Short Story Team Savant: Tiger Tale {Chapter 3 of 4}

A shy stutterer became friends with a narcoleptic girl, a telepath that looks surprisingly like the Roswell alien, a guy with three eyes, a water breathing princess with blue skin and a girl who can split herself into three people. From that day forward, he became Savant, the boy with a saber tooth tiger in his head. He along with his friends are Team Savant, the greatest cadet action team in the known universe. To catch up, read the arc of Team Savant Story click Here for the two previous chapter of the Short Story Egg-napped! 


You can read the origin story of Team Savant {Ultimate Savant: Origins} @ Go Savant!

 

“Children, you stare at me with dark eyes and a darkened heart. Savant or do you prefer Cadet Captain Nathaniel Devereaux? Whatever. You practically look down on me and yet, you are wrong. I am the hero here.”

Nathaniel pressed furiously on his Uphone. “Explain.” Behind him, he stabbed the heel of his foot into the shield that caged Deragon.

“You are attempting to distract me, while you hope to find a means of escape… You are wasting your time.”

“You are wasting our time. What the Haliquock are you doing?” Angela asked.

“Dear sweet Angela Roberts. You are content to follow the cadet that housed the body of the creature that inadvertently orchestrated your near death accident?”

“This cadet has saved me multiple times.”

“She has saved me just as much,” Nathaniel said.

“We have saved each other. And aren’t you trying to kill us too? How are you any better than Deragon?”

“Why are you trying to reason with this madman?” Deragon said weakly. “Get me out of here, so I can tear him apart.”

Green gestured to the dozens of Bullyons behind him. “They have orders to injure, but if I must kill you for the greater good—I will.”

“Yeah—you are a real hero,” Angela said.

“But clearly you see the fault in him being the wool for a wolf.”

“So you deem Deragon a danger to Union,” Nathaniel said. “Is this a covert mission? Who sanctioned this?”  

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“When this is over and they disavow you,” Nathaniel said, “what will you do?”

Dr. Green laughed. “You are assuming that you will come out of this with at least your memory intact. If you survive, your memory will be the first to go.”

“Yeah, that is not going to happen.” He pressed submit on his phone.

“I invented half of those apps on your phone. The shield strength should only be bullet proof.”

“Were you the author? I had no idea. You are right, the shield strength was as weak as the signal strength, so I modified both.”

Dr. Green’s face contorted, anger painted on his stone face, he turned to the Bullyons. “We have no choice. Kill them.”

The Bullyons fired their crude weapons threatening to burst the shield.

“Let’s see how strong your signal is now,” Dr. Green said.

“Strong enough,” Nathaniel said as he pulled Angela backwards. Their bodies phased through the shield holding Deragon. “Strong enough to match frequencies with the shield you made to hold Deragon.”

“And now you are trapped in there with him. Making it easier to kill you and solving my problem with a simple gesture of my hand.” He motioned and blue and gold electrical energy danced back and forth in the cage, but Angela and Nathaniel remained unharmed. “How?”

“Cutting Deragon off from me was smart. After all, his energy is housed in my body, but now that we are no longer separated, he can return to his full health and strength.”

“Yes,” Deragon said, “and it is clawing time.” He protracted his claws.”

“His full power has been calculated. There is no way you can break out of that shield.”

“You calculated his full power,” Nathaniel said. “But no one has calculated mine—I don’t even know my full strength.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I will let you see something that very few had ever seen.” Nathaniel signed the words, “Level four release.” A diamond on Deragon’s collar disappeared. His size increased momentarily but he reverted back to his normal size but his energy aura increased nearly two-hundred percent. “Can you handle it?”

“Of course I can,” Deragon said through gritted saber tooth teeth.

“Then quit dilly dallying and get us out of here,” Angela said.

Deragon surround them with a psionic energy bubble. In a blink of eye, the bubble tripled in size, obliterating the shield and the mechanism that controlled it. He jumped in front of Nathaniel and Angela and eyed Dr. Green and the frightened Bullyons. “Please run…” 

The End

You can buy my adult scifi novel Hearteless: A Journey to Second Earth @amazon or here.

