This chapter has been written in cooperation with @Madrias
The journey down the steep hills had gone without issue, even with the abuse the Oil Tanker had taken. The smaller blue speedboat that was the Claussient 25 had managed to get in the way somewhat, but it didn’t really matter, it didn’t have the most power and was piloted by two people who weren’t really familiar with the whole shitbox rally thing. Other than being held up, and stopping to top up the two fuel tanks, the drive was pretty uneventful.
The aftermarket stereo system still had a downloaded Toolroom records playlist coming through the speakers as the car rolled into the camp. Most of the teams were there, but the IP Van was parked on the other side of the camp, in the bushes, its bright atomic pink paint not doing any favors to camouflage it.
Unlike yesterday, the Magistrate did not fly into the camp like a space shuttle, but instead cruised slowly past a few of the cars that were already there, and rolled to a gentle stop next to the Bricksley Highwayman, leaving a sort of open space between the two cars.
Kivenaal looked up as he heard the sound of the Claussient and the Magistrate arriving. The blue wagon cruised across the campsite while the Magistrate rolled slowly and smoothly into a spot nearby to the Bricksley. He looked toward the Claussient, parked near his chosen tree stump, and then over to the Magistrate, parked close to the Bricksley. “Had they been the other way around, I would have chosen correctly,” Kivenaal said to himself. He finished his cigar, stubbing it out on the old tree stump before getting up, only to realize one of the members of Team Oil Crisis was heading his way. The one he wanted to talk to anyway.
Kameron stopped short of Kivenaal when he saw him getting up from the tree stump. “I had a feeling that you wanted to speak to me.”
Kivenaal nodded. “Yes. I saw, a while back, that when Jayde had constructed his weapon of light, you talked with him,” Kivenaal said. He reached to his hip and unclipped his own hilt, holding it in such a way that it showed he knew this was a weapon of great power, even if it hadn’t turned out quite the same as a traditional lightsaber.
The gleaming brass, silver, and copper hilt looked more like a fantasy sword hilt than a traditional lightsaber hilt, even if the blade was currently missing. Kivenaal realized that most of the other teams were dealing with curious townsfolk, that they were far enough away for a safe demonstration, and gave a light smile. His thumb slid the power switch one notch forward, to the On position, producing a quiet high-pitched ringing note, mere moments before Kivenaal slid the switch another notch further. The high-pitched note deepened into a low, rasping buzz as the purple sword-shaped blade ignited. The edges of the blade shivered and rippled, not quite stable thanks to the unusual power system, though the blade was certainly steady enough to fight with, to cut with, even against a proper lightsaber.
“I think it’s different enough, then, to simply call it what it is, a plasma sword, rather than trying to beat it into the definition of being a lightsaber,” he said.
Kameron nodded, “Well, that makes sense. It’s shape and construction don’t really match an actually lightsaber.”
Then he fired up his lightsaber, the blue glow and ominous hum filling their ears. It stayed like that for a moment before it was shut off. “The differences are pretty clear.”
Kivenaal nodded softly, then clicked the switch two notches down to the Off position, where the blade swiftly vanished. “Do you think it would work the same, though?” Kivenaal asked. “I sense there is a certain amount of Darkness out there,” he added, motioning to the clear sky and the stars beyond it, “that you have been tracking down.”
“A touch of that Darkness brought someone here, someone who, if my feelings and intuition are right, was close to you. A mentor, perhaps. Someone who interacted with Jayde. The past is a tangled web of threads, all interwoven into what we all know,” he admitted.
“If we are facing a greater evil that must be stopped, then I want in. Before you go believing that there’s no way that I can help, I don’t have the skill or the training, I do have a few natural talents. One of those talents is that I can’t be burned. I’ve found that out a few different ways. Hot pans, lit charcoal, my own fire, molten metal, even covered my own hand in thermite once when I was younger and wondered if I could generate a fire hot enough to set it off. Even been hit by a plasma rifle once, and all it did was ruin my favorite shirt.”
