Chapter 6 - The Lady and the Cowboy

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 August 14th, 19:45 PST

It's another night in the Nevada desert, Area 51 still looks heavily patrolled and militarized, as every corner and part of the base has any sort of patrol looking for anything suspicious. A Human guard, a Zlocan Knight, a drone, anything capable of detecting the unusual, while spaceships hover around the area for the same purpose as the troops on the ground. A hover ship lands on the helipad while the escorts disperse, their protection no longer needed for now. The four inquisitors came out of the hover ship, looking all injured and dirty, coming from the aftermath of their first battle against the Earth Warriors. On the entrance a person is present. Caucasian as he can get, with a rugged beard and bald. One with a supposed withered diploma as he holds a rusty police badge on his trench-coat.

Jason Garreth, a former cop from New Mexico is now part of something much worse. Not to mention, his own twisted view of Humanity.

"I guess your faces and dirt means that you failed?" He asks.

"Why of course Mr. Genius! We could have the chance to get the information but these idiots came in and ruined everything!" Yamja replies as she swipes most of the dirt in her face in frustration.

"What kind of idiots do you mean?"

"Ones that are worth the fight, Jason. Not to mention, it seems that the dark-skinned soldier has gathered unexpected allies in his fight against us. Not bad I presume," Raven says.

"Jackson, you mean? Ah, that Negro will later understand that we are people that shouldn't be messed with." Jason replies as he smirks at the revelation.

"Now now, no time to rush, we must heal ourselves for tomorrow. Not to mention, a good addition to this squadron of the Inquisition, and we need you, Jason."

"Pretty much! You must help us to get vengeance against these idiots for defeating us!" Dakrin said.

"Patience Dak, you just met them recently and yet you look like shit now."

"Enough talk, our Kujar is waiting for us," Raven says.

They enter the building, where they walk until they settle into a huge computer room that is highly lit, with some mix of concrete and metal in every wall or ceiling. They are full of screens containing images of Zlocu activities across the universe, including Earth. Things like patrols on the forests, border guards and such. There is a lot chattering across the room, from operators communicating with their spies or some people having a chit-chat.

"Did you see that dumb attempt of combat from a lowly Human?" a Knight asks.

"Yes, never thought something so pitiful would-Lord Raven!" The presence of Raven alone is enough to gather the attention of most people present in the room. As one then approaches him while kneeling and holding both hands near their chest.

"The Kujar is waiting for you, sire," the kneeling Zlocan knight says.

"Good, onscreen," Raven says.

One of the screens starts to show a face that wears a grey mask with red lines, with a decorative armor worthy of a general who is a veteran of many wars, with red and black lines all over it. Not to mention, a gigantic, yellow-shaded sword in his right hand while holding a staff in his left hand. He is none other than Malgan itself, the one responsible for this dreary war.

"Is everything under control, Head Commandant Raven? Is Earth showing its worth or are they still limping as they are?" Malgan asks.

"No. On our verge of achieving victory, The Guardians started to intervene in our conquest. Earth and the remaining planets regained their equipment to stand a chance against you. Maybe you should have reconsidered your choices in who you should pick a bone with before spilling more blood."

" Such pretentious nonsense. I thought that the Guardians have gone dormant for a millennia because they thought they no longer needed all living beings, right after the great unification of the Galaxy. They may have written the rules but I'm gonna write new ones which they won't deny!"

"You tread too much. As you know, you're simply a being in charge, but not a true god. Not even the strongest can't transform into gods with simple power," Jeanette replies.

Yamja pinches her check as she leans closer to the monitor with a wide smile on her face. Jeanette, has no reaction to it so far.

"Ohhhh, please forgive her for that rude answer daddy, she doesn't know the true potential of your rule, you will soon become a god to everyone!" Yamja says as some sparks ignite from her hand. Jeanette steps away from it.