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Short Story Team Savant: Tiger Tale {Chapter 2 of 4}

A shy stutterer became friends with a narcoleptic girl, a telepath that looks surprisingly like the Roswell alien, a guy with three eyes, a water breathing princess with blue skin and a girl who can split herself into three people. From that day forward, he became Savant, the boy with a saber tooth tiger in his head. He along with his friends are Team Savant, the greatest cadet action team in the known universe. To catch up, read the arc of Team Savant Story click Here for the two previous chapter of the Short Story Egg-napped! 


You can read the origin story of Team Savant {Ultimate Savant: Origins} @ Go Savant!

A bright light emanated from the bottom of the stair well. Otherwise, Angela and Nate were surrounded by darkness. A small human part of her wanted Jon to be there. Jon made her feel safe even if he lacked any combat abilities worth bragging about.

It was true that Nathaniel was an excellent hand to hand combatant, and a genius strategist. But as much as she hated Deragon, Nathaniel was more powerful with access to the tiger’s power. Angela tripped mid-thought and fell into the arms of Nathaniel—as if he knew she would fall.

“Hey, you okay?” he whispered.

“Yeah.” She straightened, thankful that it was dark. Why was she blushing like a little school girl? She was a warrior and Nathaniel was only her friend.

Only her friend.

They stepped to the bottom of the stairs. In a corner, trapped in some type of energy jail, Deragon was pounded by red lightning attacks. Every once in a while, Nathaniel flinched suggesting he was still experiencing the pain.

“What took you so long?” Deragon mouthed.

The Bullyons noticed Deragon’s distraction and turned toward Nathaniel and Angela. Unlike the Cutations, they were as tall as nine feet, with super small hands and feet. They ran toward the duo—no doubt to attack.

Nathaniel threw the rocks in their path. The first two tumbled over one another. Nathaniel ran to them, twirling the staff in one hand. “Get to the egg!”

Angela watched as he used moves that Bruce Leroy would have been proud of to take out the Bullyons that converged on him. She quickly turned and located the egg in the center of the room. She admittedly took the direct route and charged like a fullback toward her goal. One Bullyon got in her way and she used the cricket bat to slap him out of the way. Another attempted to intercept, but she slid under him, taking out his knee in the process. Had she not rolled in time, the behemoth would have landed on her. She flew forward, nearly reaching the egg, when laser fire caught her in the shoulder.

Several Bullyons elected to shoot at her with ancient laser guns. They were the kind that would leave a considerable amount of damage. Angela however healed moments after the attack. Nathaniel however…

Angela found Nathaniel, moving, somersaulting, dodging the laser fire. He ran directly to one of the Bullyons, snatched the weapon from him and shot a laser blast next to his head. The big guy grabbed his head and ran for safety. Nathaniel didn’t bother shooting him, turned and shot more warning shots at the Bullyons. He then cleared the way for Angela, who jumped over the table and grabbed the egg as she passed.

Angela tucked the egg like a football and ran for dear life.

“Over here—“ Nate pressed the trigger on the gun and nothing happened. He dropped it and ran toward Deragon’s tank. “On second thought, follow me!”

It was clear that he was going to free Deragon. Not the move Angela would have made. She would have taken the egg and escaped but he was her leader. With a series of Olympic level moves she made it to the tank in front of Deragon. “Now what?”

“Get me out of here!” Deragon said.

“They don’t want him free, so they are less likely to shoot.”

“Well, shouldn’t we be behind his tank?”

“Maybe.” He took his heel and pushed it flush against the energy field and reached into his pocket.

Two of the Bullyons moved closer and took careful aim. “I don’t think they got the memo.”

Nathaniel whipped out his phone, grabbed Angel and held his phone up as if he was taking a selfie with a friend.

“What are you doing?”

He activated an app, moments before the two Bullyons fired. The laser blasts bounced off an invisible energy field.

Angela turned toward Nathaniel. “You have a force field app on your phone?”

“Don’t you?”

The Bullyons continued firing.

“If your phone can do all that, why are we fighting like cave dwellers?”

“Perhaps Savant likes to see you sweat,” Deragon said.

“Deragon, be useful and tell us who did this to you,” Nathaniel said.

