FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

In Serpent's Embrace

Chapter 5-Intersteller Academic Quiz Bowl Pt 4

Jacob was running and running, his mother and Jeremy were chasing him again. They were so close, he ran outside hoping to evade them, but that was a mistake. The wind was powerful and knocked him off his feet, he quickly got up and ran as fast he could run against the wind. He look up and noticed dark and angry grey clouds covered the sky and the occasional lightening strikes. The trees were all dead and twisted and the fountain at the middle of the park was overflowing with blood. Everywhere he looked, everything was dead and lifeless.

What Jacob didn't notice was the roots that came to live and shot out of the ground. They wrapped around him and wouldn't let go then pulling him to the ground, no matter how much he struggled. His mother and Jeremy were standing over him now, getting ready to strike, and then something happened. A beam of light shot down from behind the clouds and engulfed them all in its beautiful glory; the roots that were wrapped around him began to burn away allowing him to move on his own. Then he looked up and saw his mother and Jeremy melting into nothingness. Jacob stood up and took a look around him; the trees began to correct themselves and grew lush green leaves. The fountain's blood was replaced with crystal clear water that washed away the blood; the sky opened up and revealed a bright blue sky. Everywhere the light touched, was rejuvenated by it, came back to life. Jacob could hear bird singing, could feel the warmth of the sun on his cheeks.

Then arms wrapped around him and held him close to a broad muscular chess, "I told you I would protect you, my love, my love, my love," the warm soothing voice echoed in his ears.

Jacob's eyes shot open; that was the second time he had that figure come into his dreams. Who was it? and why was he coming to him? Jacob sighed as these and more questions ran through his head. It's been a few days since The Duchess entered hyperspace through the jump ring, and he wondered if they reached their destination yet. He then got up and looks out the window, and saw the surface of a green blue planet. They had, the planet, Agam Pi, deep in the heart of the conflicted territory between the xenowolves and basilisks. Over the planet floated a large, mostly finished, space station, more like a floating city, it already had the steady flow of traffic that other space stations had across the sovereign states.

The ship docked with the space station and unloaded its living and nonliving cargo. Jacob and the rest of the team from Ferdinand High made their way to the sections that will be holding the teams for the quiz bowl.

Jacob was sitting in the library, studying for the all the bowl, when he noticed a shadow standing over him. Jacob looked up and saw a large xenowolf standing over him with a smile, revealing his razor sharp teeth.

"Hey there little guy, what are you doing in here when the rest of you team is out there having fun," the xenowolf asked. Jacob looked him up and down; he was a well muscular xenowolf, with a thick coat of brown fur, and the typical xenowolf blue spiritual markings that are died into his fur. He was wearing a red kilt like skirt around his waist, a gold armband on his left arm, and gold necklace with his clan's crest on it. He leaned forward and lifted his paw in a human gesture of shaking. Jacob took his paw and shook it. "I'm Linx Packer, son of Brorth Packer, Chancellor of the Clans of the Xenowolves," he said.

"Is that supposed to impress me?" Jacob asked while raising an eyebrow toward the xenowolf.

Linx's large ears perked up and his tail stiffened in surprise, no one has ever disregarded him in suck a way. He came to this human hoping for fun after catching his sent, but he is beginning to think that may not be possible.

Then the doors to the library opened and in slithered a large black reptilian species, the rival for a thousand years to the xenowolves, a basilisk, and kings of the reptilian species. His black scales shined like obsidian, his emerald snake eyes scanning the library. He stood tall with his shoulders back, his hood sticking out revealing his pride. He had a muscular body, even for a basilisk, showed his strength. His arms hanging loosely at his sides ending in clawed hands and his long tail trailing behind him. On his arms and on his right pectoral, were basilisk holy markings. He was wearing a white kilt with blue and gold swirl wrapped around the hem of the skirt. He had armbands on both arms; the bands had a green stone in the middle of two blue stones. Flowing behind him was a flowing white cape that was slipped between his arms and hood then tied over the left pectoral by a pendent. On the pendent was a coat of arms carved into it, the coat of arms of the Prince Royal of the Basilisk Holy Empire.

Linx leaned down and whispered into Jacob's ear, "That's Stalo Borsil Talesim Xysu, the Prince and heir to the Basilisk thrown, the pompous jerk."

"What is he doing here?" asked Jacob.

"He's hear for the negotiations that are being held here and to root for his little brother, Prince Euser Borsil Talesim Xysu," Linx said, "we'll be competing against him in the quiz bowl."

The basilisk prince was looking through the stacks of data card and seemed to have found what he wanted because he picks something out and slithered over to were Jacob and Linx was sitting. "Well, what do we have here?" he looked over the xenowolf then his attention turned to the human and he became interested. Humans are rare this far out of their territory and to see one in person like this is a rarity in its own.

