The day would take on an unusual turn. Aegir was still practicing his ability to gate, the old stones in the wilderness where akin to a miniature Stone Hedge and while he had figured out that the inhibitors here effected him in getting directly from here to Earth he had learned that he could transport from her to nearby worlds then without the bother of inhibitors from the standing stones there he would amass the power of the ley lines and transport himself to Earth.

He had made a deal with Pia ... he had promised to take her back to Earth IF she immortalized him in a tome. He figured that he would do so though he had never specified for how long. Could be a day, could be a few hours or forever, whatever he fancied.

Yet to decide that he was undertaking trials to ensure that things were not amiss and that he could carry out his portion of the bargain when he came to this stark world again. So far so good though as he slithered the short distance where he had formed his standing stones he found that the stones had been vandilized.

Now that wasn't good since he had to focus on the ley lines to channel his essence anywhere, sort of like a wand being the focus of a wizard. Ley lines had been this way for him in this one particular instance. So he was stranded here until he restored them.

No bother, an annoyance for sure but he was a patient entity and while it took the slow moving creature practically all day to do so he restored the standing stones. The sun was setting beneath a hill and he had been coming back with a tentacle load of stone when he sensed something.

Sentient minds, which did not surprise him seeing that there had been an abandoned city nearby and he had been aware of the ADD as he encounter two of them previously. One mind was human, he had an easy read of it though the other had to be monstrous or alien giving that it seemed bizarre.

Not his problem, though the pair was close by and close to each other. He presumed that one being was having some fun. He pondered this for a moment as he drew closer and had been hit with it. Like a fist slamming into him hard enough to drive the air out of his lungs he had overlooked it the first time seeing that he was so use to inhibitors defiling or suppressing things that it was hardly worth his time but this one, whomever he or she was, had potential ... and for once there had been no inhibitors suppressing their talents.

He wondered if that was a good thing or not but for years he had been use to the fact that 'hunting' was rather easy considering this. Had he grown soft through years of easy prey? Or did he still have it? There was no harm in checking things out though so he slithered closer to get a better appraisal of things.

Soon he would find himself entering into the abandon city, wondering what could have caused individuals to abandon it in the first place then he considered that he might not be so rusty after all ...

Triella swore softly in Romani as she moved through the ruined streets of the abandoned city. She had been hunting this beast for weeks now.

She had heard rumors that her sister was being taken to a slave market - rumors that seemed to turn out to be truth as several of those who were in the market had confirmed seeing a woman matching her description being sold just days earlier.

A little money, a few 'favors', and some computer hacking - and it was easy to identify the only three vessels that left shortly after the sale. She had already eliminated the other two, which left this as the last lead she had.

She moved through the city quietly - her bare feet making not a sound in the dust of the ruins. The light leather vest, and the short, floating skirt letting her move gracefully and unencumbered, while also being cool under the hot sun of this world.

Closing her eyes - she walks through the street, letting her empathic sense guide her to the creature that she is sure is laying in ambush for her. Maybe this is his den.. his hideout - in which case her sister might be here! Unfortunately they had always seemed to have a shield to each other - unable to feel or read each other - so that gives her no clue as to whether she is in fact here or not.

She reaches into the pouch at her waist, and pulls out a handful of the weighted bearings she carries as weapons. She tosses them up into the air, and lets her mind grasp them.. setting them in a spinning circle around her, whirling around her in a defensive ring at such speed, that would be devastating to try and cross. Each one like a large caliber bullet.

"This would be easier if you just tell me what you know - and release my sister if you have her!" she calls out as she steadily walks towards the large building in which she can sense the entity she has been tracking. She launches one of the bearing into the door of the building - causing it to smash into pieces - before the bearing comes flying back to fall into its place in orbit around the young gypsy lass again.

Aegir slithered closer to the sensations he felt. He could not see anything amiss just yet though he could hear the smashing of a wooden door as it splintered to pieces.

If she had been expecting an answer she would find herself disappointed as mere silence, well relative silence anyway if you disregarded the ball bearings whizzing around her. Inside the building was dark and forelorn as it beckoned to her.

Goro was inside and he had not gone far. The amorphous creature dribbled a mucus-like substance on the floor wherever it went and green patches of this substance had been on the floor here and their in patches. Holding a black laser, his hand wrapped upon the grip of the laser that he held though he had not intended on using it. It did comfort him though.

He had no legs either slithering across the ground though he supposed that he could have generated legs had he the need or want. Neither ever came up though as the girl entered, for she was a girl considering that he had been over 4 centuries her elder, he came forth, dripping green goo on the floor as he did so.

