"Yes, that's the very book" Adriana said as she would slowly nod and step closer towards her brother's front desk.
"I don't see what's so special about it, just looks like a crummy old brown book. What's all this business about you shrinking people with it and then stomping on them?" Grief asked as she would stop in place.
Her blood would go cold. Adriana would have to choose her next words very carefully. One wrong step and her brother would either be opted to destroy the book or toss it out the window to the street below. Perhaps she thought, if she could calm him and get close enough she'd have chance.
"What I did Grief, you have to realize I acted in self-defense. I was just heading home and one of them grabbed me and pulled me into the alleyway" Adriana stated.
"I see, one of them tried to escape and was apprehended earlier today. Thus far, you do have some merit of truth in an eye witness account. Still, you did seem to have fun as you stomped all over those poor bastards. Ah well, anyways how does this book even work?" Grief asked as he shrugged nonchalantly.
"It's a spell book, it's been in our family for generations from Old Spagonia" Adriana came clean with him.
"You told Alicia it belonged to our dad" Grief said as he suddenly narrowed his eyes.
"Alicia wouldn't understand that the book is centuries old. It was written by our great grandmother, Aurelia Bradanska herself" Adriana stated.
Suddenly, and without warning the brand on Adriana's hand would start to glow a glistening red and she would notice her brother's eyes widening a bit. Adriana would motion for him to look at her hand as she remained calm. She couldn't believe it, Grief could see the mark on her hand that Thomas couldn't.
"What's up with your glowing hand there? Is that some sort of parlor trick?" Grief asked.
"This mark, it allows me to decipher the text. I could read it for you. Just think Grief, all this knowledge and power from a time way before. Well before 'you know who' came to power" Adriana tried to pursued Grief with.
"How did you get this book? I've checked your mailing information. It was unregistered"
"I'll be honest, Aurelia herself sent it. I know this sounds crazy, but I'm telling the truth. I merely came home one day and Sabrina carried it over towards me in the mail" Adriana stated.
"So a ghost, of our grandmother, sent you this book. Boy you sound insane right now" Grief said as he shook his head.
"Is she now, dearie?" Grief would suddenly hear in the corners of his mind.
"What the fuck?" Grief simply let out as his fur would begin to crawl up
"Now, is that any way to greet your nonna? Hee hee" he hears.
"Adriana, what the hell sort of trick are you doing right now?!?" Grief asked her.
"I'm doing nothing Grief, I'm just trying to explain everything right now. What's wrong?" Adriana asked, trying to not agitate her brother for the time being.
"I act on mio own accord, bambino" Grief would hear in the back of his mind as suddenly he'd notice his shadow on the ground becoming longer and moving to the middle of the room between the two.
Grief started to blink in an incredulous motion as Adriana started to shiver. As the two watched in horror, they'd see the figure rise up from the shadow. It was Aurelia, somehow Grief could see her as well. However, what this would mean for the two of them was anyone's guess.
"W-who the fuck is that?" Grief asked.
"So you can see her too? I mean, that makes sense. She is your grandmother as well after all" Adriana stated.
"A lovely familgia reunion, si?" Aurelia said as she fully appeared in the middle of the room.
"And you are?" Grief asked towards her.
"Your nonna bambino! You are mio descendent!" Aurelia stated to him.
"Is this some sort of trick? Some mind control game, sis?" Grief asked Adriana.
"No tricks Grief, Aurelia appeared to me as well. Oh and you can't kill her, trust me I've already tried" Adriana stated.
"Can't kill that which is not living, si?" Aurelia stated.
"So sis, you have now caught me off my medication for the moment. I'll humor you with our 'grandmother' being in front of us here. You say you can read this book? Why can't I read it?" Grief asked.
"Go ahead, try to read it Grief" Adriana said.
Now, this was a huge risk. If Grief could use the book's power she'd lose her leverage over him. Worse off, Grief might have tried to use the book on her. Still, at this point Adriana had nothing to lose. It was Aurelia's book, if Grief could read it then he was simply compelled by the supernatural.
Grief would slowly open the book and turn the page as Adriana gulped slightly. He would open a page or two and skim through the text before shaking his head. As he moved his finger through the lines of text he'd tried to make out phrases in it, but would garble the words to where it sounded like utter gibberish.
