Twenty-Eight

The lights went out.

An echoing darkness consumed the venue all too abruptly that the crowd gasped in unison, the ladies and their gentlemen suddenly pushed into each other's arms, surprised. A lockdown was initiated.

Iason stopped to pull Riki closer as the crowd churned into distress, someone screaming in the background, "Get the lights!" before all the steel shutters fell with a resounding 'boom!' across the venue, locking everyone in, immediately sending the visitors into heavier panic as the ball dissolved into a menacing dark.

"Iason…"

"Shh…don't move," the Blondie steadied him. "Fold your wings close, Pet. Don't let them touch the floor…"

Outside, the organizers had become frantic, the monitoring security of Mistral in office elsewhere unable to determine the cause of the sudden disruption, discovering that someone had managed to hack into the hall's virtual defences, getting hold of the shields while managing to disconnect power to the location altogether, leaving the entire area without communication to the outside, vulnerable and helpless.

Everyone scattered, in the same way alarmed, deploying forces to take down the now-sealed doors in a crude effort to get to the guests trapped within…

Unbeknownst to them, the culprit was nearby but leaving the location as he had already accomplished his mission. It's his benefactors' turn to do their part. It was to be a stealthy execution. Their forces would go in, make the kill and disappear. The troop was supposed to be the best, Silent Death as they were dubbed in other planets across the Garan and even Karin Star Systems.

' It would be fun to watch, ' thought the hacker, imagining how Tanagura's hallowed pair would fall as the lights came back on, in a pool of their own blood.

And he laughed, an unmistakable maniac along the street that passersby avoided, though had not perhaps seen one particular face that had followed him all along in his revelry, just seated among those citizens he strode by, among the Sinkers and immigrants alike, and those with the credits to boot.

Zico merely smiled, lifting his tainted head, one whose darker locks quickly faded to resume its violet as he nodded to the concealed Darkmen nearby, motioning towards the leaving person, as he lifted his cup of tea. His signal. The force had then moved in on stealth.

' This fiend would not be congratulating himself for too long... ' thought the Top Flight, smirking at the deviousness that was his order for the evening, shuddering as well in the prospect his benefactor wanted to achieve.

Which made him all the more aware that no one should ever cross a Tanaguran Blondie...

--

Chaos in the pitch dark.

Riki heard strange footfall, the familiar sound of weapons cracking as more sudden gasps and curses erupted from those around them. When he moved, Iason stopped him again, choosing to be very still and prompting him to do the same as a seeming stampede happened about. The Blondie's hold tightened, his breathing slowed.

Damn, they couldn't see anything! But the Pet fell quiet on instinct and felt for his surroundings instead, mongrel senses trained to the familiar feeling of a threat, a very dangerous threat approaching...

Why had Iason not even bothered to connect with the System? Riki knew this was simple enough, for Tanagura to lend its strength to Midas if such emergencies arose. But instead the Blondie had chosen to keep the venue in this sort of darkness even as the other visitors were themselves thrown into deeper stress, becoming a blind wave reaching for the otherwise sealed entrances, the voices of other Blondies calling from across the chaotic ballroom, likewise unable to make any sense of this blindness let alone find their brother as the commotion mounted…

The next thing the Pet felt was the hand that drew his head close to his Master's chest when he tried to interface with the Jupiter System to unlock the venue himself, hearing Iason whisper to someone seemingly beyond them, "Katron."

// Screams! //

More movement from a disrupted crowd, all those around them rushing. Riki felt nearly-claustrophobic, sensing how they were suddenly surrounded by unseen beings with auras out for blood, cold, the circle drawing in closer, closer, trapping them in place, other guests thrown aside with such brute force, pained cries mixed with breaking objects wafted through the non-forgiving air, simultaneously with the inevitable, calculating sounds drawing in towards the centre where they both were!

// Danger! //

They were in danger!

Riki could not understand why the Blondie would not let him react! He struggled against him, "Iason what are you doing!?" yet even as they were obviously cornered now, his Master still won't let him go!

"Iason!"

The weapons of execution were raised...he heard the sound of artillery being brought up to point...Riki half expected the blasts as everything around him seemed to stop...tick tick tick...he could almost hear those tense seconds...such minacious seconds!

The Pet closed his eyes, held onto his beloved tightly...

...but nothing happened...

None of the weapons went off. Nothing of this seeming evil even managed to reach within an inch of them…

' What was that? '

A precise, almost bestial presence suddenly swept past, Riki feeling it brush, scattering the throng that had surrounded them as it obviously growled, the menacing glint of claws and red eyes like flames erupting through the shadows.

Something sliced the air beside him enough that he felt his hairs stand, pushing him deeper into Iason's embrace and the Blondie did hold him tighter. Then it was above, in a split-second, behind them ruffling his feathers, his hair and his Master's longer tresses moving in the wake and wind of this unseen entity working at such speed, it was indeed inhuman.

