Sakuya's Butler
A refined Butler to a knife wielding Mistress.
- Location
- ↓, ↘, → + Punch
Go read a prior chapter where Contessa was flat out demanded of an answer by Eidolon & Alexandria about the Path, and the 'new' cost of said Path, and she answered with one of the most relaxed and open smiles ever along with something along the lines of "Much much lower."
Dark Mage
Sanity is really overrated...
- Location
- Out of My Mind
As soon as I read that Glastig Ulaine knew that Mike enter that Scion knew also.
Now why didn't any of the three think about that when they left the Birdcage?
Part Fifty-One: Zion
- Location
- Australia
Security!
Part Fifty-One: Zion
Mike
"- hillside!"
I dropped my phone as I came to my feet, my combat mods kicking in at full power. The glare outside intensified and I heard the roof explode. The house shook. We had seconds, at most.
I had been sitting at one side of the table, with Gladys beside me. Danny had been at my left, at the end of the table, with Taylor opposite me and Amy opposite Gladys. Grabbing the table by the edge, I heaved it up above everybody's heads and around so that the flat was presented toward the window.
Not a split second too soon; just as I did so, the window blew in, spraying glass in a deadly pattern across the kitchen. The table caught most of it; I covered Gladys with my body, intercepting the rest. I felt the stinging of the glass shards as they sank into my back, but I didn't have time to worry about it. The portal formed between us all, right where the table had been.
There was no time for politeness; I grabbed Gladys, chair and all, and pitched her through. Then I reached for Danny, but he was already grabbing Taylor. I shoved him through the portal; his grip on Taylor's arm meant that she followed. This left just Amy and myself in the stricken house.
A tremendous crash above us heralded the demise of the ceiling and possibly the floor of the upper storey, because deadly blades of golden energy were now slashing down through the ceiling. There was one between Amy and the portal. I instinctively knew that if she touched it, she would be horribly injured or even killed. As durable as I was, it would hurt me too, but … Fuck it. I'm not leaving her.
Holding my chair over my head as temporary cover, I stepped over to her. The chair disintegrated in my hands as I got to her, but it had lasted long enough. With one arm around her waist, I covered her with my body as I leaped through the portal. An indescribable pain lanced through my left shoulder and back, but the endorphins kicked in, dulling the pain.
We hit green grass and rolled down a slope, passing Gladys' chair on the way. Every time I rolled on to my back, it hurt, but I couldn't be bothered with that at the moment. We skidded to a stop and I let her go, then looked around. Halfway up the green grassy hillside – which was what I had named the prearranged waypoint for – an opaque golden beam stabbed through the now-closing portal. A tremendous explosion rocked the ground and we ducked as debris showered around us. As the echoes died away, I saw that the portal had closed, but where we had come through was now a crater five metres deep and ten wide.
Vicky
"It's not my fault. It's not my fault. It's not my fault." Vicky kicked the concrete bench; it skidded several yards back. "Amy shouldn't have done that to me. She knows I hate mind control."
Turning, she paced back across the observation area and took hold of the metal fence. The bars began to bend under her fingers as she continued her diatribe. "It's his fault. He's the one who turned her against me. Everyone loves him. But what's he ever done for Ames? I've been her sister since forever."
Letting go of the fence, she was about to go back to the bench again when a light bloomed across Brockton Bay. She stared; it was a golden beam, stabbing down from above. Debris was thrown far and wide; even at a distance of several miles, she could see that. And then the shockwave reached her, transmitted through the ground.
The golden light's gone, she noted absently as she took to the air. But the sound should be getting here any moment now ….
BOOOOM.
She was flying faster now. That's where the Hebert house is. Oh, god. Amy.
The shockwave would have thrown her backward, had she not been determined to get to the epicentre of the explosion. As it was, she felt several gravel impacts, but her invulnerability took care of them.
It didn't take long before she was over the top of where the explosion had occurred; a vast cloud of smoke and dust was forming overhead. Hovering for a moment, she surveyed the crater. A full quarter-mile across, it was centred on where the Hebert house had once stood. There was absolutely no sign of any part of the house, or its inhabitants. The attack had been sudden and devastating. If I'd been there, maybe I could have saved her.
Flying down, she surveyed the bottom of the crater. Not a sign remained of anything that could even be construed as wreckage. It was starting to fill up with water from broken pipelines; more may have been seeping up from below.
There wasn't even a body. Grief clutched at her heart. Oh, god, Amy. I am so damn sorry. You died thinking that I hated you.
Abstractly, she was aware that the war had begun, but she found that she could not care enough to worry about it. Moving as if guided by an outside force, she flew to the nearest house that wasn't utterly destroyed, and began to search for survivors. It's what she would do.
Mike
Shunting the pain to the back of my mind, I climbed to my feet. Amy was wide-eyed, staring at the crater then at me. Nearby, Danny was helping Gladys to her feet; Taylor was already upright.
"Everybody all right?" I asked. "Nobody's seriously hurt?" I started toward Danny. "You good to go?"
"What – what was that?" demanded Danny. "What happened to my house?"
"Zion," I told him bluntly. "Now, we gotta -"
"Mike, your back!" gasped Amy. "You're injured!"
"No time. We can't wait here," I told them, mentally flicking through options. "Come on. Doorway to Atoll."
The portal unfolded before us; I stepped through. As my boots crunched on to coral sand, the others followed me through. The portal closed behind us. I looked around, especially upward, seeking a telltale golden glint in the sky. I had picked a location that would be under the cover of night, so that Zion's glow would be particularly evident.
There was no such glow, although the moonless night allowed for a truly gorgeous look at the starlit sky. But all the pinpricks of light were steady, unmoving. A gentle breeze brought the smell of salt water and rotting seaweed to my nostrils; I could hear the sound of waves slapping on the beach. The biggest thing that attacked us was about a thousand and one mosquitoes.
"Where are we?" asked Danny, slapping at one.
Amy was more practical. "Let me see your back."
"No time. He might be tracking us." I took a deep breath of the cool night air. "Doorway to Sanctuary."
We stepped from the coral atoll to the outskirts of the village that I had once whimsically called Area Fifty-Three. My back was really starting to hurt now. Here, it was mid-afternoon; people turned and stared as I hustled through to the village square, the others trailing behind me. A simple bell had been set up here, next to the village well, and I rang it, hard. More people appeared, crowding forward. Voices rose, demanding to know what was going on.
"Mike!" Amy's voice had that tone in it that got my attention. "Stand still. I need to deal with your wounds."
"It's okay," I assured her. "My subdermal armour took it. I'll be fine. It's only pain."
"Your subdermal armour isn't there any more," she corrected me. "It got burned away too, along with part of your left shoulderblade. Now hold still."
I'd been wondering why my left arm wasn't working properly. I held still.
Amy was still working on me – I could feel small shards of glass sliding out of the skin of my back and shoulders, even as new skin grew back in – when Paige pushed her way to the front of the still-growing crowd. She was accompanied by a worried-looking Sveta and a man whom I didn't recognise; however, given that he didn't show any sign of being a Case 53, I guessed that he was Joe McKenzie, PRT corporal and now Paige's other half.
"Mike," Paige greeted me. "What's happened? You've been hurt."
"I'll be good in a second," I assured her. "It's happening now. Zion's kicked off the offensive. He went after Taylor and me first. Not sure why. You all know what your job is, right?"
Paige nodded. "Stay put and stay together. Be as innocuous as possible."
I nodded. "Good. And that thing I stashed here? Have it ready when and if I come for it. Plus, I've got a couple of guests for you. This is Danny and this is Gladys. Take care of them. They're good people."
Looking even more worried, Paige nodded. "What are you going to be doing?"
I took a deep breath. Thanks to Amy's work, it didn't hurt. "Something stupid, I guess."
"Wait, Taylor's not staying here with me?" Danny shook his head. "She's my daughter. Where she goes, I go."
"Danny, I'm sorry. But Taylor's got a job to do. She's been training for it. She needs to go do it." I didn't see if I was getting through to him, because Paige grabbed my arm.
"What do you mean, something stupid?" she demanded. "Mike, you mean a lot to us too. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here!"
I took Paige by the shoulders. "Look," I told her. "I gotta do what I gotta do. If I don't, everyone dies. That means everyone here as well, eventually."
"But we need you," she insisted.
I shook my head. "I've given you the chance to have a good life. It's up to you to make the best of it. I'm glad for you. I really am. But I do have to go do this thing."
Abruptly, she grabbed me and hugged me. I hugged her back. "Take care, kiddo," I told her. A moment later, I felt a metal arm go around me; my nostrils picked up the faint odour of fish. Oh, good. She has been taking the boat out. "And you too, Sveta," I added.