"None of this makes any fucking sense. Is this some sort of joke?" Grief asked.
"Perhaps, you should let your sestra read it? It was mio gift to her" Aurelia would hauntingly and yet softly ask Grief.
"I can't believe I'm doing this, alright sis. Get your ass over here. I want you to read to me something" Grief demanded ordering her to come over to his desk.
Now would be Adriana's chance, but she would have to act fast. She would need the chance to open the book, recite the Turns of Fate. Then come into physical contact with her brother, all the while grabbing the book and making a run for it. However, this wouldn't be easy. One wrong move would spell disaster for her.
She simply nodded her head and causally walked up to Grief's desk before simply walking around it. He would then hand the book over her. Adriana would then casually take the tome and begin to open it.
As she did she would see the name Aurelia glow in bright red in the front cover. Adriana would try to ignore showing signs of this as she would slowly change the page until she went to the one she remembered was the seventh page, the one with the Turns of Fate spell. She would take a simple breath and put her finger on the text. It was now or never.
Adriana would begin to chant. Her eyes would glow bright green as her hair would begin to mystically flow around. This unnerved Grief, while he's been around psychics before and even was sort of psychic himself, he really didn't comprehend the supernatural.
"Fatorum Vices, Fatorum Vices, Fatorum Vices!" Adriana would begin to chant.
As she did so, Adriana would grab suddenly onto Grief's arm with her other free hand. In an instant it would feel as if time would stop. Grief's eyes would widen as they would both begin to glow. Their auras and souls would merge within the blink of an eye. All the while Aurelia was watching and laughing.
Grief felt drained, immensely. His body began to quake and shiver, yet he felt something more. Paranoia? Grief felt his mind change, thoughts rushed into his mind so much he couldn't concentrate. Was this what she felt? This paranoia and this fear?
Adriana, on the other hand felt quite the opposite. She would feel a surge and rush with energy. Her muscles would tense up and she felt an intense amount of aggression, is this what her brother felt? Was this what Grief has been holding back all this time deep within him?
She wasted no time, Adriana would pull the book away from her brother and then use this new immense strength inside of her to shove her brother right off his chair with a smile. Within moments Grief would go down onto the floor. However, she knew she couldn't get out of the C.A.B without making a run for it. While it would be fun to crush her brother's guts in, she had to make her escape from the facility. Besides, if this spell truly worked there'd be much more in store for her 'little' brother.
"Hey!" Grief yelled out to her.
"Later!" Adriana said as she would grab the book and dash straight for the door.
Aurelia's ghost had now disappeared as she would move right past the spot where the ghost projected herself. Still, this enraged Grief as he would crawl from the ground to the bottom of his desk before taking out his plasma pistol. He had no idea what Adriana just did to him, but the fact he felt drained and nauseous combined with the fact she seemed to have gotten away with something from him irritated him so much he tried to aim and shoot at her. Sadly, due to his newfound ailments he missed his shots.
"Get the hell back here, bitch!" Grief called out to his sister as he continued to fire his plasma pistol.
The bright pinkish blasts would impact the wall next to the door. The sounds of this and the hole that would ensue as pinkish goo of the ionized gas would leave a hole through the wall large enough for the guards on the other side of the door to see. However, this didn't concern Adriana, she had to make a break for it.
She would have put her newfound strength to the test. From what she knew of her brother was that even as a kid, even as Grief was normal sized he had some amount of enhanced strength. Perhaps if she rammed through the door she could knock it over to go through it. While she knew everyone outside would try to stop her, Adriana didn't have time to focus on that. She would put up her shoulder and collide with the door.
WHAM!
It had worked, the door flew down right off it's hinges, however there was now an issue. The guards right next to it and Periwinkle would quickly draw their guns. While Adriana indeed possesses a newfound strength, Adriana still wasn't used to this and by no means a melee combatant, yet. Thus she decided to keep going and pulled out her arm to knock Sherly off onto the ground. She would let out her left hand with her ring finger in an attempt to knock Sherly over while she moved past her. Sure enough, Sherly would get bonked in the nose as she would easily fall over due to her tiny and light form.