Riki felt Iason stiffen, as if concentrating on something.

"Pet no! Don't move!" a quick flash of anger when he tried to reach a hand out.

Discord. Groans and some muffled screams, exclamations hindered and far-off cries of mortal terror as things fell to the floor posthaste, followed by heavier 'thuds' and screeches, slashing, thrusts, more growls as there continued the deathly rhapsody. Riki could hear bodies drop, some slammed, bones shattering accompanied by the scared confusion of the other guests as they likewise felt the eerie disturbance...the crowd had parted...

A battle was happening on the floor and no one could even see it - it horrified everyone! But Riki knew the familiarity of it, of the inability to fight back, death catching some unaware until their throats were slashed open and their mouths gurgled blood. Something fluid finally washing the floor beneath his feet. The scent...warmth emanating...beating...

Riki not able to take the helplessness any longer screamed out, "Iason!"

...only then did the lights flicker on, the superior Blondie interfacing with the System finally and redirecting power through the framework. Though the immediate reaction everyone had was...fear, trembling to find Neu-Jupiter and the Exclusive in his arms standing on a stage of red.

The guests found them surrounded by lifeless bodies, clad in black meant to blend in stealth with the dark. Men, now dead and drenched, mangled like mannequins and torn in many places, the high-end weaponry they carried with them likewise effectively taken apart.

What had happened?

Actually, it was just that the counter had been so efficiently executed, enough that all they could see now were the mere end results...

"Gods Iason! Are you all right?" Raoul had rushed in with the other members of the Council, pushing through the stunned guests only to stop and gape themselves, shocked at the sight.

Blood.

At Neu-Jupiter's feet, on his cape and clothes. Even the Pet was tainted, his skin with hints of the rubicund. Other elites had flocked to them but stopped short of the bleeding pool, some worried, some just wanting to bear witness to the carnage, the venue's guards finally able to break through the doors when the hall's shields and steel barriers had opened, rushing in through the revived gates only to be confronted by a sudden outburst of hysteria.

More screams.

Shaky fingers pointing towards a direction...

Riki was confounded for a second, but following the throng, was more surprised that when he looked beyond the massacre around them he'd found...Katron, their doll of a Furniture Katron, standing a distance off still holding one of these black-clad attackers by the collar of his supposed armour, the man now dead, head beginning to tear off from the base of his neck where it had been severed. There were those who instantly fainted.

"A monster! Monster!"

Katron's eyes were gone and glazed over with such deadly coldness; the onlookers seemed to visibly shudder as he lifted his face slowly, the animation of a lifeless corpse on it. He bore the endless stains on his pristine clothes, the uniform of the servants of the House of Neu-Jupiter rendered impure.

The expression he had on him, an expression straining him to his very soul, struck a chord of complete and absolute terror in all those who dared look him straight.

But Riki was mesmerized by those eyes. Cat-like and the shade of brilliant rubies instantly reminding him of someone. Of Alec - Katron had Karinese in his veins?!

A failed assassination, or so all concluded with gasps and other obscure reactions, the security and its organizers meeting the full lashing anger of complaining visitors, of Gideon who had risen to an unusual episode of anger. But then there was that bigger question: was it the Furniture who foiled the attempt?

No one had the answers, but the latter was instantly branded as a demon, everyone backing away in fear of their own lives. There were some though who lingered, interests piqued…

"Iason…" the others seemed to have gone pale around them, though the Blondies who were more accustomed to this, displayed their controlled resilience. "Are you both all right?"

Neu-Jupiter ignored the questions tossed his way, instead, urged his Pet along with him as he moved forward, picking through dismembered limbs with the same grace, leaving bloody footsteps on the carpet, the pale marble.

There had been signs that the attackers tried to flee when they were faced with the Furniture, but from the looks of it, they hadn't gotten really far...

"Katron," Iason seemed to have recovered from the nightmare quickly, but then if they only knew how he was actually well aware of this threat, all this time knowing what was happening around him, they would have understood.

Naturally, he also knew about this...

The Furniture dropped the body, letting it join the rest of the fleshy heap at his own feet as he closed his eyes, getting hold of his emotions and at last beginning to breathe as if the ordeal had stopped it for a moment. He turned again to his lords, his old self back, and spoke normally as he would have addressed them in the Palace.

"I was clumsy. Forgive me Master Iason," said the servant to which the Blondie only scowled in apparent displeasure.

Then again, he must not attribute this to faulty programming, seeing as this was Katron's first kill. He would only learn from it. He did do a splendid job of protecting them, the trigger working as effectively and not a moment too soon. Not a scratch on them both. Not a scratch on himself. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough...for now...

