Qualin
I almost laughed when I heard through the link that Shooter had started something. Minor had shared a few stories and this seemed to be in character. Minor seemed almost amused, too, but only for a second.
"Something's wrong. His mind is closed off from ours. He's not responding." Concern colored his tone and he hastily grabbed my hand and pulled me forward into the cold, dark, space between. We reemerged in the middle of a battle.
Nehwalians were fighting Ratarans. shots were being fired. At least one or two Nehwalians were pyrokinetic. flame and blasts of fire seemed to erupt from nowhere. Some Ratarans seemed to be fighting or fleeing nothing. The energy threads wrapped around them seemed to be targeting their senses, so I guessed at least one of the Nehwalians could create illusions or something.
That was one of the things I didn't like about Nehwalians. Their specialized abilities were so varied, it was hard to know what any one of them was capable of doing.
A roar that made my teeth rattle in my skull rose above the cacophony of the battle. Shooter threw a guard across the courtyard and caused another to crumble to the ground, clutching his head in terror or agony, I couldn't tell which.
"Snap out of it!" Galaxy shouted grabbing Shooter by the horns and trying to force him to look at his face. The dragon seemed unfazed by his brother, and much more like a wild animal.
Minor leapt on his back, wrapping his legs under his wing joints and attempting to put him in a head lock.
"GET OFF!" He bellowed through the link. My instinct was to sever the connection, and almost reflexively reached up and grabbed the thin thread that bound us and snapped it. there was a small electrical crackle that made me jump back a few feet. Shooter seemed unfazed, but at least he wasn't shattering my brain anymore. Minor and the others looked a bit pained, but seemed to still be trying to reach him through the connection.
"Help!" A woman's voice cried out. I turned just in time to see a Nehwalian woman being pulled by the back of her hair, a Rataran guard holding a gun to her throat. He was shouting at her but there wasn't time to hear what he was trying to say before Shooter appeared out of thin air to crash into his back, biting into his shoulder with his jaws, as his claws dug into each of the man's arms, pulling them away from the woman.
She dropped to the ground and Shooter tossed the man like a rag doll. "Stop them!" The woman pointed to a group of guards that were rushing in with heavier looking artillery. But what interested me, was how her words seemed to weave the threads of energy around and through Shooter. And he immediately obeyed her command, teleporting to the middle of the incoming group, tearing apart their weapons and knocking them all to the ground to a swift series is attacks.
Galaxy also clearly realized the connection to the woman. He suddenly lifted her from the ground by her shirt and half growled, half shouted in her face, "Whatever you're doing to him, stop it!"
She screamed and reached her hand towards Shooter and he was instantly by her side. Galaxy had to drop her in order to stop his brother from biting his throat.
'Can't we do something?' Minor asked through our link. 'Brake her hold on him?'
'Never done it before, might hurt them.' I moved into position, jumping into the space between Shooter and the woman. I felt Minor's approval and gathered all the threads connecting the two and snapped them. The release of energy caused a decent explosion that sent us all flying backwards a few feet. The woman scrambled away from me after I nearly crashed into her.
But the strange energy around Shooter was gone.
"Are you yourself?" Galaxy asked his brother.
'I can't explain right now, but I'm fine.' Shooter answered. I saw and felt the link between us return, but at least it was more calm.
'She was controlling you. Guard your mind in case she tries again!' Stardust called. She and Major had been mostly focused on the battle to keep the others from being shot. Galaxy still had a stream of blood running down his face but didn't seem bothered.
'I'm fine. I'll explain later.' Shooter got to his feet and looked ready to resume the fight.
"Help us get out of here!" The woman called, her hand outstretched towards Shooter. I saw the energy around her instantly rush towards him and tried to block it. It looked like I succeeded.
However, I heard the rush of wings and Shooter made a quick lap, surrounding the Nehwalians and corralling them into a tighter cluster. Then he landed in front of the woman and wrapped his wings around the group.
"Shooter, don't you dare!"
Galaxy's words were lost in a rush of wind as the group vanished.
***
Minor
Shooter just left. That wasn't exactly unusual for him, but not like this. I saw Qualin break the threads that seemed to be tethering Shooter to the woman who kept giving him commands. I felt the interference to our link break and it felt like Shooter was calmer and in his right mind again.
But he still left. He disobeyed Galaxy. Again, not unusual, but not in the middle of a battle. He started this fight and left us to clean it up.
'You jerk!' Stardust shouted across the link, but Shooter seemed cut off from it again.
'We'll deal with him later.' Galaxy called to all of us. His tone was calm, but darkly colored with a quiet rage. Shooter was definitely in trouble. So was the woman who was controlling him. 'But first we need to deal with this.' A low growl accompanied his words. 'Gather all the guards, anyone who fights, bring right here. Destroy their weapons. Knock them out if they wont submit, but don't kill anyone. Go.'
