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Baldur's Gate Heroes #008


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#1 Guest_Coutelier_*

Posted 26 October 2006 - 10:01 AM

Baldur’s Gate Heroes #008
Carnival, Part Five


The group hurriedly wound their way back down the stairwell. Minsc poured bullet after bullet into the creatures as they tried to rush through the doorway at the top, but they didn’t run away like before. The frenzied animals immediately got back up and continued to charge after them, some of them leaping and crawling down the walls.

One of the creatures fell and landed on its feet in front of Aerie. The blonde reacted instinctively, pushing Quayle away and standing between him and the beast. It was at this point, as the creature lifted its huge arm in order to break her in two, she regretted not asking the others for a weapon. Still she stood her ground, until the one called Yoshimo spotted her predicament and shot the creature between the eyes.

The group soon realized that their plan, which had been simply to run for it, wasn’t working too well since creatures were a lot faster. Instead, the three who were armed stood around the other two picking the beasts off as they came near. Fortunately the creatures were just acting like animals, having no real plan of attack.

Eighteen had been chasing them. Aerie had explained that twenty three of the creatures had escaped originally and four she knew had been killed by the bases security staff before Kalah could get to them. That just left one unaccounted for, most likely the one Imoen had scared off earlier.

“Okay,” Imoen panted after they were all satisfied the last man-beast had fallen. “Plan-A didn’t… go…. exactly right. Anyone got a…. plan-B? God, I’m out of shape…”

“Gas,” Yoshimo, who seemed to be having no trouble breathing, suggested. “He breathes as we do, so why not try gas?”

“Tried that already,” the old man, Quayle, spoke up, and seemed to be searching for something in his pockets. “Kalah seems to have mutated so that his lungs filter out any toxins.”

“You’re okay!” Aerie cried and wrapped him up with a big hug.

“For the time being my dear… thanks to you and these people. Can’t seem to find my glasses though.”

“Er, Quayle,” the blonde grinned and wiped away the last remnants of her tears, “have you tried your face?”

“Really? Why can’t I see anything?”

“Because the lights are out, silly.”

“Anyway,” Imoen shook her head. She had come here to be the villain in this piece and split the two of them up. Now though, she had no idea what she was going to do. It was a mess, she should never have rushed off without thinking in the first place but there had been no-one to stop her. “It was a good idea, shame it didn’t pan out,” she assured Yoshimo and patted him on the shoulder. “You’re thinking though. That’s good. You know, they say the mind is the greatest weapon of all.”

“I think what we need is a bath and fresh clothes,” Quayle drew everyone’s stares, “Been wearing these all week… starting to pong a bit.”

“I… don’t think that should be very high on your list of concerns right now…”

“Why not? If we do get killed, the last thing we want is the doctors looking at our corpses and thinking ‘this person never washed themselves’. That’s not how you’d like to be remembered… always wear clean underwear, that’s what my mother always said.”

“Yeah, well… good thing, actually… I went before I left,” the red head rolled her entire head back. That was it… if she came out of this, she was never helping old people again. Let’em cross the street by themselves…

It was a good job Imoen looked up, or they might not have seen him coming. The group scattered in all directions as Kalah crashed down in the middle of them, leaving a huge crater in the steel floor. It took no time at all for him to rise to his feet, and then the monsters yellow eyes locked onto the redhead.

“I, uh, guess you’re pretty pissed, huh?” Imoen put on her most sheepish smile. “Before you do anything though, you should know it was actually Aerie who put us up to it,” her smile faded into guilt. She just wasn’t very brave at all.

SILENCE, COWARD! ” The monster boomed. Kalah’s voice had changed; it was less tortured now than it had been. His huge head leant her towards and he bared his, very big, teeth.

“N-not another word… promise. Cross my heart and hope to…”

WHAT ARE YOU?

“Uh, a coward? Was… was I allowed to speak there? It’s just you asked a question and I wasn’t sure…”

YOU ARE MORE… LITTLE MORE THAN A SPARK NOW, BUT STILL IT BURNS .”

“Okay… You lost me. I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.”

I WILL CONSUME YOU BEFORE IT DOES .”

“Well… that’s not a good idea. I mean, look how skinny I am. Minsc though… lots of good meat on him,” she pointed and like a big dummy the monster turned to look and that when she lifted her firearm and pulled the trigger, just missing Kalah’s right eye. Everyone started to fire, and the monster reacted like he was being attacked by a swarm of butterflies.

“Don’t waste your time!” Imoen shouted, “Just scatter and try and get to the boat!”

Kalah started swinging wildly in all directions as the group broke off and ran. After a moments panic and confusion Imoen found herself running along the same corridor as Aerie, who kept glancing back.