Kameron sighed, glanced at Jayde who was returning from fixing the windscreen of the IP van, before reverting is gaze back to Kivenaal. “I suppose that your blade could function similarly, but since it’s not fully bound to the force it may be difficult to work with, and not being able to be burned will be significant advantage in a fight.”
“That makes two of us, then,” Kivenaal quipped. “Neither myself nor my blade are fully bonded with the Force,” he explained. “When… When this world ended, far in the future, I felt the pain and the death, and I closed myself off to shield myself against it. It’s only now that I’ve begun to open myself back up to it again.”
Jayde wandered over to Kameron and Kivenaal after putting his supplies away in the truck. “Heard that ominous hum, K’,” Jayde said, playfully shortening Kameron’s other nickname down to just the first letter. He then spotted Kivenaal’s blade and looked back and forth between the two. “Let me guess, our training is soon to start?”
A nod. “Yeah, soon. I was just demonstrating what a true lightsaber looks like for Kivenaal. Before we start we’ll need to find a quiet place where we can focus, and so no one sees us and thinks we’re having a dispute over something and tries to intervene, the last thing we need are people getting injured.”
“Makes sense,” Jayde said. “The last thing we need is people trying to get involved when all three of us have weapons capable of removing limbs in an instant.”
Kivenaal nodded, in agreement. “Injuring civilians would definitely be a bad thing. It’s going to be bad enough trying to find a place out of the way-”
“There’s a clearing in the woods, not far from here. It’s, perhaps, secluded enough to not be noticed, but close enough that once we’re done, we can just walk back to camp,” Jayde said. “It’s quiet enough there.”
“That’s perfect, lead the way.”
Jayde nodded, then headed toward the woods, occasionally looking back to make sure that Kameron and Kivenaal were following.
After a 15 minute hike through the woods, however, the three found themselves in a large clearing, far enough from the camp to cover the sounds of their training, but close enough to not leave them exhausted by the time they were all done.
“Well, it certainly looks big enough,” Kivenaal said. As they walked toward the middle, Kivenaal removed his heavy duster, his hat, and his gun belts, setting them in a neat pile and getting ready to fight.
Jayde, likewise, removed his robe, standing in a pair of linen shorts that left his brass-and-metal leg exposed from just above his knee down.
“Alright, so dueling with a lightsaber is like dueling with a regular blade, but you have the force on your side. The most important thing you should do is just let the force flow through you and let it guide your moves and attacks. Now, Jayde, what I want you to do is to block an attack from me with your eyes open and then with them closed, and Kivenaal, I want you to watch very carefully. I’ll try to go easy so as not to overwhelm you.” Kameron explained.
Jayde nodded, grabbing his lightsaber and igniting the vivid green blade before sticking his staff in the dirt and taking a two-handed grip on the hilt, naturally picking up a classic dueling stance as he listened to the Force.
Kivenaal watched, hilt in hand with the weapon still off, watching as Kameron ignited his blue blade, swinging it up in Jayde’s general direction. Jayde responded instantly by striking out at the blade with everything he had, clashing blades with a blinding flash.
“Well done, Now with your eyes closed.”
The second attempt, with Jayde keeping his eyes closed, was a lot less aggressive, with Jayde moving more in tune with the Force, only moving enough to block the attack, rather than trying to knock the weapon out of Kameron’s hand. They continued this from several different angles, eyes both open and closed until they finally stopped.
“Alright, Let’s see how you do Kivneaal. We’ll start with open eyes and then we’ll try with them closed.”
He gave a respectful nod and ignited his purple blade, stepping forward with the weapon held in his upper right hand. The low rasping buzz contrasted with the ominous hum as both Kameron and Kivenaal raised their blades, with Kivenaal adopting a classic sword-fighting position and naturally keeping his edge aligned.
