Crossoverfan, it's not a magical lasso, it's a construct of my own energy, that's the first "element" that any Realm Walker can master (Shadow and me are the only living Realm Walker Elements Masters). And it's established that Estelore is more powerful than me -- but she's busy at the moment, being targeted by Red Lanterns. Something she would not take lightly. Perhaps she's also meeting Mogo. And what do you mean "multiversal warpers"? Is it Malice? She's the same species as me, in fact she's tangoed with my grandfather, Sage.
Sorry, perhaps I took that comment a little too personally. Shortish chapter. This may be my weakest book.
CHAPTER TWENTY:
Tangoing with the Predator
Cloak was mentally and physically preparing himself for the final entity, and the prospectively most dangerous. "Love conquers all" and all that jazz. The Predator* . . . Cloak knew this would be far more difficult than anything else. Not only his part, but the RAFians never had any contact with the Star Sapphires. He had no idea how'd they react to a request for assistance.
But first things first, he had to restrain the Predator. He was sure the thing would be bigger than he was. But he had to be confident that he could handle it. Then they saw it heading to Zamaron. Cloak was hesitant, as he was sure of an attack from the Star Sapphires. But they seemed far more concerned with the presence of the Predator. Talk about presence of mind.
Cloak dropped out of the ship and landed on the surface of Zamaron, but it was a rather rough landing. He noticed some scarring on the ground, and realized he was bleeding ichor. It was a minor wound, but he made a makeshift bandage from the bottom of his cloak, and proceeded to fire an energy whip construct again in an attempt to restrain the Predator.
Of course, that alerted the preoccupied Star Sapphires to the RAFian presence. A few turned their rings on him and Yarin's ship, which greatly annoyed the Realm Walker.
"Hey! We're on your side!!" he shouted. He wanted to call them a very impolite name, but he decided against it. It was here that the Predator's violent thrashing snapped the energy whip Cloak was using. He uttered a Realm Walker curse which sounded like a simple snarl to the Dwellers. The Star Sapphire rings began to glow.
"Oh, great. Like we don't have more PRESSING PROBLEMS?!" Parker roared from the ship's external speakers.
One Star Sapphire faltered, looked at the ship and blushed. Looked like she was smitten by the sound of Parker's voice . . . which just made her all the more powerful. Perfect.
"HOLD UP!!" both Cloak and everyone on the ship shouted at the same time.
The Star Sapphires didn't seem too keen to listen, but relented at a signal from someone who could only be a queen, who appeared to be human. But Cloak was no expert at these things, and shouldn't assume. The Star Sapphires went back to fighting it, some taking Cloak's energy lasso idea, some just blasting it. It seemed like it was just getting annoyed.
"What do you want here?"
"To imprison the Predator, over there."
"How do you know of it?"
"You think this is the only realm that has an Entity of Love?"
". . . Touche. I guess." she replied coldly. "You said you wanted to imprison the beast. Where?"
"Your Central Battery, or similar."
"That's impossible."
"We've done it six times already. For the other emotional entities."
"What you say . . . it cannot be done."
"Humor me."
Silence, where only the sounds of the Star Sapphire rings being used was heard.
"Fine. How do you propose we do this, strange one?"
"Realm Walker, please." Cloak said, preferring not to give her his chosen name. "And all you need to do is recite your oath. Then your Star Sapphires and I can throw it in."
"Preposterous."
"It's worked six times before."
"It's ludicrous!"
"What have you got to lose?"
She didn't have an answer to that. She took a sharp inhalation, and a slow, aggravated exhalation. "FINE. Get that blasted this over here."
Cloak shut his eyes, focused on his breathing, and accessed the little power he saved up. Which wasn't much, now he thought about it. He fired the energy whip again, and the Star Sapphires did the same. Even Yarin's ship fired an energy whip that lassoed it as well.
"Why didn't you do that before?" Dino demanded of Yarin.
"I didn't realize it at the time."
"Nice," Cornson said, rolling his eyes.
All together, they forced the strongest entity down to the battery. The queen Star Sapphire began to recite the oath:
"For hearts long lost and full of fright,
For those alone in blackest night,
Accept our ring and join our fight,
Love conquers all -- with violet light!"
With that, despite all of its vicious thrashing and brutish struggling, the Predator was sucked in. All the Star Sapphire rings glowed brillantly for a few minutes. They looked at the RAFians, who disembarked from the ship. Then they turned their backs and walked away.
"Some gratitude, for you," Parker grumbled. And that same Star Sapphire looked back at him and smiled. Parker's face was hidden, but his body language said quite clearly he was blushing. Especially after the Star Sapphire blew him a kiss.
"Ooooh, Parker's got a girlfriend!" Sakki teased in a singsongy voice.
"Shut up," Parker said in a strangled voice.
But at this point, Cloak collapsed into an exhausted heap.
"Don't worry, I got him," Dino said, using her jaws to daintly lift him up and took him back to the ship.
Parker, however, looked back at that one Star Sapphire. It was her . . . the girl that caused the friction between him and General Luis Cannon. . . . Then he boarded with the others and headed home, to RAF.
---
*This is the Predator.
