Warning: Genifa is inspired by an actual person, nobody owns her. The “Golden Glocks” are owned by Showstopper. Remember…WHAT AIN’T MINE, AIN’T MINE!

The Way Of The Melody

Chapter 1: A Second Enagi?

It was a nice sunny morning in the city of Attewa-Kilmeara, capital of the Kingdom of Zyga, on the planet Pavonia, on the 1st of October, 2025. A military “Hover-Vee” or “Huvee” zoomed along the street called Katherine Doi. Four of the five occupants of this tan-camouflaged vehicle new that date quite well. The fifth was still getting used to the new calendar. It was new for her, at any rate.

“Soon we’re kissing civilization goodbye, and headed out to the middle of nowhere,” said the driver. “You sure you want to do this?”

“We need to, Al” chimed a girl who was seated in the middle, in the back. The sunlight shone off her dark hair, and her pinkish, orange and yellowish head-feathers or korona, as she was of a Pavonian, a race that resembled humans, but with the head feathers and tail feathers (or “kula”) of a peacock.

“WE need to? You are the one who’s gonna be the second Enagi, Genifa,” retorted the driver.”

“Don’t be an eejit, Al,” warned the other person in the front. “We have to be protecting Genifa, aye? Princess Sala appointed us their bodyguards! By Mary, we don’t want her at us!”

“You have a point, Seamus!” Albert Jefferson was a US Army sergeant, and part of the multi-national and multi-planetary Pavonian force (“PAVFOR”) that was sent to stop the Golden Glocks, and to help build up Zyga into a true country. The planet of Pavonia itself was relatively untouched, due to it orbiting a star that was nearly blinded out by four others, and being in an area of space with a larger asteroid belt and some unusual nebula clouds. A division of Glocks, a cartel from Earth, established a colony in Zyga, and worked with the corrupt Glissa-Deios, a religious organization that was considered above the law, and ruled with an iron fist. Thanks to a group called the Next-Wave, now known as the Enega Warriors, the Glocks were stopped, and the PAVFOR was put to make sure that the Glocks didn’t resurface, and to protect Zyga. They also helped build up a modern military and police force, and introduced domestic electricity and plumbing. Most of PAVFOR went to Earth when the Enega Warriors returned to inform them how messed up the Earth was, divided between several evil forces. Al was part of the group that remained. With contact from Earth cut-off, they were under control of the Queen of Zyga. Since she went with the Earth group, it was her niece Sala who called the shots. Al was tall and had dark skin. He was from Atlanta in Georgia. He wore a tan Army uniform, as well as a pair of shades.

Riding shotgun to him was Seamus O’Taherty, who was a police officer from Ireland. He was the other person assigned to this mission of protection. His skin was fair and his hair was red. Having no sunglasses, the greenness of his eyes were plain to all to see. He had a slight scar on his left cheek. He wore cargo pants, a khaki shirt, and steel-toed shoes. “So where do we go again?”

“First go to the Dorotea Expressway,” said the Pavonian girl from the backseat. Her name was Genifa Kiriti Pikaku. She was slightly nervous, but didn’t show it. She would be following into the footsteps of her elder sister, and become an Enagi.

“Wow, we’re passing the Fifty Arches,” said a girl on her left, as she looked out the window. The Fifty Arches was a relatively new building, and part of it really seemed out of place, with expansive windows, and not all of the roof having the conical sections of the traditional “trullo” house that most Zygans lived in. It was actually a complex, and was on both sides of the street, linked by skybridge. It had stores and restaurants, and a movie theatre. It was also known for being the first place to have any “Passulators”, taken from “Passu”, or “step”, and “Escalator.” In fact that’s all it was. But to Pavonians it was a novelty. Some were frightened of it, others would make a point of visiting every week just to ride it. There were special attendants, or “Passulator Ladies”, who helped people on and off those moving staircases. In fact the logo for Fifty Arches had a Passulator passing through several arches. There was a large crowd bustling along the sidewalks of the street. Most of them were Pavonian, and their feathers gave it away, as did their distinctive clothing that set them apart from the various outsiders or “e’Xenia” stationed on Pavonia.

“We’ll be so far from it all,” sighed a girl on the other side of Genifa.

“We’ll be back in, like, less than a day, Jemma. Right, Genifa?”

“I don’t know,” was Genifa’s response.

“So, where’s this, you know, Enagi place or whatever?” asked the first girl.

“I only ‘sort of’ know, Alex.”

“Sort of?” she asked. “SORT OF?” she turned livid. “Don’t you have GPS?”

“That’s next to impossible to get set up, Alexandria,” explained Al. “It was shit just getting Zyga covered. There’s distortion clouds, and those four stars. It will take a long time to even get this planet mapped. We just have rough maps that tell us jack.”