Grabbing Qualin's hand, I led him to the far side of the courtyard. There were buildings there people were using as cover to fire at us from a distance. Stardust and Major had been shielding us from the shots while we focused on Shooter, but now it was time to wrap things up.
We didn't usually go for complete take overs if we could avoid it. But Galaxy was pissed and it didn't seem like these people were going to stop attacking. They did seem to be a largely military compound, though there were a few groups of civilians, or at least non combatants who surrendered easily.
Our main objective was to destroy the weapons. They hurt, and a few hits could probably knock us out, but with our healing abilities, and ability to psychically shield most of the attacks, they were mostly a nuisance. The real benefit of taking them out, was it showed the people wielding them how powerless they were against us.
A few men tried to fight hand to hand, but even Qualin could take them out with ease. I did note that these men were more solid than average, with higher bone density than many humanoids we encounter, but nothing extraordinary.
It didn't take long at all before we had gathered all the people, at least the ones that weren't being held in cells, in the courtyard.
"Who are you people?!? Do you have any idea what you're doing?" An older man shouted as I dropped him unceremoniously at Galaxy's feet. Qualin had rightly guessed where the commander in charge of the outpost would be hauled up. He had sent out a distress signal and reinforcements were on the way, but were likely hours away.
"If you want to go to war with the Rataran Empire--"
"We're not interested in your empire, currently." Galaxy answered nonchalantly. "If you cooperate, no one else will be harmed. I've already made sure any serious injuries were taken care of. We just have some business to attend to. Things got out of hand, this is the easiest way to resolve it."
"These are the last of them not in cells." Major said as he appeared in the courtyard and dropped a few more men to scramble away to huddle next to the others.
"Ok." Galaxy turned back to the man I brought. "So, you're the one in charge here?"
"Yes, and I recognize a LaMihinnian--"
Galaxy raised his hand and pressed his intimidating aura against the man's mind and he fell silent.
'We're not supposed to implicate LaMihinnia.' I commented.
'I know.' Galaxy replied, unfazed. He then transformed into a Rataran. The man's eyes widened at the sight of his own species, then Galaxy transformed again, hybridizing with his dragon form. Everyone was staring at him in stunned and terrified silence. "We're not from any kingdom you know. And we're here on a personal matter, not a political one."
He knelt in front of the man. "Some one tried to kidnap a friend of ours. A kid. The trail led us to this moon and this is the only settlement we've found."
"I don't know anything about that!" The man tried to look confident and defiant but his fear was clear. Understandably. Galaxy's eyes bore into his, his mind pressing deeper, searching the man's thoughts and memories. I could feel him trying to resist, but to no avail. His whole life was an open book, but Galaxy only dug around enough to get what he needed to know.
"You're lying. It was all a ruse. You were trying to frame the Nehwalians in hopes of turning LaMihinnia against them, at least to sour the relationship enough that they wouldn't help in their rebellion." Galaxy scoffed and stood. "How unoriginal. You really should have gotten that tech to block your mind like the ones sent to kidnap Jaria. But you thought you were removed enough to not need it. They were supposed to plant evidence on a Nehwalian ship and needed to be protected against any of them with mind reading or controlling abilities. You guys never counted on our family getting involved."
"That's why they didn't bother forcing that crap into my head. I wasn't going to make it to that part of the plan, so they just made sure I didn't know enough if I was caught and interrogated on LaMihinnia."
"Seems like it." Galaxy scoffed again.
"So that's it? We solved it?" Major asked, looking excited.
"Well, technically, it wasn't this guy's idea. It came from higher up. He's just the one they'll pin it on if the conspiracy comes out. We might as well find the one who came up with the plan, and the one who gave the order to go through with it."
"What about the people being held here?" I asked. I knew the woman who controlled Shooter wasn't exactly our favorite person at the moment, but she was a slave that was just desperate and scared. There were others like that being held here.
"Go get them. These idiots got us involved when they tried to take our friend. And I got the impression, they didn't necessarily intend for Jarai to survive." He cut his eyes back to the commanding officer. Threads of energy wrapped around the man pressing him into the ground. I was pretty sure Galaxy didn't even mean for it to happen, but the weight of his anger was heavy.
"T-that w-wasn't...I mean, it was a possibility, but it wasn't--"
I knelt beside him, placing a hand in his shoulder with a low growl. He coward further but probably didn't realize I was actually shielding him the increasing pressure threatening to crush him. "Just stop talking." I whispered in a low, threatening voice. He swallowed hard and wiped cold sweat from his brow.
My intervention was enough to break Galaxy's bloodlust; he turned and stepped away from the man. "I'll keep watch over them, go get the ones being held and offer them aide. We'll evacuate everyone to a safe place then continue our mission."
We all nodded and went to search the various buildings for prisoners.