Young Writers Society

Just as the ball seemed to start getting interesting a new towering couple approaching the tall entry way to survey this party of disasters.
"Oh doll, look at all these exquisite attire and their persons. Surely we can have fun at this event without too many stares from the other party goers, don't you think?" The tall pink woman addressed her date who had a hand around her waist despite being a good foot shorter than herself.
"All I want to do is dance this night into oblivion with you my dear, and maybe drink too much while I talk about business with some poor bloke who won't understand a word I'm saying," He looked up at her with those glistening black pools for eyes under his mask before finishing,"So yes I think we will have a great time. Let's just see if anyone else can keep up with us though, shall we?" And so the couple of strange proportions made there way down the short flight of steps to take a place amid the crowd of dancers, taking note as they parted ways a little when the couple came to stop near the center of it all.
"Maestro please do a favor for a dangerous lady and let's liven up the music, I want to dance tonight not die on my feet!" Runa chimed at the musicians knowing full well they would know what she wanted. With that the tempo stepped up and the two were off as the man grabbed his date by the waist and spun her round the dance floor in a fluid of a dance that moved them all throughout the other dancers without ever taking their eyes of each other as if they knew they wouldn't have to worry about anyone crashing into them. Was a beautiful performance than caused many of the other guests to stand along the edge in awe and almost terror as these giant of guests moved with such grace and poise together as if they were not aware of how different the two could possibly be for each other.
As the music came to a close the couple looked about as some of the other guests applauded their performance and gave a neat bow before linking arms with one another and making their way to the refreshment table to catch their breath for the next dance.
"Oh doll, look! They have my favorites here!" Runa exclaimed in excitement as they approached the table and took up a small plate of strange slimy finger foods that seemed to squelch with every bite. "Oh it's been so long since I've had a good jelly coated eyeball."
"I forget that you like those darling," Sacasis said with slight disgust,"I think I'll stick to these cheese and cracker trays they've laid out but you enjoy all those nasty insides of creatures all you want love." He gave her a small smile all the same as she popped another jelly eye into her sharp-toothed grin.
"Why don't you fetch us one of those wines over there while I browse the rest of these delicacy snacks they've arranged for us." Runa suggests to him as his queasiness rose with her consumption of another strange body part of a random creature. "It'll settle your stomach if you go fetch us drinks love."
"Gladly!" He said with abandonment as he turned to the drink end of the table to inspect their selection giving a warm smile to the three gentlemen already gathered on that end as he went about browsing.

Jacek watched them go, glanced towards Avi and then turned to the colourful one. "If you'll excuse me," he said and bowed. He caught the slight shift in John's expression before he straightened up. "I should get back to my...companion." He gestured vaguely in Avi's direction. "They'll be wondering where I got to--"

Suddenly, the ship shuddered and groaned, and then the pressure seemed to drop. Jacek frowned. What had happened now? Was that the ship dropping out of hyper-speed? He glanced about, concerned. He knew the Captain's schedule. The ship wasn't meant to drop out of hyper-speed anytime soon. The fact that it had wasn't a good sign. He took the bottle out from beneath his arm and set it down on the table, turning away.

"Something is wrong."

* * *

Avi glanced up at the man leaning over him, and sighed. "No," he said, and let his free hand drop into his lap. "And they cannot return because we are fugitives... They gave up everything to protect me--" He cut himself off with a grimace that Carter couldn't see and a sharp shake of his head. "Regardless." He slashed a hand through the air, and was confused when the ship groaned, shuddered and then there was a sudden loss of pressure no one would have noticed if not for the abrupt lack of it now.

"What was that?" the green-clad attendant whispered, moving closer to Avi and Carter.

Avi glanced from the attendant to Carter and back, then sighed. "Apparently, the ship just dropped out of hyper-speed."

"Why would it do that?"

He glowered at the attendant. "How would I know? I'm just a passenger, not the captain."

"My apologies, my lord."

