The Mantis Synchronicity - Book Five - 34. Chapter 34 - Dozi, Tchama, & Djaruki

It was the middle of the afternoon and the sun was shining, as Dozi and Tchama headed to the Shifton Youth Outreach Center. Auntie Peg and Dotty Marbles had invited them to come meet the three new arrivals.

“Hi, gals,” Auntie Peg said as Dozi and Tchama entered. The queens gave them each little air kisses, and Auntie Peg added, “Dot and I intended to introduce you to all three of our new friends, but the younger two girls have run upstairs to play with Fennah. There’s no telling when they’ll come back down.” Auntie Peg chuckled. “Dozi, Tchama, this is Djaruki; Djaruki, Dozi and Tchama.”

“Djaruki,” Tchama repeated, stepping up to her, “great to meet you!”

Djaruki replied, “It’s nice to meet you both.”

“Likewise,” Dozi added, “and welcome to our city. When did you get here?”

“I arrived a few days ago with the two girls Peggy just mentioned.”

Dotty Marbles chimed in, “And the pair of them are fitting in great with the other kids here at the center.”

Dozi glanced around herself at the building and said, “Djaruki, you’re too old for this place. Why don’t you move in with Tchama and me, and we can see how it works for a while?”

Tchama wrapped her one arm around Dozi and agreed, “That’s a great idea! We live in the neighborhood, not far from the center. You’d be able to come here anytime you wanted, but with us, you’d also have your own space.”

Djaruki was surprised by the generous offer. “Really? Are you both sure?”

Tchama leaned close to her and whispered, “This is what Dozi does.”

Dozi shrugged and smiled warmly. “A few different women have stayed with me over my two years in Teshon City. You’re welcome to join us, Djaruki.”

“Where are the other women now?” Djaruki asked.

Tchama chuckled. “You already know two of them. Harakin and Sumi, who work here with Peggy and Dot at the center, they stayed with Dozi for a while when they first got to town. She also took me in,” Tchama added, “when I was at a pretty low point in my life.”

Dozi snickered. “Yeah, Tchama was… a little tipsy when we met.” She laughed again. “The first real friend I made in Teshon City, though,” Dozi stated, “was a skinny girl named Agrell.” Dozi grinned at the fond memory. “She turned out to be quite the hero.”

Tchama added to Djaruki, “I didn’t get to meet Agrell. She sacrificed herself to save the entire city!”

“That might be a bit of an exaggeration,” Dozi replied, “but she did save a lot of this city’s most persecuted citizens.”

Djaruki had heard a little about the fall of the underground from Auntie Peg and Dotty Marbles, and she asked, “The Bio-Shifts?”

Tchama nodded. “I was young when I moved to Teshon City, and the Bio-Shifts all still lived in the underground at that time…”

“But now they get to be out here with the rest of us,” Djaruki replied, “which is much better.”

“Indeed it is,” Auntie Peg agreed.

Dozi added, “The Messiahs may have destroyed the underground, but thanks to Agrell and a few other brave folks, many of the people who had been living below were saved.”

Djaruki was confused. “Wait, what are Messiahs?”

“Peggy’s one,” Dozi replied, “or an ex-Messiah, I should say.”

Auntie Peg struck a little pose.

Dozi glanced at Tchama, who rolled her eyes and laughed. “Djaruki,” Tchama said, “Dozi wants to tell you that I’m one too, but I’m not. The process that Messiahs use to enhance themselves was also used on me, to save my life when my arm got blasted off and I was dying. I’m as strong as Peggy, but I’m something else.” Tchama pulled Dozi into another one-armed hug and grinned at Djaruki. “We’d love for you to join us!”

“Yeah,” Dozi confirmed, “unless you want to work with the kids here at the center like Harakin and Sumi do, I agree with Tchama that you should move in.”

It did not take much convincing for Djaruki to accept. She brought her few things with her that afternoon and joined the other two women in their new home. Her first night with them was uneventful. It included a meat pie prepared by Dozi, and the trio made an early night of it. The next day, Djaruki secured herself as an unquestionable part of the family.

