My Nearly immortal life
A painfully revealing rescue
Chapter #8: A Painfully Revealing Rescue
After considering my next move I shifted into a Bullet Beetle, an insect with superior flight speed. After ten minutes of flying, I found 32nd New Grove street in the same slum neighborhood I first met Sarah. I flew behind the warehouse, shifted into human form and walked around to the entrance. When I walked inside I immediately felt a gun barrel against my back.
“What’s your business here stranger?” a menacing voice demanded.
“I’m here for the “friendly chat” described in the note in my back pocket.” I answered. Without moving the gun from my back, the thug reached into my pocket, took the note, and read it.
“So you’re the special guest the boss mentioned,” the thug said, “you can go upstairs but no funny business!” At the top of the stairs there was a large room, at the end of it there was a well-dressed man sitting in a chair, he had a mask on his face to hide his identity, and was whittling a piece of wood with a pocket knife and had his feet propped up on a crate. He turned his attention on me and said,
“Why hello Mr. Salurn I’m happy to see you’re right on time for our chat.”
“Sarah better be safe!” I said with a cold menacing voice.
“Take a look over there and see for yourself…” the thug boss replied. A light in the corner clicked on to reveal Sarah, tied to a chair, bound and gagged, still in pajamas, covered with mismatching jewelry and at the gunpoint of multiple thugs, including the trio that I had rescued her from.
“What do you want from us?” I asked furiously.
“Remember the surprise I mentioned? I want you to watch as my goons rob her of the valuables we took from the mansion, and then I want her to watch you to die!” the thug boss answered with a cackle, “Any resistance and we’ll kill her without a second thought.” I drooped my head in surrender.
“Understood… as long as she gets to live.” I said with a sigh. I couldn’t see the details of what was happening through my helpless tears, just the blurred figures and noises of the robbery. Afterwards I heard the thug boss say,
“The gag is no longer needed boys, let Mr. Salurn hear his dear Sarah’s last goodbye to him.”
“Noah please run!!” I heard Sarah yell.
No…” I replied, “I’ve been running from the truth too long…”
“How cute…but I was hoping for something much more original and tear jerking.” the thug boss laughed, “Now boys, lets show Mr. Salurn how the Claymore Gang turns men into Swiss cheese!”
“NOOOOOO!!!!” Sarah screamed as the thugs opened fire. It doesn’t feel too good, having several rounds of 40-caliber bullets pierce through you on full auto. (Just because it doesn’t kill me doesn’t mean it’s painless.) After a number of seconds of raw pain lying on the floor in a puddle of my own blood, while hearing Sara’s crying and the thugs’ laughing I heard the thug leader say with a snickering, sinister tone,
“Alright, now that he’s out of she way, we get to the good part!” I heard Sarah yell,
“Stay away from me!” Filled with rage, I forced myself to my feet. There was a storm of gasps of amazement and horror.
“Congratulations, you’ve gotten me more pissed then I’ve been in thousands of years…” I said with a dark grin, blood dribbled from my mouth due to internal wounds that would kill a human. “Not only did that really hurt, it blew my cover as well!” I turned with a sheepish smile to Sarah, and said to her wide eyed face,
“I’m sorry I lied to you, but this is something I usually keep to myself.”
Action!!
Not only can I shift into different creatures, but I can also shift individual parts of my body to access the abilities of my creatures of choice. I thought of several choices, the arm of a Thritwill, a bipedal insect that can launch projectile stingers from its wrist? No, that would limit me to eliminating the thugs one at a time, they could hurt Sarah by the time I’m finished. I needed to take them all out simultaneously. The nervous system of a Kurinter, a creature that can electrocute its prey like an electric eel from the earth Amazon river? Not a good idea, the electric current would be incontrollable and would likely kill Sarah along with the thugs. I needed to be selective and effective. So I shifted my brain into that of a Grintar; a predator with the ability to disable the brain functions of it’s desired prey through telepathy. With a raise of my eyebrow the thugs’ pupils dilated, their eyes rolled back and they all fell limp to the floor.
Escape
I untied Sarah, gathered her belongings from the “unresisting” thugs, and returned them to her. Even after being untied, she was still sitting in the chair awed to speechlessness.
“ I suspect you have many questions…” I said to her. Sarah quietly nodded her head with eyes still wide open. By that time the bullet holes in my body had almost healed and we were preparing to leave. We heard some shouts from downstairs; it sounded like the thugs downstairs heard the simultaneous thud of their comrades hitting the floor and were coming up to investigate. Looking around the room for an alternate exit, I saw a flight of stairs that likely led to the roof. Grabbing Sarah’s arm I led her up the stairs, which led to another floor. About three floors later we reached the roof; the thugs were right on our tails. Standing on the edge of the roof looking down to the empty streets below I opened my jacket and said to her,
“Grab on to me, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and hold it.” She did as I said. Jumping off the roof, I shifted into a Glotoian cliff bouncer, a strange, transparent green, sphere shaped creature that is filled with water that frequently rolls off of mountainsides and can survive large plummets to the ground. Sarah, who I had rapped in my jacket, was absorbed into my cliff bouncer orb of water. I could feel the bubbles rippling inside me from Sarah’s screams. When we hit the ground my stretchy cliff bouncer skin and the water inside me cushioned our fall. After bouncing a number of blocks, we came to a stop. Thank goodness the slums we were in were sparsely populated so no one saw us. When I shifted into Noah Salurn, Sarah was still wrapped in my jacket. She was dry because the cliff bouncer’s moisture was returned to my body, but her pajamas were stained with Noah Salurn’s blood from being wrapped in my jacket. We walked to a secluded alley were I began answered her questions.