"Child, this can be easy or ..." his blubbery voice trailed off as a pink cube sprang up around her, humming with energy as the field jutted out in three directions from these small black boxes. "This field cost quiet a penny though I'd get more for unloading you so it's not a complete wash ..."

Triella grimaces a little at the mucus goo all over the floor, which she tries to avoid as she walks into the building, placing her bare feet carefully.

The gypsy raises an eyebrow as the pink cube springs up around her, surrounding her. "A Force Cell? Really Goro?" she says with a sigh. "I'm disappointed - and I must say that you paid too much for it then."

She ignores the creature and it's blaster, and instead studies the cell - as she brings the circle of balls around her to a stop, just levitating them in the air around her. She reaches out and plucks one of the balls out of thin air, and then reaches out and places it at waist height right in the middle of the force wall in front of her.

She gives it a little mental shove, and it slowly moves to the left wall, to hit the center point of that wall.. then continues to the wall behind her... then to her right.. then back to the front wall.. bouncing in perfect precision to strike each wall in turn, without touching her.

Satisfied, the plucks a second ball.. and places it ankle height in the center of the front wall.. and places another above her head on the front wall. Another thought - and they start following the same gentle path around the cube that the first one had.

She positions two more then against the front wall, at waist height - to her right and left side. These start to bounce in a similar route as the first three.. but go from the front wall to the bottom, to the back, to the top, and then to the front again.

She then starts two more going in the same pattern, but circling in front and behind her, going from the right wall to the top, to the left, to the bottom and back to the right.

All 7 balls now in a perpetual cycle against the walls - all carefully avoiding Triella, while also in a pattern that avoids each other.

"Now, I couldn't really care about you in the least Goro. All I want is my sister. Give her to me, and let us go - and I'm willing to forget this ... insult." she says, gesturing to the cube around her -- as the ball bearings start to speed up.. bouncing faster... striking the walls with greater force each time -- putting pressure on the cube.. testing it for weak spots, while trying to burn out its energy.

Faster..faster.. faster the balls spin through the cube, becoming a blur as they continue to pound at the force cell while the gypsy just stands there calmly, waiting.

Goro had not been the brightest of beings nor was he the dumbest either. Though he had been baffled about the ball bearings. His only guess had been that she was trying to intimidate him and he supposed that such would have been unnerving had she been free of the cube.

But as it was he was no tech guy, he was the sort that used things but could barely do the most routine repairs of his ship. He thus had no understanding of things actually worked, Oh, he knew the basic premises of things and was clueless to what she was doing, sapping away the energy reserves of the force cube and while they could be restored by simply recharging the energy reserves, of course they would be spent if they were used up as they were.

Goro snorted. "I got the blaster, I call the shots. Your trick might be rather impressive and perhaps a bit unwieldy for a new owner but I don't care about that once I get paid. Perhaps Sul will purchase you as well ... he did fancy your sister and the two of you are similar in appearance."

He had little reason to suspect that with each passing second the field was getting weaker. Nor had he realized that Aegir was getting closer as well.

She sighs as she listens to Goro's speech, shaking her head.

"You are like so many of your kind, Goro. You trust your toys too much - and fail to see that which is in front of you."

As she speaks, the bearings continue to whirl faster.. faster.. beating against the walls of the force cell as if it were under continuous fire from a half dozen machine guns - one on each wall. The cell is not given the chance to compensate - to draw energy from one wall to reinforce the one under assault - because they are all under assault.

The cell walls begin to grow dimmer.. then the first 'crack' appears, allowing one of the weighted bearings to break through the wall before it closes again. But that is all Lark needs - as with blinding speed, the bearing shoots towards Goro - and rams through the blaster, causing it to fall into pieces in his hand.

Still the gypsy remains perfectly still inside the cell.

"Now - tell me about Sul. Tell me EVERYTHING you know about him, AND my sister." she says in a quiet, calm voice, as if Goro was the one entrapped, not her.

Goro had still been mystefied by what she was doing with the ball bearings. One eye widened a little as the walls shimmered but as one passed through a chink in the armor so to speak his eyes widened in surprise, he gulped as the ball bearing shattered the blaster with apparent ease as if it where China in a shop trampled by a bull.

He had appeared to be intimidated though not sufficiently as his words were a cover for his emotions. "Nice trick ..." he was scared, actually and it showed. He was not too worried about the ball baring given his amphorus form and boneless nature deducing that the thing would be little more than an irritant to him.

