Creature League 8

     Jagged rocks circled the ring like teeth in a gigantic maw. Come to think of it, Aaron wouldn't think twice about the Professor setting up a death match in an actual creature's mouth. A glowing river of lava flowed lazily around the arena, sputtering occasionally as a thick goopy bubble formed and burst on the surface, leaving the smell of sulfur and hot rock.  It cast an eerie and savage red light up into the stands illuminating a hundred expectant faces, all wearing different expressions. Many, mostly those of the creatures, looked grim or nervous as if they could sense that something was amiss. However, enough of the people in the stands had been roused by the Professor's speech and Oscid's music to work up a (hesitantly) roaring crowd.

     Aaron unzipped his new polyester jacket and started flapping at the hot air around him, doing little to stop the sweat breaking out on his brow. Kried stood at his feet, his jaws gaping in a cat's pant. Aaron wiped at his forehead with one of his new long sleeves and downed the rest of the contents of the plastic water bottle.

     "This is it, cat." Aaron said tossing the bottle across the lava river and into the stands. It bounced off a head and into the hands of a particularly ecstatic teenage girl who squealed with delight as it sailed into her fingers. Aaron sat down on the soft volcanic earth next to Kried and continued thoughtfully. "When I first met you, you were bitter and angry and you generally hated my guts. And now… Well you still hate my guts." He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "But I hope it's a little less than before."

     Kried growled doubtfully deep in his throat, but he flicked Aaron's arm with his tail and regarded him with weary eyes. His expression was solemn, still determined, but he had the subtle gaze of a broken and confused creature.

     A familiar wave of guilt washed over Aaron but he pushed it away. He knew Kried's situation wasn't his fault. The Professor… he was doing something weird with the creatures here. Tampering with marbles… it was all about the marbles. A chill ran down Aaron's back. It was all so unnatural. Then again there wasn't really anything natural about the island's creatures to begin with. Was he wrong to judge the Professor for what he had done? Didn't he have a right to deal with his own experiments the way he wanted? Then again, Kried wasn't from the island… Aaron caught a glimpse of the Professor himself, sitting with some of the judges in the stands. Feeble was sitting at his side looking both nervous and confused. Aaron narrowed his eyes in their direction. Just what are you up to, Professor?

     Aaron was jolted from his thoughts as Oscid buzzed by inches overhead dangling from a propeller-powered creature that seemed to jamming to something funky on his headphones. He swept over Mekuro's head on the opposite side of the ring and circled back around to the stands, shouting something into his microphone that made the crowd go crazy. Aaron glanced back at Kried who had begun to sheathe and unsheathe claws, preparing for battle.

     "Listen," Aaron said quickly as Oscid began to announce the beginning of the match. "I know we don't have much of a chance here. All of our fighting round wins were either horrible failures or lucky flukes."

     Kried growled a warning unappreciatively.

     Aaron climbed to his feet and dusted himself off. "Most likely we're going to get our tails handed to us by a blind guy and a six-year-old bird with a living growth on his rear, and we'll be the laughing stock of the island."

     Kried shot Aaron glare to end all glares and growled low in his throat, digging his claws into the earth.

     "But regardless of how badly we get beat today; no one is going to be able to say that we didn't give it our all." Kried's growl cut off abruptly as Aaron cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders. "I swear to you, cat, I'm going to give it my all in this fight. And if we lose, I'm fighting my way up those stands to ask the Professor personally just what the heck is going on here. I know chances are slim as it is, but I haven't got a shot in the dark if you don't work together with me."

     Kried stood for a moment, staring intently at Aaron, eyes narrow and discerning.

     Aaron held a hand out to Kried and looked him hard in the eye. "Are you with me?"

     Kried hesitated, even though at this point there wasn't much to lose, his griffkan pride was rearing its ugly head once more. Oscid said something over the microphone that finished with a long shouted syllable to begin the match. Kried reached out a paw and tapped Aaron's palm with it, nodding sharply once. He then sunk his paw into Aaron's hand hauling the rest of his body up along his arm, and kicked off his shoulder to propel himself into the air. He circled around, floating lazily through the air in the direction of their opponents.

     Aaron shrugged, smiling and shaking his head. There was no doubt that Kried was acting and feeling a little strange, but some things never change.