"Piss!" Sherly out as she fell on her back.
Adriana would simply let out a taunting laugh as she would continue to dash down the hallway. However, the two guards next to Sherly would try to draw their guns and fire at Adriana. Sherly would take out her laser pistol and begin to fire on her backside while Grief would sluggishly come through the doorway.
"Don't let her escape! Sound the alarm!" Grief called out while his entire body felt sore and drained.
"Yes, master" one of the soldiers said as one of his soldiers suddenly began to be put in some sort of trance.
"What the fuck? Snap out of it trooper! Sound the damn alarm already!" Grief said as the soldier would shake his head and push buttons on a nearby console.
The witch in pink would dash down the hallway trying to narrowly avoid laser fire, her body felt stiffer and way heavier as before, but due to the distance and the fact she was in motion while the lasers would fire straight and slightly off trajectory. Adriana mostly was able to avoid the blasts save for one that pierced through her favorite purple cape. Still, she had little time to morn for this as she would head towards the elevator.
"Must escape, must escape" she muttered to herself while touting her prized book in her hands.
A thought had dawned on her suddenly, what if they could cut off the elevator's power? They could easily entrap her there, or send her to a place to be surrounded. She would stop for in instance before remembering a thought from years ago. Yes, it was her father Ivan teaching her where the stairs and fire escape were. While it would be an agonizing path down the stairs, it was perhaps her only way to get to the lower levels of the mega-structure.
"Thanks for everything, dad" Adriana said as she smiled a bit and then headed towards the staircase.
She would approach the stairs as she could hear guards following behind her. Now was a good chance to see how much lower body strength she had acquired as she literally would kick down the door with a single motion. As the door went down with a loud clang she narcissistically grinned and would step over the door before heading down the staircase with Aurelia's book. Granted she didn't know what would be on the lower level, but it beat staying up there with Grief and Sherly.
As she would go down the staircase she would hear soldiers going through the doorway up top as they would aim their plasma guns from above at the entrance and open fire with their weapons. She would move down the steps for her life until she nearly reached then end, and then proceeded to stumble and fall as she tumbled down the staircase to the base level.
"Merda!" she let out as she would continue to comically collapse down the staircase while still clutching the book for dear life.
Normally, this would be detrimental to the health of an individual, but with her new found durability she was able to survive without a concussion as she would slowly get herself back up from a rather embarrassing tossed over position revealing up her dress to the nearby onlooking soldiers above her.
"The hell?" one of Grief's soldiers said as he took a glimpse of something he shouldn't have.
"Got to get out of here!" she tells herself while trying to grown a move.
Adriana then tried to roll over to her belly to cradle the book under her as she would crawl over to the wall and try to right herself up. She would pant as she tried once more to knock down the lower staircase door before dashing out of it.
Soldiers would then line up to cut her off. All in the hallway were Grief's men. Adriana would hold the book behind her arm as one of them told her to freeze. There were too many Order soldiers to just run away from, so she would take a breath or two to act as if she were cornered.
"Freeze Adriana!" one of them called out.
Now would be a good time as ever to test her new growth powers. There was only one way out of this, right through these Order soldiers. She would close her eyes and begin to focus as suddenly she would begin to grow larger and larger.
"You all made a big mistake mindlessly following Grief! The biggest!" she would yell out as she growled in agony of the transformation.
While Adriana wasn't used to this sort of transformation, it would bring her immense pain. Still, her anger was bottling up inside of her. There would be no more running. The soldiers would be taken by surprised as they would stare up at the now growing Adriana.
"I do not take orders from weaklings!" she called as she would enlarge to an astonishing twelve foot tall!"
"Take her down!" one of the Order's officers said as she would try to charge right into them to knock them over.
While Adriana wasn't the most skilled melee opponent, at all. She quickly deduced that even the school bully could easily knock down someone several times less their size. She would try to get into the fray as quickly as possible to the mob of soldiers trying to kick them around, swipe and bash with them with her free hand, or try to knock them around with her arm and hips.