Dozi was going foraging, and she invited Tchama and Djaruki, who both happily joined her. It was already past midday when they headed out, and Dozi knew the tarmac was going to be blazing hot. Before the trio reached it, they turned a corner and found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. At the far end of the street, a group of people was carrying weapons and stomping in their direction!

“Who are they?” Djaruki asked. “I thought this was a place where people were more accepting.”

“Come on!” Dozi urged. “This way!”

The trio ducked into a teahouse called the Dusty Oyster, which they knew was friendly to all kinds of people. Thinking themselves out of harm’s way, they stepped up to the counter to order beverages.

“So who are they?” Djaruki said again.

“Demifae,” Dozi replied as the owner asked what they wanted, but he was not paying attention to them. He was focused on the front door.

“I’ll have a penny flip latte, please,” Tchama requested.

The man did not respond to her, and to the women’s alarm, he raised a spiked club from behind the counter.

The door smashed in, and Dozi, Djaruki, and Tchama spun around as the mob attacked the teahouse and those inside.

The owner was not the only one prepared for the onslaught, and two more men armed with swords came barreling out of the back storeroom. The guests of the café were not prepared for the violence they were suddenly thrust into. Everyone inside found themselves targeted by the villains.

The attackers struck out with blades and bludgeons, and someone at the back of the gang shouted, “Kill them!”

Patrons to the Dusty Oyster screamed in fear and pain. Tables were flipped and glasses shattered.

Djaruki snatched Dozi by her bulky clothes and yanked her back from being slashed by a sword that came swinging through the air.

“What the fuck?!” Dozi squawked at the attackers as she stumbled into Tchama, and both of them fell back against the counter.

“Die, Shift-lovers! Demifae forever!”

One of the Dusty Oyster’s guests caught a club to the back of the head and went down. Another was stabbed in the guts.

The owner of the teahouse and his two companions were fighting back. The man’s spiked bat slammed into one of the Demifae’s torsos and ripped out a huge chunk of his chest. Both the other men stabbed another Demifae attacker in unison.

Tchama positioned her invulnerable body with Dozi and Djaruki behind her, and she deflected a brutal sword swipe, as if the weapon was merely a twig. She punched the Demifae swordsman with the power of a wrecking ball, and the man crumpled around her fist and fell to the floor.

Djaruki was terrified, but when the owner of the café was stabbed in his neck and fell backward toward her, spraying her in the face with his blood, Djaruki knew she needed to do something. She sidestepped Tchama and issued a targeted pulse wave from her heart directed at the bottleneck of villains who were trying to shove their way into the little building. Djaruki’s invisible force hit the front of the teahouse and the Demifae.

The windows shattered to sand-like particles; the frame around the doorway splintered, and the attackers at the entrance stopped in their tracks. Most wobbled where they stood, and many coughed up blood. The enemies behind those who had just been incapacitated were horrified, as their fellow Demifae began to drop to the street. The ones still outside fell silent.

“What’s wrong with you?” Djaruki shrieked at the remaining Demifae. “Why won’t you leave other people alone?! We were just trying to have a cup of tea!”

One of them bellowed, “Filthy Shift!” and he threw a little purple orb in her direction.

Djaruki unleashed another devastating pulse wave that vaporized the glass ball and its contents in midair. Her defensive attack also hit several more Demifae. Their eyeballs popped in their sockets, and their bodies convulsed where they stood, but they did not scream in pain as they fell to their knees and collapsed to the street; their brains had liquefied.

“Why did you make me do this?!” Djaruki wailed. “I don’t want to hurt anyone!”

Many dead and dying bodies were clumped together at the doorway of the café, and the very few Demifae survivors who were still in the street gawked at their fallen companions. The would-be killers backed away from those they had intended to kill.

Tchama gently took Djaruki’s hand, and they looked at each other. “Djaruki, are you okay?”

