sensed his adversary, Elam, and he was on the move. He's inside Juli's home!

Kale ran as fast to save them from the Guardian leader. Then he did not sense Elam anymore. More than that, he did not sense Juli or her parents either. Had they already been killed? Kale began to panic as he approached the stump where he and Olson had been cutting wood earlier.

The whole house suddenly burst up and outward into a fireball. Kale felt completely numb throughout his body. He had the sensation of weightlessness-his body being thrown. He surrendered to the overwhelming force of it then crashed down into the snow somewhere away from the destroyed structure.

Kale only heard ringing in his ears. His blurred vision took a moment to bring the grizzly scene back into focus. The Barone home was completely engulfed in flame. His senses reeled. He knew no one could have survived the inferno.

Kale tried to stand, but he was almost too weak to accomplish the task. Then a pain shot through his head-intense but he couldn't discern its origin. It felt strangely familiar, like the first contact with the symbyte organism as it had fought to infiltrate his body and seize control of his mind and will, but stronger. Kale collapsed to his hands and knees in the snow and gasped for precious breath. He thought he might vomit.

Elam looked on in amazement from a few feet behind the young boy. A voice had called out to him telepathically-not the boy's mind, but from within him somehow. Some creature inside spoke to him, "Help me seize control of the boy! We must overpower him together!"

Elam had no idea what the being was, but any advantage over an adversary was best exploited while it was available.

Elam exerted his great mental power upon the boy's weakened mind and felt that effort bolstered by whatever had called out to him for assistance. The boy collapsed face first into the snow and remained still. It worked! This was more than the Guardian leader had hoped for. Elam tapped a com-link and said, "Bring the shuttle. I have the boy."

"Yes, sir," replied a voice from the com-link.

Elam knelt next to the boy and rolled him over. He noticed the remarkable resemblance to the man he had faced earlier in the day at Sector City-the warrior with the young Horva at his side. Elam felt quite sure this must be the man's son. It seemed unlikely that one so young would be on a mission by himself. Then he looked back toward the woods where his own Guardians had just been massacred by the youth-the hover-bikes still smoldered amidst decaying ambers in the snow. He might be young, but this boy is certainly powerful, Elam thought.

The warrior from the Sector City fight had to be Barudii and he was probably searching for the boy. That might make the youth an effective bargaining tool, should the need arise. Then, the being from within the boy's mind called out to him again. The lad stirred and stood to his feet.

Elam brought his blade to the ready, expecting a fight. Kale spoke, yet it wasn't him.

"Calm yourself, Master Elam. We can be of use to one another," Kale said.

Elam looked curiously into the boy's face. Something sinister and malevolent stared back through the boy's eyes sending a chill up Elam's spine.

"I have control of the boy now. Is it true that others like him are on this planet?" Kale asked.

"Yes."

"It must be the boy's father seeking after him."

"Who is his father?" Elam asked.

"He is the Barudii king."

What? "But that can't be right."

"You're the same as they are, aren't you, Elam? You are a Barudii."

"But my people fled many years ago," Elam said. "Our planet was overrun with the Vorn during the war. Very few of us managed to escape and the king at the time was killed, not having an heir. I've never even been to Castai. My grandfather raised me on this planet after his own exodus during the war."

"He is the king and we must destroy him. I need the boy's power and a way to return to Castai," the evil Kale said.

"That has nothing to do with me," Elam said as he returned his sword to its sheath. "I've got my own interests here to look after."

"If we work together then we could eliminate a common problem."

Elam studied him for a moment. He heard the sound of his own command shuttle approaching from beyond the trees.

"I could help you, but I need you to assist me with a problem of mine first," Elam said.

"And that would be?"

"I have a certain arrangement on this planet."

"I see, and you would like to continue that arrangement?"

"The humanoids that the boy attacked in Briceton are associates of mine. They want a continuing food supply and I want to protect the people from them…to a certain extent."

"I imagine that protection could be quite profitable," Kale said with the slightest of grins.

"Anyway, I've lost most of my team due to these Barudii interferences and the leader of the Agonotti is now getting cocky. They are great in number, but haven't been united. With my Guardians, I was able to present a threat great enough to keep the different groups in check. One of the leaders, Dirge, may realize my position is weaker now."