Kameron made his first strike and Kivenaal crossed it with his own blade, a flash of intense light flaring from the point of contact. Unlike Jayde, however, Kivenaal was more in control, using far less physical strength behind his attacks. Also unlike Jayde, when Kameron tried again with Kivenaal being eyes-open, Kivenaal not only blocked the blade, but immediately countered, causing Kameron to have to block instead. Kivenaal seemed to be surprised at how easy the move had come to him, as if he’d spent decades or centuries training in sword-fighting.
When Kameron had Kivenaal try with his eyes closed, however, Kivenaal was a lot less adept at blocking, instead often times moving out of the way, making clumsy attempts to block, and in one case, completely missing Kameron’s blade altogether and attacking the dirt.
Jayde grimaced and said, “Kivenaal, clear your mind and listen to the Force. Otherwise, you’re likely to get hurt during this training.”
Kivenaal took a deep breath and nodded, and Kameron tried again with a simple, relatively easy to block strike. Kivenaal missed it with his blade, but instead of dodging out of the way, he grabbed the blue blade, stopping the strike. He opened his eyes, fingers still grasping the blade a moment longer before he slowly let go. While the dirt on his hand had been burned away, Kivenaal’s upper left hand was still fine, and after shaking off the still-hot ash, it seemed that Kivenaal wasn’t entirely shaken up by the experience. “Well, I can say that touching that was among the least fun things I’ve done,” Kivenaal admitted. “It’s warm, but that hum resonates through your bones, and it tingles.”
Kameron gave a small chuckle. “Well, you did say that you weren’t able be burned and the saber uses heat primarily to cut through materials. It’s basically a big cutting torch. Anyway, you seem to be far more comfortable with this than Jayde over there, but there are still some things to work on, and there’s also the fact you aren’t 100 percent connected with the force. But, you have got potential.”
Jayde smiled. “He fights like he’s been to a swordfighting school. You can see it in the way he moves, his edge alignment, the way he counters every attack you make and has to stop himself from just continuing it.”
“I’ve never been to one, though. But, it’s like my muscles and body know how to do it, even if I have never done it. It’s almost like I have an instinctive understanding of where to put my feet, how to hold the blade, when to strike, when to block, all just running through my head without having to think about it,” Kivenaal explained.
Jayde chuckled. “You have the physical sword-fighting side figured out, so when your eyes are open, you’re in full control. I’m more in tune with the Force, so when my eyes are closed, I’m at my best for this. I’d guess that K over there,” Jayde said, motioning to Kameron, “will probably have to work on teaching me to sword-fight and teaching you how to use the Force more effectively.”
The three stood there for a moment, blades all still ignited as Kivenaal and Jayde awaited their next lesson.
“That’s how my master trained me, sword fighting and using the force effectively, it shouldn’t be any different. Now, I’d like to see what happens when you swap blades. Out of curiosity, of course.”
“As in, Kivenaal uses my green blade, and I use Kivenaal’s purple one?” Jayde asked.
Kivenaal shrugged lightly, then said, “I think so. Sounded like that’s what he wants us to try.”
Kivenaal and Jayde both extinguished their blades, handing their respective weapons to the other person. Kivenaal had no issue getting Jayde’s green saber to light, but Jayde scowled as he clicked the switch on Kivenaal’s purple plasma sword and only got the high-pitched ringing. “Push it all the way forward, Jayde,” Kivenaal said.
Jayde pushed the switch a little further and the blade suddenly ignited, the high-pitched note deepening into the low, rasping buzz that they’d all gotten used to hearing. “The balance on this is definitely off for me. However, it’s not so disconnected from the Force that I couldn’t use it if I had to.”
Kivenaal, on the other hand, seemed a little disoriented with a weapon that had no defined cutting edge. “Am I even holding this thing right?” Kivenaal asked, trying to find the right way to hold Jayde’s green saber.
“Like this,” Kameron pointed out, flipping the saber to face the right way up.
