Genesis *UHF* Chapter 3
By Mufasa
Quit bitching. You’re still alive, aren’t you? You got Daemon out of the way.
“If you weren’t trapped inside my head, I’d beat the shit out of you. Why do you have access to all the magic power and I have all the pain?”
You could have won that fight. All you had to do was let me take over.
“Bullshit. You would have been gawking at her breasts, too, and once the arrows hit, who would have got us out?”
I wouldn’t have used the arrows on him, anyway. It doesn’t matter. You did what needed to be done.
“Which is…?”
No… Can’t tell. That would ruin the ending.
“Quit fucking with me and tell me what is going on!”
No fucking going on here. I forgot just how little you get anyway…
“SHAMAN… Why was I going after Khalid?”
Don’t worry. You’ll find out soon enough. Are you sure you don’t want me to take over?
“Forget it. I said NO.”
Fine… Your problem. By the way, you might want to get the bandages ready.
“Why?”
The door to the room blew off its hinges and crashed into the wall. Gene rose to his feet ready to see who it was. Khalid leaned against the smoking door with his right arm hanging limp at his side. The sleeves of his tux shirt were ripped off and wrapped around the wounds on his shoulder and his leg. His eyes flashed and he snarled at Gene.
“Oh I see…” Gene said.
This is going to be fun… battle of the cripples… Are you sure you don’t want me to take charge?
“I’m fine. He’s got one leg and one arm. I’ve got all. He doesn’t have a chance.”
You mean… he DIDN’T have a chance…
The photon paw knocked Gene through the wall and into a telephone pole outside the house. He heard felt a snap of his arm. Khalid then appeared out of a portal and threw Gene to the ground, where his leg snapped.
“Fucknut… How did YOU know he’d do this…”
Khalid snarled and motioned with his good hand for Gene to come take a shot.
You wouldn’t know this, because this is the first time you met him… but Khalid isn’t in charge right now. Mufasa is… and he’s probably going to hurt you really badly. You can face him now and have a 50% chance of living or I can face him and have a 100% chance of living. The choice is yours… and you better make it before his new pals show up.
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For the author known as Cheryl Hill, her life these days tended to be low key. It had been nearly twenty years since she had gone into hiding, but she was well assured that man would never find her. It had been difficult at first, because she had to use every resource at her disposal to fake her own death and make allies that she could count on. She could still trust them to this day.
“MOM!!!!”
“Hold on, Cindy, I’m almost done with this paragraph…”
“It’s Janet.”
She saved her file and stepped into the kitchen to put on a fresh pot of coffee. In the living room, her 16-year-old daughter Cindy was excitedly telling Janet about her new boyfriend. Although Janet would call often, actual physical visits were rare – except for in times of need. Cheryl knew why. Janet was trying to protect her from Frank in case he ever came calling…
“Janet…”
“Cici…” A hug. They always began everything with a hug. After all, Janet was her goddaughter. “I have got to make time to come by for a better reason.”
“It’s okay,” Cici answered. “I’m glad you were able to talk to Cindy. She asks about you.”
“She’s a good gal, Cici. She has a good mother.”
“That’s right. And she has a report to finish?”
“MOM!” Cindy protested.
“You know better, Cindy, and you’ve been procrastinating on that all week. If I get another phone call from Mr. Breslin…”
“All right, all right,” Cindy said, heading back up to her room. “Anything to keep you from being all motherly.”
“Wait fifty years when I decide you’re grown up. Until then, I’ll be overprotective as always.”
“Take heart, Cindy. Enjoy it while you can… and good night!”
“NIGHT!!!”
Janet watched her godsister disappear into her room and waited until she could hear the door shut. Just a slight electrical stimulation to certain areas of the brain and she ensured that Cindy would know nothing about what was going on. “I’m sorry to bother you.”
“It’s no bother at all,” Cici said, leading Janet into her office. Before she could touch the activation switch beneath the lamp shade, it activated seemingly of its own accord. The lights in the room dimmed slightly and the conference table parted in the center. A sphere-shaped interactive holographic display shimmered to life two feet over the table with the Strong Technologies logo across the center. Cici knew that Janet had activated the mechanism. “What can I help you with?”
“I met with Mom and Vic earlier this week and we went to the Lazydivey and saw one of the most amazing pianists there.”
“Khalid Hunter, am I right? I remember your mother mentioning going to see him when we had dinner on Saturday. How was he?”