I disengaged from them, only to be grabbed by Gladys. "Michael Allen, I want you to do one thing for me," she whispered in my ear.
"What's that?" I asked, holding her just as tightly as she was holding me.
"Go kick Scion's golden ass up between his shoulder-blades."
I knew there was a reason I liked her so much.
She kissed me before I could answer, not that I was objecting. I kissed her back, wishing we could hold on like that forever. But every good moment has to end sooner or later.
"I'll do that just for you," I promised her once we disengaged. "Twice."
She giggled damply, trying to hide the tears. "Go. Do what you have to."
To hell with the deadline; I grabbed her and kissed her again. "I love you," I whispered. She was crying too hard to give me her answer, but I figured I knew what it was anyway.
When I turned away from her, mouth already opening to order the next Doorway, Danny Hebert stepped in front of me. Instead of hugging me, he grabbed my hand and shook it firmly. "You've done more for Taylor and me than I can ever repay," he said simply. "Good luck, whatever you do. And take care of my daughters for me."
"Thank you, and I'll do my best," I assured him. We were running short on time; I stepped into a clear area. "Doorway to Medical."
Riley
Riley looked up as the Doorway opened. Mike stepped through, followed by two girls. Each of them was dressed reasonably well, though it looked as though a lot had happened since they had put those clothes on. Mike, in particular, looked as though he'd been through a wood-chipper backwards, while Amy was missing part of the side of her skirt. The other girl just looked extremely rumpled and very upset.
The blonde turned to the orderlies who had been following her around. "Like I just showed you," she ordered. "Bandages, painkillers and antibiotics beside each bed. Get back to me when you've finished that."
The medical area had been set up in a natural cavern; Riley didn't know where it was on Earth, or even which Earth it was actually on. But there was air and water and electricity, and that was all she really needed. Line after line of beds were arrayed on the hastily-smoothed stone floor. Scapegoat and Othala and a few others were already here; like Riley, they had been snatched up within thirty seconds of the Brockton Bay attack. Ordinary medical personnel had already been on station.
She hurried over to where the trio had appeared. "Mike! Amy! Uh … what's-your-name! Good, you're alive!"
Amy nodded. "Yeah, but it was close. Real close. Mike took a hit and lost some of your subdermal armour."
Riley stopped and glared at Mike. "Really? You lost it? Seriously? I surgically implanted that stuff for a reason."
"He also lost two ribs and part of his left shoulder-blade," Amy interrupted tiredly. "I fixed him up, but he's got no protection from that side."
"I could do something -" began Riley, but this time it was Mike who broke in.
"No. No time. I gotta go. Gotta get Taylor to where she needs to be."
"And then, he says, he's gonna go do something really stupid," Amy added.
Riley rolled her eyes. "So what else is new?" She grabbed Mike in a hug, feeling the new skin on his back where his shirt was no longer in existence. "This is where you go get yourself killed, isn't it?"
"Yeah," he admitted, wrapping his arms around her in turn. "But if I do it right, I save the world. And that's almost worth it. I guess."
His tone was brave, but she could feel his hearts hammering. He was terrified.
She wasn't feeling much better. Pulling his face down to her level, she planted a kiss on his forehead. "You helped make me back into a person. I'll never forget that."
And then it was Amy's turn. She held Mike so tightly that Riley wondered if his upgraded skeleton could take it. What Amy said to him was too quiet for Riley to hear, but it seemed to satisfy them both. When they disengaged, he offered his fist to bump. Amy did so, then Taylor followed suit. Riley wasn't used to this fist-bumping thing – isn't that something that construction workers do? - but she offered her own fist as well.
"Okay, we really gotta go," Mike urged. "Ready, Taylor?"
Taylor turned to Amy. "See you when we're done, sis."
"See you then, sis," Amy responded; the two briefly shared a fist-bump of their own.
"Doorway to Tactical." That was Mike. The portal opened; the big man and the skinny girl stepped through. It closed behind them.
Riley turned to Amy. "What's this 'sis' thing about? That's my joke."
Amy took a deep breath. "Well, uh …"
Mike
The members of the tactical think-tank were still finding their seats as we stepped through the portal. However, they were almost all here, which was a good thing. Thank god for those middle-of-the-night drills that Piggot insisted on. They really work.
There were guards posted around the room; as we appeared, guns snapped up to point in our direction, red dots dancing all over us like the reflections from a really serious disco ball. But the weapons looked normal, which made me wonder. Wasn't L33t working on a Zion killer?
"Security and Weaver, reporting in," I stated out loud; the guards relaxed slightly, the weapons lowering. Of course, they should have recognised Taylor as Weaver, but … ah crap, she's out of costume.
"Taylor," I said in an undertone as we headed for the main table, "do you have a spare costume anywhere? As in, not in the house?" Because the house wasn't there anymore.
"I, uh, think I've got one in the PRT building," she replied. "Why? Is this important? My secret identity isn't that big a deal right now, is it?"
I grimaced. "It's about appearances. You need to look the part, just in case."
"Just in case of what?" she wanted to know.
"In case Zion comes after you."
"I don't understand."
"Too long to explain." I had a brainwave. "Get hold of Sabah. She can rig you up a replica."
For a moment, it looked as though she was going to argue, but then she nodded. "Got it."
A harried-looking PRT officer intercepted us. "Just in?"
"Yeah," I agreed. "Weaver and Security. Panacea's in place in Medical."
"Oh, thank God," he breathed. "We heard you were killed."
"He gave it his best shot," I told him. "What's the situation?"
"Bad."
Stepping closer to the table, I could hear the speakers set around the edges of it, and I understood what he meant.
"- Theresa's last duplicate is down. Zion is now targeting Pandora. I estimate thirty seconds. We are evading and fighting back, but he isn't giving us any chances."
"Dragon?" I whispered to Lisa. She was wearing Power Ranger pyjamas, which I so wanted to tease her about, but there was no time.
"Yeah," she whispered back. "After Zion hit Brockton Bay, he started hunting down Dragon and her kids. I think he sees them as a threat."
"Understood," Noelle stated into her bracer. "Hold him off as long as you can. We're activating our troops as we speak."
Armsmaster, from behind Noelle, grabbed her shoulder. "Why aren't you sending in the alert troops now? I know there are some who are ready to go. Zion's killing her!" The anguish in his voice was very real.
"Because we only have fifteen percent of available firepower right now," she replied in a voice of forced calm. "If we attack now, we won't have enough variation, and no backup once they fall back. He'll massacre them. Dragon knows this. She's backed up, and so are her children. Once the pressure's off her -"
"What happened to the guns?" I demanded. "Dragon should be equipped with guns that can blow his sorry arse back to where he came from!"
Noelle looked at me. "Sorry. We don't have them yet."
"Fuck." I looked around for Taylor. She was nowhere to be seen, which meant that hopefully she was getting that damn costume sorted out. The need for it was looking more and more dire all the time. I also hoped that she had a bracer by now. When Dragon went down, we'd need her, badly. Which reminded me. "I need a bracer, now."
Someone handed me one; I slapped it on to my wrist. The smart metal cuff wrapped around and locked. It beeped at me, asking for a name. "Security," I stated. SECURITY, the word scrolled across the small screen. Y/N? "Correct," I told it. "Doorway to L33t."
L33t
"Come on, we have to go!"
L33t shook his head stubbornly. "I have to finish this!"
"What's one gun?" Über tugged at his shoulder. "We have to get to Tactical. If Zion comes back, he's gonna level the city!"
L33t looked at his partner. "This is the most important thing I've ever done in my life. He told me so. I'm gonna finish it." Turning back to the workbench, he leaned over the weapon on the workbench and recommenced soldering.
There was an odd inrush of air; L33t didn't turn around. "What the fuck?" demanded Über. "Where did you come from?"
"Don't ask stupid questions," a new voice answered, a voice that L33t recognised. "Where's my fucking anti-Zion guns?"
"Nearly finished," L33t said without turning around. "Sorry it took so long. I couldn't get as many sessions with Flechette as I wanted."
In the next moment, Allen was standing next to him, looming over the workbench. "One gun?" he demanded. "Just one fucking gun?"
L33t soldered the last connection then slapped the plate closed. It locked into place. "Yeah, one gun," he said, dropping the soldering iron on to the bench, where it burned a small hole to match the dozens of others that were already there. "This is the prototype. I can build something once. Dragon was supposed to replicate them, right?"
"Yeah, well, Dragon's currently looking at a life expectancy measured in minutes because she hasn't got this tech already," Allen told him curtly. He picked up the gun left-handed; it was heavy, a two-handed job, but he didn't seem to care. "Ammo?"
