2=5
The green girl's arm snapped out and I caught her fist on the pad Owl had gotten from somewhere. She had some kind of headset with nodes where her temples would be on her head. Owl had walked off and returned with it in her hands along with the pads. I think she tore up one of the seats or beds, the pads looked like something you would find on a couch.
I caught the second cross she threw then the upper cut. She was learning fast. Owl said to train her for two hours then pull the headset off so she could take a nap and rest. Whatever the headset did it worked a lot better than I thought it was going to. At the beginning she barely knew how to throw a punch, now she was swinging like someone who had been training for months. She was slick with sweat, it practically dripped off her, Owls device helped her learn but it did nothing for her stamina.
We were on the bridge of the space ship. Owl was at one of the consoles working on something with tools she had pulled from under her cloak. There were a few consoles and Owl was only working on one of them. To the left of us was some kind of clear alloy, it covered the nose of the ship and let us see the stars move as we sped through space.
I waved my hand out and forced the girl to duck before she snapped back with a cross I caught on the pad. She pulled back and threw out a jab as I advanced with her. We were about to go through another round when her headset let out a small ding. I dropped my arms and she dropped to her rear, panting. I pulled the pads off and she pulled the headset off before flopping back.
I looked her up and down before turning to Owl, “that thing is pretty crazy. What does it do exactly.”
“It helps neurons connect in someone's brain, and guides them.” Owl replied. Her voice was muffled from where she was digging into the console, “it's a one off though. Using it maybe fifty times is fine but unless I refine it it will start rewriting other things like language.”
I looked at the little thing. It looked like a little thing you attached to the back of your head with wires hanging off it, “I'm surprised that's not used on our planet.”
“There's a mad scientist that I pulled the idea from. If he ever gets his head out of his ass and starts doing good things and helping the people around him there is a check waiting for him.” Owl ground out.
“How often does that happen?’
“More than you think, less than I would like. I have used it to help people walk again. Teach their body to forge a new pathway of nerves from spinal damage.”
The green girl rolled to her hands and knees before saying something. Owl replied to her and she grunted before crawling to the door out of the front of the ship. She was almost there when the ship shook, I could see the stars out of the front of the ship pause in their movements. Owl and I took the stop easily but the girl flopped down with a cry. Owl and I exchanged a look. I moved over to help the green girl and Owl marched to the back of this ship.
The green girl talked to me, I couldn't understand but she pointed where she wanted to go and I princess carried her. I laid her down on the little bunk she wanted. She mumbled something and pulled the little blanket over herself, I heard her snoozing before I walked out the door in search of Owl.
Owl was by the airlock with the other two passengers. They were both talking to Owl. They were working as a team doing it, one would say something and the other would add more. Owl was nodding along with whatever they were saying. “What happened?”
Owl huffed, “We got pulled over.”
“Seriously?!”
She gave a nod and waved at the two aliens, "that's what they were explaining. We just got pulled over by the equivalent of space police.”
The airlock started cycling and the two aliens took a few steps back. Owl saw that then walked over to me and stood by my side. The door opened and the being that stepped through screamed police. His uniform was black and white with solid green lines flowing out from his chest. He had combat boots that covered his calves and the rest of his suit was one single piece of cloth except his belt. It was thick around his waist and his belt buckle was a solid piece with rippling circles.
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He had glossy purple skin with little divots sprinkled across his face. His mouth reminded me of bottom feeding fish, with the thick lips that they use to suck things from the bottom of lakes. He had giant spikes sticking out of his head connected by tissue. His eyes were a solid black with no pupil and he waved his four fingered hand at everyone. He started speaking and the two aliens started talking back, what they told him made him pause. He turned to Owl following the pointing of the girls and asked something. Owl replied some way then lifted her forearm and started fiddling with it.
A wireframe popped out of her forearm. It was intricate with a whole lot of dots in random places all of them connected by wires. It looked like a diagram of an atom. A bright green light shot from his belt and scanned the wireframe for a few seconds before disappearing. He looked down at his belt for a moment before lifting his head, “Is this better?”
“Marginally.” Owl answered him.
He gave her a nod and set his hands on his hips, “I am Guardian Wannaniki. Do you know the reason I stopped you?”
Owl gave a shrug and the blue girl stepped forward, "It's the ship. You stopped us because of the ship.”
He snapped his fingers and pointed at her, “Correct. The last time we saw this ship it was owned by a pirate. Big green fellow, about eleven feet tall.”