The attendant bowed low and backed off a step. Avi turned his attention back to Carter. He studied him for a moment, and then glanced past him to find Jacek still by the refreshments table and currently involved in conversation with several others. Avi moved to stand and hesitated, glancing up at Carter.

And then the lights flickered and went out.

Chaos.

Screaming.

Silence.

And then the emergency lighting flickered on, casting a low blue-purple glow across the ballroom. Avi was on his feet immediately, looking for Jacek, but he couldn't see him in the crowd of panicking guests. Dropping out of hyper-speed, he could understand. But the main lights going out? That wasn't a good sign.

* * *

Arden and Lark slowed to a stop as they registered the ship's groaning and shuddering, at the sudden shift in light and the chaos around them. They exchanged a look and then glanced about the ballroom. Low, blue-purple emergency lighting had replaced the bright blue-white of the main power lighting.

"Well," Lark said, turning to give Arden a concerned frown. "That can't be good."

"No," Arden muttered, expression shifting towards suspicious. "Not good at all."

The moment that the ship dropped out of hyperspeed, Codix knew that something had gone horribly wrong. He felt a sinking feeling in his gut - Nadira and Charlie were off across the room, and he was stuck like this. John Moore couldn't do anything when a spaceship had a crisis; he was just supposed to be a random politician from Earth. He was supposed to act confused and frightened. And while he confused and frightened, Codix knew how to deal with intergalactic chaos.

Then the room fell to darkness.

As screams rang out, instinct kicked in. His form shifted from an adult man to a teenage Sixen, and his clothes changed to match. He still kept the suit, but it was less professional and more casual - a slightly unbuttoned collar, loose tie and a shade of black that had more gray in it than before. His mask changed, too, to a much less fancier one.

The emergency lights kicked on.

And Codix was already halfway across the room, heading towards where he had seen Nadira and Charlie last.




It wasn't the ship dropping out of hyperspace that scared Charlie - it was the lights going out. People were screaming and stumbling around in the darkness. A person - or maybe two or more - pushed into her and Nadira, knocking her into Nadira and Nadira into a wall decoration right behind them.

There was a scrapping sound of metal on metal.

Nadira let out a pained noise under her breath, and Charlie thought she could hear her falling to the ground as the emergency lights flickered on. She turned and stared down at her friend; Nadira had her hand over a slit in the red dress she was wearing. Even though she was trying her best to cover it, the gash was just too long - she could see the bits of metal peeking out from underneath the cut skin.

"Are you okay?" Nadira asked, wincing as she tried - and failed - to get back to her feet.

"I'm fine," she said. She crouched down beside Nadira. "But what about you? Can you...Can you stand?"

Nadira studied her leg for a moment, then shook her head. "It's too damaged," she said. "It cut into one of the wires that powers past my knee. I'd need a replacement, and Codix doesn't have any on him-"

"Nad!" Codix suddenly exclaimed. Charlie was taken back when she realized he looked like himself again - she hadn't expected him to change his form to that. He hadn't even gone for looking like Oliver this time. "Nad, are you okay? You-You-"

"I can't stand," she said.

A nervous look flitted across his face. "What happened?"

"We were getting pushed around," Charlie said. "Someone knocked into me, and Nadira ended up hitting the wall decoration - it cut into her leg."

"One of the wires snapped," Nadira added. Codix looked even more worried than before, but he didn't just stand there and gape at her - he slung his arm underneath Nadira's. Charlie took the hint and did the same.

"We need to find a replacement," he told them. There wasn't anything in the room that could help Nadira - Charlie knew that, even if she wasn't the one who had built Nadira. "There has to be somewhere we could get a new wire from."

"That would mean having to open up my entire leg and rearrange things," Nadira pointed out as Codix and Charlie struggled to keep her steady. "I don't think we have the time for that."

Charlie scanned the room. They had to do something! They couldn't just leave Nadira like this. They could have tried putting her into one of their phones, but if the phone broke or was lost, they'd lose her, too.