"Here. Dragon gave it to me to test the thing once I had it done." L33t picked up a magazine and handed it to him; Allen figured out how to slot it into the weapon. "No safety-catch. Pull this bolt back to load and cock it. After that it's point and shoot. You've got ten shots."
"Fuckin' wonderful." Turning the gun on its side, Allen pulled back the bolt; it slid forward again with a smooth clack-clunk. "And it puts her power into the bullets? What about accuracy? They'll strip any rifling."
L33t managed a grin. "Dragon thought of that. She had me build in a targeting reticule. The bullets are self-powered and they have a seeker head designed by Armsmaster."
"So, micro-missiles then."
"Something like that, yeah."
Allen frowned. "You do know that once empowered, those bullets or missiles or whatever will basically ignore physics? I'm talking right-angled turns at Mach 2. Are the seeker heads programmed for that sort of agility?"
"Oh shit." L33t's eyes opened wide. "I don't know. I don't think so. Unless Armsmaster thought of it. I'd have to -"
"No time," Allen cut him off. "This'll have to do. Go, get to Tactical."
Über shook his head. "But that's just one gun. What are you gonna do with that?"
"Trust me, you really, really don't want to know." Allen started toward the far side of the workshop. "Doorway to the Teeth."
L33t met Über's eyes. "Fuck!"
They ran for it.
Tactical
"Pandora is down. Zion is targeting me now. I'm doing my best -" The voice cut out, then resumed. "- but he's very good at locating my copies. Down to three -"
The running commentary was probably not really necessary. In the holodisplay, Zion could be seen in miniature, hovering over Dragon's mountain fastness, blasting huge chunks of stone out of the way.
"Twenty percent of forces are now active," murmured Accord. "Option Beta-three is viable."
"- two -"
"For God's sake!" ground out Armsmaster.
Noelle took a deep breath. "Option Beta-three it is. Weaver?"
"Here." Weaver hustled out of a back room. Parian followed behind, her floating needles still sewing the costume on to the taller girl. "Beta-three, on it." She concentrated.
Within each and every bracer was a relay bug in a tiny self-contained life-support unit, designed by Dragon after studying Mannequin's work. Also within each bracer was a minuscule Doormaker portal, less than half a centimetre across. The counterpart portals to these had been created far below ground, in a totally-enclosed empty spherical space. This space was relatively small, and the portals were thus extremely close to one another, allowing radio signals – and Taylor's power – to reach every single person wearing such a bracer, no matter where Taylor was in relation to them.
Through the bug in her own bracer, Taylor connected with every other bracer in less than a heartbeat. Due to the training sessions, she knew what 'Beta-three' meant; who was supposed to go where and do what.
Within their protective units, the bugs manipulated controls designed specifically for their limbs, and instructions scrawled across the screen of each bracer. Dozens, and then hundreds, of capes went into action. They appeared in the battlespace of the holotable as tiny pinpricks of light.
"My last copy is gone," Dragon reported. "I have backups for myself and the girls, but they will be a little while rebooting. I -" Her voice went silent, leaving just static behind.
"Dragon? Are you there?" Noelle's voice was sharp.
"Yes, I'm here. I had to switch to secondary comms. Zion is now under attack. But he's still pressing me very hard. I've suffered significant damage. Colin -"
"Yes?"
"I love you. Never forget that."
"Thirty percent of forces on line," Accord stated.
"That lets us pull off Delta-nine," Lisa announced.
"We're missing Glory Girl for that one." That was Accord, scrolling through a list of names via the smart table.
"Crap." Lisa stared at the wall for a moment. "Charlie-six, then."
Noelle stared at the list of options being displayed on the table before her. "Charlie-six," she agreed. "Do it."
Weaver nodded. Again, she concentrated. The dispositions of forces shifted, frustrating Zion's attempts to anticipate their attacks. On the holodisplay in the middle of the table, tiny points of light moved and darted. Faces formed in the clouds and on the ground, made of such materials as metal, bone and water.
"Pull back the left wing now now now!" snapped Noelle. "He's changing tactics!"
Weaver didn't hesitate; the commands went out at the speed of thought. Even as Zion turned to slash a wave of golden energy at the left wing, it was fading back. A few were caught and began to fall, but then they blinked out of existence, or were traded out for lifeless dummies.
The respite for Dragon had not been long enough. Zion renewed his attack on her last module, blast after blast smashing into her. An explosion ripped across half of the viewing area.
"Dragon's down." It was Tattletale.
"Forty-five percent of forces now available. Injured being healed." Accord's voice was calm and controlled.
Noelle snapped more orders; the attacking forces, reinforced by the incoming numbers, went to yet another battle plan, hammering Zion unmercifully. And then … he vanished.
"Where's he gone? Locate him, now!" Noelle's voice rose over the confusion. "Every second he's out of sight …"
Weaver looked up. "He's in Medical."
Zion
The Warrior stepped between dimensions, reappearing in a vast underground space. It paid no attention to the forms, writhing or still, that lay on the multitudinous beds. Drifting to the ground, it moved toward the shard-enhanced being that was in the process of returning a damaged creature to full capacity.
She turned at the Warrior's approach, backing away. The entity moved faster, catching her and lifting her from the ground with a hand about her throat. Her shard attempted to affect the entity's body, but it had already made its biology immune to her abilities. Leaning close to her, it whispered two words.
"Call them."
Her face was turning red as she struggled vainly against its grip. But she did not obey its command. A golden glow built in the Warrior's free hand as it repeated the words.
"Call. Them."
From its observation of the anomalous being and the other immature female, they had an emotional attachment to this female. It needed to destroy them, but was having trouble locating them. This one had been easier to locate, as damaged creatures had been transported to this point. Putting this female under threat should cause the anomaly and the other immature female to attempt to defend her. The entity would then destroy them, removing the threat.
The female was not speaking, even to beg. Belatedly, the Warrior recalled that these creatures needed to inhale oxygen to speak and to maintain life processes. It placed her on the ground once more, releasing its grip. She had to know that she could not escape. For the third time, it spoke.
"Call them."
It was totally unprepared for what happened next.
Mike
I should have said 'Doorway to Butcher'. But I had no time to worry about that; I needed to stay alive long enough to pull this off first.
The Doorway had dropped me right into the middle of the Teeth as they attacked some small town or other. They had been surprised by my entry, which was the only reason I was still alive.
Animos had been closest; I hit him with a larynx punch which put him on the ground. In the next second, Vex's razor-sharp force-fields had surrounded me. Closing my eyes, I clamped my forearm across them. The razor-shards bit into me, but Riley's subdermal armour did the trick.
My combat mods took in my surroundings and painted me a picture of where Vex was most likely to be. I lost more clothes and some skin getting to him, but the kick I delivered caved in his chest. The thousand and one razors that had been flaying me alive vanished into nothingness.
If I hadn't been already hyped up on combat endorphins, this would have been a hell of a rush. As it was, I was playing it by the numbers.
Spree came running at me; all of him. Which, in the event, was a crowd growing larger by the second. I smashed my way through the front wave, but there were even more coming at me; in the time it took for me to swing a punch, he popped five more out.
Fuck it. I hefted the gun and took aim. The targeting reticule blinked and I pulled the trigger. There was only the smallest of jolts as the bolt travelled back of its own accord and chambered the next micro-missile. Nine to go.
The missile blasted through sixteen of Spree's clones before it hit him just under the left cheekbone. It exploded inside his head, a detail that L33t hadn't told me about, and his headless corpse slumped to the ground. All of the clones began disappearing, the closest ones starting first.
I like it. But I had to remember to save ammo for Zion. Because I was damn sure I wasn't gonna take him out with just one shot.
Hemorrhagia came running at me from one direction, blood-blades already growing from her arms, as Butcher stepped out from another. I knew who was the more dangerous, and I swung the gun in her direction. In reply, Butcher's oversized Gatling gun came up to train on me. My targeting reticule blinked and I squeezed the trigger …
… but she fired first.
Contessa
"Doorway from Glory Girl to Medical. Doorway from Golem to Medical."
Contessa took a deep breath. Her Path seemed to indicate that this was the best choice. I hope so.
Vicky
Vicky grunted as she heaved the fallen beam up and away, freeing the trapped man. He didn't move, so she drifted down alongside him, checking for life signs. There was a heartbeat and he was breathing, but he showed no signs of consciousness.
God, I wish Amy was here. I would tell her sorry in so many ways. I was an idiot.
She couldn't leave the man where he was. As carefully as she could, she lifted him from the rubble and carried him to his front lawn, where she left him in the recovery position. I hope this isn't making him worse. But I don't have a choice.
Flying to the next house around the perimeter of the crater edge, she began to search once more for survivors, even as she heard the distant sound of sirens approaching. They're gonna have their work cut out for them. So am I.