“STOP FIRING YOU IDIOTS!” The tall, painfully human figure walked out of the shadows. “Can’t you see that it is useless?”

“No way,” Angela said. It was rare for a human being to be part of Union or the Academy. In many ways she looked up to the man who she admired at a distance.”

The Bullyons moved backward and the man came forward, clapping his hand slowly. “As impressive as always.”

Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed. “Dr. Green.”

“I am surprised that you would need to ask this abomination who was behind his capture,” Green said.

“You are our instructor,” Angela said. “Why are you trying to kill us?”

He frowned as if the answer was obvious. “Why? For your own good.”

The End

You can buy my adult scifi novel Hearteless: A Journey to Second Earth @amazon or here.

For email updates, please click HERE and feel free to leave a message.

Also, feel free to comment below and follow me on Google and Twitter @ Frank_D_Rogers

Short Story Team Savant: Egg-napped {Chapter 4 of 4}

A shy stutterer became friends with a narcoleptic girl, a telepath that looks surprisingly like the Roswell alien, a guy with three eyes, a water breathing princess with blue skin and a girl who can split herself into three people. From that day forward, he became Savant, the boy with a saber tooth tiger in his head. He along with his friends are Team Savant, the greatest cadet action team in the known universe. To read the previous chapter click Here for the previous chapter of the Short Story Egg-napped!

Deragon sensed that Nathaniel was safe. Why did this please him? Of course, if the Earthian died, he would die too. However, there was something else. There was a warmth inside his center upon realizing that Savant and Angela was safe.

And he hated himself for it.

Deragon focused, cutting down his sensory connection to Nathaniel and opening up his personal sense of smell. He could not smell in the traditional sense. A flower was only a series of subatomic particles, but every living thing had a psionic signature.

His other senses were based upon this concept. His sight was a function of psionic radar. He saw what others saw but only because of the incredible abilities of Nathaniel… There it was again. A positive feeling toward his jailer. He must remain diligent. One day he and Nathaniel would be enemies again and he would be prepared.

A large group of Bullyons lay just ahead. A colony of Bullyons. Surely, the kidnappers were here. He closed the gap between himself and the colony. Deragon then turned invisible and began digging a tunnel like some ridiculous dog.

But what choice did he have? His energy level was low; he was technically no stronger than that weakling, Zorn. It was humiliating. If he was near Savant, he could literally rip the entire town off its foundation and cast it aside. Yet this far away… It begged the question, was he only a figment of the child’s imagination. Maybe in truth, Deragon was long dead.

He kept his invisibility as he pierced the ground on the other side.  He focused his senses and searched for non-Bullyon psionic energy. He found two objects one definite humanoid and the other harder to make out. He surmised that the harder one was the missing egg, but the humanoid felt familiar. He could probably even guess the race of the humanoid but to be certain, he would need to come face to face.

Curiosity got the better of him and he ignored Nathaniel’s previous command to report back immediately. He noted that the two Non-bullyons were in the same location. With powerful leaps, he located his target. The colony itself was a series of cube-shaped buildings and from above, it was difficult to pick them out, but one lit up like a torch because of the psychic energy emanating from it.

Deragon displayed a toothy grin as he hovered above it. He dived down, crashing through the top of the building. He landed with the egg roughly fourteen feet away. The Bullyons took one look at his fearsome visage and backed away. Their fear gave him more pleasure than he was willing to admit, but he decided not to relish in it.

He had a mission to accomplish. Deragon leaped toward the egg, but at the top of his jump some force hit him and an electro-barrier enveloped him igniting every inch of his being. What perhaps lasted for a few seconds felt like an eternity.

The energy cage released and Deragon fell to the ground. “Wh—what?”

“I see that even in your weaken form you contain enough strength of will to resist complete psionic degeneration.” The humanoid walked around a corner. “So tell me. What does it take to kill you?”

Deragon peered through the shell of the outer shield. The humanoid on the other side was…familiar. “You…you were at the academy.”

“It is no wonder that you don’t remember me. While you were portraying your Cadet Beenox persona, you were self-centered…self-absorbed. You may not remember but I definitely remember you and young Nathaniel Devereaux.”

Deragon struggled to stand. “What do you want from us?”