Jacob shifted uncomfortable under the basilisk-unblinking stare. The basilisk took the seat next to Jacob at the table and had his tail wrapped around the table and chairs, trapping Jacob in place between the chair and table. He turned his attention to the human, "So human, you will be competing against my little brother in the quiz bowl, huh?"

"Yes," Jacob felt a weird since of familiarity from the basilisk, but he wasn't sure. He never knew the prince until now, Jacob felt himself being draw to the big snake like humanoid.

Linx, on the other hand, didn't like this one bit, he saw the human first and wanted him, and he wasn't going to loss him to some snake.

"So, um?" Linx had to pause because he didn't get the human's name

"Uh, Jacob, Jacob Thompson," Jacob replied, hopping the xenowolf would help him.

"Yes, Jacob, so Jacob, would you like to come and join me in the Labyrinth?" Linx was hoping for him to say yes.

The human weighed his options, stay with the basilisk in an uncomfortable silence, or go with the xenowolf and may have some fun. "Yeah, I would like that," Jacob replied.

Linx was overjoyed, the human choose him, and his smile was wide with pride and triumph. While the basilisk prince had tilted his head, the equivalent of a human raising his eyebrow.

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's a habit of my race to do this," replied the basilisk prince. He loosened his coils and pushed Jacob's chair out so he could leave.

"Uh...thank you, Your Highness," Jacob said inclining his head in a sign of respect to royalty. He got up and began to follow Linx out of the library, then stopped when the prince called out to them.

"Have fun in the quiz bowl boys," Stalo said, "and Jacob, I will be keeping a close eye on you humans, to see how far you've come."

Jacob smiled to hide his uneasiness, which didn't work, "uh, thank you, Your Highness," then continued out the doors with Linx.

For the majority of the day, Linx and Jacob spent maneuvering in the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth is a large maze that shifts ever few minutes, participate are to download a schematic of the maze so maneuvering easier.

While they enjoyed the day, Linx and Jacob told each other of their lives, of how Linx grew up from as the oldest of 5 pups and plans to follow his father into politics. Jacob told of his life as the son of a corporate tycoon and a politician. By the end of the day, they developed into a good friendship, which disappointed Linx who wanted something more.

The next day, the quiz bowl was underway, over three-dozen teams showed up for the event to prove which school and which sovereign state was best. The team for Ferdinand High quickly disposed of a heliokin team, and then moved onto a team from the multispawn's territory. Over then next few days, schools competed and schools were eliminated. It eventually was narrowed down to a Linx's school, Ferdinand High, and a school in the basilisk territory. Linx's team answered question after question, but in the end, the basilisk team out matched them. The next day, it was Ferdinand High's turn to face the basilisks.

"Thank you females and males of all species for coming to the First Interstellar Academic Quiz Bowl's Final Round between the High School Branch of the Franz Ferdinand Institution and the Basilisk Imperial Academy," was announced.

"Nervous?" asked Linx to Jacob, who could only nod his head. "Don't you'll do great," Linx tried to reassure him.

A few minutes later and the announcer began naming of the teams, "From the High School Branch of the Franz Ferdinand Institution, Nicole Emeralds, Irat Huey, Jacob Thompson, and Blake Jackson. And from the Basilisk Imperial Academy, Lord Antoine of Bogomil, Lord Tristides of Groin, Lord Brahim of Shyamel, Lord Gianluca of Kornal, and His Imerial Highness, Prince Euser Borsil Talesim Xysu. Now let the match begin."

Jacob and his team got into positions at their table while the basilisk prince and his team. The host stepped forward, a cryojester they are a humanoid crystals. Their home world, Ifoy, is under the protection of the heliokin and are close friends to them.

The host stepped up to the podium and began, "First question, what is the name of the plague that swept across the known galaxy and what did it do?"

Jacob immediately hit the buzzer and said, "The Lycan Retrovirus, it varies from species to species, it made xenowolves feral, the heliokin would loss control of their body temperature, Basilisk venom would become acidic, and make humans have an unquenching thirst for blood."

"Correct, point for the Ferdinand Institution," said the cryojester a few claps came from the audience that was there.

In the stands, three people sat watching the events unfold. One was Carol Perez, Jacob's bodyguard, another was John Raving Harker Senior, the man who visited Jacob on The Duchess, and a younger man in his early 20s who has similar features to John, excluding the prosthetics and scars.

"So, you've never told me why this kid is so important to you Boss," said Carol as she looked away from all the business on the stage.

"He's just very important to me and Junior here that's all," the man said.

"Oh, come on Boss, you know you can trust me," she said looking at him with her bottom lip pushed out.