As Kameron pointed out to Kivenaal how he was holding his own saber, Kivenaal tried the same grip, still finding it to be an unusual weapon with no proper edge.
Like before, Kameron had Kivenaal blocking strikes, starting first with his eyes open. Kivenaal, this time, took a completely different stance, as if fencing, keeping as much distance between him and Kameron as possible, making small, quick strikes from the wrist to block Kameron’s blade using Jayde’s lightsaber. When Kameron had Kivenaal try with his eyes closed, however, Kivenaal’s fighting form again completely fell apart, showing that it was Kivenaal’s weak connection with the Force, and not his choice of weapon, that was causing his issues.
When Kameron had Jayde try the same thing, it became even more clear that Jayde was trying to rely far too much on muscle, swinging Kivenaal’s purple sword as if it were a medieval claymore. When Jayde tried with his eyes closed, like before, he improved, though it showed he was having a hard time with Kivenaal’s rather weighty hilt.
“I get the feeling,” Jayde said, grimacing slightly, “that this little experiment didn’t quite go to plan.”
“He probably did learn something from it, though,” Kivenaal said, switching off Jayde’s saber and handing it back to Jayde. Jayde fumbled with the controls on Kivenaal’s blade until he eventually got it switched off and handed it back over.
“Yeah, he probably figured out that I wasn’t joking when I said I had no clue how to sword-fight,” Jayde quipped.
“Hey, you fight well enough with your eyes closed. I’m flailing around like a fish out of water, trying to figure out how you manage to do that,” Kivenaal shot back.
“Well, that’s why were here.”
“So, what do we try next?” Kivenaal asked, looking over at Kameron as he stood there.
Jayde waited patiently for an answer, though he did comment, “If it weren’t likely to be hazardous, and we had enough sabers, I’ve almost got a curiosity to see how Kivenaal would handle using multiple blades. He is surprisingly well-skilled in at least more than one style of sword-fighting.”
“Yeah, just give me a month and I’ll make three more of these,” Kivenaal quipped. “Somehow, I don’t feel that our trainer really has the time, nor the patience, to wait for me to do that. Especially for something that, let’s be honest, very few people likely do.”
Jayde chuckled, then said, “Somehow, I think you’d manage.”
Removing his saber, Kameron tossed it towards Kivenaal. “Well, let’s try then.”
Kivenaal caught Kameron’s saber in his upper left hand, cautiously igniting the blue blade as well as his own purple one.
Jayde looked between Kameron and Kivenaal, seeing that Kameron was now unarmed, while Kivenaal had two blades in hand. Jayde gave a light look of mild concern, then said, “I hope like hell you’re not planning on having him duel me like that. I’m not good enough to face him with one blade, let alone when he has two.”
Kivenaal gave Kameron’s lightsaber a casual twirl in his hand, before naturally choosing a fighting stance that favored a heavier blade in one hand and a lighter blade in the other.
“I won’t have you two go against each other, but I do want to see how you feel when you swing them as if you are fighting with some one. Just do some attack moves you already know how to do. Ok?”
Kivenaal nodded. “I don’t know how I know them, but I’ll do them,” Kivenaal admitted.
He stepped back to a safer distance, making sure that he could freely move with the two ignited blades without catching anything in his path by accident, then took a deep breath and focused.
Jayde watched as Kivenaal swiftly moved with both blades in hand, favoring quick and precise stabs and slashes with Kameron’s lightsaber, while also still dealing out heavier and more powerful sweeps, thrusts, and cuts with his own purple blade. To him, at least, it was fairly clear that Kivenaal had at least been trained in combat as Kivenaal’s attacks against an unseen enemy were fast and fluid, using no more force than was necessary. Even more particularly interesting was the number of times that Kivenaal turned just enough to deliver a powerful high-kick with a cowboy-boot-clad foot, aimed certainly high enough to catch someone normal in the throat, or someone Jayde’s size solidly in the chest.