     Fenix tipped his head to the side as Kried slowly flapped in their direction. "Looks like the griffkan is coming this way," he chirped softly to Mekuro, who stood leaning on his staff nonchalantly. "Do you want to fight him or should-"

     Calcifer swung their body around and interjected, his flame-engulfed body flaring up eagerly. "We got 'im! He's mine!"

     Fenix looked inquiringly to Mekuro who let out a ghost of a laugh. Regardless of what Calcifer said behind closed doors some things never changed. "Alright then," he smiled. "I guess I'll take Aaron then."

     Kried's lazy circle suddenly turned into a steep dive in Mekuro's direction. But just before he could sink his claws into the blind boy's shoulders Fenix turned in a backward flip and Calicifer's forehead connected with Kried's with a resounding crack that echoed through the stands.

     Kried was sent spinning away, but his wings spread and caught the air again before he could hit the ground. Hovering indignantly, he spat in Calcifer's direction, who lifted his skeletal chin haughtily and taunted, "Yeah, come and get it kitty." So he did.

     Kried skimmed the ground, propelling himself forward with both wings and legs. Calcifer and Fenix braced themselves for the impact, however instead of pushing off the ground and attacking them like they expected, Kried darted right under them. Fenix followed his direction, tumbling head over nonexistent heels and finally lost sight of him. Hanging upside down mid-hover he scanned the arena and queried, "Where did he go?"

     Kried had actually taken to the air again, and was using the momentum he had gained to complete a large loop over his opponent's position. Now being the one who was right side up, Calcifer was the one who caught sight of Kried first. Not having time to call out a warning, he flipped Fenix's body over so that he would take the brunt of the blow, knowing he could take a physical attack better than his younger, naïve friend.

     As they impacted once more, the real fight began. Kried spat and clawed with all four appendages, his wings being used as weapons as much as they were used to keep him in the air. Fenix did his best to contribute, but Kried was targeting him relentlessly. However Calcifer was able to block and counter most every attack that Kried could throw at them. In the end though, neither side was really getting anywhere in the fight.

     Meanwhile, with the mass of claws, fur, fire, and feathers spiral above, the two teenage boys advanced slowly on one another, neither too eager to start a full out grapple like their companions. Both had a dart gun strapped to their belts, but they were both lack to draw them. Mekuro gripped his staff and circled, scraping his feet along the ground to feel where he was going, his head cocked to one side for listening. Aaron flapped his nylon jacket uneasily, feeling hot and feverish under its stifling fabric.

     Most was quiet except for the yowling and cursing erupting from the brawl above and a dull roar from the crowd in the stands. Finally, Aaron reached slowly for the dart gun in his holster. Mekuro, reacted calmly, clearly ready to dodge if need be. However Aaron wasn't sure how Mekuro could do that if he couldn't even see it coming. Aaron could see and he was pretty sure he couldn't dodge it himself.

     But instead of aiming and firing, Aaron unloaded the dart gun and dropped the empty weapon on the ground. Rattling the ten or so darts in his hand he said, "Is it alright with you if we use hand to hand rather than guns?"

     Mekuro's polite smile remained but his expression betrayed some mild irritation. He inclined his head toward Aaron's voice and said, "Don't go easy on me because I'm blind. I don't like to be accommodated."

     "Heaven forbid," Aaron responded. "It's not so much for your blindness as it is for my conscience. If anything, you're accommodating me."

     Mekuro thought about it. After a moment he laughed and said, "That's actually exactly the way it is. Alright then, I'll accommodate." He proceeded to empty his dart gun somewhat clumsily. Clearly, he was unfamiliar with weapons such as these. Finally he had a handful of darts himself. "A dart apiece with no guns, right?"

     Aaron plucked a dart carefully from his pile and discarded the rest, most of which rolled into lava river not far from where he was standing. He placed it in his fist and got a feel for how he could jab with it. "Deal," he agreed. "I guess we should actually fight or something then." He flashed Mekuro a metal-laced grin.

     "If you insist," he replied, and began walking calmly and steadily in Aaron's direction. He advanced with such a calm confidence that it made the hairs on the back of Aaron's neck stand up. He wondered whether or he could slip out of his path without Mekuro hearing, but he didn't have the time to consider because as soon as he was within striking distance Aaron had to duck under wide sweep of the staff, which didn't touch him, but brushed the bangs on his forehead.

