Chapter 229: Kicking Ass and Taking Names
Feeling the hot breath of the Istar creature on my neck, I sent up a quick prayer and slapped the left side of my neck and my choker. I didn’t think that my nanos had enough energy to deal with both the toxin and my demand for armor, but the way I figured it, I was going to die either way.
It was better to die from being poisoned than it was to have your throat ripped out. I could handle pain; it didn’t mean that I liked it.
I turned my head, determined to stare at my executioner in the eyes. I wish I had a knife or something that I could use to stab this thing in the side. I knew that the acid would probably eat through my flesh, but I really wanted to take a part of the monster with me.
There was a shimmer of something white before my eyes just as my armor kicked in.
I felt the weight of the alien being ripped off of me, her hold on my clothing absolutely nothing to the force of her being ripped off of me.
I sat up, prepared to thank the guys for the timely save, only to see that they were nowhere near me. I frantically looked around, only to see them fighting off a swarm of bunnies.
"Throw them into the light!" I yelled, coming to my feet. If they weren’t the ones to save me, then who was?
Looking around, I froze, stunned at what I was seeing.
Two queens faced off against each other. One, the brown one with bright red eyes I was intimately familiar with, seeing as it was just trying to eat me. But the second one looked familiar, too.
"Princess?" I asked hesitantly. The pure white queen with bright blue eyes turned to look at me. Taking advantage of the distraction, the brown queen slashed at Princess, its claws that were just dug into me, now trying to take a chunk out of Princess.
Princess turned her attention back to the queen and let out a bone-chilling hiss. She caught the claw that was aiming for her chest and, with her other hand, slashed out with her own strike, removing the hand from the queen.
Bright red blood dripped down from the severed limb while even more gushed out from the queen’s arm, splashing all over the place. There was hissing as smoke rose from the walls, and I could only assume the floors as the blood ate through the ship.
Hopefully, the hull was strong enough to prevent the acid from eating through that too. But only time will tell.
Princess, the dainty creature that she was, looked at the hand between her thumb and forefinger for a second before opening her mouth and swallowing the thing whole. Licking her fingers, she turned back to the brown queen and smiled brightly.
"Okay then," I said, more than a little convinced that she had this. I walked backward until my back was against one of the walls of the corridor. Now that my armor was activated, I was a lot less easy to kill, but that didn’t mean I was going to get in the way of two queens fighting for dominance.
I was smart like that.
"Starshine!" shouted Midnight, rushing over to my side. "Are you okay?" he demanded, looking me over from top to bottom.
"Yup," I said, nodding my head as GA approached, doing the same thing.
"Your armor is back to working," grunted GA, clearly pleased by that fact.
"It is," I confirmed, my eyes never leaving the ones sided slaughter of the bunny that thought she would kill me. Now the only thing to worry about was... what side was Princess on?
"Does that mean that the toxin has been nullified?" asked Midnight, leaning against the wall to my right, watching the same bloodbath that I was. It was almost like Princess was toying with the other queen. She had quickly removed the second hand and ate that, too, leaving the queen completely defenseless.
"It’s either that or the nanos had determined that there was a larger threat to my life," I answered with a shrug of my shoulders. I was feeling fine right now. Whether that meant that I was healthy or that enough toxins had been removed that the nanos could handle both, I had no idea.
I watched in fascination as the brown queen, now missing both limbs on her front, tried to get away. She slowly backed away, staring at Princess before quickly looking around for an exit, but Princess was not yet done playing with her.
There was a sound almost like children’s laughter coming out of Princess as she stalked the queen. The Istar bunny stumbled a few times before trying to steady herself on her haunches. Quickly looking between Princess and the ceiling, the queen crouched down quickly before jumping up, trying to get to safety.
But Princess wasn’t having anything of it.
With a slice of her front hand, she pushed the queen to the side, sending her flying into the wall on the other side of us. The queen, stunned, simply lay there, letting the blood continue to drain from her severed arms.
"Do you think she is on our side?" asked GA, tilting his head toward Princess. "Because of the way she is taking out that other queen, I have to admit, I am a bit... concerned... about being able to beat her."
I, once again, shrugged my shoulders. "We will find out soon enough," I said, my eyes never leaving the white Istar bunny. I had never seen a coat so beautiful, so much nicer than that of the other queen. In fact, Princess looked like every non-creepy version of the Easter Bunny that I had ever seen.
Was she what the Istar creatures were supposed to look like? And the others were a mutated version of it? Was that why most, if not all, of Ye’tab’s information was wrong?
Either way, Princess was kicking ass and taking names.