After considering my next move I shifted into a Bullet Beetle, an insect with superior flight speed. After ten minutes of flying, I found 32nd New Grove street in the same slum neighborhood I first met Sarah. I flew behind the warehouse, shifted into human form and walked around to the entrance. When I walked inside I immediately felt a gun barrel against my back.
“What’s your business here stranger?” a menacing voice demanded.
“I’m here for the “friendly chat” described in the note in my back pocket.” I answered. Without moving the gun from my back, the thug reached into my pocket, took the note, and read it.
“So you’re the special guest the boss mentioned,” the thug said, “you can go upstairs but no funny business!” At the top of the stairs there was a large room, at the end of it there was a well-dressed man sitting in a chair, he had a mask on his face to hide his identity, and was whittling a piece of wood with a pocket knife and had his feet propped up on a crate. He turned his attention on me and said,
“Why hello Mr. Salurn I’m happy to see you’re right on time for our chat.”
“Sarah better be safe!” I said with a cold menacing voice.
“Take a look over there and see for yourself…” the thug boss replied. A light in the corner clicked on to reveal Sarah, tied to a chair, bound and gagged, still in pajamas, covered with mismatching jewelry and at the gunpoint of multiple thugs, including the trio that I had rescued her from.
“What do you want from us?” I asked furiously.
“Remember the surprise I mentioned? I want you to watch as my goons rob her of the valuables we took from the mansion, and then I want her to watch you to die!” the thug boss answered with a cackle, “Any resistance and we’ll kill her without a second thought.” I drooped my head in surrender.
“Understood… as long as she gets to live.” I said with a sigh. I couldn’t see the details of what was happening through my helpless tears, just the blurred figures and noises of the robbery. Afterwards I heard the thug boss say,
“The gag is no longer needed boys, let Mr. Salurn hear his dear Sarah’s last goodbye to him.”
“Noah please run!!” I heard Sarah yell.
No…” I replied, “I’ve been running from the truth too long…”
“How cute…but I was hoping for something much more original and tear jerking.” the thug boss laughed, “Now boys, lets show Mr. Salurn how the Claymore Gang turns men into Swiss cheese!”
“NOOOOOO!!!!” Sarah screamed as the thugs opened fire. It doesn’t feel too good, having several rounds of 40-caliber bullets pierce through you on full auto. (Just because it doesn’t kill me doesn’t mean it’s painless.) After a number of seconds of raw pain lying on the floor in a puddle of my own blood, while hearing Sara’s crying and the thugs’ laughing I heard the thug leader say with a snickering, sinister tone,
“Alright, now that he’s out of she way, we get to the good part!” I heard Sarah yell,
“Stay away from me!” Filled with rage, I forced myself to my feet. There was a storm of gasps of amazement and horror.
“Congratulations, you’ve gotten me more pissed then I’ve been in thousands of years…” I said with a dark grin, blood dribbled from my mouth due to internal wounds that would kill a human. “Not only did that really hurt, it blew my cover as well!” I turned with a sheepish smile to Sarah, and said to her wide eyed face,
“I’m sorry I lied to you, but this is something I usually keep to myself.”
Action!!
Not only can I shift into different creatures, but I can also shift individual parts of my body to access the abilities of my creatures of choice. I thought of several choices, the arm of a Thritwill, a bipedal insect that can launch projectile stingers from its wrist? No, that would limit me to eliminating the thugs one at a time, they could hurt Sarah by the time I’m finished. I needed to take them all out simultaneously. The nervous system of a Kurinter, a creature that can electrocute its prey like an electric eel from the earth Amazon river? Not a good idea, the electric current would be incontrollable and would likely kill Sarah along with the thugs. I needed to be selective and effective. So I shifted my brain into that of a Grintar; a predator with the ability to disable the brain functions of it’s desired prey through telepathy. With a raise of my eyebrow the thugs’ pupils dilated, their eyes rolled back and they all fell limp to the floor.
Escape
I untied Sarah, gathered her belongings from the “unresisting” thugs, and returned them to her. Even after being untied, she was still sitting in the chair awed to speechlessness.
“ I suspect you have many questions…” I said to her. Sarah quietly nodded her head with eyes still wide open. By that time the bullet holes in my body had almost healed and we were preparing to leave. We heard some shouts from downstairs; it sounded like the thugs downstairs heard the simultaneous thud of their comrades hitting the floor and were coming up to investigate. Looking around the room for an alternate exit, I saw a flight of stairs that likely led to the roof. Grabbing Sarah’s arm I led her up the stairs, which led to another floor. About three floors later we reached the roof; the thugs were right on our tails. Standing on the edge of the roof looking down to the empty streets below I opened my jacket and said to her,
“Grab on to me, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and hold it.” She did as I said. Jumping off the roof, I shifted into a Glotoian cliff bouncer, a strange, transparent green, sphere shaped creature that is filled with water that frequently rolls off of mountainsides and can survive large plummets to the ground. Sarah, who I had rapped in my jacket, was absorbed into my cliff bouncer orb of water. I could feel the bubbles rippling inside me from Sarah’s screams. When we hit the ground my stretchy cliff bouncer skin and the water inside me cushioned our fall. After bouncing a number of blocks, we came to a stop. Thank goodness the slums we were in were sparsely populated so no one saw us. When I shifted into Noah Salurn, Sarah was still wrapped in my jacket. She was dry because the cliff bouncer’s moisture was returned to my body, but her pajamas were stained with Noah Salurn’s blood from being wrapped in my jacket. We walked to a secluded alley were I began answered her questions.