An idea suddenly came to her.

"What if we find another robot?" she suggested. "A ship has to have some kind of robots, right? We just have to find one that Nadira can connect to, and then we don't have to worry about fixing Nadira."

Codix and Nadira exchanged a look.

"Let's do it," they agreed.


Télos was going to give Thytes an answer - one meant to reassure but probably would have revealed that he wasn't alright in the slightest - but then the lights went out. Instincts took in over awkwardness; he removed himself from the position he was in, took a few steps from Thytes, and made a golden sword appear in his hand as the room was thrust into screaming, chaotic darkness.

But then the lights turned on - backup ones, not the ones from before - and Télos realized that there was no simple threat to worry about. Something else had happened, and he didn't have the slightest clue what.

...He did keep his sword out, though, because it was certainly going to be useful.

It hadn't taken too long for Enide and Tannis to find the bathroom; out of the few doors in the room, they'd been lucky enough to find it in the third one (the first had been locked and the second was a janitor's closet). And, well, it was nice enough - shiny black floors, white and black tiled walls, strange black ventilation systems on the top, and all kinds of strange ceramic seats and tubs that Enide suspected were water closets or basins. They'd made their way to the largest 'room,' had filed into it, had spent a minute struggling to lock it (the lack of privacy in this bathroom was appalling), and had sat down in opposite corners of the room.

"'m sorry," Tannis mumbled, sitting on a water closet that creaked under his weight. He pressed his hands against the walls, head lolling side to side.

"Knowing your lack of familiarity with otherworldly situations, I cannot say I am immensely surprised," said Enide, sitting against a wall and staring underneath the door to see if anyone else would come in. But the bathroom, as far as she could tell, was empty. "What they would be doing with such strong alcohol is, however, beyond me - it seems rather inappropriate for the occasion."

Tannis shook his head, blinking. "I don' mind too much. Haven' been this out of it since before he, y'know."

"I know," Enide said. She frowned. "I imagine it must still hurt."

"Yeah," Tannis said, nodding his head and staring at the floor. "Was a good man. Mal thinks I'm bein' stupid, but I just, want to find someone. Can't find anyone like-"

A groan cut through Tannis's words. Enide swore as the lion tumbled onto the floor; she ran over to pull him up. She was almost inclined to believe that the lion had made the noise, if it wasn't for the fact that it persisted. A pit settled in her stomach.

And then the lights went out.

"Enide, whas' goin' on?" Tannis said, staring up at her as emergency lights bathed them both in blue and purple.

"I do not know," said Enide. She pulled a dagger out of a scabbard hidden into her tuxedo sleeve, staring down at the floor and up at the ceiling. "But I would not like to find out."



Thytes didn't know how to respond to the creaking and the groaning, or the lights going out, or the lights coming back on (but wrong), or the god pulling out a sword. He didn't know where anyone else was - Mal, Enide, and Tannis were lost in the screaming crowd. So, without any other options, and with fear gripping his heart, he ran over to Télos and clung onto him. At least somebody else knew what they were doing.

The painting on the ceiling jolted. Everything jolted.

Brian smacked into a white chest. He stumbled back, letting out a short stream of confused apology. "Sorry, my fault- are you alrigh- what the hell?"

The lights had gone off.

They came back blue and dim, over the white lion man he had bumped into, and the swirling mass of confused partygoers. Brian looked back at the lion, then realised he'd seen something in the crowd. He looked back.

A tall golden fellow in the near distance had a sword drawn, and...somebody was hugging him around the waist. To stop him? Was he dangerous?

"Sweet Jesus, that guy has a sword." Brian said to the white lion. "This is a diplomatic function, do they just- do they usually let you have swords out?"

Um. Brian still had access to his pocket dimension full of throwing knives. Was that the same? But nobody had asked him to declare it at the door, and he didn't have it open at the moment, so no, naturally, that was different. That was fine.

Was that guy fine?

