THE VROL TRILOGY (138 page)

"
Oh my god
baby, you are so in for it tonight! You'd better get that master
suite
."

"
You know it,
love
."

"Sir, I apologize! I am sorry. They are…
just… so… perfect!"

Max was about to berate the lycan when the
entire contingency, at Bagatelle's command, yelled out, "Correct,
sir!"

Jennie nearly fell to her knees in laughter,
while Max did everything he could to keep from doing the same.

"Heya Maxie. You got the master suite, ya
know. No one's ever allowed there. Anyway, welcome, mate. I….
missed ya."

I took about 30 minutes to assign rooms to
the soldiers, with Max having to modify some habitations to
facilitate more occupants. They were not there for comfort; they
were there for training. Fortunately, before he could finish, his
parents showed up, along with his daughter and grandfather.

"My boy, shall I assist in room modification?
It does seem you may be a bit overwhelmed at the moment," mused
Draagh.

"Heya Pops, ya, I think I could use the help.
Hey, why'd you bring Mom and Liliana?"

"They should watch your good deeds, my boy.
Plus, I shall soon transport your daughter's friends from Saxman,
so they may be able to extract any leftover items from their
village up north."

"Hello, Max, sweetie. You are doing such an
excellent job," said Max's usually doting mother.

"Papi, what I believe Abuelita means to say
is that you are simply awesome at everything you do," added his
precocious daughter.

Marko and Adam, always at the perimeter,
merely stared at Max's mother, not knowing how to absorb the fact
that the woman who gave birth to the lycan mage was such a
smoking-hot female. Marko grew a wide grin, until he was kindly
reminded by his fake-mage counterpart, "Dude. Ain't gonna happen.
Ever. That's Max's mom."

Marko sneered for a moment, until Clarisa
hooked her arm into Michael's and looked up at him lovingly.

"And he, as you might remember, is Max's
dad," informed Adam, while Marko's face sagged and he stomped off
to the bar.

Max and his entire crew sat in Dons'
bar, with Liliana sandwiched between her parents on a couch that
Dons had certified to be
neko-free
. Everyone had cold beers, except for
the young girl, who was enjoying Jessica's old favorite -
non-alcoholic ginger beer. The establishment was packed full of
soldiers, all enjoying their drinks, with the Rhönen soldiers being
uncharacteristically well behaved.

"So, how far do we need to go out before we
run into any Vrol?" asked Max, wanting to get down to business and
get his troops some live action to very next morning.

"They've been staying pretty far out - a few
clicks, recently. We have a static population, and a certain amount
of teeth in circulation, so no inflation. But if we were to hit a
shortage of teeth we'd have to go out hunting, ya know?" Dons
certainly had a good handle on supply and demand, and appeared to
nearly be the leader of the entire area.

"Great. Well, it's still light out, not that
it would matter anyway," said Max, "but I think we need to do some
recon. Michael, you wanna check out the area?"

"Sounds like fun, son," replied the timeless
archangel as he stood up and stretched out his wings, with Max
doing the same. This caused a bit of surprised to most everyone in
the bar. They were all familiar with Max the off-world lycan and
mage, but he had never returned to show the abilities he gained
once he had acquired his ghanlo.

"Whoah! Max! You're just full of surprised,
mate!" Dons exclaimed while wearing a huge grin.

"My papi has
un poco de todo
, Mr. Dons," informed
Liliana.

"Huh? What's that, little girl?"

"He has a bit of everything. You should
really study Castilian, Mr. Dons," said the smallest Gunnarsson,
causing the usually stoic Bagatelle to break out into a smile.

Dons turned around and was about to say
something to Max, but the Hybrid and his father had already
departed via convenient 3d slips. Looking over, Dons saw Marko
working the bar like crazy, bringing in plenty of revenue by
selling beers and various drink concoctions. Aside from meeting
Krynos, it was the first time Marko had been surrounded by fully
activated lycans from other worlds. He felt small and weak around
them, but he was still stronger than Dons or Adam, so that much
kept him satisfied.