"Well said my little success, but remember, if you want to prove your worth to be my successor, you must prove your skills to all weaklings you encounter, especially those pitiful Humans with not even a single shred of a spine. Not unlike those of the Southern quadrant."

"Yes, oh my goodest daddy!" Jeanette rolls her eyes as Darkin chuckles from this.

"Now where was I? Ah yes. Raven, you have to make sure that we recruit more Humans in the inquisition if we need to defeat the 'traitors.' we must drain their numbers to ours."

"Right now, we have a few thousand inquisitors in our command, isn't that enough?" he asks.

"Not quite! In fact, we need to reach at least thousands more if we need enough reserves for the next battles. Even if we gather all the volunteers coming up right after their nations surrendered, treason could run high."

"Those type of people only hold loyalty to themselves. Perhaps a little bit of "discipline" would teach those pitiful Humans to know how to truly serve us and only us."

"Your point is strong, Commadant. But right now, we need to make sure the CP forces come to halt in our conquest. Once done, our message will be as clear as the stars, that even with the intervention of the Guardians, only the might of the strongest prevails!"

"Those are very strong words to hear Kujar.  However, there is an obstacle in our path, a group called the Earth Warriors." Malgan then frowns as he stares deeply into Raven. Perhaps as deep to whatever soul he has remaining.

"Give me a reason why. Do not make me regret my decision to put you in charge."

"They were initially nobodies, but now they are warriors that can match us, maybe they gained their powers from the Guardians. Their ideology of uniting survived Humans trapped in the occupied zones may endanger our task," Raven replies, not flinching from any words uttered by the Kujar himself.

"Is that so? Then either they will join us or die. Alas, it's too early to think about it. We can talk later Raven. Until next time and good luck my little Y. Only you can make sure our vision is complete."

"Understood."

The screen later turns black, Raven turns around to see the group. Jeanette is expressionless but Darkin is seen fidgeting with his fingers as he looks away from Raven. Yamja pinches him in the cheek for it.

"Scaredy cat, are you?" Yamja taunts.

"No! It's just...he's too big." Jason looks at the group again, this time with a puzzled look on his face.

"Are you certain about the use we can be for your precious Empire?" Jason asks.

Even the tiniest of microscopic being know that your kind is only bent on killing just to survive. You won't care if the others unworthy of their goals will perish in their paths. These warriors will soon find out how fruitless it means fighting together," Raven says.

"But what are we-"

"Just you know, the strongest will stay alive and rule the planet as long you leave us alone. No one should ever dare to cross the Zlocu and no one will." Raven interrupts Jason.

The statement makes Jeanette frown a bit as she turns away from them while looking into a window outside. Patrols in the ground and so forth.

My life is in line for this...everything I do is for a good paycheck. No, I must not lose myself.

"With that said, let us focus on what we need to do at hand now. We need to ensure that the recruits serve us well, no weakness, no cowardice. That's the way of the Inquisitors."

August 15th, 11:59 PST

But as the executioner continued her ordeal, something much more is felt among the cops. Two young policemen blink rapidly while breathing deeply as their deaths await, while the elderly female slowly turns away to another side and closes her eyes. For a cop, in a reforming nation, it's their duty to protect the common citizen, to deliver justice for those who deserve it and punish the ones who endanger any life in the town. That's supposed to be the true meaning of being a cop.

But now, all that feeling and duty that allowed most of them to live with the job, it's all gone. No people left to protect, no strength to carry out justice, not even the will to do anything.

Everything that they've founded based on justice and security, all left to tatters.

Only three left, and right when she fires, tears are seen in the young cop's eye, all before departing from this world. The next one, a female, breathes as much as she can before she too meets her end, with tears falling from her eyes.

And as for the old man himself, he's at least grateful to keep the last moments of his life shrouded with nothing but darkness. This is likely as a way to leave more peacefully as death comes by.

The Knight readies the gun, it is time to say goodbye and give thanks for their services.

Or is it?