     Aaron panicked and nearly sidestepped straight into the lava pit, but Mekuro's hand shot out and snagged his jacket collar. For a terrifying moment, Aaron hovered over the pit with heat roiling up onto his back like the breath of a dragon. Then the white-haired boy pulled him away and sent him sprawling at a safe distance into the volcanic dirt, which now felt cool compared to the dip in the hot tub he nearly took. Before he could recover, he felt Mekuro's staff lay across his shoulders and the boy's full weight trying to pin him down. Thinking quickly, he tucked and managed to flip Mekuro onto the ground and roll over the top of him. Both boys were back on their feet in a wink. Aaron now realized he still had the dart clenched in his fist, and attempted to take the offensive. But every time he jumped in for a jab Mekuro was able to dodge or block and most of the time counter with a simple twist or flick of his staff. Aaron hadn't counted on Mekuro being so good at this kind of thing, his secret plan would never work at this rate.

     Finally, Aaron fell back and held still. He didn't even dare to breathe. Mekuro stood ready for another attack. After a moment or two passed, he tipped his head this way and that, trying to locate Aaron's position. Aaron was nearly dying now, he really needed to take a breath, especially after the workout he just had. But somehow he managed to hold it long enough for Mekuro to lose focus. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. In one smooth motion, he slipped off his jacket and gasped for air.

     Mekuro immediately brought his staff down strongly on top of the location of the noise, but was surprised to have it muffled in fabric rather than striking something hard like Aaron's head or the ground. Aaron tried to wrap his jacket around Mekuro's staff and jerk it away but Mekuro was faster. The staff was pulled away swiftly and came back twice as fast. Aaron's hand shot out, gloved in flame, and snatched the end of the staff before it was jerked out of his grasp again.

     As Mekuro brought it back, he heard the familiar crackle of fire. Blind eyes widening, he jammed the flaming end of the staff into ground in an attempt to put it out. It was a brief, but opportune distraction. Suddenly Mekuro found himself with his arms pinned to his sides and his body wrapped in an oversized nylon jacket as Aaron scooped him off his feet in a bear hug. The jacket thoroughly cocooned Mekuro's torso and Aaron's glowing hands melted the plastic fabric's sleeves to its sides. When the jacket was completely sealed, Aaron kicked Mekuro's staff a safe distance away and seated him comfortably on the ground and said, "Don't move."

     At that moment Aaron was aware of a strange pricking feeling in his upper shoulder, close to his neck. He brushed at it and an empty dart fell to his feet. He gaped at it, then at Mekuro who shrugged sheepishly. A numbness started to spread down Aaron's arm, it wouldn't be long before- Suddenly, Kried sailed over Aaron's head still tangled in battle with Fenix and Calcifer. Without thinking, Aaron jumped up as they passed and latch onto Calcifer's skull with both hands ignited.

     That broke up the fight instantly. All three of them sprawled out and crash landed in different parts of the ring. Aaron landed face-down in the dirt, when he tried to push himself to his feet, his arm gave out and he dropped back onto his chest. The paralyzing toxins from the dart were getting their job done fast. Before long, Aaron could only just barely wiggle his fingers and toes. He hated to admit it, but he was down for the count. Oddly enough, he didn't mind as much as he would have before. For once, he didn't feel guilty or stupid for losing. Besides, the game wasn't over yet. Kried was still on his feet… barely.

     A few paces away Kried was shaking himself, sparing a moment to lick his ruffled chest fur. He was looking ragged, with patches of fur missing and swelling cheek that closed one eye half way. Fenix and Calcifer hadn't fared much better. The crack in Calcifer's head seemed to have lengthened a bit, but Fenix was doing much worse. His flank was scored with numerous claw marks and he had feathers missing all over his body. He was determined not to give up, but he seemed grateful for the short break.

     Kried spit a red feather out of his mouth and began to limp slowly toward Fenix and Calcifer, wings dragging in pure exhaustion. Before he could reach them however, a staff stamped down before him resolutely, barring his path. Kried's eyes traced the staff up to its owner. There Mekuro stood, his mouth pulled up in a polite smile and his eyebrows knit together sternly.

     Aaron groaned scattering some dirt away from his mouth with his breath. Apparently melted nylon doesn't hold very long if it doesn't have time to set.