“So we’re going after…WHAT?”

“To find the house of the Enagi-u-Khiole, the Enagi of Melody,” explained Genifa. “I was told in dreams.”

“Don’t you have an address?”

“No, only directions. And dreams worked for Katherine.”

“OH MY GOD! This is such a bad day to take on the world! I mean I’m learning to fight and all, but now I’m following an Enegizers?”

“Enagi,” corrected Genifa.

“Cheer up mate,” encouraged Jemma, with a British accent. “As long as we don’t have to ride a bloody sandworm that could eat my house for tea, there’s nothing to worry about! Besides, you’ve been trained by an officer, and we have a squaddie and a cop with us! Well, there aren’t any sandworms, are there, Gen?”

“I wouldn’t know!”

“And our Huvee can go anywhere,” reassured Al. “And it can go real fast. So even if there is a sandworm out there, we’re safe.”

“Why are you talkin’ about sandworms?” asked Alexandria. “We ain’t even in the desert, if there is any.” There was silence. “Hey, I sucked at geography, even though my dad was an ace at it! But I hope there’s no desert, I forgot my sunscreen!”

“We have some packed,” said Seamus,” I well thought of everything.” The Huvee passed under a railroad bridge. “There’s a bridge like that near where I came from.”

“Where’s that?” asked Jemma.

“Cark. Me mother’s from Cark, me father’s from Cark, whole family’s from Cark. There’s a rail bridge over a road, and a man threw a metal ball over it. It buried into the ground when it landed.” Everyone laughed at that.

“Turn on that road, where the red car is going,” indicated Genifa. They followed a red Chevy Impala onto an onramp onto the Dorotea Pikaku Expressway, or “DOPE.” Dorotea was the Last Enagi, or last “old” Enagi, before Katherine. To Genifa, though, Dorotea had a much different significance. She was her paternal imatua, or grandmother. Dorotea told her and the rest of the famiglia many stories about the Enega, the organization of Enagi. “Enagi” could best be described as a kind of “warrior-priestess” or even “sorceress” in service of the Godess Ene (which was also the middle name of Genifa’s sister). It was only recently that she found out her imatua was the last Enagi. She also taught some Enagi techniques to Elena, Genifa’s mother. Why her and not her actual flesh and blood, Biris, was clear. The powers were best wielded by women. It was only in secret that Elena was even trained how to use her Sarandra or inner energy, the type of force that was called Chi by the ancient Chinese and even “The Force” by George Lucas. In secret was the only way, because the Enagi and all those who followed Ene were repressed. Despite all that they did, they were a threat to the Glissa-Deios, so it was that Dorotea was the Last Enagi. But the Glissa-Deios, as they cooperated with the Glocks, they paid for it, and their three leaders were all sent to Earth, to stand trial. It was around the time that Katherine became the First Enagi. Or at least the first new one. Now it seemed certain Genifa would also don the mantle of all that being an Enagi entailed.

“Genifa, this place,” began Seamus, “is in Zyga, is it not?”

“It is not,” replied Genifa. A sigh echoed and reverberated within the vehicle.

“Our cell will be USELESS once we’re far enough,” complained Al. “It’s a good thing our Huvee can go anywhere.”

They continued along the DOPE. They were soon out of Attewa-Kilmeara, and cruising through countryside. There were a few Pavonians who hung out around the highway, watching auto traffic pass by. There were also animals, most notably Moogs, or four-headed bulldogs, and Legata, which resembled smaller alligators. A creature that resembled a cross between a monkey and a flying squirrel quickly glided across the road in front of them. “Hey, why don’t we have some music?” suggested Al.

“I’d be happy to,” replied Genifa. She sung something in Pavonian. The men in the front liked it. The two girls in the back didn’t like it as much.

“We should teach you a real song,” suggested Alexandria, once she was finished. She and Jemma sang in unison.

“My boyfriend’s better than yours.

Yours crawls around on fours.

I have the world’s coolest hair.

You got yours from an electric chair.

So shush it, just shush it, just shush it, good,

Just shush it, just shush it, shush it, you should!”

“You want good music?” asked Seamus. He pressed some buttons. The song “Crooked Jack” played.

Al laughed loud. “Now you want some MUSIC? Check this out!” He put on the song “Girl Fight” by DJ Tigarah. It was entirely in Japanese.

“What’s this about?” asked Genifa.

“I have no idea!”

“That makes five of us,” joked Alexandria.