He had been more shocked that the "cage" didn't hold up. He paid good money for it after all. Like egg shells the rest of the walls began to crack and shatter as they fell away. He had not possessed any psionic talent of his own though he was exempt from most forms of telepathy. His mental state was about of the few things that could be picked up from him, of course his had been easy to read though he had not admitted defeat as he slithered over towards a nearby desk that had been littered with debris from papers and the like scattered on it.

Lark sighs in annoyance at Goro's attempt at hiding his shock. How did he manage to keep any respect or work when he can not hide his reactions.

Her own abilities lead towards the telekinetic, and the tactile empathic - but she doesn't need to be a telepath or empath to recognize his shock, or his fear.

She gives another sigh. "Please.. I really don't have time to waste with the likes of you.." she mutters as she flings out her telekinesis, and forms a bubble around Goro - similar to the cell that had held her moments earlier. This one though is one of her creation - and spherical in shape so that any attempt to 'force' it would only bounce back on Goro.

"Look - just tell me what I want to know Goro - and this doesn't have to turn ... unpleasant." she says confidently - as she lets the sphere contract around Goro, forcing him to stoop a little within the confines.. clearly threatening to crush him inside it.

Of course Lark doesn't have nearly the kind of power to do that! In fact she can't even maintain the bubble for more than a minute or two. This is normally a trick that she uses as a shield to protect herself - and it probably won't be able to withstand any kind of prolonged assault by Goro. But she has a much better poker face than the slaver - and a lot of experience in deception and acting! She walks slowly towards the entrapped slaver as if she had all the time in the world, and could hold him there for as long as it takes.

Goro was stopped short. He was surprised and his initial plans had been cut off. His gooey hands pressed firmly against the force that was holding him in place. He began to stoop as the sphere seemed to close in on itself. His eyes grew big in his head as he attempted to comprehend things with his limited intellect. He was slow to get to points of logic at times and this was one of them.

A minute or two would be all that Lark would need though as panic seized hold of Goro. Slow to admit defeat even Goro could see how hopeless this was.

"What do you -" Goro began though his eyes widened in surprise. "1000 Rulouns if you take her out!"

Behind Lark, Aegir had finally arrived, the alien probably thinking that Aegir was his savior at this moment.

So much for surprise. He lost that given Goro's actions though he had immediately launched a sea of tentacles at Lark to restrain her upon the look of surprise on Goro's face. He knew it was best to keep things at close range given his slow movements, of course he had options that he could use

It's taking most of Lark's concentration to hold and constrict the field around Goro - enough so that she isn't able to sense Aegir coming up behind her.



The gypsy doesn't even look behind her, but just sneers at Goro. "I'm insulted Goro! Even you should be more original than..."

That's when Aegir enfolds Lark in a sea of tentacles - shattering her concentration and the force field around Goro disintegrates. Fortunately for Lark - her instincts have been battle trained, and so she reacts to Aegir's attack immediately. "Let GO of me!" she shrieks as she switches tactics from telekinesis to her other psychic ability - tactile empathy. "Burn!" she cries out as her projective empathy makes it feel like her skin is red hot to Aegir. It is only psychic though - there is pain, but no real damage or heat behind the pain.

Aegir's mouth tendrils twitched in the formation of a grin, at least what passes for it amongst his kind. Had she tried to touch his mind she would that it was a blank wall, there had been only one creature he came across in all the universe that could touch upon it and then it was only telepathically.

Fire had been one of the substances that he was heavily resistant too so he did not release her even as Goro was freed from his makeshift prison and slithered closer to the pair, a grin upon the features of his face as he did so.

"Leave her alive, she can be quit valuable."

The tentacles wrapped around her form tighter, the tingle of flames licking his skin as white eyes gazed into her very soul. She was a tougher read then most, the innate defenses of a psion stronger than a typical human's though he was certain that with enough time he would crack through her defenses like an eggshell.

"Make the bitch pay!" Goro gripped her by the jaw with a slimy hand, a grin on his features as he did so making her look directly at him. "Do what you will to her, anything short of death anyway. She'll be very valuable indeed."

You are a fool Aegir spoke telepathically for the pair to here him, his words pressing into there minds. You cannot control such power from the little I witnessed. Isn't that right?

But I wish to see your other tricks, we both know that you have other talents to attempt getting you out of a jam.

Goro's mood seemed to shift giving that he know seemed to have the upper hand in all of this. His hand went down to her breast, groping it as he grinned, slimy fingers closing over it as he grasped at the clothing above it as he gave it a feel. "Let's see what you've got slave!"