     Kried growled wearily at his new contender, his neck fur bristling as if to say, really? He unsheathed his claws and crouched low, readying himself to spring. "Don't do it, Kried!" Aaron half mumbled into the dirt. "It's not worth it!"

     Kried never was one to listen, especially not to Aaron. He pounced, the staff swung. The expected flash came along with the familiar clink of a marble dropping to the ground. The green orb plunked into the dust and rolled slowly. The stunned silence that followed was soon broken by an eruption from the stands. People jumped and shouted, bets were begrudgingly paid, and everyone generally reacted ecstatically. Everyone that is, except for the Professor, who remained in his seat and continued to watch quietly.

     Oscid and Evoorg descended on Mekuro and his friends, with Oscid practically singing their praises over the speakers as he announced their victory. Everyone seemed excited, that is until they heard the scream.





     Mekuro noticed it first. It started off low, and nearly inaudible under the noise that the crowd was making. But it grew louder and louder until no ear went without hearing that horrible screech that sent shivers down the spine like icy claws.

     The cheering died down, and the source became evident. Kried's marble had rolled into the river. His yowl came in unearthly staccato as he was constantly resummoned by the heat he couldn't survive. Aaron struggled on the ground, still paralyzed, his eyes wide in terror, flames dancing helplessly across his twitching fingertips as he screamed, "Someone help him!"

     Almost instantly Fenix took flight and dove into the pit, nearly dropping into the lava himself. He managed to catch the thermals with his weary wings as Calcifer snatched the miserable creature out of the scalding river of melted rock with his beak. They placed him carefully in the center of the ring, where he continued to revert from marble to creature and back in a vicious cycle. Eventually it started to slow as the heat dispersed from his body. As he changed, one could see that as a creature he seemed unscathed, but his glass marble was melted, deformed and glowing with heat. Eventually, he settled on his creature form and didn't return to his marble. He didn't open his eyes either.

     Mekuro listened to all these occurrences in horror. Fenix floated beside him, grasping at his sleeve with his delicate claws. Suddenly the voice of the Professor next to him made him jump, "He's gone and melted his marble. What a turn of luck…"

     "What do you mean?" Mekuro asked warily.

     The Professor sighed, a long breath pushed out through his nose. "Well we're in a predicament here. He can't revert back to his marble so we can't access it to fix it, and if he expires in the state he's in he'll be gone for good."

     From the ground a few paces away, paramedics were injecting an antidote into Aaron's neck. He called across to the Professor, "Why would he? He looks fine. He's fine! Look at him!"

     The Professor rolled his eyes, "Well unfortunately, Mr. Cooper the griffkan's soul is attached to the marble. And now the marble is melted, and while his body may be fine, his soul- his very essence is still stuck in there. So no marble, no Kried. Now if we found some way to help his soul escape the marble…"

     Mekuro immediately stepped forward and knelt next to the creature. This close he could hear the ragged and raspy breath being drawn slowly into the griffkan's throat. He knew he could do this. If there was any good left in this poor creature, he would be able to do this. He reached out his hand to rest on Kried's jeweled forehead.

     "No. Stop. Don't." the Professor said unconvincingly behind him.

     Mekuro reached out with his mind and brushed against the faint but still living mind buried deep within the creature. He focused on entering, on discovering, a mental search and rescue. Let me hear you. And then he was in another place.




     Kried was not himself, he didn't feel like himself. Everything that he had been striving for felt pointless now. His mind was different, his feelings were different, even his body. He no longer crouched on four legs as a cat. But he stood upright on two, like a man. Further inspection of his hands and arms revealed that he was a man. Long locks of black hair kept getting in his face, as he reached up brush them away with his human fingers (so strange!) he realized he still had his forejewel.  He followed two branches of metallic ridges with his fingers that trailed up from either side of the jewel past his hairline and suddenly jutted away from the top of his head into two antennae that swooped backward, away from his face.

     "This is your true form."

     Kried spun to face the speaker. A boy, short with white hair, very young, with dark grey wise eyes. Kried blinked questioningly at him. The boy, perhaps about eight years of age approached and pointed into some shadowy clouds. "I can see your memories. They're behind those clouds, a little hard to see through but not impossible."

     Kried wondered if his human mouth could form human words. He opened it and tried to form some and found that he was mute. He gave up on that peered into the 'memory clouds'. They shifted and tossed as always, but he couldn't discern anything of worth.