Owl and I exchanged a glance, “I beat him in the Death From Above Fight Pits.” I waved to Owl, “She ended up taking possession of the ship. It's ours now.”
His belt lit up again and it threw a light at me, running up and down my body. He gave it a glance before turning to me, “I have never seen one of your people and my Guardian Belt tells me you're a new species to the galactic community.”
“Teleportation accident.” Owl told him. She pulled the silver tablet from beneath her knee height cloak and waved it around, “this thing teleported us from our home planet way out here.”
He held out his home and Owl passed it to him. He flipped it around to examine it before he held it in front of his belt. The belt scanned it up and down and he spaced out before giving a nod, “This thing is old. A few thousand years to be exact. Encantta tech, they were almost wiped out in a war against the Fruelian Empire.” He waved the tablet then held it back out to her, “The Encantta sent those things out into the cosmos to find strong people. It was a hail mary attempt at winning.”
Owl took the tablet back, “So it's a show piece now?” He gave a sharp nod and Owl passed it to me, “Souvenir.”
I snorted and took it. I wasn't sure I wanted to keep it. I might throw it out the door on our first stop. “How far away from your home planet are you? Do you need help getting back?”
Owl read off a string of numbers I took for coordinates and Wannaniki did the equivalent of a cringe, “I am not sure that is a good idea. You might be better off just staying here.”
“Why?” I asked. If he was going to try to stop us I had my staff on hand. Beating up cops wasn't on my bucket list but I could easily add it.
He scratched his headfin, “its an area of what we call dead space. We try to keep people out of it because there's constant cosmic storms and stuff. It's been on the watch list for over ten thousand years. Last time a Guardian went out to scan it space was twisting weird and that was alarming. You guys have hurricanes on your planet?” Owl nodded at that. I hadn't seen one yet. “Its kind of like that.”
Owl shrugged, “We live in the eye of the storm then. I will reinforce the ship then. Worst comes to worst Suneya can stand on the nose of the ship.”
My head snapped to her and I gave her a look. I could do it, but it would not be fun or comfortable. He started pacing back and forth and paused when he came to a decision, “I am going with you.”
Owl shrugged, “we are making a few stops along the way. We have two passengers that we are going to drop off.” Owl pointed at the blue lady, "She's going the distance too.”
“Hello,” The blue lady said with a wave.
“Wait. Your belt is translating everything said in the area?” I asked.
Guardian Wannaniki nodded proudly, “The Solar Guardians are the protectors of the universe. Our belts are some of the most advanced tech around.”
I gave Owl a look and she didn't seem impressed, “Could I have been listening to everyone around us this whole time?”
Owl shook her head, “I had to write up a program to act as a translation matrix for my suit. His belt is actually rewriting the vibration in the air as we speak so we can understand each other. It's very elegant.”
He turned and his belt lit up. It shot out light to scan Owl, the light rolled over her helmet and got to her shoulders before it shut off and his glowing green belt turned dark. His suit vanished showing he was wearing just boxers and a tshirt. He and the two aliens looked really alarmed. His belt flickers back on and his suit formed around him. Owl coughed into her fist, "Don't do that.”
He gave a slow nod and looked down at his belt. It lit up and a voice spoke from it, “Guardian Wannaniki, your signal cut out there for a few seconds. What happened?”
“Its alright Sage Oonanoko. I ran into some people from inside quadrant sixty seven. I tried scanning one of them with the belt and it cut out.” Wannaniki answered.
“Hmm… Stay with them. If they are from inside that quadrant then you might be in a first contact situation. Are they headed to their home world?”
“After a few stops, yes.”
“Good. If you end up on their home planet we might end up swapping your quadrat patrols and if you commit yourself appropriately we might end up with you on permanent guardian duty of the planet.”
He pumped his fist and his mouth made a grin like look, it let me see that his teeth were one plate, “I will do so, Sage Oonanoko.”
The belt flickered back to its original shine and Wannaniki straightened himself, “Good news. I am staying with you out of duty now.”
Owl chuckled, “What is so good about being the Guardian of a planet?”
He crossed his arms, “It lets me get to know the people of your planet. I get to taste all your food and drinks, and experience your culture. Things like that.”
“How are Guardians selected?” I asked.
“Our belts tap into one of the cosmic forces of our universe. The belts don't select us really, the comic force does. The belts just let us use the cosmic force.” He answered.
That answered something, “Owl. How many cosmic forces are there and how strong are they?”
Her shoulders slumped.