Djaruki replied in a miserable voice. “I didn’t want to do that.”

Tchama pulled her into a one-armed hug. “You saved all of us.”

Dozi stepped up to the two of them and added, “Djaruki, I for one, greatly appreciate you doing that.” She was looking down at the Demifae corpses. The owner of the café and several of his patrons were among the dead.

“Let’s get out of here,” Tchama urged. She encouraged Djaruki toward the door.

“I agree,” Dozi added, taking Djaruki’s hand.

Several of the injured people in the café were helping each other, as Djaruki, Dozi, and Tchama headed to the door. They clambered over the bodies and tried not to get any of the slime from the dead on them. Out in the street, the other Demifae had fled.

“I didn’t want to hurt anyone,” Djaruki repeated in a choked voice. Her eyes had welled with tears, but then she noticed a streak of blood smeared on her palm. “What the…” She quickly checked herself over and realized it had not come from her; she saw the source. “Oh, you’re bleeding!” Djaruki pointed at Dozi’s hand.

Dozi glanced at it and raised her arm. Blood had trickled down her sleeve and run over her knuckles. “How’d that happen?”

“Let me fix you!”

Dozi and Tchama stared at Djaruki.

“Fix me?” Dozi repeated. “What do you mean?”

“It’s part of what I can do,” Djaruki replied quickly. “Please, just let me heal you.”

Tchama asked, “You can heal her?”

“Yes,” Djaruki confirmed, nodding at Dozi. “Take off your jacket.”

“Let’s head home first,” Dozi countered. “My arm doesn’t hurt at all, and I’m not bleeding too bad; I’d rather deal with it back at the house.” However, Dozi began to slide off her bulky jacket, and she winced. “What the fuck?” she hissed through her teeth. “Okay, yeah, it hurts.” There was a small shard of metal sticking out of her upper arm. “How did that get there?” she asked, gingerly touching it. She took a sharp breath. “Oooh, it’s in there!”

The three of them stopped walking, and Djaruki looked at Tchama. “Let’s deal with it right now. I’m sorry, but in all the chaos, I’ve forgotten both your names. Please, pull it out of her arm, and I’ll heal her.”

“Heal me?” Dozi asked.

Djaruki nodded. “Please let her take it out of you.”

Dozi replied in a reluctant mumble, “Okay.”

Tchama grinned at her. “Ready, Dozi? On the count of three…”

“I don’t trust you,” Dozi interjected. “I know you, Tchama. You’re gonna pull it out on one!”

Tchama snorted a laugh and admitted, “I totally was,” and she yanked the metal out of Dozi’s arm without counting at all.

Dozi let out a scream; Djaruki was already using her powers to stitch the wound back together. Dozi gritted her teeth and groaned. She grabbed Tchama’s one hand and squeezed it with all her might. Dozi gasped, and her knees gave out, but Tchama caught her. Djaruki was concentrating on the gash in Dozi’s arm. It was meticulously bound and healed by her energies, and she released her power.

Dozi let out a relieved breath, and she got her feet stable under her again. She massaged her arm, which was still sore, but it no longer bore the severe flesh wound. Dozi stared at Djaruki. “Thanks,” she said weakly. She was in awe. “You can do incredible things.” She glanced back at the pile of corpses behind them, and then at her arm again. “I can’t believe you were able to just heal me like that.” Dozi rubbed her arm harder; it was continuing to feel better by the moment. “How is this even possible?”

“I don’t know,” Djaruki replied sheepishly. “I don’t know how I can do that.”

“Well I’m very glad you can,” Tchama added. “Now, let’s get ourselves home, and we can go mushroom hunting another time.”

“Are you kidding?!” Dozi retorted. “Djaruki’s patched me up, and I don’t know about you two, but my adrenaline is still spiking, so the last thing I want to do right now is sit at home. Let’s go find some moonshrooms!”

Without any warning at all, Djaruki suddenly collapsed to the street in unconsciousness★