     The boy tipped his head and continued to stare into them. "I see… you, the way you are right now. A women like you, all dressed in white. There's a tall man with a big beard wearing red and gold. Also, deeper in the shadows, there's another man, shorter than the other one… wearing black. It sounds like they're… accusing you of something."

     Kried nodded slowly, this seemed familiar. Gradually, memories began to trickle back into his mind like melting stream in thaw. He nodded feverishly at the boy to continue, the boy told him about where he had come from, and why he was here. Everything was becoming much clearer. But just as he felt he was learning all that he could hope for, the boy stopped.

     Kried waited patiently for him to continue. But the boy remained silent. "We can't stay here, Kried," the boy murmured.

     Why not? Everything that he was missing was here!

     "We have to escape this place. If we don't the light will go out and we'll be stuck forever with nothing." The boy reached his hand out to Kried and waited for him to take it without even giving him a glance.

      Kried still wasn't quite sure what to do, why would he want to leave? Things were finally starting to make sense…

     Still, he had just as much reason to trust this small boy as anything else. Hesitantly, he took his hand. The world began to shatter around them.




     "What's happening?" Aaron pushed his way through the crowd of officials and creatures that had started to gather around Kried and Mekuro. Fenix sat in Mekuro's lap and looked worriedly at his face. Closer inspection told the reason why. While his pale blind eyes were always unsettling, now they were just plain creepy. They pupiless, unblinking, and completely green.

     Aaron grabbed the Professor's arm and practically shouted in his ear, "What's he doing? What's going on? Why did you tell him not to do whatever he's doing?"


     The Professor calmly pushed Aaron away and straightened his clothes in a dignified manner, which really ticked Aaron off. "Patience, Cooper. Mekuro has ventured into the mind of the griffkan. Mekuro is trying to detach said griffkan from his marble, and I told him not to do it because he's placing himself in great danger."

     "Danger? What kind of danger?!" Aaron fumed.

     The Professor hefted an exasperated sigh, one that Aaron never imagined that he'd hear the Professor heft before. This wasn't like him at all… "Well, Cooper, even if he can detach him from the marble, it's very possible that the griffkan won't settle for his old inferior body, and attempt to take the younger, more fit body of the blind boy."

     Aaron was flabbergasted, that actually sounded a lot like something Kried would do. "I… He… Why didn't you stop him?! How could you let this happen?!"

     "Well I didn't see you doing anything."

     "I was paralyzed you idiot!" Aaron's face flushed red.

     The Professor shrugged, "Not my problem. Ah well, if this doesn't turn out well then at least we got a good experiment out of the deal."

     "Experiment?!" Aaron's hands reached out of their own accord and snagged the Professor's collar. Aaron shook it as he screamed in the Professor's face. "This is just another experiment to you ?!" Aaron was so infuriated he didn't notice that his hands had ignited with a white hot flame and was now searing into the Professor. The Professor's expression changed into a look of shock and horror that Aaron would never forget. Immediately he extinguished his hands and jumped back, but the damage had been done.

     A bright flash engulfed the whole group. And a grey marble clinked to the earth.

     Aaron's jaw hit the floor. Feeble squeezed his fat little body between the tightly clustered legs of the group surrounding them all. And scampered up to scoop up the marble. "So this is what you were up to, Professor, you dog!" He ran his tiny claws over countless grooves that had been etched into marble's grey surface. If Kried's marble had been tampered with, then the Professor had mutilated this one, and this was the one that he had bound himself to.

     Jenn parted the crowd and Feeble handed it gingerly to her. She held it up to the light and examined it. "This explains why the Professor's been acting so odd lately…" Suddenly she broke into a smile. "Aaron, you were right! Dante hasn't gone bad after all! I'll get this to lab right away. One of those techies down there has to know some way to reverse this."

     A cough from Mekuro drew all heads back to him. He blinked, and his eyes were back to normal. Fenix pounced on him shouting his excitement.

     Aaron knelt next to Mekuro once more, "Are you alright? What happened? How's Kried?"

     Mekuro glanced over where Kried used to lie. An empty marble, dull and lifeless lay where Kried used to be. Aaron's heart fell. But out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of purple. Something soft rubbed against his side. Aaron looked down to find a purple cat, wingless and simple, rubbing his arm possessively as cats do and purring softly.