“It’s alright,” the red head promised, “I’m pretty sure I saw Minsc grab Quayle and run off the other direction. Besides, your monster suddenly seems most interested in me for some reason.” Indeed, they could feel Kalah’s heavy bounds pursuing them. Although they were both tired, that gave them all the motivation they needed to keep running for some time. At every chance she got, Imoen led them along the corridors that sloped downwards, hoping to reach Dynaheir and the vehicle’s super heavy weapons.

Eventually when Kalah’s thumping receded and it seemed they’d lost him, the two mutually agreed on a time out.

“Y’know, we… we’re not running away,” Imoen panted, “A wise man once said that if at first you don’t succeed you should try and try again. It was a Scot… Billy Connolly I think… Sean’s brother. So anyway, we’ve just… to regroup, and then try something else.”

“L-like… like the itsy-bitsy spider?” Aerie said.

“You’ve heard the story then?”

“Yes… Itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the water spout.”

“Okay,” Imoen had to laugh a little, “not the story I was thinking of, but… you’re right. Itsy-bitsy spider never gave up. Not even when the rain came down and washed the spider out. He didn’t just decide it was too much trouble. He didn’t take the easy way out. No, the instant the sun came up and dried away the rain, Itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the spout again. He had determination, courage… that damn spider was a true hero. Better than Superman. I mean, c’mon, it’s easy to be brave when you’re indestructible and have super-strength. But when you’re a teeny little spider…”

“It is a very inspiring tale,” Aerie agreed. Imoen shook her head and grinned, realizing the blonde alien girl was completely serious.

“Course, some might say that Itsy-bitsy was a fool who should have learnt his lesson the first time.” It was obvious from Aerie’s face that she didn’t like that interpretation nearly as much. “You’re right… your version does sound a lot better,” it was becoming very hard to resist hugging Aerie. But Imoen hadn’t really hugged anyone since her sister died. “I see Itsy-bitsy means a lot to you. How’d you know about him anyway?”

“I… wanted to learn more about children,” Aerie shrugged, “Avariel don’t have any. We’re all hatched fully grown and with all our knowledge already implanted in our brains. Although… w-we still have to learn how to about all the norms… f-folkways, mores and laws that make up any society. I wanted to know how human children develop, so Quayle brought me a book of Nursery Rhymes.”

“Good thinking,” Imoen said. She wasn’t sure what norms or folkways actually meant but she knew she would look like an idiot unless she avoided the issue entirely, and Aerie had already said she was wise. “You sound like you read more than just kiddy stuff though.”

“I… I’m allowed to read all kinds of things on the computer, sometimes. Miss Hannah doesn’t like it, though. She thinks it’s dangerous for me to know too much about outside.”

“I’m sorry. I promise, not everyone on Earth is a bitch.”

“Miss Hannah is only doing her job… a-as for the rest, I’ll never know. I’m afraid I don’t know anything about you, ma’am, other than it is your intention to deliver from this prison in order to deliver me to one where I will likely have far less freedom.”

“Guess it’s not a great basis for forming a friendship.”

“It’s… i-it’s not your fault. I don’t blame you. I’m… sure you have your duties as well.”

Imoen threw her head back and sighed. She was pretty clear who Aerie blamed for every piece of crap thing that had happened to her on this planet. She’d seen lots of people blame themselves for stuff they had absolutely no control over just because, well, the alternative was thinking that you had absolutely no control over anything which actually wasn’t very comforting. Maybe if someone just treated her like… well, like a human being for a change and not just a thing to be stored away, traded, and then cast aside when you’ve no use for it anymore…

“I was an orphan,” she said, and Aerie looked up confusedly.

“E-excuse me?”

“You’ve told me all sorts of stuff about yourself, so I’ll tell you about me. That’s fair, right?”

“I-I suppose…”

“So shut up and listen. I was brought up in this orphanage run by nuns…”

“Nuns?”

“Nuns… They’re just women who take vows and dress like penguins. But they help people a lot as well. I was terrible though… I was a real brat. Like one time, I couldn’t see the TV because the twins were sat in front of me, so I tied their pigtails together while they were watching. I thought it was funny, when they tried to stand up and their heads banged together… but, it was wrong. And I saw that, the very next day when they forced me to say I was sorry then threw me in the pond. All the girls thought that was funny.”

“All of them? I… I assumed a person like you w-would have had lots of friends.”

“Why?”

“Because… you seem to find it so easy to talk to people.”