Raoul picked through the mess and managed to tap his friend by the shoulder, though not before giving Katron a doubtful look. A weapon, wrapped in the fragile-looking body of Furniture? How did this happen?

"We'll take care of this. You need to go," the other Blondie told the lovers, gesturing at the investigators as the latter group had started to clear the crime scene, looking around for clues and evidences.

No one touched the Blondies however. They kept a respectable distance from the powerful of Tanagura.

True enough, Iason had belatedly realized how the Midas Police had managed to pour in, securing the area and the guests, comforting some who had been overwhelmed by what had happened. Though contained, there was that uproar still, everyone scared and skeptical, the high-ranking dignitaries most unnerved, branding this to be outrageous. How could Midas have allowed it? Such disgrace, lax, ad nausea...

"Clean yourself and take the Aircar Riki took to here home. Riki is riding with me in my car," the Blondie ordered.

Katron only nodded.

And they did not wait for anything else to happen. Iason quickly ushered his Pet out of the venue to their waiting vehicle, passing anyone else who might stop them, immediately pushing Riki into the limo's shielded interior and locking the doors behind them.

He mentally willed the robot chauffeur to speed off to Eos Two Palace, the entourage taking to the air around them in as much hurry, flanking the main car. He was concerned that Riki seemed to still be overcome with the events. He had been too quiet.

"Love-"

"Katron…" but he shouldn't have been too worried as the Pet spoke, obsidian eyes looking up at him without the trace of fear or anxiety, more of curiosity, of typical wonder. "What happened to Katron?"

The Master sometimes forgot that his Pet had grown in the midst of chaos in the Slums. This was nothing by comparison to the cut-throat ways of Ceres. Though he answered that question not, instead, suddenly kissing his beloved, catching Riki by surprise but served to ease any worries that may be there, if not the Pet's, then his own.

They had survived, that was the only thing that was important...likewise the fact that they had managed to weed their enemies out with no danger to him or, most especially, to Riki.

--

Inside the venue, Katron had remained immobile for some time as he stood in a corner, eyes cast low. Raoul and the others had now proceeded to oversee the clean-up, the other visitors and VIPs already evacuated as the officers of Midas' Police Force and the organizers aimed to figure out just who had targeted the life of Tanagura's Neu-Jupiter. There was likewise the hanging question about whether or not the only other creature caught in the act during the incident should be taken in for investigation.

"No. He's Iason's Furniture. You cannot lay a hand on him," Orphe insisted and he was right, Gideon issuing his orders in the background as he pulsed across the floor.

This was all on his head. Another assassination, he gritted his teeth. "Iason seems to draw the act to him like a magnet!"

Raoul looked at the other Blondie then at disquieting form of Neu-Jupiter's servant, finding it atrocious that they had not seen this coming - both the attempt and the Furniture's seeming strangeness, responding like a war-made monster when his Masters were in danger.

"Didn't your Lord give you an order, Furniture?" the Blondie Biochemist harshly roused the youth, but to which Katron only made a bow of thankful respect before going, the aura of apathy about him.

He had been drifting just now standing there, the Furniture actually noticing more blood all over his uniform than he had estimated. Definitely lost his finesse back there, though he'd done it as quietly and as cleanly as he could. His master did look disappointed however, worse, he may need to throw this uniform set away as the stains would be too hard to scrub out of the fabric now, or plainly too cumbersome for any more effort.

"Oh well. C'est la vie," Katron frowned with a sigh, fisting his hands for control as they trembled still; the taste of his first kill.

As he exited the venue, the crowd of policemen and investigators parted for him, suspicious but then not able to do anything about it. One cannot simply go arresting one of Neu-Jupiter's belongings. Tanagura would be the one to decide on this matter.

A certain look of interest however followed the elegant form of the Furniture as he moved across the ballroom. He had the officials of some governments and warring towns, cities and planets, eyeing him with much curiosity.

A war weapon? And a Furniture no less?

The youth had the face of an obedient sex doll and the fine lines of a pet yet, somehow, in that fragile graceful body of his was a cold-hearten colossus. He didn't appear to feel the slightest remorse over what he'd done, appearing more concerned about keeping appearances due the Master he served, which made him just exquisite.

Already he was picking through his spare change of uniforms and coordinating their left transports, calling to the Palace to inform those there of what had happened and to expect the Masters home briefly. He moved with a spring to his feet, giddy but graceful.

"I wonder what the price tag is for a weapon that complex," that was the debate for the remainder of the evening. Whether or not all the members of the Mink Household were this powerful and impressive?

For even the Pet had a personalized purpose and, after tonight, he was made even more ultimately beautiful because of the massacre…

"How can we have it made to order?

"I would buy that in the next auction..."