“Us?” He laughed. “I want Cadet Devereaux to learn his place and you? Well, I want you to die.”

The End~For Now 

Team Savant will be on hiatus a week or two, but I will post a different sci-fi short story during that time. Return next Saturday, for Short Story Saturday. And when Savant returns, we will learn the fate of Deragon.

NOTE:

A re-imagination of the original story of Savant will be in online stores soon, followed by the long awaited sequel!
In the meantime, you can buy my adult scifi novel Hearteless: A Journey to Second Earth @amazon or here.

For email updates, please click HERE and feel free to leave a message.

Also, feel free to comment below and follow me on Google and Twitter @ Frank_D_Rogers

Short Story Team Savant: Egg-napped {Chapter 3 of 4}

A shy stutterer became friends with a narcoleptic girl, a telepath that looks surprisingly like the Roswell alien, a guy with three eyes, a water breathing princess with blue skin and a girl who can split herself into three people. From that day forward, he became Savant, the boy with a saber tooth tiger in his head. He along with his friends are Team Savant, the greatest cadet action team in the known universe. To read the previous chapter click Here for the previous chapter of Short Story Egg-napped Chapter 2.

Nathaniel flattened. A quick glance upward and a few calculations told him what he needed to know. He would hit the ground long before Angela made it in time. He re-adjusted his shield, flattened it out and formed a rectangular energy glider.

He slowed to a crawl and moments later, Angela blew right past him. He readjusted, formed a triangle and dived straight down. This time she grabbed his hand, disrupting the integrity of his shield construct. The shield then reverted to its normal body hugging sheathe.

“What took you so long?” Nathaniel said as they dropped like a rock.

“Better late than never!”

He grabbed her leg.

“Hey!”

“With the gravity here being similar to earth, no matter what rudimentary shape we force upon the shield, we will hit the ground at terminal velocity. I will have to reboot our anti-grav boots.”

“Okay, but don’t just grab me without telling me!”

“Sorry, but we have seconds.”

“And don’t you dare peek!”

“Peek? Peek at what?” He looked up and saw Angela desperately trying to keep her skirt down. What Nathaniel assumed was tights were only stockings that traveled thigh high. After recognition, he closed his eyes and looked down. “I—I—I am s—s—sorry. I…didn’t m—mean t—to—“

“Fool, just hurry up and do whatever magic you are going to do! Remember, seconds?”

“R—right.” Nathaniel worked quickly. He ignored his instincts and reached for her shielding control, hidden under her belt. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out his U-phone. With one hand, he unlocked the phone and searched the screens.

“Who are you calling?”

“Not calling. Energy transfer app.” He found the app activated it after some quick calibrations. He shoved it into her belt, just behind her belt buckle. “Sorry.”

She said nothing as he moved to her boot.

He accessed the main panel, removed the batteries and rebooted the system. The lights lit up and immediately the two of them slowed down. He held on to her and the both of them moved until they were upright. “Sorry, but we are using my shield and your boots so we have to remain close.”

“I don’t mind the closeness you are my intergalactic martial arts sensei, we spar all the time. I am more concerned about what you saw earlier.”

He looked away. “Nothing.”

“Liar. What did you see?”

“That’s not a fair question. You know how my mind works. Even if I saw a little, my mind will work out the rest.”

“Yes. And what did your perverted mind see?”

“I—I shouldn’t say.”

“Say or I will tell Isis and Kagome.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“Try me.”

Of course she would. Everything about her body language said she would. ”They were essentially red with multi-colored rabbits strategically placed to form a three, two, one pattern from top to bottom. The pattern in the front matched the pattern in the—“

“Okay. You saw all that in a split second? Did you see my birthmark too?”

“Oh, is that what that was? It was irregular shaped so I—“

“Shut up!”

“Well you were the one who asked. You could have just left well enough alone.”

“I had to know. I am so embarrassed. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just felt like wearing cute underwear today. Didn’t think, I would be jumping out of a ship.”

“So, we are cool? This never happened?”

“The hell it didn’t. After what you just seen and did, you need to at least take me out to dinner and a movie.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I am serious. Don’t get any ideas. There is a movie premiering Friday, all of the kids are going to be there, and I refuse to miss it. Jon is in another sector of the universe and this is not the kind of face that goes to see a movie alone.”