And then the portal opened beside her, and what she saw drove all thoughts of search and rescue out of her mind.
Mike
I was already dodging; not that it mattered. The lowest barrel on the Gatling spat flame; I felt the hammer-blow in the middle of my chest like someone had driven a railway spike right through me. It went straight through the subdermal armour, through my reinforced sternum, through my heart, and punched out a rib on the way out the back. Yes, I felt all of that. I went over backward like a puppet with the strings cut; L33t's gun fell from my hand.
The bloom of fire from where she had been standing faded away; she had teleported to avoid my shot. Clever bitch. Time seemed to slow down, even as I felt blood pumping out of me in industrial quantities. The world darkened around the edges. Another bloom of fire, and Butcher was standing in front of me. She looked down at me, her Gatling slanting down to aim at my face.
And then Riley was right there, also looking down at me.
"Jesus, Mike," she complained. "Why do you always do this?"
I tried to talk, but coughed blood instead. The bullet – or bullets, I hadn't been counting – must have hit my lung as well as my heart. Sorry, I wanted to say. Didn't mean to.
"Well, sorry doesn't get the job done." She knelt beside me. "Wow, you're a mess. She took out your secondary heart and your right lung. Welp, good thing you've still got one of each."
Why are you here? How are you here? Why can't she see you?
"Okay, newsflash? Not really here. This is a little thing I stuck in your brain when I did that work on it, a while back? Just in case you're wondering, it's not talking in complete sentences. It's just shoving the concepts into your head and letting your brain stitch it together in a coherent fashion. Also making it look and sound like I'm saying it. It's about a twenty-to-one ratio, so I can tell you stuff before she finishes the job. Anyway, any second now the sphincters are gonna close off and kill the blood flow, and then I'm gonna hit you with an endorphin high that'll get you back on your feet. You're going to have about a ten minute window of opportunity, then you're gonna fall over hard. If you're not in front of a doctor then, you might just die for real. So get with the program. And don't be such an idiot next time."
But she's about to shoot me again.
"Sorry, can't help you with that." 'Riley' patted me on the cheek and gave me a chirpy smile. "Three … two … one …"
I felt the rush of life into my limbs once more, and my eyes snapped open from where they'd drifted almost closed. But the Gatling was still there, with Butcher behind it. She smiled cruelly. I saw her finger tighten on the trigger.
Amy
In the time since Vicky had gained her powers, Amy was pretty certain that she had experienced every level of emotional outburst of which her sister's aura was capable. I was wrong.
The tide of pure rage that washed over her made even the anger that Vicky had been showing at the party pale in comparison. Somewhat inured to Vicky's emotional assaults, Amy still felt it keenly. Zion, on the other hand, was already highly emotionally charged; the aura hit him like a battering ram.
And so, half a second later, did Glory Girl.
Streaking along the length of the cave set aside for Medical, Vicky rammed into Zion's back at her top speed. Still dazed from the wash of terror that her aura engendered in him, he was smashed off his feet and sent flying into the cave wall. Vicky was on him a moment later, her fists pummelling him, every blow a pile-driver. Her aura was still going full-strength; over the thunder of her fists slamming into him, Amy could just barely make out the words, "Leave my sister alone!"
She only had the advantage for a few seconds, during which time she drove him a good foot into the cavern wall. Then he had recovered and adjusted for her attack; in reply, he unleashed a blast that sent her tumbling back across the cave. Amy watched her fly overhead and slam into the far wall, followed by Zion.
She had taken the blast unscathed, and the impact with the wall hadn't harmed her either, although Amy wondered about the structural capability of the roof. Simply put, a cavern was a very bad place to have a cape fight in, especially with Brutes involved. To make matters worse, Vicky was unable to react in time as he pinned her against the wall with one hand and readied an attack with the other.
"Ames!" Vicky called out. "Run!" Frozen to the spot, Amy watched the golden glow build up. She's going to die, and it's all my fault.
The cavern wall groaned as it shifted, opening up and covering Glory Girl entirely, also encasing Zion's hand in the process. Zion wrenched his hand back, breaking away small pieces of stone, then prepared to blast the stone away. Before he could, however, the mass of stone reformed once more, forming an image of a face more than six feet high.
Zion recoiled, the golden glow fading. He looked around; all over the cavern, that face was repeated everywhere in a variety of sizes, ranging from six inches to six feet across. Amy, backed up against the wall, was standing right between two of them.
Abruptly, Zion disappeared, and in the emptiness that followed his departure, Amy slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. She wanted to either cry or throw up. Fortunately for her pride, she did neither.
"Are you all right?" It was Golem, of course, placing a small object back into the pouch at his belt. "Did he hurt you?"
"N-no. I'm fine." She accepted his hand up. "Vicky?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry." He did something with one of the square panels hanging at his belt, and the stone encapsulating Vicky groaned as it slid apart. The blonde fell out of the wall, dropping to the floor in a limp pile.
"Vicky!" Amy hurried over to her and knelt down. All around, the others were starting to move again; she didn't know whether they had been frozen into place by terror or by one of Zion's powers. I suppose it's much the same thing, in the end.
Riley was the first to reach her as she placed her hands on Vicky. "Is she all right? Are you all right?"
"She's not breathing." Amy gave Vicky's diaphragm a jolt; the blonde inhaled convulsively, then gasped raggedly for a few moments as her eyes opened slowly. Satisfied that she was going to be okay – there were no obvious injuries – Amy turned to Riley. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks to Golem."
Slowly, still looking a little groggy, Vicky sat up. She glared at Golem. "Was it you who locked me into the wall?"
"I, uh, yeah?" he asked. "It was the only thing I could think of to do."
She got to her feet, jabbing a finger into his chest. "Do you realise I could have suffocated in there?"
"I thought you could, you know, break out," he protested.
"Not through a foot of stone, with no leverage!" she snapped. "I nearly died!"
"If he hadn't done that, Zion would have killed you," Amy reminded her quietly. "So how about some thanks for, you know, saving your ass?"
"No, she's right." Golem hung his head. "Sorry. I screwed up."
Vicky frowned. "Yeah, you did. So … what's that buzzing noise?"
Mike
Just as she squeezed the trigger, Butcher's head exploded. I rolled aside as the Gatling went off, blasting chunks from the asphalt. Coming to my feet, I wrenched her hand away from the trigger, then dropped the multi-barrelled weapon. Gingerly, I looked down at the hole in the middle of my chest. Blood had spread out from it to cover the front of my body; fortunately, it wasn't still pumping out. Fuck me. That micro-missile took its sweet fucking time getting back.
In the next second, I lurched as the first voice began to bellow in my head. Usurper! Usurper! You are no Butcher!
A second one began to scream as well, then a third. And a fourth. With every extra voice, begging, threatening, cursing, I found it harder and harder to think straight. What was the plan again?
And then, blessed peace, as an imaginary glass wall slid down between my mind and the voices. I could still hear them; they just didn't matter. The brain mod that I'd asked Riley to install was finally paying off.
Emotion became a distant concept; I found my thoughts slotting into logical lines. Pick up L33t's gun. I picked up L33t's gun. It had been lying next to Hemorrhagia's sprawled body; the bullet that had punched through me had gone on to hit her. That, I believe, is the epitome of irony.
The bracer on my wrist had been buzzing for the last few seconds. I lifted my arm and paid attention to it. Marching across the screen were three words.
ZION IN TACTICAL.
Taylor
She had bugs in the cavern, of course; she had bugs everywhere. When Zion had first appeared there, she didn't know what to do; vectoring capes into the hospital to fight the bad guy was about the last thing anyone wanted. Amy's in there. Oh, god. He'll kill her.
She was just opening her mouth to call for a Doorway – I won't let him hurt her – when Vicky arrived on the scene. The resultant fight was over in seconds; the initial attack, the retaliation, then Theo's intervention. I'm going to have to thank that boy.
Zion's disappearance from the cavern was a huge relief to her, right up until the golden glow lit up Tactical.
Slowly, she turned to face him. Zion, the hero, saviour of so many people. The source of all the powers. The thing that wanted to kill the world.
Zion hovered there in midair, his feet a good six inches from the floor. Emotions radiated from him; anger, frustration, sadness. His costume was still spotless, despite the damage that had been dealt to him so far. On his bearded face was an expression of what could have been mild annoyance. Raising his hand, he pointed at her; a golden glow began to build up around it.
Bugs rushed into the space around her as she dived to the side. More attacked Zion's eyes, more in the hope that they would obscure his vision than with the expectation that he would be harmed by them. Neither ploy succeeded; his hand tracked her unerringly, the glow growing ever brighter.
I'm gonna die. Sorry, Dad, I -
Abruptly, Zion jerked backward, then vanished as something punched a hole through the wall right where his head had been.