“You were wrong. I was the most unpopular girl at that place. Y’see… I never meant any harm by it, but I would do silly things all the time and they always annoyed or upset someone. I’d have been lucky to have made it out alive, but there was just one girl who always stood up for me and took a hell of a lot of beatings on my behalf. And I’m not talking pillow fights; there were some really mean girls.”

“Who was she?”

“Diana. She always looked after me. I… I don’t really know why. Just the type of person she was, I guess. She hated to see anyone bullied and made to suffer for any reason. We were close… like sisters,” the red head was actually talking about herself a little more than she’d intended to now. But, what the hell, by tomorrow poor Aerie was either going to be dead or on her way to be locked in a cell for another thirty or more years. Of course, Diana would never have allowed either of those things to happen. “I suck at this you know…”

“At what?”

“Life… everything. Because, Diana… she was my life. I always just followed her wherever she went and no matter how tough the going got. I used to feel like I was someone when I was with her… but, now she’s gone, and I’m no-one. And I just don’t know what to do.”

Imoen tried not to cry. She shouldn’t cry. Not in front of the alien. But it was obvious that she was going to, and then Aerie decided to put her arms around her.

“What are you doing?” The red head asked, admittedly not really that surprised.

“I-I’m sorry,” the Avariel said, “I thought it was the custom when humans were happy… or sad, for-for them to hug. Does it not help?” The blonde stared at her hopefully.

“A little,” everyone just needed a hug sometimes. She always used to hug Diana when she was sad, and nine out of ten times she had to say it did always make her feel better. “I didn’t say you could stop, did I?”

“There’s something I don’t understand… why… why aren’t you still you?”

“Huh?”

“You must have loved your sister very much. You were happy because… s-she made you see what was good about yourself. And now, I think, you’re not happy because you’re not being yourself any more. But you have to be… you can’t be anyone else.”

“You don’t know me that well,” Imoen pouted.

“No… b-but, I warned you of the danger here and you stayed…”

“Only because I could see you were going to be stubborn.”

“Even so… the three of you could easily have overpowered me, but you chose to help instead. You’re not a coward ma’am.”

“I am stupid though. Diana always came up with the plans. All I can come up with is hitting Kalah with bigger and bigger guns.”

“I fear Kalah is dead,” Aerie finally grew tired of hugging and sat down next to the red-head, “only the Rauko inhabits that body now. W-we would have to cause massive damage to his entire body at once… if any part survives the creature can regenerate.”

“Right,” Imoen had thought about the Hell Pistol, but she doubted even that could cause the kind of damage they needed, even if she wasn’t just terrified of touching the thing again. And Aerie, in her innocently wise way, was telling her to not try being Diana and to be herself. She wouldn’t be telling her that if she knew who Imoen really was, because Imoen was useless and possibly schizo. Well, maybe that was overreacting to what had been a perfectly natural feeling. She certainly doubted she could have lived with herself if she’d actually done anything as evil as what she’d planned for Morgan. But she was still useless.

“Guns anyway,” the red head shrugged, “I know sometimes I have to use them, but I’ve never been that good a shot. That was Diana too… she could shoot the fleas off a dogs back. She did all the fighting too. I’d get my ass kicked most of the time. Basically, I was only ever around for moral support… We need a hero like her. We’d have all been better off if I’d have… if I’d have drowned in that pond…”

“Ma’am?” Aerie looked up, puzzled to see Imoen suddenly not so somber and her eyes lighting up a bit.

“We’re going about this all wrong… we’re trying to destroy Kalah’s body but it’s the thing inside that’s the real bugbear. Why’s he not trying to do that fireball thing or to zap us anymore?”

“I… I believe my device has successfully isolated the creature from its home plane, so it can no longer draw on any energy from there.”

“But he regenerates, right? That’s got to need energy, so where’s he getting it from?”

“Hmm… h-he’s disabled most systems but the emergency generators are still running. But it’s a different kind of energy. He can only absorb it.”

“But it’s energy, right? And the creature’s made of energy… and this place is a power station… or it was. They were experimenting with some sort of geo-thermal power here?” Imoen detached a rectangular, thin item from her jacket and flicked it open to display a tiny screen. She still had her connection to the bases computer network. “According to this the generator is still down there. It’s in working condition too, we’ve just gotta turn it on.”

“B-but… it was unstable…”

“We’d only need it on for a few seconds… one minute, max.”

“Why? What are you thinking?”

“The rocko or whatever it’s called is made of energy, right? Well… humans are made of water, but we still drown in the stuff.”

“I-isolated from its plane, there would no place for the excess energy to go,” Aerie nodded, catching on, “i-if we could channel enough power into his body at once, the Rauko would be destroyed.”

“So, it will work?”

“I… believe so.”