“So why don’t you ask a boy from your school?”

“Because they know nothing about ninety percent of my life. Have you talked about the intergalactic war? Or the latest Valusian fashion?”

“No, but I don’t exactly have a lot of friends on earth… I know Isis wouldn’t mind. She feels that since there is so few Earthians in Union, the two of us should spend more time together.”

“Precisely. Jon wouldn’t mind either. He understands that he is my first choice and you are number two.”

“Wow… that is insulting,” Nathaniel said as their feet finally touched ground.

“Don’t be that way. If I hadn’t met Jon and you and Isis were not an item, I would—“ She closed up abruptly.

His ability to predict patterns finished the sentence in his own mind. And even without his ability, he knew that the two of them would naturally gravitate toward one another. It was one of the many reasons he hesitated to teach her IMA.

“Never mind what I just said,” Angela said. “I was having a blond moment.”

“You are just as smart as I am,” Nathaniel said. “Don’t ever question your intelligence. Speaking of which, you could have just asked and spared me the whole punishment for have an intuitive aptitude, a pair of eyes and being a guy.”

“A guy? It is kind of nice to know that you are normal. Sometimes, I wonder if you are even human.”

“I think technically you are more of an advanced human than I am by a hundredth of a percent.”

She gave him his phone and with a smooth move of her fingers, activated her own shield. “See what I mean? You think way too much…” She stepped out of Nathaniel’s shield and surveyed the area. “So, what kind of weapon was that? And who shot us down?”

“It was a nanite viral trap. It infected our equipment before we left the ship. The reason why it didn’t affect our shielding is—“

“Because it has anti-viral software and hardware.”

“Yes. The ship should be safe and the rest of our equipment—what little we have should be fine.”

“So the terrorist set a trap for us.”

“Yes.” He turned toward the small shiny town a half-mile north of them. “We are out in the open, but I doubt if they expect us to survive their trap.”

“Still, I would prefer that we stay one step ahead. I think I should scout ahead.”

“That would be best.” He got down on one knee.

Angela climbed on his back. “Man, if Isis saw us now, she would probably be very jealous right now. Can you even lift Isis?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“She is dense…very heavy. Come on, she doesn’t have an ounce of body fat.”

“She…is heavier than she looks, but I can lift her.”

She placed her arms around his neck and her body went limp. An energy form of her appeared in front of him. “Can you see me?”

“Yes.”

“I will fly one-hundred feet above until we get to there.”

“Alright.”

Ten minutes later the two of them were in the town. A couple of two feet tall soldiers on a hovercraft intercepted them. They greeted Nathaniel by name. Angela appeared next to Nathaniel. Her astral form, only visible to him, hovered. “Nate, they are legit.”

Nathaniel nodded and spoke to the escorts. “Take me to your leader.”

The End of Chapter Two of Egg-napped
New Post, next Saturday!

You can buy my adult scifi novel Hearteless: A Journey to Second Earth @amazon or here.

For email updates, please click HERE and feel free to leave a message.

Also, feel free to comment below and follow me on Google and Twitter @ Frank_D_Rogers

Short Story Team Savant: Egg-napped {Chapter 2 of 4}

  A shy stutterer became friends with a narcoleptic girl, a telepath that looks surprisingly like the Roswell alien, a guy with three eyes, a water breathing princess with blue skin and a girl who can split herself into three people. From that day forward, he became Savant, the boy with a saber tooth tiger in his head. He along with his friends are Team Savant, the greatest cadet action team in the known universe. To read the previous chapter click Here to read Chapter 1 of Team Savant: Egg-napped

Nathaniel’s hands blurred as he signed the code to activate Deragon. Psionic energy formed next to him, just as his afro shifted from black to white. The energy form shifted from pink, to red, but then in a final flash it became a silver saber tooth tiger.

Deragon.

The tiger looked around, glared at Angela and then turned to Nathaniel. “What have you gotten yourself into this time?”

“Read my mind,” Nathaniel said.

Deragon nodded. The two seemed to go back and forth…periodically Dergon’s feline features would contort into an odd frown.