"Coming through!" It was Mike's voice; Taylor looked around. He had appeared from a portal at the far end of the room, covered in blood and waving a gun that looked like it could make a serious hole in the side of a battleship. "Taylor, we have to go!"
"What? But I -"
She didn't have any more of a chance to protest; he grabbed her arm and dragged her along with him. "Doorway to Redrock!"
Mike
We stood atop the huge sandstone monolith, its undulating surface extending out to a drop-off in all directions. Heat haze rose around us. I scanned the sky, looking for telltale signs of Scion. "Can you locate him?"
"No, I – yes!" Taylor swung and pointed.
I stopped and dropped the reticule on the distant golden glint. Restraining the impulse to fire off the whole magazine – after this, I would have six rounds left – I squeezed the trigger once. The missile shot away; Zion whipped sideways, then opened a portal to disappear through.
"Doorway to Beachfront," I muttered. We stepped through the portal, but only got ten yards along the sand before Taylor called a warning; I shielded her body with mine as sand fountained nearby. Zion had found us again. Capes appeared overhead and began attacking as I called up yet another portal.
From one part of the world to another we jumped, occasionally stepping to a whole new Earth for variety. Sometimes we were just ahead of Zion; at other times we held a substantial lead. But it seemed that he most definitely could track us now, whereas before he had not been able to.
Butcher's powers. It's gotta be. Zion can track those. But it wasn't as though I could do anything about it, right then.
When she could, Taylor relayed where we were and Noelle dispatched capes to aid us. They attacked him in battle plans coordinated by Taylor even as we stepped through portal after portal. The attacks slowed him down, there was no doubt about it. What I wanted was for him to get close enough for me to nail him with a micro-missile. But he was being very cagey about them, after the first encounter. And time was ticking down for me.
It almost ran out altogether when we emerged through a portal and he was right there in front of us, having anticipated which way I would go. I've been too predictable, dammit. His hand was already up; I would never bring the gun to bear in time. And he was too close for a Doorway to work; the one behind us had already winked out. So I grabbed Taylor by the waist, pulled her close, and teleported.
We landed fifty yards away in a burst of flame, and I called up another portal before Zion could get to us. "How did you do that?" she gasped as we jumped through.
"Long story," I replied flatly. Two more portals took us back to another beachfront, but Zion was closing on us once more. He was right on our heels as I called up the next portal. "Doorway to Eden!"
We landed on unstable footing; Taylor staggered and looked down at what she was standing on. "What is this?"
"Zion's other half," I said, raising my bracer to my face. "Tactical. Timer. Now."
"Timer running." We had ten seconds.
"Zion!" gasped Taylor, pointing; the golden man was already hovering above us. But he wasn't looking at us. He was looking down at the form beneath him, partly extruded from the flesh-garden that was Eden.
"Good. Doorway to Greenfields." With rather more haste than usual, I hauled her through. The portal closed behind us, leaving us standing on a wide grassy pasture. I wasn't even sure where it was, or on which Earth; I'd just been given the waypoints to memorise. Hopefully, that'll hold him for just long enough. "Doorway to Sanctuary."
Bakuda's Workshop
Friday, May 27, 2011
"Okay, so how big's this bomb you want again?" Bakuda leaned back against her workbench with her arms crossed, the goggles she was wearing giving her a slightly fish-eyed look.
Mike smiled, ever so slightly. "Let's say, hypothetically, we don't actually need the planet any more."
Her eyes widened. "You're shitting me."
"I shit you not."
"And what, exactly, are you going to do with this bomb?"
He chuckled. "Since when are you worried about that?"
She shrugged. "Not worried. Just want to make sure that you don't set it off on the same planet that I'm standing on."
"Nope, that's a given. We're gonna piss Scion off by blowing up his girlfriend. Twice."
She blinked a couple of times. "You realise, that statement doesn't make any sense at all."
"That mean you can't make the bomb?"
This time, her eyes narrowed. "Fuckin' watch me."
Mike grinned.
Present Day
Zion
The Warrior was temporarily distracted from the chase by the sight of the Other, the Thinker. The body that the other entity would have presented to the world was there, interrupted in the most delicate stage of its formation. Downward the Warrior drifted, coming to rest beside the slumped form.
Reaching out, it ran a hand over the long hair, the delicately-shaped arm. It had not returned to this site in all the tens of cycles since it had discovered that the Thinker was no longer functional.
But this was not precisely the case. There was life in there, faint but viable. The Warrior had powers under its control that could possibly …
The detonation was enormous.
Mike
"Dad!"
Taylor!"
I watched the reunion of father and daughter as I tried to catch my breath. Having just one working lung was not good for exertion. How long has it been? Not less than five minutes, I gauged. Which meant I had five minutes, or less, until the endgame.
"Mike, good God, what have you been doing?" Gladys reached out a tentative hand, as if unsure where to touch my skin. In all fairness to her, I had been torn up by Vex's razor-sharp fields, then Butcher's gun had almost killed me. But I was still functional, for the most part. I only needed a few more minutes.
"Pissing Zion off," I told her in a matter-of-fact tone. "Paige, I need the decoy."
"Right here," Paige said. She and Sveta came out of the building, carrying the decoy between them. It was a life-sized model of Taylor, in full Weaver costume. I picked it up, grunting at the effort. Everything was an effort, now. I had no doubt that Riley's combat endorphins were running out.
"I have to go," I stated. "I won't see you again. Have a good life. Be safe."
"Mike …" It was Gladys, her hand on my arm. From behind the glass wall that held Butcher trapped, my feelings for her watched, but could say nothing.
I could not use emotion here. Truth would have to do.
"Gladys, you're special. You've always been special. I'll always remember you. But I really have to go now."
Turning away, I called up another portal and stepped through, carrying the faux Taylor.
Zion
Dazed by the explosion, the Warrior realised that it had been blown into interplanetary space by the sheer concussion. Much of its energy reserves had been depleted in surviving the attack. Looking back, it saw damage on an apocalyptic scale; such was the force of the explosion that the very planet had been cracked in half. But it cared not at all about that. What it cared about was that every last fragment of the Thinker must surely have been destroyed in the blast. This, coming on top of the realisation that the Thinker could have been restored, caused an upwelling of anger and frustration unmatched by any that had gone before.
The anomaly had to die. Along with the immature female. This was what the Warrior was now fixated upon. Its combat sense stated firmly that she was the greatest danger to it, now. Which suited the Warrior just fine; she was going to die, and very soon now. It reached out, detecting the string of stolen shards trailing the anomaly, along with the emanations from the immature female's shard. He was on the move again, and her with him.
This would not save them.
Mike
I heard the scream of rage as it echoed through the upper atmosphere. Chancing a look around, I could see Zion, but only as the very head of a long golden streak lancing down from above.
"I believe that Zion is angry," I reported over the bracer, and called for a portal. It appeared, and I stepped through it. However, he stepped with me; each time I appeared in a new world, he was right there on my trail. No matter where I ran, no matter how I dodged, he wasn't letting me go this time. He wasn't playing games any more.
Or so he thought. I was playing a game. It was called 'keep-away'. So far, I was winning.
It appeared that he still couldn't anticipate me; when I deliberately went against the logical suggestions thrown up by my combat mods, his shots went wide, or he overshot into a different world. But he was tenacious as hell, never flagging, never falling back far enough to lose me.
I ducked through portal after portal, until he got too close to allow them to form; this was actually to my advantage, because being that close allowed me to use some of Butcher's other powers. Festering wounds, which he ignored. Rage, which worked well enough on him; normally, he might have ignored it as well, but it exacerbated the monumental fury that now consumed him. The ability to hit any target I shot at, which kept him from getting too close. And, of course, teleportation. Time and again, I slipped out of his grasp. I could feel his frustration growing. That's one pissed-off hyperdimensional space whale.
Gone was the slightly detached expression he had worn previously. He now showed a visage distorted by pure rage and loss. Each time he got close, I enhanced his rage even further, avoiding his blasts by narrower and narrower margins. Three times, he fired a wide-angle blast that nearly caught me; I got out of the way twice by way of a Doorway and once by using Butcher's teleportation. But I couldn't keep it up; even if I wasn't running on empty, he only had to get lucky once.
Zion
The Warrior's entire being was focused on one task. Destroy the anomaly. This foe had avoided destruction over and over again, all the while preserving the entity's other enemy from the Warrior's wrath. The immature female was obviously unable to run, but she was still capable of using her power to call down the shard-enhanced creatures upon the Warrior. It would take just one attack to destroy her, but before the entity could do that, it had to eliminate the anomalous being that was protecting her.