Three arrows come by, picking the heads of three Zlocans present, including the executioner and the officer. They fall down to the ground.

Another shooting arrow comes by, this time hitting the old man's ropes which breaks apart. Even though he is briefly freed, he knows that there is something much more to deal with.

"Third Rank Zoorus, secure a perimeter!" an officer barks at one of the Knights, which he complies by motioning the others around him. The Zlocans aim their rifles everywhere in the forest with carefully planned formations, each observing a side with precise focus. The attack was sudden and unprecedented, not to mention, the arrow's user couldn't be found when they fired the arrows.

The Knights keep looking near the woods for something suspicious. They are looking at every corner around them while two guards approach the old cop. One points his gun near his head, likely as a way to keep him from moving. Thankfully for him, he could only smirk at them now that his supposed time got delayed for an unspecified time.

There's at first no progress of the attacker until...

"Oh tally-ho! Oh tally-ho!" A distinctly female voice is now heard, emerging from one of the trees.

She's dressed up in a long brown robe covering most of her body and face while walking and waving her hands.

"Freeze! Don't move!" one of the Knights says as they notice her and approach her, their guns still locked at her.

"Oh, you officers? Very good. I'm lost at the moment, would you please kindly escort me to-" she says while changing directions continuously without batting an eye to the Zlocan Knights. One of them roughly starts shoving her in frustration.

"Human scum like you is trespassing in this restricted area, so we're taking you into custody."

"Human scum? Oh boy, you guys are sure as hell make up some good acting in this place, never thought it would be a good geeky place to meet!"

One of them then points a gun at her face.

"Say another word and you'll be beyond dead!" he says in a furious tone.

"Whoa whoa, take it easy dude...I'm just a happy fellow who needs some help, that's all," she says, in a joking tone while smirking. This, of course, makes the Knights more furious as they all start aiming their guns at her.

"This is your final warning...," another one says, this time with a sterner tone.

A brief silence happens, the hooded lady then finally stops changing directions aimlessly and stands still near one of the knights. All ready to lock on, it seems that more unfortunate and naive fellows will get affected by the crossfire of war and suffering. Something nobody wants to.

After a minute of silence, the hooded lady then starts smirking again.

"Gotta warn you though..." the lady says, this time in a serious tone.

This provokes one of the Knights to fire at her, but she grazes the laser bolt and strikes one of the Zlocans in the head.

She starts to thrust her left elbow back to one of the Knights while taking cover from behind said Zlocan from the laser bolts that are firing at her. One of them tries to grab her but she grabs his hand and lifts it while turning around, proceeding to hurl him towards one of the knights which knock them out. One of them then grabs one of their electric knives and rushes towards her. Again, she then outsmarts him by raising her leg vertically and using the heel, she pounces the opponent down to the ground.

The Zlocan knights try to get up and regain composure, but before they can know it, the hooded figure throws her robe away towards them. It reveals the full figure of the mysterious fighter. A dark-skinned woman with a face as beautiful as an angel, black hair with shiny cyan eyes, a slim body and an armor worthy for the greater warriors of the Middle East. She unsheathes her sword that's in her belt, revealing none other than an elegant form of the Iranian Scimitar blade. She then rushes forward to the Zlocans, slicing down each one in every limb she can see and cut while leaving orange trails of blood in the ground.

The officer, looking from afar, has never looked so impressed with seeing such a powerful warrior in his life. But like with every warrior, some just want to do it in a dirty way.

One of the guards pulls one of their guns to aim towards the female warrior, only for the officer to grab the hand and snap it intensively. The Knight starts to scream. The other one tries to shoot her, but she snatches the blaster gun and shoots the Zlocan first before proceeding to shoot the disarmed Zlocan as well.

Quickly unraveling from the ropes, he then starts heading inside the building which seems to be housing something. But he has no key, so he uses the gun to blast the hell out of the doorknob and enter inside.

