Paraworld Zero (10 page)

    Like a black panther, she glided through the hallway without making a sound,
but then she halted suddenly at the
swoosh
of an automatic door. Tabatha clenched her fists and quickly opened her hands to
reveal sharp, curved nails jutting from the tips of her gloved fingers.

    With incredible speed, she ran up the wall, jumped to the ceiling, and sank
her claws into the flat metallic surface. She pressed her body tight against the dark ceiling as
a gangly man walked through the open door.

    He spoke into a bracelet on his arm. “No, General Mayham, we haven’t found
her yet, but I assure you—”

    “I don’t want excuses!” boomed a loud voice from the bracelet. “If the
information she stole finds its way to the Guardians of the Crown, our whole operation could be
in jeopardy. I don’t want her captured—I don’t want her questioned—
I WANT HER DEAD!
Do you understand me?”

    “
Yes, sir
.” The response didn’t come from the officer but from Tabatha.

    She bent over and pulled the bracelet off the wrist of the unconscious man
she had just fallen upon and spoke to the unseen general.

    “General, could you tell me exactly what this is I stole from you?”

    She held up a shiny datachip, about the size of a quarter, between her
fingers as if she were inspecting a diamond.

    “Tabatha!” yelled the general. “How could you betray me like this?”

    “It’s very simple, General,” she said coyly. “You don’t pay me as much as the
Guardians do.”

    “But think about the cause!”

    “Yes, the cause,” she said, flipping the datachip into the air like a coin.
“Your precious little crusade to rid the paraverse of all who perform magic.” She closed her hand
on the chip. “Well, General, if you haven’t noticed yet, I’m somewhat partial to magic.” She
opened her hand, but the datachip had disappeared.

    The red homing beacon on the bracelet started to blink.

    “Gotta go!” she said, sliding the bracelet down the hallway.

    Tabatha turned around just as a laser blast seared past her face. She said a
word under her breath that sounded like
Balamee
and then raised her hands. Two faint discs of energy hovered about her
palms.

    Another laser came at her, but this time, with lightning-fast reflexes,
Tabatha caught the blast in her hand, causing the laser to dissipate on contact. She absorbed two
more blasts into her hands before she lashed out with glowing stars, which sailed through the air
and hit several guards. The stars exploded with green and red light, paralyzing the victims upon
impact and disabling some of the laser rifles.

    Tabatha jumped backwards in a series of flips and then danced around the hall
to avoid further contact with the laser fire. Because the ship was hovering in space above the
planet, the electro-magical waves were scarce. She knew she couldn’t defend herself with magic
for long, so she decided to fall back on her hand-to-hand fighting skills.

    Her decision was an unfortunate one… for the soldiers, that is; for Tabatha
was of the Order of Gee—a group of trained fighters who intermingled the ancient art of karate
with the awesome power of magic. Her muscular leg shot upward and kicked a guard square in the
chest, leaving a faint trace of red florescent light in the air as the man flew backwards into
three other soldiers.

    Tabatha dodged as a large soldier clumsily took a swing at her with his
rifle. She responded to his feeble attempt to hit her with a flurry of jabs to the solar plexus.
Sensing movement nearby, she immediately fell into the splits as two armed soldiers—one on each
side of her—fired their guns at the same time. Both men toppled to the ground.

    She spun in a circle on the floor and knocked down two more attackers.
Rolling forward onto her hands, she thrust her legs into the air and wrapped them around the neck
of another soldier standing in front of her.

    She paused for a moment and looked up at the young man’s handsome face
between her calves. “Hey, you’re kinda cute,” she said, squeezing tighter. She pulled her legs
back with unnatural strength and sent the man crashing into a wall.

    Tabatha glanced around and realized she was hopelessly surrounded, but a
renewed sense of hope filled her soul as a sudden pocket of electro-magical energy surged past
her. Not wanting to lose the opportunity, she drew upon the power of the E.M. waves by quickly
raising her hands above her head and yelling, “
Splindore!
” A whirlwind of light lifted the remaining soldiers into the air and slammed
them hard against the ceiling.

    The strong wind blew off Tabatha’s hood and played in her long white hair,
making her pointy ears twitch in discomfort. When she lowered her arms, the wind ceased and the
soldiers fell.

    Drained, Tabatha bowed her head for a moment to catch her breath. She then
sprinted down a narrow passageway and made a sharp turn. As she rounded the corner, she saw
something thrust towards her face. Caught off guard, Tabatha turned her head to minimize the
blow, but the rifle butt struck hard and sent her sprawling.

    “That’s for using me,” came the cold voice of the tall gangly man she had
incapacitated earlier.

    Tabatha got to her knees and clutched her bloody forehead.

    The officer kicked her in the ribs and said viciously, “That’s for the
general.”

    She rolled onto her back in pain and looked up at the man as he raised his
gun towards her chest. Her vision went in and out of focus.

    He smiled and said, “And this is for the cause.”

    Tabatha closed her eyes and heard the firing of a gun… and then a
thump
next to her. She opened her eyes to discover that she was face-to-face with the dead
officer.

    A tall, shadowy figure loomed overhead, pointing a gun in her direction.
Tabatha squinted, but no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t see the man’s face behind his
black hood. Many of the lights in the area flickered out as he moved towards her.

    “Thank you,” she said, sitting up. Her ribs swelled with pain.

    Too far away to assist her, the stranger extended the palm of his hand, as if
he were requesting some sort of alm.

    “What?” Tabatha said tersely, annoyed by the gesture.