"We need to feed the boys before they drink
too much. I want them all at their best when we go Vrol hunting,"
said Bagatelle. "We're getting up, unannounced, at four a.m. for
some recon."

"I'll sleep in, if ya don't mind," laughed
Dons.

The two angels - a father and son - streaked
over the west side of Los Angeles, searching for any signs of Vrol.
They noticed some small communities, mostly mixed but having a
larger percentage of normals than enhanced subspecies. They kept
heading toward the ocean until Max remembered Vrol don't like open
water.

"Hey, um, Mike, we won't find any Vrol here.
They don't like water. But let's hit Santa Monica anyway. I read a
lot about it and wanna see if there are any hidden lairs for ground
bugs."

"Max, we should probably wait until
nightfall. The rancid creatures shall leave their domiciles in
order to hunt their helpless prey."

"Rancid? Domiciles? Really? You lived in
hippy-land for a quarter-century and you instantly revert back
speaking like William Shakespeare half the time?"

"Dude?" Michael tried.

"Better. Try some contractions too. Anyway,
did you notice the buildings along the seashore are in much better
shape the further inland?"

The two landed on Santa Monica Blvd., Max
hitting the ground hard and trying to mimic how his father and
uncle make their impressive, unannounced entries. Getting up from
his one bent knee, Max looked around at the vacant buildings and
turned to his father, noting the archangel had an appraising grin
on his face.

"What?" Max demanded, giving his father a
quizzical glare.

"Your landing was impressive, son. When you
were born I imagined us one day flying together."

"Oh yeah, and then you decided to hang out in
the land of stinky people for 100 years. You know, if Draagh had
never found me I would have simply died as an inactivated normal
before you ever showed up."

"Max, first of all, you would have never died
- even without activating your mother's part of your genome you
still had mine and would have thrived forever. Plus, one of us
would have eventually found you. And some things are simply meant
to be. Father made sure all went according to plan. He told me
so."

"Um, yeah. Right. Okay, so let's start
looking for nasties. I wonder if they have dens or something. Never
really gave it any consideration when I was stuck here."

"Let's look from above. And remember to use
your view. What do you call it? A HUD? I am certain it is much more
enhanced now that you have a ghanlo."

"Oh yeah you bet it is! Before it was only
some lines giving me personal info, but now it gives me data on
other things."

"Very well, son. Use it to identify those
whom we seek."

"Boy, you will
not
end a sentence with a preposition, will
you?"

The two bolted up into the sky, the younger
of the two relishing in his ability to fly… with his father.

"Jennie, now that Draagh has been so kind to
provide us with the raw materials, could you assist in meal
preparation, my dear?"

Jennie gave Clarisa Gunnarsson an alarmed
stare, being the younger woman had relatively no cooking experience
whatsoever. They were standing in the kitchen of the hotel, and
Jennie couldn't have looked more out of place.

"Um, mamita, erm… I don't know how to cook. I
always just went to the mess hall," stammered the beautiful young
woman. She had on two occasions clumsily put together some
empanadas for Max, and while they had an excellent flavor, they
were amazingly simple to prepare. What Clarisa requested was on a
completely different level.

"Fear not, my dears," boomed Draagh, "if you
stand aside, I shall prepare the food for our hungry masses.
Jennie, I do believe your efforts would be better concentrated on
assisting Liliana with her schoolwork."

Jennie gave her grandfather-in-law an awkward
look and bolted out of the kitchen and up to the master suite,
where Liliana was going over an assignment due the following
day.

"Now, young Clarisa, you have done an
excellent job in basic preparation. I shall merely replicate your
efforts and then bring our hungry soldiers over for their
dinners."

Twenty minutes later the dining area of Hotel
California was filled with soldiers from various worlds, eating
their evening meals and engaging in loud conversation, as was
typical of lycan soldiers. They were, however, cautious with the
furnishings - especially the soldiers of the Rhönen.