Finally, it saw its chance, as the anomaly stumbled. He was already halfway through the portal, but the Warrior's attack caught him on the legs and lower back. Golden energy began to eat into his flesh as he fell to the ground on the far side of the portal. The portal closed, of course, as the entity neared, but the Warrior could step between worlds just as easily. However, before it could, another portal opened, revealing …
The Warrior stopped moving. There, before it, stood a figure with long hair, alabaster skin and an oh-so-familiar face. However, this face was neither a static simulacrum, as the shard-enhanced creatures had been producing, nor dead and unresponsive. It was the Other, fully realised. The Thinker, returned to functionality.
The Other took a step forward, reached out a slim hand. In return, the Warrior also reached out a hand. Unfamiliar emotions arose within the entity; hope and joy, that the Thinker had somehow transcended destruction and had returned to stand at its side. Together, they would make these planet-bound creatures pay for the degradation and anguish.
Their hands touched.
The detonation was not as powerful as the first one, but it took the Warrior utterly by surprise. When it managed to cease its tumble through the air, it saw that where the Thinker had stood, there was now quite a sizeable crater.
Again. They had done it to the entity again. Twice now, it had grasped completion, only to have it torn away in the most insulting way possible. Fury and rage returned in full force, amplified by the sorrow and loss that had been reawakened.
The anomaly would die.
Mike
I lay on the rocky ground, gritting my teeth so I wouldn't scream. Riley's combat endorphins were good, but they had just about reached their limit with me. My legs weren't much good for anything any more. Even if I had the strength to get up, I wouldn't be running anywhere. I raised my bracer to my face. "Plan … Omega," I gasped.
"Mike, we can still pull you out." That was Noelle. "Just say the word."
"No." It was getting really hard to breathe. "This. Way's. Better."
"But -"
"Do. It."
A sigh. "It's been an honour."
"Me. Too."
The world was darkening around the edges. I panted for breath. My fingertips were growing numb, which was vastly preferable to what was happening to the remains of my legs. I didn't even notice when the gun disappeared from my unresponsive hand.
And then Zion appeared before me. I'd thought he was angry before. Now, he was literally incandescent with rage. Golden light streamed out from him so vividly that I felt my clothes beginning to smoulder.
In the early stages of the chase, I'd decided on my last words. I'd be defiant, I had decided. Fuck you, I'd say. You're a figment of my imagination. You don't even exist. And then, because it seemed funny, I'd give him the finger with both hands before he killed me.
Maybe my words would give him pause. Maybe he would realise just what I was. Or maybe my insult would enrage him even further.
However, I never got the chance. Before I could even draw breath to utter the first syllable, he unleashed a storm of energy upon my prone body, and upon the animatronic decoy.
At least it was quick.
Sanctuary
"Plan Omega six is a go."
Taylor heard Noelle's words, but they didn't mean anything to her. All of the Omega plans were based around the concept of Mike sacrificing himself to draw Zion in. This meant that Mike was dead.
Of course, the original Omega six plan had involved more anti-Zion guns, and someone other than Taylor doing the shooting. But she was the one holding it. It was up to her.
"I repeat, Omega six."
Danny nudged her; abruptly, she came back to herself. "Doorway to behind Zion."
The portal opened; ahead of her, she saw the golden man, in a transport of rage, blasting the landscape into oblivion. She raised the heavy gun in both hands, pointing it at his back.
Mike's dead. You killed him. Taylor wasn't a fan of the death penalty, but in this case she was willing to make an exception.
She didn't even feel it when the gun fired; all she saw was the pause, the turn and the look of utter astonishment. Reflexively, she fired three more times before the bolt locked open. The golden form popped like a soap bubble. All that was left, all she saw before the portal closed, was a hole in space with a vast something beyond.
Tactical
"Front door is open. Repeat, front door is open."
Noelle nodded sharply. "Green light. Go go go."
"Green light, roger," replied Dragon. "Let's go, girls."
Three portals opened into that world; each one admitted a subtly different Dragon-style suit to the location. Each held an oversized launcher. They hovered before the hole.
"Dragon, launching."
"Pandora, launching."
"Theresa, launching."
One by one, each of the projectiles arched through the hole in space, into the pocket universe beyond.
"Dragon here. Packages delivered."
"I copy packages delivered," Noelle replied as calmly as she could. "Everyone out of the universe. It's going to get very unfriendly in there."
"Roger that."
Bakuda's Workshop
Friday, May 27, 2011
"Okay, this is me talking, so you know I'm not kidding when I say what the fuck?"
Mike raised an eyebrow. "Wow, are you sure you're the real Bakuda?"
"Fuck you," she stormed. "There's big stuff, and then there's what you just asked me to build."
He held his hands out, palm up. "So … what, you can't make it?"
She rolled her eyes. "Of course I can fucking make it. But what the fuck do you want with a flesh-dissolving bomb that big? Are you looking to depopulate fucking China?"
"No, you misunderstand." He was grinning broadly now. "I don't want a bomb that'll do that."
"Then what do you want me to make?" If that vein in her temple throbbed any harder …
"Three bombs that size."
The look on her face was absolutely classic.
Present Day
Zion
The Warrior stirred, rebuilding its body. It would destroy the creatures once and for all. Nothing treated it like that and yet lived. Once its new body was complete, it would -
As its eyes finished forming, it saw the first bomb. The last thought that went through its head was analogous to Oh, no, not again.
One bomb, it might possibly have survived. With two bombs, the odds would have been against it. The third ensured that it didn't stand a chance.
Tactical
"Dragon here. Sending through a throwaway probe. Getting signals back now."
Noelle clenched her hands so tightly that the nails bit into her palms. "Yes?"
There was a long pause. Lisa was pretty sure that nobody in the room was breathing. She watched dust motes falling through the holodisplay, flaring with tiny bursts of laser light.
"We have positive confirmation. Zion is dead. Repeat, Zion is dead."
The room erupted in cheers and whistles, but Lisa didn't feel like joining in.
Maybe later she'd celebrate, but not right now.
End of Part Fifty-One
Epilogue One
Part Fifty-One: Zion
Mike
"- hillside!"
I dropped my phone as I came to my feet, my combat mods kicking in at full power. The glare outside intensified and I heard the roof explode. The house shook. We had seconds, at most.
I had been sitting at one side of the table, with Gladys beside me. Danny had been at my left, at the end of the table, with Taylor opposite me and Amy opposite Gladys. Grabbing the table by the edge, I heaved it up above everybody's heads and around so that the flat was presented toward the window.
Not a split second too soon; just as I did so, the window blew in, spraying glass in a deadly pattern across the kitchen. The table caught most of it; I covered Gladys with my body, intercepting the rest. I felt the stinging of the glass shards as they sank into my back, but I didn't have time to worry about it. The portal formed between us all, right where the table had been.
There was no time for politeness; I grabbed Gladys, chair and all, and pitched her through. Then I reached for Danny, but he was already grabbing Taylor. I shoved him through the portal; his grip on Taylor's arm meant that she followed. This left just Amy and myself in the stricken house.
A tremendous crash above us heralded the demise of the ceiling and possibly the floor of the upper storey, because deadly blades of golden energy were now slashing down through the ceiling. There was one between Amy and the portal. I instinctively knew that if she touched it, she would be horribly injured or even killed. As durable as I was, it would hurt me too, but … Fuck it. I'm not leaving her.
Holding my chair over my head as temporary cover, I stepped over to her. The chair disintegrated in my hands as I got to her, but it had lasted long enough. With one arm around her waist, I covered her with my body as I leaped through the portal. An indescribable pain lanced through my left shoulder and back, but the endorphins kicked in, dulling the pain.
We hit green grass and rolled down a slope, passing Gladys' chair on the way. Every time I rolled on to my back, it hurt, but I couldn't be bothered with that at the moment. We skidded to a stop and I let her go, then looked around. Halfway up the green grassy hillside – which was what I had named the prearranged waypoint for – an opaque golden beam stabbed through the now-closing portal. A tremendous explosion rocked the ground and we ducked as debris showered around us. As the echoes died away, I saw that the portal had closed, but where we had come through was now a crater five metres deep and ten wide.
<><>
Vicky
"It's not my fault. It's not my fault. It's not my fault." Vicky kicked the concrete bench; it skidded several yards back. "Amy shouldn't have done that to me. She knows I hate mind control."
Turning, she paced back across the observation area and took hold of the metal fence. The bars began to bend under her fingers as she continued her diatribe. "It's his fault. He's the one who turned her against me. Everyone loves him. But what's he ever done for Ames? I've been her sister since forever."
Letting go of the fence, she was about to go back to the bench again when a light bloomed across Brockton Bay. She stared; it was a golden beam, stabbing down from above. Debris was thrown far and wide; even at a distance of several miles, she could see that. And then the shockwave reached her, transmitted through the ground.
