by BP
"A fairy?" Beth said incredulously.
YES, A FAIRY. WHAT'S SO STRANGE ABOUT THAT?
"Oh, I don't know, the fact that they don't exist, maybe?"
WELL, THIS ISN'T A BONA FIDE FAIRY, MIND YOU. IT'S...*AHEM* WELL, A FAKED FAIRY CORPSE THAT HAS COME TO LIFE THANKS TO MR. FLYTE.
"Oh, well, that's just swell."
Nou wrinkled his nose. "Gross! Is fairy rotten?"
NO, THE FAIRY IS NOT ROTTEN. IN FACT, SHE DID THE FAVOR OF LEAVING US A CALLING CARD.
"Oh?"
*AHEM* DEAREST HUMANS, YOU MUST UNDERSTAND, I DO THIS ONLY BECAUSE MY WONDERFUL MASTER MR. FLYTE BIDS ME TO. I HAVE BEEN ASKED TO...HOW SHALL I PHRASE THIS? TAKE THE POSTMASTER OFFLINE.
"What!? You failed to tell us that minor detail!"
IT'S...IRRELEVANT.
"Irrelevant? That corpse wants to blow out your circuit boards, and you think that's irrelevant?"
IT DOESN'T MATTER. LET ME FINISH THE NOTE! *AHEM* SINCE IT SHALL BE SO EASY A TASK, AND I DON'T THINK IT'S FAIR TO DO IT WITHOUT LETTING YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP AGAINST, I WOULD LIKE TO MEET YOU IN PERSON. THE REST OF THE NOTE IS IRRELEVANT, AS IT DEALS MOSTLY WITH PRAISING HERSELF, THEN FINALLY SAYING WHERE TO MEET.
“Nou hope it somewhere warm this time!” Nou exclaimed.
CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR, The Postmaster admonished.
"Let me get this straight: you dump me and Nou in some random splat of Australia, and...then what?"
I EXPECT YOU TO TALK TO THIS FAIRY. SEE IF YOU CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT FLYTE'S UP TO.
"Well, obviously he's trying to kill you!"
I'M AN ELECTRONIC ENTITY. I'M NOT TECHNICALLY ALIVE, AND THEREFORE CAN'T TECHNICALLY BE KILLED.
"You’re just trying to be difficult now."
SHE'LL BE SHOWING UP SOON. JUST DO YOUR BEST!
The conversation terminated abruptly.
Beth tucked her phone away tersely. "Well, that sucked." She said morosely to Nou.
"Postmaster should be more careful! Nou not be happy if Postmaster get taken offline!"
"Yeah, well it won't just be us. If the Postmaster gets taken offline, everyone will be in a world of hurt. He's the one that organizes all of this, heck, I wouldn't know where to start if it was just agents!"
A low hum cut through the conversation. Beth squinted out into the Australian night, trying to determine what was making the noise.
"Hiya!" A small shape shot in front of her, waving.
"What the frack!?" Beth snapped, stumbling backward. "Who're-what're-what the heck!?"
A small sphere of blue light blipped into existence. The small shape floated into the circle of light it cast.
Beth resisted the grimace that forced to take over her face.
Nou was not so lucky. "Aaaack! What is it?!" He cried out sharply.
The thing was a female, about a foot tall. She was entirely gray in color, and extremely wrinkly. Her wings looked like dry leaves, the veins covered thinly with a crinkly, paper-like skin. She was wearing a dress made of some type of dead plant. Her face was exceptionally disconcerting. Her eye sockets were empty, her lips almost invisible they were so thin. She put her hands on her hips.
Beth raised an eyebrow. "Um..."
The fairy flew up to her face, scrutinizing her with her empty eyes.
Beth shuddered. "Eh, look, we're just here because you left us a note."
The fairy smiled, somehow giving the impression that she was sizing Beth up, as though she were competition for something. "Oh, the Postmaster sent you two!"
"I believe I just said that."
"No matter, you two will do just nicely. I merely wanted to let you see what you were up against. I,” She said with a flourish and elegant bow. “am Nefertiti. Do give my regards to the Postmaster...at his funeral!" She cackled gleefully.
Beth scowled, swatting her sharply out of the air. "You shut up. Oh, and you really aren't pretty. In fact..." Beth snapped a quick photo of her with her phone and displayed it to the fairy.
Nefertiti shrieked. "You LIE! I'm absolutely gorgeous-this is a fake! I'm the Derbyshire Fairy, and I DO NOT LOOK LIKE THAT!"
Beth snickered. "Sorry, but you do."
