Chapter 86: Trouble in Paradise
Candi turned to look at the looming Alpha Indigo Hospital and marveled at how large the starship was. In fact, it looked almost like a warship.
As they entered in through the airlock, Slate eased the harness off her and she was able to sit up a bit more comfortably instead of lying almost directly on top of him as she had been.
This hospital visit confirmed something that Candi had been thinking about for awhile but could never substantiate.
Something was terribly wrong with Erenveil.
For attackers to be able to penetrate the royal palace in the middle of a ball was something so outrageous that it would have been unthinkable.
Except it had happened.
It was also unthinkable for Slate's own warship captain to debilitate Slate and hold him for ransom. Something of that magnitude could have only happened as an inside job.
But that had ALSO happened.
Something was terribly wrong with Erenveil and it was getting worse each day.
The more time Candi spent on Erenveil, the more she realized that the peaceful calm exterior of the world was only a thin veneer that hid much turbulence underneath.
The three Princes of war, Slate, Dante, and Leonardo, each held within their control, a huge number of starships that were capable of defending their vast territories.
Of the three, only Slate's star ships were conspicuous warships.
Dante held his star ships under the guise of commerce guard ships while Leonardo flew the easily identifiable blue and white medical logo on his hospital ships.
Still, she had no doubt that in times of war, Leonardo's ships could easily turn into defensive machinery.
This Avgo Event was actually a brutal competition grab for the top power prize. No wonder it was a no-holds-barred fight to the death.
Kingdoms and worlds jockeyed their women into position for a stab at the prized Empress position in order to obtain half the power of the Erenveil Empire.
It was a magnet for all the turbulence and strife to rise to the surface as greed for power and wealth became the driving factor that propelled the Avgo Event into something that was dark and ruthless.
She only hoped she could survive it to the end.
========
Deep within the bowels of the Royal Palace, Jenna gave an inhuman spurt of cougar speed, leaping with all her feline might at the attacker.
She had left the bleeding Candace Farrah behind to pursue the attacker knowing that the Princes were immediately behind her. They could take care of the human female.
She wanted a piece of this trash.
"ROAAARRRR!!!" She growled as her long sharp carmine claws extruded from her paws.
As the attacker looked back, he saw a ferocious cougar with deadly green eyes and sharp glistening fangs descending upon him.
She was wearing a fluffy creamy lacy ball gown which did nothing to hamper the speed at which she was coming at him.
Her claws were outstretched, their tips razor sharp.
"Aaaaaaaaarrrgggghhh!!!" He screamed as she swiped her nails across his face, raking up his cheeks and exposing his teeth and mouth cavity.
Those same bloody claws were now around his throat.
"Who sent you?" She growled.
He choked as urine leaked from his pants, staining her creamy lacey ball gown.
"Speak!" She tightened her claws on his throat just as Jason and Jared arrived on the scene.
"Em—Emporian Princess." He muttered.
Jenna raised her eyes up at the twin Princes.
"You heard that, right?" She asked.
They nodded.
She squeezed her claws, crushing his windpipe.
"Kaaaaaaccchhhh!!!" The attacker choked and fell back as Jenna released her choke hold of his throat.
Jenna stood up and, with one swipe of her sharp claws, tore the skirt of the large ballgown off.
Jared and Jason winced and looked away.
"What?" Jenna scowled.
She pressed her lips together as she realized she had bared herself in front of two Princes of Erenveil, dressed in nothing but the bodice of her dress and her bikini panties.
"He peed on my skirt." Jenna snarled, looking away.
Jason and Jared tried to hold back their choking laughter.
"Thank you for catching the attacker." Jared took off his outer robe and placed it over her shoulders. "We owe you our thanks."
"We also owe you a brand new outfit." Jason added.
========
While Jenna, Jared, and Jason were flying down one end of the hall, Dante and Byron were dashing down the other hallway after the attacker who had slashed Candi and robbed her of the pink gemstone around her neck.
The hallway was too small for them to transform into their bat wings or they would have caught him sooner.
Nevertheless, a thug for hire could never possibly run from two powerful Princes of Erenveil, especially after they had witnessed the attacker injuring their woman so grievously.
Within a few minutes, they had jumped on the thug and slammed him to the ground.
Dante was behind him, twisting his arms out of their sockets while Byron had his foot on the man's head, grinding his face into the hard slate floor of the palace hallway.
Dante's fangs were extended and his eyes had turned blood red. Unlike before, on the ballroom floor, he was no longer even trying to hide his transformation. He was out for blood and he was not leaving until he was satiated.
As he pocketed Candace's pink jeweled necklace, Dante yanked hard on the attacker's arm for good measure.
"Aaaaahhhh!!!" The man squealed in pain.
"Who sent you?" Byron asked.
"Aaaaahhhh!!!" The man screamed again.
"I guess he's not going to talk, so I'll take one of his arms. The one that hurt my Candace. Was he right-handed or left-handed, Byron?"
"Hmmm. I think he's right-handed, but I'm not 100% sure."
"Right arm it is."
"Aaaaahhhh!!!" The man screamed in panic. "I'll talk, I'll talk!!!"
He huffed and puffed with pain.
"Earth. Earth Ambassador wanted the pink Avgo to be returned to him because it had been stolen. I'm just taking it back from the thief who stole it AAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
THUNK THUNK
Two arms promptly got detached from the shoulder joints and fell to the floor.
"AAAAHHHHHHH AAAAHHHHHHH AAAAHHHHHHH"
Dante took a delicate signature handkerchief and rubbed the blood from his razor sharp claws.
It was nasty bloody work, but alas. He didn't have a sword on him at the moment, so out of necessity, he had to dirty his finger nails.
He grimaced at Byron and dropped the handkerchief on the bloody stumps of the man who was still alive and howling in pain.
"I couldn't tell if it was the right hand that hurt my Candace or the left hand, so I took both."
"Good call." Byron nodded.
They both turned away, leaving the man on the floor to bleed to death in the hallway.
By the time Byron and Dante returned to the backstage area, Lucas and Leonardo had already left for the Alpha Indigo Hospital, right behind Slate and Candace.
There was no further reason to stay at the Royal Ball so they took off for Dante's Moon to await the return of their Princess.
Meanwhile, Jason and Jared had taken Jenna into their private transport pod to get her changed into something more appropriate.
Once they emerged, Jenna was more appropriately dressed in a sleek black sequined dress that made her cougar spots pop with visual appeal.
She seemed to be far more comfortable as well and held her head high as she walked back to the area where her group was located. She was, after all, wearing an exclusive design that the Twin Princes of Erenveil had created just for her.
Once the twins had ensured that she was cared for, they returned to the Royal Banquet Table to keep an eye on the Royal family.
It seemed as if nobody else knew what had happened behind the curtains. The festivities and revelry continued on throughout the night without stop.
By this time, the Princes had regrouped via visuals and exchanged what they had gathered from the two attackers.
It did not take long to see that both Earth and Emporia were partners of the same crime, but for very different reasons.
All the Princes were of one mind about one thing.
It was time to clean house.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone