Chapter 22
As soon as Leon had jumped out of the Leatherback, Naomi bolted away as soon as possible as the shielding was pummeled by hundreds of small explosive drones and laser fire. When she was able to pilot over the water, she dipped below the surface to dodge radar and larger fire. While slower, they were only affected by the energy weapons from the sea drones and weapon pods. The torpedoes couldn't keep up as they crossed into International waters. They headed northeast into the dark, though it might as well had been anywhere.
Once they had evaded their hunters they popped back on the surface and skated it until they were able to reach a small chain of quiet islands and decided to stop and reorient themselves. The engines winded down as the four females poured out onto the sand and they stretched as they attempted to figure out their next move.
"That was intense." Lita said as she laid back on the sand.
"Yes, quite the exciting adventure, wouldn't you agree sister?" Thalia asked Dahlia, who answered "Oh, yes, sister! We have found what we have been looking for after so long."
"Well, at least someone found something." Polly said as she stretched on the sand.
"So how are we supposed to find the girls?" Naomi asked. "NINA is still down and she can't do much from the hard drive on the leatherback."
"It'll be very difficult until NINA has all her power back on. We have no idea where they could be, other than just somewhere in the pacific ocean." Polly said as she looked at the girls on the beach. Xichin was slowly pacing in the sand as she grabbed her chin and Lita had buzzed over to the water and hovered over the waves as they licked her little feet. Tawny had chased her and was splashing in the water next to her. The twins were sitting cross legged in the sand facing and touching palms.
"What are you two doing?" Naomi hollered to the two twins.
"Building energy." Thalia said.
"It is... slow going here on Earth." Dahlia added.
Naomi had a thought but shrugged and left them to their weirdness and turned back to Polly.
"It's nice we got Raz and Cletus in the mix, finally. Hopefully they can get NINA up and running soon. This shit is lame." She watched Xichin stop pacing and look out into the dark ocean night then looked at her feet. A black puddle formed under her feet and she slowly sank into it and disappeared.
"What the hell is she doing?" Naomi pointed.
"I don't know. Maybe trying out new abilities, would be my guess." Polly answered. Naomi shrugged. "I wonder what kind of powers these girls got?"
"Hopefully something useful. We need a break. Hey girls!" Polly shouted to the two in the waves. "Anything happen when Leon zapped you?"
Lolita and Tawny turned and shrugged, throwing their hands up. Polly frowned and slouched her shoulders. "Alright, well I am going to put some clothes on. There should be a clean set of BDU's on the ship." She turned and trudged off to the leatherback. Naomi followed her and whined "But you look so good in a bikini! I mean c'mon! You don't have the view I do. Don't be the odd woman out, here. It ruins the whole Bikini Brigade theme we got going. Let me suck your dick to change your mind, babe. I give the best hummers now."
Lita buzzed over the water a few times before stopping to talk with Tawny, who was simply giggling and chasing some glowing fish.
"Happy Birthday, Lita! How's it going so far?" Tawny asked.
"It's quite the roller coaster. Having my sisters kidnapped is not cool at all. I'm very worried about them. I hope this isn't what adulthood is like all the time." Lolita grumbled.
"So you didn't feel any changes when daddy shocked us? I can't tell. I mean, it always feels really good for a while after he seeds us but I can't tell if anything is different."
Tawny stopped and looked her over skeptically and said "Ye, papa's milk is definitely a happy meal. But I think you got something out of it."
"Like what?" Lita asked.
"Well, that flower in your hair only had one bud on it before we took off. Now there's three."
Lita looked confused as she glanced up at the flower then took it out of her hair to examine it and was pleasantly surprised that Tawny was correct.
"Oh wow!" Lita said and as she looked giddily at the flower, the two smaller buds grew rapidly and blossomed next to the other flower. Tawny squealed and clapped praising Lolita on her new gift. The little Latina carefully plucked one off and put it in Tawny's hair, making the bubbly blonde gush with adulation, making Lita blush and giggle from the silly but welcomed compliments. She grew a few more buds and turned to offer the other women a flower but they were alone on the beach, the only light coming from the stars and the open hatch on the Leatherback.