Clarisa, Draagh and Bagatelle sat at a small
breakfast counter watching the soldiers eat dinner, when Clarisa
noticed something odd.

"Draagh, these boys consumed a great deal of
alcohol before crossing the street for dinner. Why does it appear
they are all sober now? This place should smell like a
brewery."

"A simple alcohol-purging cantus at the front
door, my dear granddaughter. Quite simple, indeed."

"Well, that was smart. I'd like to know how
to install some of those on Azul once we've taken care of business.
And speaking of taking care of business, have you mapped out our
portals from Vera Base to the predetermined locations I earlier
requested?" Bagatelle was all business, all the time, and he was
never more serious about getting things in order.

"Yes, my dear Luigi. May I ask if you have
determined who your group leaders might be?"

Bagatelle nodded his head while he took a
bite of an empanada, the chosen meal for the evening.

"Yes. I'll be going to New Sydney, Max and
Jennie are going to Portlandia, and Krynos is going to Buenos
Aires."

Draagh gave the admiral an odd glance, not
liking the choice of locations.

"My dear boy, might I ask why Max and Jennie
shall not be going to their home country, but instead to a place
filled with pacifists? Do you lack faith in their abilities?"

"I know for certain that Max and Jennie will
not wantonly murder those in their target location. The other
teams… I am not so sure. Aside from this, once they have captured
the ports, local law enforcement and occupy City Hall they will
move over the New Sydney to accompany me into the Capitol area.
Krynos will encounter resistance in Argentina, but we are sending a
massive group of Azul military with him. I only hope he doesn't go
into a berserker rage."

"No, my boy. I shall accompany my old friend
and make sure he does not wantonly slaughter the innocent. We wish
to perform this operation as cleanly as possible, with minimal
bloodshed, am I not correct?" said Draagh.

"Yeah, especially now we have the media on
our side," said Bagatelle. "They'll pump out the right information
and keep all of the citizenry in their home."

"Except for gen vamps. They'll run around all
crazy and need to be eliminated," added Clarisa.

"Correct, and it will provide us with a…"

"A… culling opportunity? Yes, I believe that
is what we would call it, Luigi. At one time they were a necessary
part of the ecosystem, so their fates were intertwined with the
rest of the humanity."

"Okay, I'm ready to hit the rack. Let's put
these guys to bed. They have a busy day tomorrow."

Max and Michael found a rather massive nest
of Vrol in the south-central area of Los Angeles. Many of the
industrial buildings in the area had been coated with what appeared
to be an organic layer of paint or extra protection. It wasn't
enough to keep them out, but they refrained from entering, using
their considerable magic skills to send in small, invisible camera
drones which showed web-like areas where the putrid creatures
slept. They appeared to be nocturnal, and Max mad a mental note
that they might not function well during daylight hours if they
ever made it to Azul.

"Hey Pops, check out the middle of the
warehouse. See that tall construct? Now scan the electromagnetic
spectrum and watch what happens," said Max, looking into a large
building via his drone.

"It appears that they are receiving some sort
of signal, my son. Shall we follow it?"

"Straight up. Race ya!"

The two rocketed out of the atmosphere,
easily eclipsing Mach 8, surprised to see what they should have
noticed long before. A badly-damaged Brood Carrier maintained
orbit, still providing an energy signal to the various Vrol nests
below.

"So that's how they maintain their psionic
armor," exclaimed Max. "Should we destroy the ship right now and be
done with it?"

"No, Max."

"But… why not? Don't you care about the
people down below? I do! They're my friends!"

As the two floated in the vacuum of space,
Michael put his hand on Max's shoulder while looking at him with a
warm, yet serious gaze.

"Did I not inform you that we in positions of
power must make decisions that would seem illogical to normal
beings? I mean, yes, we could decimate the Vrol here and now in
this timeline, but the truth is, Max, that they are an embedded
part of this ecosystem. They hunt, cull, and help to maintain the
population. Their teeth provide currency for the myriad of denizens
here. They are all in this together, Max. We cannot interfere in
such a manner."