“Ha!” the red-head grinned brightly, leapt to her feet and started jumping and wriggling, “I’m young, smart and sassy! Big evil will wish he’d stayed in his own dimension rather than come here and mess with a red head. I am so gonna fry him,” Imoen stopped her wriggling when she caught Aerie’s question face, causing her to blush. “Well… the victory dance may be kinda premature… but if this plan doesn’t work then I’ll never get to use it.”

“I’m sure it will. You are very clever ma’am.”

“Hey Aerie, we shared a hug. I think it’s alright for you to call me by my actual… you know what my name is, right?”

“I’m sorry… I-Im-Imoen…”

“See!” Imoen skipped next to the blonde and slapped another hug around her, “wasn’t so hard, was it? I promise you two things; one, we’re gonna rid the world if it’s extra-planar, energy sucking monster problem. And two… I will find a way to make you smile.”

“I… I smile…”

“No you don’t. Not really. Not like you mean it. But you will, because I’ve promised.”

***


Kalah, or more specifically the Rauko that had possessed Kalah’s body for Kalah truly was dead, stalked hunch backed through the narrow corridors. Thus far, the human animals had managed to elude him, but it was only a matter of time.

That he could no longer draw on strength from his home bothered him a little. But from he had seen and from searching Kalah’s memories, the inhabitants of this world were stupid and uncivilized, their weapons were annoying but ultimately ineffective. And these creatures were weak… Kalah’s mind had surrendered so easily. The presence of an Avariel, the first servants of the Seldarine, was bothersome and his current state had no doubt been her doing. Still, she was just one, young for her race and without any of her people’s technology. He would break them all, then scour this place for the source of the field blocking him from witch-space, then evolve to the next stage and consume this world.

A tiny creature with a long tail scurried across his path. He scanned the remnants of Kalah’s mind for the life forms name… rat. Rats will be consumed as well, along with Piggys, Kermits, Gonzos and all the other life Kalah had shown him.

“Heya!” A female human animal called to him. “Me, Imoen! Over here!” She was flapping her arms trying to get his attention.

Perhaps she wanted to die, because it would make her life easier… was that a joke? He’d known of other energy forms that had come to the material plane and… turned native. But not Rauko. They saw the life here as different… anything different can not exist. It would be consumed, its essence used to wage war on the Rauko’s enemies in witch-space.

“Why are you standing there?” The female placed her hands on her hips and pouted. The Rauko could feel her strength. It was subdued, but still worth the lives of a hundred thousand other animals. He wouldn’t break her like the others; he would wait and absorb her essence.

“Hey, ugly!” Now she was throwing objects at him. Small crunched up pieces of paper which bounced harmlessly off his orange skin. The Rauko just couldn’t understand how she thought these weapons would be any more effective than the loud, annoying ones. Humans were clearly stupid.

“Yeah, you with the really bad fake tan! You’re not afraid of little ol’me are ya?”

Kalah roared. Roaring, the Rauko had to confess, did feel… good. It made him feel even more powerful than he knew he already was. And breaking things. He found he enjoyed breaking things. Like a humans back.

“Crap…” fear showed on the human and she started to run as he launched himself and bounded after her. In this narrow space he couldn’t really move very fast, but he knew she would tire. But then the human did another stupid thing, leading him into a large open room where he could leap upon her with ease.

“Hit it!” The human cried as she took cover behind a tank, her words confusing the energy creature.

This was the place Kalah referred to as the ‘factory floor’, where the Engineered Life Forms were grown, creature’s that had smaller minds even than the humans, inconceivable as that seemed. Bio-tanks and consoles stood around, interconnected by heavy cables. The Rauko panned his surroundings, and then found who the human had been talking to.

The Seldarine’s slave was stood on a platform above them, pulling some sort of switch. Every light in the base lit up, as massive amounts of energy started to surge into every system. Just how stupid were they? He was made of energy, and they were giving him more of what he needed to stay alive. What was the feeling he had now? It started in his chest and crawled up his throat… laughter? Yes, he was laughing at them. Laughing so hard that he didn’t spot the other human.

A large one… almost as big as he had made Kalah’s body, shoulder charged into him. This one had amazing strength for his kind, for Kalah was lifted into the air and thrown across the room, towards where some of the heavy cables had been redirected so that the power passed across some sort of grate which Kalah landed on.

He couldn’t move from it. The energy filled his body and held him fast. He smelt his own burnt flesh and hurried to repair the damage… but that only used up a fraction of the energy pouring into him. He couldn’t discharge it anywhere… he couldn’t transfer it into witch-space… it was too much… he… he was… being consumed…

And for the first time the creature knew fear, as he felt his consciousness slipping away and the lights faded.




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