Mal blinked. It felt like the last minute had crumpled down to a few seconds. He could've sworn he was in a well-lit room, just about ready to tell the green, winged man who'd run into him that everything was perfectly fine. But no, he was in a dimly-lit ship that had, for whatever reason, decided to stop. Oh, and the resident god had apparently pulled out a sword.

"I'm, um, not sure?" Mal said to the winged man, trying hard not to hyperventilate. He looked over to where Thytes was embracing Télos.

The white lion cupped his paws over his mouth and shouted, "Thytes! Télos! What the f*** are you doing?" Hopefully they'd be able to hear that over the screaming.

Télos very much heard what was being screamed from across the room. He couldn't tell if it was because of the sword he had just pulled out or something else, though he knew the sword was a very good bet. It was one thing to act on instinct; it was another to then realize that swords probably weren't the best thing to pull out after the ship was somehow damaged.

He should have been diplomatic. He didn't know how he was supposed to be in a situation like this, but that's what all the other-

Oh, screw it. He had never been a conventional ruler, and now was not the time to start being one. His instincts were on his side - there was a threat, and someone had to take care of it when it inevitably showed up.

"I'm getting ready for whatever caused the ship to, you know!" he shouted back, waving his hand about in place of the words he couldn't think of.

Looking back to Brian, Mal gestured in the god's direction. "That," he said, voice breaking briefly. "Let's, uh, let's hope he doesn't have to use it."

Brian squinted, confused, between the lion he had just met, and the twitchy swordsman.

"You know him?"

To Carter's question of trust, Avi had thankfully said "No." If the man had decided to trust Carter after a few flirty lines, then it would be question of how these fugitives had survived so long. And they were obviously not in the best state from not being used to space defense. He, of course, still had a few choice words for Avi's security measures.

Just as Carter was starting his quick quip, the ship shook from a sudden drop in speed. There was a slight issue between Avi and the attendant before Avi was on his feet and standing beside Carter. He let his hand down quickly to brush fingertips and then drew out his blade, keeping the revolver in its holster for now.

Carter made eye contact with Flynn, beckoning him over to the situation. Flynn was walking along at a brisk pace with Jacek, but he got separated somewhere in the crowd. He saw that Jacek had been dressed similarly to the small group he stood in front of now, slowly making the connections.

Flynn noted Carter's fingertip contact with a person in a very fancy set of robes, and Flynn pushed the commentary to the back of his head. From under his skirt, Flynn took out his own blade and pulled Carter to the side.

"Carter, what's happening?"

As he asked the question, the lights started flickering, the high pitched whining of the electrical systems switching over bringing Carter to his knees in pain. Flynn stood somewhere above him and Carter could feel Avi off to the side, but it was too much interference to get up from the floor.

Carter hit the floor with a noticeable thump and Flynn quickly began wondering about the odds of finding a medic in the crowd.

Mal shrugged. "Sort of?" he said. "I just met him, but he says he's a god. The person clinging onto him knows about as much about him as I do, unfortunately."

Brian stared at the lion, then at the the lion.

"I didn't realise it was that kind of party." he said.

"It's not really a party anymore," Mal said, throwing up his paws. "And I'm a medic, so it's only a matter of time before somebody asks me for help, which is just great. I totally want to do my job right now."

Flynn tried to pull Carter up from the floor, and possibly getting him into a chair, sideways glancing at the present attendant and the person he was guarding. He looked in the dimly lit room for a presence of Jacek, catching only a slight blur out of the corner of his eye.

The one Carter had just been standing with. The one Carter had just been brushing finger tips with. And clearly the one who was concerned with Carter's well being but didn't vocalize such a concern.

On a long shot, he shouted into the crowd, "Would anyone here happen to be a medic?"

Mal hissed in the general direction of the comment. "Of course," he mumbled. Tapping his cane against the ground, he held out a paw to Brian. "You don't look like you have anything better to do, and I don't want to get crushed by the crowd, so do you think you could help a stranger walk across a room?"