Consoulia Chronicles: Booting Up [~ read description]

Chapter 10: Confrontation

The sounds of screaming pierced through the pipeline as the four of them ran towards the source. "Iris, slow down!" Clover pleaded. "I can't! What if Larkspur is hurt?!" She screeched in defense. The pipe came to an end and there was a small, concrete room that was dry for the most part.

Silence filled the area and had an air of eeriness attached to it. "Iris, we know you're worried, but this place seems too creepy to stand in. Come on, let's go back." Clover reached out to grab her companion's hand and tried to pull her back, but not without a fight. 

"I'm not leaving!" She shouted. 

"Yes, we are! Larkspur's screaming stopped, okay? She might be down some other pipe." she rationalized whilst pulling back her friend. 

"No, I'm staying." She pulled her body back in an attempt to get out of her hostess's grip.

"I don't have a good feeling about this at all, as a matter of fact, my gut's telling me that we should leave." The human explained. 

"I'm not going anywhere; I sense another life form in this room other than the four of us. Somebody's in here and I'm not leaving until I know Larks is safe and sound." Iris rationalized.

"I'd give up if I were you." Zerrin began. "Once Iris sets her mind towards something, she'll stop at nothing to attain her goal." She then redirected her attention to the child. "While it's a noble trait, it's never a good idea to just stand here and just claim our friend's in here without being completely certain. Just take advice for once and let's blow this popsicle stand. Besides, thinking about it, we can't be certain that was actually her screaming. There could be enemies down here."

"Even if what I'm sensing isn't her it's a risk I'm willing to take." Iris defended.

"It's a risk you don't have to take. Let's just go."

"No! I'll never leave! I want to make sure Larkspur is safe!"

"You should really listen to your friends more, little Plaything."

They heard the sound of clicking in one of the pipes coupled with giggling while a figure emerged from the pipe. It appeared to be a young woman with black hair with light blue highlights and she wore a thin, white scarf. Her attire, for the most part, consisted of only black, blue, and white. Zerrin gasped as her eyes widened.

The woman laughed obnoxiously and smirked. "Well, isn't this a surprise? My rivals, my competitors," she gave Zerrin a death stare.  "Hello, sister." The woman's young voice spoke.

 "And just who are you?" Clover questioned.

"That's..!" Zerrin began.

"Satara!" Iris finished.

"Well, today's just my lucky day, isn't it? You're just as sweet as I remember: caring for your friends like that," she commented as Zerrin got in front of the others protectively. "Not everyone gets the privilege of seeing their friend die right in front of them while protecting them. You're cool for that, you know." 

"Two of my arch nemeses all in the same room, though," Satara frowned. "Spire doesn't seem to be here. I wonder where he went? You wouldn't happen to know, would you, dear sister?"

"What do you want?" Zerrin questioned.

"I'll tell you what I want." She walked closer and let her slow walking make her heels click ominously. "I want my father back." Zerrin's eyes widened and she slightly looked away. 

"Oh, yes, our father."
"For the millionth time, I didn't kill him!"
"Hah! Don't make me laugh, sister. You're not fooling anyone. He was murdered by your hands not too long after your tenth birthday. I had to wait, but thank the stars that wait's over. Mother isn't here to stop me from doing whatever the hell I want with a console like you anymore." 

"I remember simpler times before you ended them." She reflected. "Me and our brother looked up to him and adored his strength. I remember the three of us and the rest of our family living in the mountains whilst we were taking notes from our father's training. Maybe you might've never cared about our father's prowess, or his passion, or even for him as a person, but we looked up to him. 

"Well if he was so strong, how come I never heard of him?" Iris finally spoke up, but cautiously.

 Satara laughed and pointed at the youth. "Well, you're more than deserving to get a formal introduction of my father. Besides, I did try to kill you after all." 

Satara cleared her throat as Zerrin buried her face into her palm. "Not this again." 

"Don't even start singing that. The man might've been skilled at Martial Arts but not even Larkspur would be a strong enough lawyer to keep us from getting sued." 

Being denied the opportunity to give her father what she thought was a well deserved shout out, it infuriated Satara to the point of grabbing Zerrin's body with her telekinesis. "Just for that, I'm now obliged to finish what I started." She made a 'come here' motion with her cupped hand, which in turn caused her sister to be forced closer to her.

"Zerrin, no!" Iris screeched. 
With the flick of her arm, Zerrin was sent into the wall, forming a crater with her body. Her back got unstuck from the wall and she landed face first onto the cold, damp concrete. 

"Zerrin!" Clover cried out as she ran after her, but Satara forced her back into Zander's body; however, the latter caught the her in his arms. 

Satara loomed over her sister and knelt beside her. She grabbed a clump of her hair and pulled her head up to her face. "What's all this? I've been waiting for a good fight and this is all you have to give me? What a shame." She slammed her face into the dirt. 

Satara rose to her feet, leaned over Zerrin so her hands touched the wall for balance, and started swinging her feet into her victim. It wouldn't be long before she leaned further downward to start pounding her in the back of the head. "Worthless! Little! Shit!" She spoke with each stomp and punch.

Satara heard rushed footsteps approach, but she swiftly turned back and slashed her sword in a horizontal, but circular motion, which summoned a gust of wind so strong that it blew back her attacker. "At least my father was around long enough to teach me to wait my turn. Was yours not?" Taunted the attacker. 

"Lay off of her! She didn't do anything to you!"  Clover pleaded. "Leave her alone!" 

 Zerrin couldn't help but furrow her eyes at the human. "Stay out of this! It's me she's after. Take Iris and Spire and go!" 

"Enough!" Satara pushed her hands onto the wall and battered her sister with her feet. She stomped on her back and arms, then kicked her face and the sides of her head. Zerrin was hanging on for dear life. It made sense to Zander that she was more of a builder than a fighter.

"Are you deaf? Did you not hear my sister? Lay off!" Zander picked up a rock and threw it, managing to land a hit squarely on Satara's head. She didn't react to it, but she turned to him with daggers. 

"Make me." Satara spoke. She turned back to Zerrin, but a sharp pain pierced through her gut. 

Clover was behind Satara's back when she made a pulling motion and even lifted her feet onto the Consouloid's back. When she pushed herself off, an object that looked like a pocket knife was in her hand. The pocket knife's blade was blanketed in a scarlet material, but it didn't smell like real blood.

Satara fell to her knees and screamed in pain whilst Zander and Iris rushed towards Zerrin's side. The enemy began to glitch here and there, ranging from sudden twitches to looking like she was going to speak, but could never get a word out. 

"Zerrin, speak to us! Say something!" Iris begged. 
Spitting out some blood, Zerrin laughed. "I've been through worse." 

"Thanks for stalling for me." A voice like Spire's came from the entrance, but it didn't look like Spire. It looked like any other Consouloid they've seen thus far; his hair was white as snow and his eyes were blue. He pulled out a tablet device when it was conjured by Identity Choker. He also conjured a patch and attached it to her arm, healing her wounds instantaneously and bringing her back to full health.

"Zerrin!" Iris threw her icy sword to her.

Wielding the Frost Cutlass, the Consouloids approached their nemesis and pointed the blade at her face as she looked up. Satara only snickered even at the business end of an icy blade. "Ice might be strong, but strength is no match for persistence when confronted with that as the opponent."  Satara taunted as she got up and wielded her own blade, seemingly unaffected by her previous stab wound. "Let's dance."