Kivenaal had found a natural rhythm where he wasn’t thinking about what move to make next, it was just what felt right in the moment. A left thrust with the slimmer, lighter blade, a heavy slash where an enemy’s legs would be with his heavier, broader blade, a boot to the throat, his twin tails tipped with sharp quills slashing through the air in what would have been an unpleasant strike, even without his brother’s pain-inducing venom. He had a slight blue haze in the corners of his vision, his twin hearts were racing, and in that moment, he felt powerful.
A stick came flying from the side, “Look out!”.
As the stick came flying toward Kivenaal, he barely responded to the vocal warning. Kivenaal brought Kameron’s blade up just at the right time to reduce the stick to little more than ash.
Jayde looked over at Kameron with a grin, lifting a rock from the ground, floating it over his palm, and firing it at Kivenaal, who slapped it out of the air with his own purple blade. He looked more than a little shocked as he hadn’t expected Kivenaal would be able to block that in time, let alone to do so with his heavier and harder to wield blade.
“You’re pretty good, especially, for someone with as little as sword fighting experience as you. I have a feeling it won’t be very difficult to train you in some sort of improvised version of the Jedi arts.”
Kivenaal shut the blue saber down, hissing as it went. “Glad you think so.” he said, before tossing it at Kameron.
After Kivenaal tossed Kameron’s saber back to him, he looked over at Jayde, who gave an innocent smirk, only to look shocked as Kivenaal picked up a similar rock and returned the favor. Jayde ignited his saber just in time to cut the rock in half, getting hit by both pieces of the projectile and grimacing. “Not fair,” Jayde grumbled.
“I wasn’t expecting a rock, neither were you. We’re even,” Kivenaal quipped back.
Chuckling, Kameron clipped his saber back on his belt. “That went a lot better than I had expected, you two already demonstrate a good amount potential. We have quite the journey ahead of us.”
Then a distant voice called, one that Kameron recognized as one of his team.
Kivenaal’s ears twitched as he heard the distant voice, while Jayde recognized it and the presence of the person arriving. “Aedan, over here!” Jayde called out, helping him find the clearing more easily.
Kivenaal switched off his purple blade as Aedan wandered out of the forest and into the clearing. “Have we been gone that long?” Kivenaal asked.
Jayde checked his pocket watch. “Not really. Well, not from my perspective, anyway,” he mentioned.
Kameron looked in the direction of the bushes. “I think he just noticed we were gone so he’s gone looking.”
Soon, the blue eyed and tan colored lombax stumbled out of the bushes followed by his shorter brother, before Orlen tripped and took his brother down with him. Aidan grumbled to himself, as he stood up and dusted off his clothes.
“Is this where you disappeared off to?” Aidan asked, somewhat annoyed that he’d been knocked over.
“Well, yeah. We came here because we needed a quiet space to focus and not hurt anyone.”
“Lightsaber training? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did?” said Kameron, clearly confused by the question.
“No you didn’t, but it doesn’t matter, now I know. So, Jayde and Kivenaal over here are training to become Jedi, right?”
Kameron nodded. “Yeah,”
“I just came out here to make sure you guys were okay. Kaylie was wondering and a bit worried about where Jayde had gone so, Orlen and I set out to look for you guys.”
The inside of Jayde’s ears paled slightly as he realized Kaylie was wondering where he’d gone. “Ah, shit. I forgot to let her know I was going with the two of you,” he said, sheepishly.
“She’s a keeper, Jayde. Anyone who worries about you when you’re gone, but sends friends to look for you is worth it,” Kivenaal said.
Jayde only shook his head. “It’s too early to know,”
“Hey, I know the two of you have been doing the horizontal mambo, so, no, it’s not too early to know,” Kivenaal quipped.
“How do you… Never mind, I probably don’t want to know,” Jayde grumbled.