More Zlocan reinforcements come by as they try to beat her with their Zlocan sword technique but to no avail. Her technique of one-handed Razmafzar catches them off guard from the unexpected quick moves of the blade.

One of them tries to jab at her but she quickly swings her blade horizontally to block the strike. She then stabs at the Zlocan's chest.

She front kicks one of the attacking Zlocans and slices the head off. She grabs the blade to enter the two sword stance.

Two of them try to attack by swinging their blades to an unprotected spot. She blocks them with her two swords, which takes it to her advantage by slashing the Knights repeatedly. It now appears that there's nothing left in the zone, as she kneels down with one of her legs with carving her scimitar to the ground.

"Never assume anyone based on what they look like," she proclaims, likely as a response from what she warned them.

However, a nearby Zlocan patrol heard the commotion and headed out to the camp, reaching in time to aim their weapons at her.

But before they could do anything to fire...

Seven gunshots can be heard, and this time it hits the knights in vital parts like the heart or the head. It ends up killing them. Curiously enough, the woman only looks forward to the one of who fired the guns instead of looking at the dead bodies. The old cop stands in the hut doorway, with his two Smith & Wesson Model 19 revolvers, likely that belonged to either him or one of the fallen cops or from something he found inside. He's also wearing a black jacket as well. He twirls his guns while dropping some of the bullets in the aftermath of the battle.

The lady can only give him a dry look of amusement with her rosy face as she approaches him near the house where he found his equipment back.

"Son of a gun..." the officer muses.

"I presume that you never expected this kind of action before?" the lady asks.

"All bullets and mayhem, yes. But aliens and ladies from the east...helluva times no."

She chuckles.

"Well, I got the show you wanted, you old dude," she says.

"But still, ain't half bad at all. Looks like first-swathe to me in fact. Actually, not at all from such broad that could be just be any pilgrim passing around here."

She then frowns, likely feeling the unintentional insult of it.

"Eh, guess cowboys really need to get some manners after all."

"Whoa hey, some nice chitty-chatting with you is enough to rock on, nothing much more," he replies in an apologetic yet cocky tone.

"Not as far as I presume that you could be more than that. Oh, forgot to ask, what's your name, good cowboy?" she asks.

"Wolfen. Eddie Wolfen. A cop with nothing left."

"Well, Wolfen Eddie Wolfen, I'm Malak Al-Zadi, enchanted to meet you," the woman says.

"Malak...you're from India?"

"Iran."

"Close enough."

Malak then chuckles in response.

"Well, if you're a cop who pretends to be a cowboy, then be aware of this. I'm the new Persian fighter of this century because old-school never felt so good."

"Old-school, yeah...quite a way of living something that was enjoyable before."

"If you put it that way, Wolfie. But be aware that regardless, be thankful that our sweetest god gave us the chance to become more powerful than we can possibly imagine."

Eddie only grumbles in response. Maybe he's not that into spiritual beliefs or something similar. At the very least, he's not angry at least.

"So, what brings you here in California?" Eddie asks.

"Well, it's kinda a long story to tell, but to summarize it, Iran went to hell, moved to Seattle, the USA goes to hell, I won't have any of it, trained hard and embarked on a personal crusade of mine."

"Mm-hmm..."

"Also, I apologize if-"

"No need to. There's always the thought that we have all shit in the world to allow us to save everyone. But let me tell ya if that's the case, then the sacrifice for all good would be meaningless...yeah, you get the point."

"Hmm...Now, think we should team up in this? An ant alone isn't enough to hold off a large herd. I think...it's better if increase our herd as well."

"Well, if you put it that way, then deal. So, what can we call ourselves for now?"

"Hmm, since we may have erased all trace of what happened here and nobody may know who we were... Being the enigma would be quite beneficial."

"Hey, good one! The enigma duo!"

"Enigmatic action all the way, baby," she quips once more.

"Well then. Enough jibber-jabber, I've found some things inside that

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