“It’s rude for us to talk like this when we have company,” Nathaniel said.

Angela held up her hands. “Oh, don’t mind me. I am only standing right here—next to you.”

Deragon scowled. “My apologies.”

“Wow, your sincerity is underwhelming.”

Nathaniel placed his hand on Angela’s shoulder and squeezed. “Believe it or not, he is trying.”

“I bet.” She slapped her hands together. “So what is the plan? We fly down on a silver tiger?”

“No. We use the anti-gravity boots and we jump. Deragon will be given a wide berth to search for the hostage.”

“Heh,” Deragon said. “I get to hunt.”

“You do not engage,” Nathaniel said, “contact us as soon as you make sensory contact.”

“Harumph,” Deragon said, his face now a painting of boredom.

Angela held up her hand and shook her head. “This is crazy. We are going in without any real equipment.”

“I have my U-phone.”

“Stop kidding. Why would you give Deragon such a wide territory to search?”

Deragon scoffed. “Because I can do it quickly…and maybe Savant is considering ending me.”

“What?”

“Deragon we already discussed this. A child’s life is at stake, surely that goes against your honor.”

Angela raised her hand. “Uhm Nate. Do you remember that he tried to kill us? In fact, there is a good chance that he killed me, but my abilities kicked into overdrive.”

“You were hardly children,” Deragon said.

“Deragon, go,” Nathaniel said. “You are wasting time.”

Deragon huffed and walked to the exit, to the end of the ramp extending from the ship. He looked back with a toothy smile and jumped.

“I don’t trust him,” Angela said.

“He knows,” Nathaniel said.

“What was he talking about…ending him?”

“The connection to me is what gives him life. By extending it, allowing him to travel thousands of miles away, it not only weakens him, but increases the chance of that connection being interrupted…”

“And that would kill him?”

“Yes.”

“Well, he is paranoid. There is no way you would kill him in cold blood, even if he deserved it.”

Nathaniel said nothing as he moved to the main monitor.

“Nate?”

“I am picking up some type of anomaly in the atmosphere. I need time to investigate.”

“Do we have time?”

“No. We have a small window. If we jump within the next fifteen seconds, we will land a hundred meters from the Mayor’s home.” He powered his anti-gravity boots, using a hand-held controller. He cocked his head sideways. “Power just dipped a tenth of percent to my boots.”

“It is only a tenth of a percent,” Angela said as she activated her boots as well.

“Yeah.” Nathaniel turned on his personal shield and straightened his tie. “Are our force fields in synch?”

Angela walked over to him. Her force field intermingled with his, allowing her to grab the knot of his tie and jerk down. It gave him a more casual look. “Yep.” She ran to the exit and dived out, missing the ramp and sailing to the ground below.

“Pull your arms and legs in,” Nathaniel said his voice hissing over the earpiece.

“I am off target, aren’t I?”

“Yes. We were supposed to drop and then activate the boots.”

She pulled her legs in. “How far off am I?”

“Doesn’t matter, just key in on my position.”

She spun in the air and located Nathaniel. She lifted her heels and flew toward the single figure. “Almost there.”

“You are plenty close enough. Activate boots.”

Angela pressed her hand-held device and immediately began to slow. Nathaniel however, continued to fall.

“Nathaniel? Why are you still falling?” She pressed her earpiece. Communication was jammed. The weight of her boot shifted from light to heavy and immediately she dropped too. “Electromagnetic pulse?” She tapped her controller multiple times but nothing happened. She placed it in her pocket and contemplated the situation. There was no way for Nathaniel to survive the fall. She could survive the fall if she made sure her head was still intact. But the shield should take care of that…the shield. Why was the shield still working? Why wasn’t important. What was important was the shield was still working. They had a chance if she could make it to Nathaniel in time. She plunged head first, directing her path to Nathaniel, who was doing all he could to slow his descent…

The End of Chapter Two of Egg-napped
New Post, next Saturday!

You can buy my adult scifi novel Hearteless: A Journey to Second Earth @amazon or here.

For email updates, please click HERE and feel free to leave a message.

Also, feel free to comment below and follow me on Google and Twitter @ Frank_D_Rogers