"You'll pay for this, mark my words, I'll make you pay!" She smiled suddenly. "You-you found the Pentalpha didn't you?"
Nou frowned, looking pensively at Beth.
"Pentalpha? Never heard of it."
"Yeah! Beth and Nou not know Pentalpha."
"You're both lying! I can get it right now! I will make you suffer!" Nefertiti disappeared.
Beth looked over at Nou. "Um...well, to lighten the mood, d'you know her name means "The Perfect One has Come"?
Nou laughed, the off-key sound echoing off into the Australian Outback. "Name no fit! She terrible!" He looked around. "Why Postmaster send us to Australia? Too hot!"
Beth just started to say something and was cut off by Nefertiti reappearing.
She lifted a ring above her head. "I told you I would find it! Now you'll pay!"
Beth's phone vibrated violently. She looked down at it.
THAT FAIRY WHELP JUST STOLE THE PENTALPHA! GET IT BACK FROM HER NOW! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT KIND OF MAYHEM SHE COULD CAUSE WITH THAT!?
"No, I thought she was just going to wear it and laugh at us." Beth responded, the comment dripping sarcasm.
NO TIME FOR JOKES! GET IT BACK!
"Why does he always end conversations like that?" Beth muttered, putting her phone away. "Well, Nou, we have to get it back."
"Nou figured that. How we do that?"
"I have no-oh, crap." Nefertiti was activating the Pentalpha. Beth lunged forward, snatching at the ring.
"Back off!" Nefertiti screeched, clinging to the ring.
"You back off!" Beth retorted, tugging at the ring. "Nou, a little help! This floating dust-bunny is stronger than she looks!"
Nefertiti tittered indignantly at being called a dust-bunny and tugged the ring again. "How dare you! I'm so much more gorgeous than a dust-bunny!"
"Yeah, in what universe?"
"Take that back!"
"Or what, you'll blow pixie dust on me?"
"You-hey, what the-what are you doing?" She snapped at Nou, who had gone behind her and grabbed onto the ring. "You two let go-you have no idea what you're-stop it! STOP IT! You're going to-aaaagggh! Stop it!"
The Pentalpha was glowing brightly; small tentacles of light wisped off it and latched onto Nefertiti.
"No! I hate you! You two stupid humans are going to ruin every-aaaaaaaagggghhhh! Nooooooo!"
The tentacles surrounded her completely, glowing intensely. They flashed brilliantly, and when they faded, nothing but a small pile of smoldering ashes remained.
Beth and Nou looked at what had once been Nefertiti.
"Holy crap..." Beth muttered.
"Guess fairy really was rotten." Nou remarked nonchalantly.
Beth chuckled but stopped abruptly as a ghoulish wail rent the air. She looked down at the Pentalpha. Nefertiti's face was briefly illuminated in its surface.
"I'm not the only minion of my master, just you wait! There are others, even more powerful than I am, and your little tricks won't trap them! The Postmaster will be taken offline, and I'll see to it that you two go with him!" She let out another wail as her face faded.
Beth looked at the ring then up at Nou. "I need a vacation." She said tiredly.
"Ha! Me too."
Beth's phone gave a loud hum.
THIS IS MORE SERIOUS THAN I THOUGHT.
"Oh, look who just came to the party!" Beth commented acridly.
DON'T START WITH ME. IF WHAT NEFERTITI SAID IS CORRECT, WE HAVE MORE TO BE WORRIED ABOUT THAN I INITIALLY ANTICIPATED.
"Well, we have Galdur. He can keep us updated on Flyte's movements. Which reminds me…were you able to life a location off the signal from Galdur’s Flyte-phone?"
YES AND NO. I WAS ABLE TO OBTAIN A PARTIAL SIGNAL, BUT WHEN GALDUR ENTERED THE DIMENSIONAL HOLE WHEREIN FLYTE’S BASE IS LOCATED, I LOST THE SIGNAL. LOCATING HIS BASE IS GOING TO BE DIFFICULT…AND WITH THE SOUL OF HIS LATEST MINION TRAPPED IN THE PENTALPHA, FLYTE WILL BE ONLY MORE EAGER TO GET ME OUT OF THE WAY...REPORT BACK TO HEADQUARTERS. THE OTHER AGENTS SHOULD BE BACK SOON. WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE A PLAN, SHOULD THE WORST HAPPEN.
"Nou and Beth not let Postmaster get offline! We fight Flyte, right, partner?"
"To the last breath! We're on our way, Postmaster." The pair headed off into the night, a permeating sense of for boding dampening the harsh Australian air. There was far worse to come.
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