They continued down the highway, sometimes passing a communications tower with cell, satellite and Hyperwave facilities (invariably near the highway), sometimes passing signs about nearby places of interest, gas stations and restaurants (mostly of chains from other places), and sometimes passing signs indicating villages or towns, or sometimes the “military county.” While Zyga was one country, it was divided into military counties or sectors, each one under the control of a different military or militaries. The DOPE alone passed through ninety-eight such regions. The signs would very according to who was in charge militarily, although Pavonian was on all signs, along with English, and whatever language was used by the military county authorities. Most locals didn’t bother to learn the names of the regions, especially since they’d only be temporary. Traditional divisions were what mattered.

--------------------------

It was in a Canadian military county that the DOPE came to its end. “Genifa, we’re here,” said Al.

“Left,” said Genifa. The vehicle turned left, onto a local road. They passed a few trulli, as well as a sign advertising a radio station.

“We’re gettin’ near the border!”

“I’ll say goodbye to civilization now,” joked Seamus.

The plain was dotted with trulli, and they approached a sign. It was written in many languages. “WARNING: YOU ARE APPROACHING THE PERIMETER. THERE IS A KNOWN RISK OF DAKOITA GANGS. NO UNSUPERVISED CHILDREN ALLOWED. CELL AND RADIO COVERAGE ENDS AT AN UNKNOWN DISTANCE BEYOND THE BORDER. LEAVING ZYGA IS DONE AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. IF GOING TO/FROM AN EXCLAVE, ARMED GUARD IS ESSENTIAL.” It had the Royal Seal of the House of Kameo, as well as UN, NATO, and other logos on it.

“So what country’s on the other side again?” asked Jemma.

“None,” replied Al. “This is the wild wild west we’re in!”

“And we’re real cowboys, pardner,” jested Seamus with a fake accent. “We have to be prepared for outlaws!” He opened his glove compartment, checked the weapons kept there, and closed it. “We’re armed.”

“I’m real glad Sala thinks this is important, because things will get ugly, you realize that, don’t you, Genifa?”

“Yes,” replied Genifa. They continued along a road through a plain. Trees were less frequent now. In the distance they saw it. Oddly shaped pillars, traditional Zygan columns, were set up, with Duraglas, barbed wire, and sensor wires. Towers were placed at intervals. Each tower had a wooden ladder leading up to it. The top was a cylindrical room with a conical roof and all-around windows. Atop each roof were metal tubes connected to bars that connected to each other. The tubes were perforated, and if the metal bars in the middle were spun, wind through the tubes would make a whining noise. Most of these towers, however, were unstaffed, having automatic cameras instead. It was easy to see that most of the border defenses were new, put in place by e’Xenia. The road led to a large gate. Flanking it were towers that were staffed, and flags hanging from the sides. The gate was electronic and in two sections. There were also pre-fab buildings outside the gates, and a variety of armed forces personnel by them. Two Polish soldiers approached the Huvee as it came to the gate.

“Good, you’re armed and protected,” said one of them.

“You’re well guarded, girls, but you’d be better with us,” joked the other one.”

“I’ll remember that,” joked Jemma.

“We’re safe,” said Al, as he flashed his card. The Huvee went through the gate, and outside Zyga. The road continued for some distance, and small yellow signs with cryptic indicators such as “E-52” and “Begin Marking Point” lined the route. But there were no more settlements, and the only other traffic they saw was a dump truck passing the other way, with an armored personnel carrier right behind it. The paving abruptly ended, and they were above sand, that whooshed as the Huvee passed over it. The grass thinned out, and the ground became uneven, and a mixture of orange, yellow, and green.

“Turn right,” said Genifa.” They turned off the crude road, and nearly hit a sign marked “U-2”, that had “Bloody Sunday” scrawled in red between the U and the 2.

A wind howled, and small clouds where racing by in the sky. “WHY?” asked Alexandria. “Why did it have to be here?”

“It isn’t,” corrected Genifa. “We must go beyond.”

“It figures!” A chorus of grunts was heard in the car.

“You don’t have to grunt because you’re angry!”

“It wasn’t me!”

“I thought it was you!” More grunts, and a rumble outside. They saw them. Large buffalo-like creatures, some of them had four horns, some of them with six.

“KETRA! PAMPLONA!” screamed Genifa.

“You don’t have to get your knickers in a knot,” suggested Jemma. “You’re the one who needs to be here, so don’t swear!”

“Swear?”

“Ketra and Pamplona aren’t swear words?”

“No.”

“What are they?”

Genifa pointed to one of the windows. “Four horns: Ketra. Six horns: Pamplona.”

“Two words: bloody hell!” Jemma shook and tightly held Genifa.

Some of the beasts had riders on them. A cloud of dust kicked up as they approached.

“STEP ON IT!” yelled Seamus.

To be continued…

Shoutouts: The Usual

Author’s Notes: So, we have another Enagi on the horizon, or do we? And how will they get out of this? Answers will be revealed….