The Order soldiers would stop firing their plasma rifles as some of them would try to pull out and energize their hard-light bayonets and combat knives to get into melee with her. However, despite their training and use of close quarters weaponry, they were by far largely ineffective towards the giantess of a woman.
While she took one blooded cut to her legs, this only left a small bleeding cut as she would be able to at least knock them around or stun the soldiers to where she would simply try to leap over the downed mob of Order troopers.
Once more, not caring what they caught of glimpse of from below, the now titaness vixen would leap and land down past them leaving rather large prints in the floor before she would proceed to dash down the hallway.
"Give Grief my regards!" she simply called out to them while laughing and dashing towards the nearby hanger bay.
As the titaness vixen would stampede down the hall while carrying her now comparably tiny book, she would proceed to shove it right in between her cleavage for safe keeping. Hardly a good way to treat Aurelia's book, but she had to worry about getting the tome out of there safely and hiding it while not having it get shot by enemy laser fire.
With the book firmly shoved in her dress, Adriana would make her way as swiftly as she could towards the Delta Hanger. Pilots and soldiers simply would avoid her at this point and move out of the way as she entered the large hanger room. She would simply duck her head to fit through the doorway, but she then looked around at everyone staring at her with fear and anxiety.
"Nobody move! I have Grief's powers! I could grow larger and destroy this entire hanger if I wanted to!" she would point and call out to them.
They all seemed terrified, but she didn't have time to relish in this newfound sense of dominance. No, she had to find a pilot and escape. She would look around until she would find an older black Labrador retriever in an Order pilot suit. Adriana was betting that this semi-old timer wouldn't be as loyal to her brother as the others born fifteen years earlier. She would simply point at the man and stomp over.
"You! I am the true Baroness of Siag, I demand you escort me out of this building in your craft! I will not ask a second time!" Adriana demanded as she pointed her finger right at him.
"Now hold your dogone horses, I know you! You're Ivan's little girl, well you ain't so little anymore. Anyways, sure. Just um, come over there" the old dog said as he pointed to a vintage and well maintained Raven 310 gunship.
"Perfect" Adriana said as she smirked.
She took it that this old man was perhaps a veteran from the first war, and since they knew her as a kid then perhaps she could pursued him to get her out of there. She would stomp hastily over towards the Raven while knocking over other pilots with her massive hips before taking the book out of her dress, modesty be damned if she wanted to escape. As she took the book out she would revert to normal size. She would take a few breaths before motioning to him.
"Hurry up old timer, I do not have all day!" she replied.
The old man would go as fast as he could before motioning for her to get into the side hatch as he would get into the cockpit. However, as he did so the room would flood with more of Grief's soldiers, and Sherly.
Adriana would open the side hatch and get in. The pilot would be turning on the systems causing the older Raven model to become active.
"Fuel systems good, energy reserves stable. She ain't armed but she can make a good landing! What in tarnation is all this about?" the pilot asked.
"Listen old man, if you were ever loyal to my father you'd get this bird flying and us out of here! They'll shoot at your gunship too if we don't!" Adriana demanded.
"Well shoot, I guess yer right. Hold on!" the pilot would say as he would begin to power up the aircraft and it would slowly Suddenly the soldiers outside and Sherly would begin to fire upon the canopy and the Raven's hull.
The Raven would suddenly begin lift off from the air as it's massive twin engine turbines would kick up smoke and flood the hanger with steam. This disoriented the troopers and Sherly's fire, but one shot would get lucky and hit one of the turbines, causing the entire ship to shake. At this Adriana bit her lip in anxiety.
"Shit! They hit one of the dern thrusters!" the pilot stated.
"Go old man! Go!" she demanded.
The Raven would suddenly jolt forwards as it would fly hastily out of the hanger bay while under fire eventually, Adriana would see the sky above Siag and the massive grey walls and the shield dome. She would take a quick breath of relief, trying to catch up in her mind about all that just transpired. Had she won? She had the book in her very hands, her life, but most importantly, her brother's powers.
Grief and Adriana finally meet face to face, brother and sister. It appears Grief has the book, but he gives his older sister a chance to decipher the text. This opportunity will be his undoing. However, can Adriana escape the Central Administration Building alive to use her newfound stolen powers?