Lita grew concerned. "Hey, where's Xichin?"
Tawny twitched and shivered. "What was that?"
"I asked where Xichin is?" Lita repeated. Tawny shivered again and this time her big, gold, goat eye wiggled and began to glow, then it rolled off independently into the back of her head. She made a retching noise from the gross feeling it gave her then turned her body until her eye was peaking through her eyelid once again, a beam of soft amber light projecting a few feet from her eye.
"Man, that felt gross. She's over there." She pointed into the dark but there wasn't anyone there.
"Where? I don't see her." Lita said.
"There, wrestling with that weird shadow blob thingy." She pointed again and there was nothing at first. Then, just visible from the ships glow on the sand, a black blob grew over the surface until there was a three foot puddle, of which burst out Xichin and some creature that looked like a very aggressive ink blot scribble. She was yelling as she fought the thing as it lashed out with tendrils and blobs.
"Polly! Naomi! Help!" Lita cried out.
The two giant women rushed out, minus their bikini bottoms and saw the tall goth twins run past them to the safety of the ship and saw Xichin rolling around the sand, shrieking as she failed to fight off the strange shadow beast.
Naomi's tentacles appeared and shot out at the shadow but it quickly squiggled out of the way, freeing Xichin, who scurried away as quickly as she could. Naomi struck at it but it was very fast and she missed every time. She pulled them back and attempted to use her microwave emitters she formed at the ends of her tentacles. This only irritated the scribble, which increased in size after the blast. She switched to laser fire and while it burned small holes straight through, they quickly filled back in as it dashed and skittered around the group.
It finally made a leap at Naomi, which she narrowly dodged, using her tentacles to get a good distance from it. Polly's shoulder pods flashed in and she was shooting micro missiles and particle beams, which only made the thing more irritated and dashed at Polly. As the thing was leaping, Polly's skeleton could be seen glowing for a half a second before a massive beam of energy shot from her eyes and mouth, vaporizing the manic cloud of inky darkness in a blinding flash.
"WHOOAA!" Shouted Lita and Tawny, who looked at each other and high-fived.
"Holy fucking shit, babe!" Naomi shouted. "That was fucking hot!"
Polly's skeleton was still glowing through her skin but was dimming quickly and she was steaming. Xichin panted in the sand a moment and dusted herself off as she got back up. Naomi was quick to help her up and dust her off.
"Damn. You alright, Xi?" Naomi asked. Xichin gave herself a quick once over and said "I appear to be uninjured."
Lita and Tawny rushed to their side, followed by the twins as they warily exited the Leatherback.
"What was that thing?" Lolita asked.
"A beast from the shadow dimension of some sort. I am not sure of what is going on or where I go yet so your guess would be as informative as mine." Xichin said plainly.
"What the hell were you doing? You disappeared on us." Polly asked.
"After Leon zapped me, I fell into wherever that place is, though it was only on the ship. I found I could see much better in the dark as well as understand what the shadows were saying, whereas before it was only garbled whispers." Xichin explained.
"This time I went there just to see what was on the other side way out here, thinking such a remote island would be uninhabited on that side. I was wrong, of course."
"Glad you're okay, though. That thing was scary!" Lita said.
"What does it look like over there?" Tawny asked. Xichin paused for a moment to collect her thoughts.
"It looks much like here, accept there are no sun, moon or stars, just a dim nebula northern lights filling the sky, too dim to really see it but enough to give the environment definition. It's also dead quiet and there is no water, oddly enough. The beach here just goes down into strange coral and most everything has these, I guess I would call them veins? I don't know what they are but they're dark grey and pulse with something."
"Sounds absolutely dreadful." Tawny said as she shivered. Xichin agreed.
Lita said "Know what's just as crazy? Tawny was able to see her in the shadow place!" Everyone looked over at her and she gave a blank stare and asked what everyone was looking at.
Naomi turned to her and asked "How did that happen? Is that something you got from Leon?" Tawny's floppy goat ears perked up and her large eyes widened.
"Ya know, I think so!" Tawny chirped.