“Mmmmmm…” she said with a smile. Cici understood what she meant by that one. “We’ll discuss that one later. I convinced Gabe to bring him in to the restaurant tonight because I wanted them to meet. Khalid has a set of tattoos on his arms in Pharaohan that Gabe needed to see. Even better yet is that he has two electromagnetic signatures.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure, but it gets better. A mercenary known only as Gene dropped by tonight and nearly killed him. Khalid was losing a lot of blood and going into shock, so I stashed him on the roof so I could deal with Gene. After the fight was over, Gabe and I went up there to find Khalid was gone.”
“Gone? As in…”
“Disappeared. No sign of him. No trace of him on the roof. No tracks. No blood trail.”
“And you can’t trace his electromagnetic signature?”
“That’s what I don’t understand. I had no trouble reading it when he was in the Lazydivey and had no trouble while he was on stage tonight. After I threw him on the roof, though, I couldn’t sense his signature anymore.”
“And that’s where I come in,” Cici said. “One thing before I start… Tell me you didn’t wear that dreadful dress your mother was telling me about.” Hotwire answered with a smile. “Well,” Cici said looking away. “I know for sure Gabriel loved it.”
“So did Khalid…”
“I don’t need to hear anymore,” Cici said. She closed her eyes and held it over the holographic display. The Strong Technologies logo changed shape into a map of the world. Without looking, she tapped on the Western Hemisphere. The Eastern Hemisphere disappeared from the holographic map and the remaining half was enlarged.
“Your ability is virtually uncanny, Cici. In Khalid’s current state, we decided that we didn’t have enough time for Gabe to track him down the hard way.”
Cici tapped the United States and the hemisphere map was replaced by the contiguous 48 states. “He hasn’t left the country. Give me a few… I’m narrowing it down…” She tapped New York twice. “He is in the New York City area.”
“Which is a really large place…”
“That’s never been a problem for me before,” she said. “I’m hoping to get a neighborhood at least, but… but…” Cici’s eyes flashed for a moment and her eyes snapped open. She stumbled back and set herself in chair. “Uh uh…”
“What happened?”
“I was narrowing it down. Getting more specific. I was not sure what happened…” she said. “The picture of him in my mind was clear. Then, it was like a flash of light blinded me. I can’t even picture him, now. All I get is blindness.”
“I hear you. I think it has something to do with him. Good thing I thought of this…” she said. She pulled out one of Gene’s arrows and laid it on the conference table. “I think we know better than to try locating Gene, but maybe it depends on the wording.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Find the quiver this arrow came from.”
Cici tapped the holographic display twice. “It’s outside of Westchester. Here’s the address.”
“You’re a gem, Cici.”
“You are too, Janet. Take care.”
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The two of them were barely conscious. As he lay on the ground just a few feet from Khalid, Gene took stock of his injuries. So far, there was a broken arm, a broken leg, two cracked ribs, five arrow wounds in his back, a third degree burn at his bellybutton, two knocked-out teeth, and a black eye. Not bad for an opponent, but he’s suffered worse.
Khalid wasn’t faring much better. So far, he fought with a paralyzed arm, a slipped disc, a deep arrow wound to his leg, a broken nose, a broken jaw, and a broken collar bone. Although he moved slower, he seemed to black out the pain as far as Gene could make out.
If Khalid had been bound and determined to kill him, Gene figured that he would have already. A photon blade to the neck. Teleporting him in half. Something creative. No, as much as he could make out, Khalid wanted to do it with his bare hands. The man wanted to kick some ass and then kill him. Gene knew that neither of them would survive much longer like this. The two of them were on the ground as it was, bleeding and coughing all over the place. This fight had to end.
You enjoying yourself, Gene?
“Shut up, Dumbass…” he coughed out.
You two are looking mighty handsome. I bet you’d pick up a lot of women if you went cruising like this…
“Don’t you ever shut up?” he said. He could hear Khalid growling as he dragged himself over. Khalid’s shoulder crashed across his stomach. With his good hand, Gene grabbed Khalid by the sides of his mouth and pushed his broken jaw back and forth. Khalid cringed from the pain and pushed himself up, still growling. Khalid’s hand was on Gene’s neck. “Come on, Lion-Boy…” Gene spat. “You think you can block out enough to kill me?” Khalid snarled and started squeezing…
All right, Gene… I’ve had enough of this shit.
I DON’T need your help.
You’re right. Khalid’s helping you just fine… but I need you both ALIVE, dammit!
WHAT??!!