    Remaining silent, the cloaked figure snapped his fingers. Suddenly, Tabatha’s
body rose into the air. She whirled around as if she were strapped to some invisible gyroscope.
From out of the blur, the stolen datachip dropped to the floor and rolled down the hallway.

    The dark stranger magically summoned the chip to his hand and then turned
around and walked towards an open door. He raised his fist nonchalantly and snapped his fingers
to release Tabatha from his invisible grip, fully expecting her to fall unconscious to the
ground—but before he reached the exit, the mechanical door shut itself. He spun around and saw
that Tabatha hadn’t crashed to the floor but was standing upright, reaffirming the notion that
cats
do
always land on their feet.

    “
ReGaurdae!
” she yelled, slapping her hands together.

    She slowly pulled her hands apart, and a yellow rod with a glowing, inner
flame extended from one palm to the other. When she could spread her hands no farther, she caught
the rod in the middle and stretched it again until it formed into a full-sized staff.

    The mysterious man dropped his rifle and pulled out a straight wand from
within his cloak. He formed the shape of an oval in the air and bowed deeply, almost in jest.
Angry, Tabatha charged and swung her magical staff towards his head with terrific force.
Exhibiting little effort, the stranger blocked the attack with his wand and practically forced
the staff out of Tabatha’s hands.

    She frowned, then reared back and took another swing, but with the flick of
his wrist, the stranger blocked the staff just like he had before. Tabatha screamed in
frustration and attacked with a series of impressive moves, but the dark man stood immovable, his
tiny wand blocking each and every blow as if she wielded a dandelion instead of a weapon of war.
Sparks showered the floor every time her yellow rod crashed against her enemy’s wand, but he
remained unaffected.

    Tabatha wondered how the man could demonstrate his awesome powers with such
little E.M. energy about them. Just then, the cloaked figure thrust out his free hand. Tabatha
flew across the room and smacked into the far wall. Disoriented, she shook off the pain and
hissed.

    Steaming with rage, Tabatha picked up her yellow staff and broke it across
her knee. She summoned all of the E.M. energy she possibly could to keep the inner flame from
escaping. Then she raised both shafts into the air and spoke loudly: “
Spliteasto!
” This particular spell had always been difficult for her to perform, but after
watching the sticks morph into what looked like a pair of glowing nunchucks, Tabatha smiled in
approval, realizing that she had pulled it off flawlessly.

    Methodically rotating the nunchucks across her toned body, she started
towards her opponent again, but to her dismay, the dark figure reached into his cloak and pulled
out another wand. The two magicians clashed in a melee of frenzied blows, but no matter how hard
Tabatha tried to hit the man, he seemed to always block her attack.

    Sparks exploded everywhere, as if they had just walked into a room full of
lit fireworks. Horrified, Tabatha realized her foe must be an ultramage; how else could he summon
every ounce of E.M. energy in the room to do his bidding?

    The man partially disarmed her, sending one of her nunchucks flying behind
him. His youthful speed surprised her. She lashed out with her remaining nunchucks, but they too
were ripped out of her hand and thrown to the side. At that moment, the man crossed his wands and
rasped the word, “
Valamure.
”

    Tabatha’s eyes widened in terror at the sound of that horrible word.
No, it can’t be!

    With remarkable flexibility, she immediately arched backwards, hovering so
close to the ground that her radiant white hair swept the floor. Thick, gray fumes sprayed out of
the two wands and blew right over Tabatha’s body, forming a semitransparent cloud above
her.

    After the cloaked man finished his spell, he threw something at his feet,
which caused an explosion of smoke to engulf him. When the smoke cleared, he was gone.

    Tabatha stood up and stared at the mass of gray moving against the ceiling.
It was a wraith—a ghostly entity whose very touch sucked out the life of its victim. Magic of
this sort was rarely performed because, even if the magician possessed the power to cast the
spell, incantations of this magnitude took an immense amount of electro-magical energy to
execute. And more importantly, the conjurer was usually the first to die. Nevertheless, the
cloaked man
had
summoned the demon, and it was now Tabatha’s problem.

    Not waiting a second more, she rolled sideways and sprinted down the hallway
with all her might. She opened a door and rushed past a small group of soldiers. Astonished at
her sudden appearance, the men raised their laser rifles and started to fire. Tabatha threw
herself down and lay prostrate against the floor as the large wraith glided through the wall
behind her. Like apples falling from a tree, she heard the terrible thuds of bodies
collapsing.

    The deadly phantom hissed coldly in the air as it fed on the helpless
soldiers. Its long, ragged robes brushed the ground just inches from Tabatha’s face.

    Tabatha wiggled her way across the room and fled out the side exit. She ran
down a long corridor and finally found the transportation room—but just before she opened the
door, she glanced back to see the hideous wraith enter the hallway.

    Two technicians sat lazily at their desks.

    “Get out of here!” Tabatha screamed.

    Falling over each other, they stumbled out of their chairs and fled into an
adjacent room. Tabatha’s fingers ran wildly over the control panel as she punched in her
coordinates. She jumped over the computerized console and stood inside a cramped cylindrical
tube.

    “Stop where you are,” barked a soldier from behind the console. He pointed a
weapon at her.

    Tabatha gasped in horror as the monstrous wraith flew right through the man
and continued towards her. Its wide mouth expanded to ten times its normal size as it prepared to
swallow her whole.

    With heightened reflexes, Tabatha flicked her wrist at the console and
magically pulled a tiny lever. The glass tube erupted in blue lightening. Frantic, she attempted
to shield her face with her arms but then disappeared into a cloud of electricity as the
malicious wraith passed through the empty tube.

Chapter 7