Lark keeps struggling in Aegir's grip - kicking and scratching at him, even as she attempts to push the 'temperature' that he feels as he holds her even higher. Surely he must have some kind of threshold.

As Goro grabs her jaw, the gypsy spits in his face. "Get your slimy hands off of me!" she snarls at the slaver.

Her eyes go a little wide at hearing Aegir's "thoughts", but that shock is quickly replaced as Goro grabs her breast through her leather vest. "Let Go Of Me!" she shrieks in a mix of fury and terror. Due to her projective empathy though - both Goro and Aegir will feel her body respond quickly to the touch, as pleasure spikes through her body (and therefore into theirs) - her nipple quickly stiffening visibly against the thin leather.

In a desperate attempt for freedom, Lark takes a new tactic, and instead she abandons the flames, sends jolts of electricity through both Goro and Aegir - as if they were being shot by a taser.

Heat did not seem to bother him too much and his threshold to it seemed quite high. He only felt it because he was accessing her thoughts, her own beliefs in that her body temperature was rising looped back onto him. Otherwise he would have felt no such attack had it been directed at him.

He could see Goro wiping saliva off of his slimy face, the alien grinning at her, the intensity of her pleasure clearly felt by him generating his own arousal as the musky scent of his pheramones drifted into the air. Harmless to humans though he could sense that they were having an effect on Goro as his own desire was heightened.

Slave?

Aegir questioned. He sensed the growing surprise in the girl with his display of telepathy though he figured that she just hadn't come across many beings off a psionic nature. He turned his head towards Goro as if confirming his words, then the amphorous alien was flung away where he hit the wall hard, an invisible force holding him there.

I cannot allow that. I have other matters in mind, something I am curious abo-

The word was choked off as a jolt of pain radiated through him causing constricting tentacles to retract from his prey at once. He had almost been aware of it too late, but his multitasking mind allowed him to constantly monitor thoughts and it slammed into him with the barest warning.

Not soon enough though as he felt pain course through him in such a way that he had not experienced in the longest while. Even on Shokushu with the inhibitors electricity was his bane and could do him serious harm.

Now he did not have the luxury of inhibitors midgate their effectiveness. He cried out in their minds, as if he had actually touch something electrical. His body instinctively slithering back as he recoiled in shear agony.

Had it been a psionic attack launched against him it would have failed. It was a simple matter for her to think that she was a live wire rather than a hot amber to have the desired effect. Goro, however, was fully susceptible and danced in place before dropping to the floor unconscious. Aegir, no longer had the will to hold him in place.

Dread and fear washed over him but somewhere amongst the pain their was joy, joy at breaking the hum drum cycle of always knowing what was about to happen regardless. His white eyes narrowed on her, though he recovered quickly enough by pure instinct he pressed all that he could into her mind making a suggestion, trying to dominate her mind to cut off that particular use of her talents, that and anything electrical.

But he was unable to react immediately otherwise. Phantom pain sizzling a path through his body made going on the offensive next to impossible at this stage so soon after being fried.

Lark gasps and falls to her knees as she is released - a bit surprised at the intensity of the reaction to her 'electric' shock. Unfortunately she has been using her abilities too often, and expending too much energy - and that last burst as exhausted her.

The gypsy struggles to recover both physically and mentally from her exhaustion, her psionic defenses weakened to just the most rudimentary defenses - barely more than a non-psionic would have.

It becomes a race to see who will recover first!

Lark starts to crawl towards the door out, trying to stumble to her feet in the process.

Unfortunately for her, there was no real electricity in her attack on Aegir. The psionic attack would simulate the sensation, and cause instinctive reactions - but the effects of such an attack would fade much more quickly than a real electrical attack would.

He was recovering faster than normal. His greater metabolism had been stimulated as if he were wounded, promoting his own healing except that it was all mental, there was no real physical damage and his mind was quickly coming to grips with the rouse. When it had his mouth tendrils twitched and quivered into his species equivalent of a grin.

Nice trick but that won't save you.

He found that her mental defenses had been down as he injected his suggestion into her mind. He slithered closer to the door slowly. He was by far slower than she but he had means at his disposal where that would not factor in much, and he did have a great reach due to his tentacles and elasticy.

A tentacle reached out coiling about one of Lark's ankles and dragging her near. Another moved up to the curve of her breast rubbing against it lightly. Such a quick reaction earlier too at Goro's touch ... this will be fun.