Gene’s head thrashed about and his lock on Khalid’s jaw tightened. Something about the pain strengthened Khalid’s resolve. He was not aware of it, but in some part of his mind, he could actually feel Gene’s life force at the end of his fingertips. That same part of him told him that it was twice as strong as it should be. Gene’s face seemed to change in front of him, the hair growing a little grayer and the eyes growing lighter. He was older. He was…
Shaman, the Sorcerer Supreme.
With a sneer, Shaman’s threw Khalid back into the side of the house. The injuries pulled together and healed as he walked over. Khalid’s eyes blinked as Shaman picked him up by what was left of his shirt. Six times, his back crashed into the aluminum siding until blood bubbled up from his mouth. Shaman shoved his hand through Khalid’s stomach and grabbed hold of the spinal cord.
“//Did you REALLY think you were going to kill me?!//” (***Translated from the Ancient Egyptian.)
Khalid growled at him and formed a portal over Shaman’s neck.
“//Did you forget who you were dealing with, Mufasa?!//”
Khalid sniffed the air and then formed another portal in front of Shaman’s face.
“//Nice one, Mufasa. Decapitate me and blow my head clean off my body. Then my hand solidifies inside of you and die a slow and painful death.//
One corner of Khalid’s mouth pulled up into a smirk.
At the same time the portal over Shaman’s neck severed his head, it released a flare of light that blew it directly upward. The other portal blew the remainder of the body away from Khalid back into the same telephone pole Gene hit earlier. Khalid caught the head by the hair as it fell out of the sky. A flash of his eyes and he ripped both spirits out of the body. Gene’s spirit was trapped in Khalid’s real hand and Shaman’s was snared by a photon field.
NICE one, Dumbass! Gene yelled at Shaman. You fucking got us BOTH killed… AGAIN!
Shut up, Gene. Shaman snapped. Mufasa didn’t know how to do that… and Khalid would be smart to release us both and help us heal.
Why should he? You told me to attack him; did you forget?!
Shaman’s eyes flashed and Khalid started growling, loudly. You know better than to fuck around with me, Khalid. Even in this form, I can still rip your mind apart or worse.
Gene felt Khalid’s hand shake and saw his eyes roll backwards. Whatever Shaman was doing to Khalid’s mind, it was hurting him – more than any of Gene’s punches did. A fresh stream of blood gushed from Khalid’s nose and down his mouth. Shaman’s body, including the head, teleported back near Khalid, supported by a photon tail. Gene could see a sliver of Shaman’s essence return to the body to heal it. Then, it clicked.
Wait a fucking minute. You fucking bastard! You can’t take my body! Get your own!
Sorry you never really had a chance, Gene, but even if I could get my own body, the moment you become active, that fucks up powers for both of us. Don’t worry. You’ll have Khalid, here. I’m sure he’ll be glad to take turns… he stopped, glaring at Khalid. Khalid… don’t you DARE. He increased the power of his spell so Khalid was reeling. Once he saw the sneer, he knew it was too late.
A flash of light and the body went flying back into its favorite telephone poll. “God damn… FUCK FUCK FUCK…” Gene started screaming. To his surprise, he realized that he was actually screaming. He looked down at his hands and realized that he was back in his body. HIS body and his body alone. No Shaman inside. “Hey… What the hell?”
Khalid stumbled forward, holding what appeared to be an empty glass ball. Because his jaw was broken, he couldn’t speak intelligible words or anything above a dull growl, but the look in his eyes said it all. Once Gene got closer, he could see what happened.
Khalid, you betrayed me! Khalid shook it so that Shaman bounced around on the insides of the ball. You’d better sleep lightly, Khalid, because once I get out of here… He shook it around again.
“Looks like to me you’re just getting some of your own medicine, Shaman,” Gene said.
Perhaps... but as my student backstabber is about to find out, I always get the last laugh.
Khalid started to shake the ball again when he felt it happen, like a tiny circuit breaker going off in his head. It in turn was followed by another one and yet another one after that. Small mental controls and checks, some self-installed, most not. The first was the artificial wall put up between Khalid and Mufasa that allowed Khalid to be the dominant persona. Next was the part of his mind that allowed him to tell the difference between his life as Khalid and his life as Mufasa. The last block to fall was the one that allowed him to maintain as separate the connection between his emotions and his powers and the controls between both.
When Gene saw the ball drop from Khalid’s hand, he knew something was coming. Then, he felt it beginning to come up. He never even had time to shut his eyes before it began. What the fuck did Shaman just uncork?!
End Chapter Three
Mufasa
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The White King's Bishop
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King of Insane Kemetic Lions
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