“I hardly sleep around here. And contrary to what you might believe, the two of you are just loud enough to be heard through that spell of yours if I’m sitting outside my tent, which is right next to yours. So, consider that next time,” Kivenaal said, lightly smirking.
Aedan raised an eyebrow and had a certain look on his face, but before he could say anything Kameron interjected. “You’re married and you’ve told me about your experiences in grotesque detail, so don’t give them that look. I didn’t tell you about mine even if I am also a family man.”
“Really? You just had to say that in front of them, didn’t you?”
Kivenaal laughed. “Whatever the two of you have done, I almost guarantee you, I’ve seen, or heard, or done it all. Yes, despite my form. Apparently there are people around who are curious about someone with multiple arms and fur.”
Jayde grimaced. “Okay, yeah, we definitely don’t need to hear any of your war stories either.”
Kivenaal chuckled, then clipped his plasma sword to his right hip and pulled his duster over it. “Well, Kaylie’s definitely not one to keep waiting. I’ve seen her kick her brother in the crotch a few times when sparring with him. Wouldn’t want to be on her bad side, and if she’s looking for Jayde, it won’t be long before she sends someone out to make sure I haven’t gone to sleep in a den full of Dyre.”
Nodding, Aidan began walking towards the entrance to the clearing. “That would be bad, and plus, Pavel and Malcolm decided to help out Rukari with dinner because, eating military MREs kind of gets boring after a while.”
With that, the five of them began their journey back to the camp.
Kivenaal nodded, making sure he had everything before they left the clearing, and once he had his four pistols, his plasma sword, his duster, and his hat all back on, he followed the group back into the camp.
As soon as Jayde came out of the forest, Kaylie sprinted over to him and collided with him like a white-furred cannonball, knocking the wind out of him. “You should have told me that you and Kivenaal were leaving the camp. I’ve been looking all over for the two of you,” Kaylie said. “Rukari said he keeps smelling Dyre nearby.”
Kivenaal responded with, “Has Rukari forgotten that Oil Crisis has a couple of Dyre pups, and even when clean, they still smell like Dyre?”
“Yeah, I’m not sure Victor and his sister are a threat to anyone, unless its a pair of shoes or the seatback of a rear bench from a Union Magistrate.”
Kivenaal smirked. “So they’re about as wild as I’ve come to expect. They’ll gladly rip apart an old boot or pull half of the stuffing out of a car seat, but they know better than to claw or bite things that are alive,” Kivenaal said.
“Oh, guaranteed, if they’re hungry they have one hell of a good hunting instinct,” Jayde said, “Pups their size often take down turkeys.” he paused for a moment as he thought, then said, “So, the male is now Victor. Have you considered a name for the female yet?”
Kivenaal chuckled as he wandered back over toward the Bricksley, in a bit of a good mood after having gotten a little exercise in. He could hear the record player in the truck still quietly scraping away, playing another record as Malavera lounged back in the front bench seat, both heads resting lightly against the radio control console behind the seat.
Aidan turned to Jayde. “Well, not really, I still have to consult my wife about the names. I might have Malcolm open up a portal for me to our dimension and home world so I can speak with her.”
Jayde sighed. “That makes sense, I think you and your mate would be great parents.”
“Thanks.”
With that, the two teams gathered round the camp fire Rukari had set up and patiently waited for their dinner.
OOC NOTE:
After some careful consideration, I decided to improve the Union Magistrate now that more mods from 4.1 have been ported to 4.2. Most notably, the Magistrate is now very rusty like it should have been from the beginning, there are now wraparound markers on the tail lights and the headlights, the indicators are also now wraparound, headlights have been changed to fit the 1979 Malaise Regulations and the stuff in the roof rack has been rearranged to make space for stuff that I can't really replicate in automation without taking too long. I also cut the mufflers off because someone decided that the Magistrate needed more ground clearance (I'll include this in my next camp post)
The New and Improved Union Magistrate V8 Vanguard 4x4 Safari
The Pictures
To Be Continued