The golden light's gone, she noted absently as she took to the air. But the sound should be getting here any moment now ….
BOOOOM.
She was flying faster now. That's where the Hebert house is. Oh, god. Amy.
The shockwave would have thrown her backward, had she not been determined to get to the epicentre of the explosion. As it was, she felt several gravel impacts, but her invulnerability took care of them.
It didn't take long before she was over the top of where the explosion had occurred; a vast cloud of smoke and dust was forming overhead. Hovering for a moment, she surveyed the crater. A full quarter-mile across, it was centred on where the Hebert house had once stood. There was absolutely no sign of any part of the house, or its inhabitants. The attack had been sudden and devastating. If I'd been there, maybe I could have saved her.
Flying down, she surveyed the bottom of the crater. Not a sign remained of anything that could even be construed as wreckage. It was starting to fill up with water from broken pipelines; more may have been seeping up from below.
There wasn't even a body. Grief clutched at her heart. Oh, god, Amy. I am so damn sorry. You died thinking that I hated you.
Abstractly, she was aware that the war had begun, but she found that she could not care enough to worry about it. Moving as if guided by an outside force, she flew to the nearest house that wasn't utterly destroyed, and began to search for survivors. It's what she would do.
<><>
Mike
Shunting the pain to the back of my mind, I climbed to my feet. Amy was wide-eyed, staring at the crater then at me. Nearby, Danny was helping Gladys to her feet; Taylor was already upright.
"Everybody all right?" I asked. "Nobody's seriously hurt?" I started toward Danny. "You good to go?"
"What – what was that?" demanded Danny. "What happened to my house?"
"Zion," I told him bluntly. "Now, we gotta -"
"Mike, your back!" gasped Amy. "You're injured!"
"No time. We can't wait here," I told them, mentally flicking through options. "Come on. Doorway to Atoll."
The portal unfolded before us; I stepped through. As my boots crunched on to coral sand, the others followed me through. The portal closed behind us. I looked around, especially upward, seeking a telltale golden glint in the sky. I had picked a location that would be under the cover of night, so that Zion's glow would be particularly evident.
There was no such glow, although the moonless night allowed for a truly gorgeous look at the starlit sky. But all the pinpricks of light were steady, unmoving. A gentle breeze brought the smell of salt water and rotting seaweed to my nostrils; I could hear the sound of waves slapping on the beach. The biggest thing that attacked us was about a thousand and one mosquitoes.
"Where are we?" asked Danny, slapping at one.
Amy was more practical. "Let me see your back."
"No time. He might be tracking us." I took a deep breath of the cool night air. "Doorway to Sanctuary."
We stepped from the coral atoll to the outskirts of the village that I had once whimsically called Area Fifty-Three. My back was really starting to hurt now. Here, it was mid-afternoon; people turned and stared as I hustled through to the village square, the others trailing behind me. A simple bell had been set up here, next to the village well, and I rang it, hard. More people appeared, crowding forward. Voices rose, demanding to know what was going on.
"Mike!" Amy's voice had that tone in it that got my attention. "Stand still. I need to deal with your wounds."
"It's okay," I assured her. "My subdermal armour took it. I'll be fine. It's only pain."
"Your subdermal armour isn't there any more," she corrected me. "It got burned away too, along with part of your left shoulderblade. Now hold still."
I'd been wondering why my left arm wasn't working properly. I held still.
Amy was still working on me – I could feel small shards of glass sliding out of the skin of my back and shoulders, even as new skin grew back in – when Paige pushed her way to the front of the still-growing crowd. She was accompanied by a worried-looking Sveta and a man whom I didn't recognise; however, given that he didn't show any sign of being a Case 53, I guessed that he was Joe McKenzie, PRT corporal and now Paige's other half.
"Mike," Paige greeted me. "What's happened? You've been hurt."
"I'll be good in a second," I assured her. "It's happening now. Zion's kicked off the offensive. He went after Taylor and me first. Not sure why. You all know what your job is, right?"
Paige nodded. "Stay put and stay together. Be as innocuous as possible."
I nodded. "Good. And that thing I stashed here? Have it ready when and if I come for it. Plus, I've got a couple of guests for you. This is Danny and this is Gladys. Take care of them. They're good people."
Looking even more worried, Paige nodded. "What are you going to be doing?"
I took a deep breath. Thanks to Amy's work, it didn't hurt. "Something stupid, I guess."
"Wait, Taylor's not staying here with me?" Danny shook his head. "She's my daughter. Where she goes, I go."
"Danny, I'm sorry. But Taylor's got a job to do. She's been training for it. She needs to go do it." I didn't see if I was getting through to him, because Paige grabbed my arm.
"What do you mean, something stupid?" she demanded. "Mike, you mean a lot to us too. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here!"
I took Paige by the shoulders. "Look," I told her. "I gotta do what I gotta do. If I don't, everyone dies. That means everyone here as well, eventually."
"But we need you," she insisted.
I shook my head. "I've given you the chance to have a good life. It's up to you to make the best of it. I'm glad for you. I really am. But I do have to go do this thing."
Abruptly, she grabbed me and hugged me. I hugged her back. "Take care, kiddo," I told her. A moment later, I felt a metal arm go around me; my nostrils picked up the faint odour of fish. Oh, good. She has been taking the boat out. "And you too, Sveta," I added.
I disengaged from them, only to be grabbed by Gladys. "Michael Allen, I want you to do one thing for me," she whispered in my ear.
"What's that?" I asked, holding her just as tightly as she was holding me.
"Go kick Scion's golden ass up between his shoulder-blades."
I knew there was a reason I liked her so much.
She kissed me before I could answer, not that I was objecting. I kissed her back, wishing we could hold on like that forever. But every good moment has to end sooner or later.
"I'll do that just for you," I promised her once we disengaged. "Twice."
She giggled damply, trying to hide the tears. "Go. Do what you have to."
To hell with the deadline; I grabbed her and kissed her again. "I love you," I whispered. She was crying too hard to give me her answer, but I figured I knew what it was anyway.
When I turned away from her, mouth already opening to order the next Doorway, Danny Hebert stepped in front of me. Instead of hugging me, he grabbed my hand and shook it firmly. "You've done more for Taylor and me than I can ever repay," he said simply. "Good luck, whatever you do. And take care of my daughters for me."
"Thank you, and I'll do my best," I assured him. We were running short on time; I stepped into a clear area. "Doorway to Medical."
<><>
Riley
Riley looked up as the Doorway opened. Mike stepped through, followed by two girls. Each of them was dressed reasonably well, though it looked as though a lot had happened since they had put those clothes on. Mike, in particular, looked as though he'd been through a wood-chipper backwards, while Amy was missing part of the side of her skirt. The other girl just looked extremely rumpled and very upset.
The blonde turned to the orderlies who had been following her around. "Like I just showed you," she ordered. "Bandages, painkillers and antibiotics beside each bed. Get back to me when you've finished that."
The medical area had been set up in a natural cavern; Riley didn't know where it was on Earth, or even which Earth it was actually on. But there was air and water and electricity, and that was all she really needed. Line after line of beds were arrayed on the hastily-smoothed stone floor. Scapegoat and Othala and a few others were already here; like Riley, they had been snatched up within thirty seconds of the Brockton Bay attack. Ordinary medical personnel had already been on station.
She hurried over to where the trio had appeared. "Mike! Amy! Uh … what's-your-name! Good, you're alive!"
Amy nodded. "Yeah, but it was close. Real close. Mike took a hit and lost some of your subdermal armour."
Riley stopped and glared at Mike. "Really? You lost it? Seriously? I surgically implanted that stuff for a reason."
"He also lost two ribs and part of his left shoulder-blade," Amy interrupted tiredly. "I fixed him up, but he's got no protection from that side."
"I could do something -" began Riley, but this time it was Mike who broke in.
"No. No time. I gotta go. Gotta get Taylor to where she needs to be."
"And then, he says, he's gonna go do something really stupid," Amy added.
Riley rolled her eyes. "So what else is new?" She grabbed Mike in a hug, feeling the new skin on his back where his shirt was no longer in existence. "This is where you go get yourself killed, isn't it?"
"Yeah," he admitted, wrapping his arms around her in turn. "But if I do it right, I save the world. And that's almost worth it. I guess."
His tone was brave, but she could feel his hearts hammering. He was terrified.
She wasn't feeling much better. Pulling his face down to her level, she planted a kiss on his forehead. "You helped make me back into a person. I'll never forget that."
And then it was Amy's turn. She held Mike so tightly that Riley wondered if his upgraded skeleton could take it. What Amy said to him was too quiet for Riley to hear, but it seemed to satisfy them both. When they disengaged, he offered his fist to bump. Amy did so, then Taylor followed suit. Riley wasn't used to this fist-bumping thing – isn't that something that construction workers do? - but she offered her own fist as well.