John looked over to the young man, Junior, who nodded his head then looked back to the stage. John sighed and took out a compad, pressed a few buttons, then passed it over to Carol. Carol looked through the info and gasped, the info was a DNA record, DNA record of a Jacob Thompson. According to the information, Jacob Thompson's parent are Katherine Raymond Thompson and John Raving Harker Senior. According to this record, Jacob was the son of the one of the most powerful crime lords in the known galaxy, and the half-brother to his heir.

She looked over to him, "How?" she could understand on what happened.

"Katherine, or Sarah as she was calling herself when we met, just ran away from home because her father just signed an agreement with a politician's family to marry her to their son. The agreement united the two families, politics and business," He paused for a second, "she didn't want that, she wanted to get away from that, she wanted to fall in love." As John reminisced about the past, both Carol and Junior listened closely, "The ship she was using to leave earth was captured by one of my father's hired pirates, I was on board and spotted her. It was love at first sight for the both of us, I've never felt that way for anyone since Ariel's death," with that he looked over to Junior.

"We spent many night together, one night we did it without protection, and I knew Jacob was conceived," he stopped and looked at the boy on stage answering question after question. Standing his own against the intelligent basilisks, He then looked into the distance, off into dream world.

"After his conception, she left without a reason why," he had a said yet angry look in his eye.

"So, for sixteen years you've been looking for Jacob for what reason? She asked

"I've want to protect him, help him achieve his goals, even though I'm a crime lord, my family has held a strong belief of family, since he is my son, I want to do as much as a father can," John said. "I especially want to protect him from Salina."

******

Terry watched form his place in the balcony over looking the contest between schools; he spotted the man who has been a thorn in his Lady's side for too long. He picked up his compad off his belt and press a series of codes into it, then spoke into it, "Execute Operation Quick Strike," He received a series of confirms from multiple voices. He smiled; knowing that he wasn't going to fail in getting the man whose criminal empire will belong to his Lady.

******

The ensign, a xenowolf, sat watching the radar screen, looking for anything unusual that would harm the space station, since the beginning of construction, nothing interesting has happened, just boring boulders of space rocks that needed to be blasted out of existence. He felt a tap on his shoulder and look up to see his replacement for the night.

"Nothing interesting again?" asked the replacement, another xenowolf asked.

"Nope nothing," said the ensign. Just when he stood to let the other lupine to take it, a blinking red light showed up on the screen. The ensign sat down right away and looked at the blinking red light, "What in the 12 levels of Hell is this?"

Then smaller red blips showed up coming form the larger one, they were close enough for them to see out of the viewing port. The ensign looked up and noticed a large ship floating in space and little lights shooting out of it. It was a Macro-class Dreadnought, but not just any Dreadnought; it was the Satan's Greed. A pirate ship belonging to Salina Valerie, the Crime Lady of the Valerie Cartel feared by many in the known galaxy.

The ensign was scared shitless, he was about to reach over for the alarm system when he was shot in the back of the head and collapsed dead on the floor. The other xenowolf was holding his blaster where the ensign's head was, he then holster his blaster pistol. He reached over and began to punch a few keys into the computer, a few seconds later, the red blips disappeared of the screen as if nothing happened. He then walked out of the room to prepare the next stage of the operation.

Second later, the space station shook with explosions and the radar station was among the first to go as xenowolves across the station sabotaged the facility to quickly fall to the pirate attack.

*******

Jacob didn't know what was happening, he was just about to answer another question for Ferdinand High when the room was plunged into blackness. Beings began to scream as the emergency lights turned on, their red lighting letting little light for everyone to see.

Then a voice over the intercom came on, "Excuse the pardons species of various types, the station is having difficulties, if you will please make an orderly fashion to the closest emerg-shhhhhhhhhh" the recording was cut of from there and all that anyone could here was static. Everyone let out shouts of fear, and then began to rush out of the auditorium room. Jacob was separated from the rest of the team but continued on with the rest of the group.

He then heard blaster fire up a head, around a corner; he saw blaster bolt sizzling past civilians and security guard running away from them. Some were struck and fell to the floor dead. Jacob took of in the opposite direction then turned into the closest place he could think of.

Jacob then hit a mirrored wall; he was about to turn around when the wall behind him closed. Jacob then just relied where he was, the Labyrinth. He looked around wondering where to go through the shifting mirror walls. He took out his compad and pulled up the schematics of the maze. He chooses to head do a right path and ran into a man who didn't look to pleasant of a person. He raised the blaster he was holding toward Jacob, Jacob turned around to get out of the way, but it was too late. Jacob was struck on the right shoulder when he turned around the corner; he was then flung across the path and hit his head on the mirror wall, passing out in the process.

The pirate that shot him came walking up to the unconscious body and was about to shoot. The pirate was then struck in the face by a blaster bolt and fell backwards dead. Another person came up and picked up the boys body whispering, "I will protect you." and slithered away from the dead pirate's body.