"Okay, we really gotta go," Mike urged. "Ready, Taylor?"
Taylor turned to Amy. "See you when we're done, sis."
"See you then, sis," Amy responded; the two briefly shared a fist-bump of their own.
"Doorway to Tactical." That was Mike. The portal opened; the big man and the skinny girl stepped through. It closed behind them.
Riley turned to Amy. "What's this 'sis' thing about? That's my joke."
Amy took a deep breath. "Well, uh …"
<><>
Mike
The members of the tactical think-tank were still finding their seats as we stepped through the portal. However, they were almost all here, which was a good thing. Thank god for those middle-of-the-night drills that Piggot insisted on. They really work.
There were guards posted around the room; as we appeared, guns snapped up to point in our direction, red dots dancing all over us like the reflections from a really serious disco ball. But the weapons looked normal, which made me wonder. Wasn't L33t working on a Zion killer?
"Security and Weaver, reporting in," I stated out loud; the guards relaxed slightly, the weapons lowering. Of course, they should have recognised Taylor as Weaver, but … ah crap, she's out of costume.
"Taylor," I said in an undertone as we headed for the main table, "do you have a spare costume anywhere? As in, not in the house?" Because the house wasn't there anymore.
"I, uh, think I've got one in the PRT building," she replied. "Why? Is this important? My secret identity isn't that big a deal right now, is it?"
I grimaced. "It's about appearances. You need to look the part, just in case."
"Just in case of what?" she wanted to know.
"In case Zion comes after you."
"I don't understand."
"Too long to explain." I had a brainwave. "Get hold of Sabah. She can rig you up a replica."
For a moment, it looked as though she was going to argue, but then she nodded. "Got it."
A harried-looking PRT officer intercepted us. "Just in?"
"Yeah," I agreed. "Weaver and Security. Panacea's in place in Medical."
"Oh, thank God," he breathed. "We heard you were killed."
"He gave it his best shot," I told him. "What's the situation?"
"Bad."
Stepping closer to the table, I could hear the speakers set around the edges of it, and I understood what he meant.
"- Theresa's last duplicate is down. Zion is now targeting Pandora. I estimate thirty seconds. We are evading and fighting back, but he isn't giving us any chances."
"Dragon?" I whispered to Lisa. She was wearing Power Ranger pyjamas, which I so wanted to tease her about, but there was no time.
"Yeah," she whispered back. "After Zion hit Brockton Bay, he started hunting down Dragon and her kids. I think he sees them as a threat."
"Understood," Noelle stated into her bracer. "Hold him off as long as you can. We're activating our troops as we speak."
Armsmaster, from behind Noelle, grabbed her shoulder. "Why aren't you sending in the alert troops now? I know there are some who are ready to go. Zion's killing her!" The anguish in his voice was very real.
"Because we only have fifteen percent of available firepower right now," she replied in a voice of forced calm. "If we attack now, we won't have enough variation, and no backup once they fall back. He'll massacre them. Dragon knows this. She's backed up, and so are her children. Once the pressure's off her -"
"What happened to the guns?" I demanded. "Dragon should be equipped with guns that can blow his sorry arse back to where he came from!"
Noelle looked at me. "Sorry. We don't have them yet."
"Fuck." I looked around for Taylor. She was nowhere to be seen, which meant that hopefully she was getting that damn costume sorted out. The need for it was looking more and more dire all the time. I also hoped that she had a bracer by now. When Dragon went down, we'd need her, badly. Which reminded me. "I need a bracer, now."
Someone handed me one; I slapped it on to my wrist. The smart metal cuff wrapped around and locked. It beeped at me, asking for a name. "Security," I stated. SECURITY, the word scrolled across the small screen. Y/N? "Correct," I told it. "Doorway to L33t."
<><>
L33t
"Come on, we have to go!"
L33t shook his head stubbornly. "I have to finish this!"
"What's one gun?" Über tugged at his shoulder. "We have to get to Tactical. If Zion comes back, he's gonna level the city!"
L33t looked at his partner. "This is the most important thing I've ever done in my life. He told me so. I'm gonna finish it." Turning back to the workbench, he leaned over the weapon on the workbench and recommenced soldering.
There was an odd inrush of air; L33t didn't turn around. "What the fuck?" demanded Über. "Where did you come from?"
"Don't ask stupid questions," a new voice answered, a voice that L33t recognised. "Where's my fucking anti-Zion guns?"
"Nearly finished," L33t said without turning around. "Sorry it took so long. I couldn't get as many sessions with Flechette as I wanted."
In the next moment, Allen was standing next to him, looming over the workbench. "One gun?" he demanded. "Just one fucking gun?"
L33t soldered the last connection then slapped the plate closed. It locked into place. "Yeah, one gun," he said, dropping the soldering iron on to the bench, where it burned a small hole to match the dozens of others that were already there. "This is the prototype. I can build something once. Dragon was supposed to replicate them, right?"
"Yeah, well, Dragon's currently looking at a life expectancy measured in minutes because she hasn't got this tech already," Allen told him curtly. He picked up the gun left-handed; it was heavy, a two-handed job, but he didn't seem to care. "Ammo?"
"Here. Dragon gave it to me to test the thing once I had it done." L33t picked up a magazine and handed it to him; Allen figured out how to slot it into the weapon. "No safety-catch. Pull this bolt back to load and cock it. After that it's point and shoot. You've got ten shots."
"Fuckin' wonderful." Turning the gun on its side, Allen pulled back the bolt; it slid forward again with a smooth clack-clunk. "And it puts her power into the bullets? What about accuracy? They'll strip any rifling."
L33t managed a grin. "Dragon thought of that. She had me build in a targeting reticule. The bullets are self-powered and they have a seeker head designed by Armsmaster."
"So, micro-missiles then."
"Something like that, yeah."
Allen frowned. "You do know that once empowered, those bullets or missiles or whatever will basically ignore physics? I'm talking right-angled turns at Mach 2. Are the seeker heads programmed for that sort of agility?"
"Oh shit." L33t's eyes opened wide. "I don't know. I don't think so. Unless Armsmaster thought of it. I'd have to -"
"No time," Allen cut him off. "This'll have to do. Go, get to Tactical."
Über shook his head. "But that's just one gun. What are you gonna do with that?"
"Trust me, you really, really don't want to know." Allen started toward the far side of the workshop. "Doorway to the Teeth."
L33t met Über's eyes. "Fuck!"
They ran for it.
<><>
Tactical
"Pandora is down. Zion is targeting me now. I'm doing my best -" The voice cut out, then resumed. "- but he's very good at locating my copies. Down to three -"
The running commentary was probably not really necessary. In the holodisplay, Zion could be seen in miniature, hovering over Dragon's mountain fastness, blasting huge chunks of stone out of the way.
"Twenty percent of forces are now active," murmured Accord. "Option Beta-three is viable."
"- two -"
"For God's sake!" ground out Armsmaster.
Noelle took a deep breath. "Option Beta-three it is. Weaver?"
"Here." Weaver hustled out of a back room. Parian followed behind, her floating needles still sewing the costume on to the taller girl. "Beta-three, on it." She concentrated.
Within each and every bracer was a relay bug in a tiny self-contained life-support unit, designed by Dragon after studying Mannequin's work. Also within each bracer was a minuscule Doormaker portal, less than half a centimetre across. The counterpart portals to these had been created far below ground, in a totally-enclosed empty spherical space. This space was relatively small, and the portals were thus extremely close to one another, allowing radio signals – and Taylor's power – to reach every single person wearing such a bracer, no matter where Taylor was in relation to them.
Through the bug in her own bracer, Taylor connected with every other bracer in less than a heartbeat. Due to the training sessions, she knew what 'Beta-three' meant; who was supposed to go where and do what.
Within their protective units, the bugs manipulated controls designed specifically for their limbs, and instructions scrawled across the screen of each bracer. Dozens, and then hundreds, of capes went into action. They appeared in the battlespace of the holotable as tiny pinpricks of light.
"My last copy is gone," Dragon reported. "I have backups for myself and the girls, but they will be a little while rebooting. I -" Her voice went silent, leaving just static behind.
"Dragon? Are you there?" Noelle's voice was sharp.
"Yes, I'm here. I had to switch to secondary comms. Zion is now under attack. But he's still pressing me very hard. I've suffered significant damage. Colin -"
"Yes?"
"I love you. Never forget that."
"Thirty percent of forces on line," Accord stated.
"That lets us pull off Delta-nine," Lisa announced.
"We're missing Glory Girl for that one." That was Accord, scrolling through a list of names via the smart table.
"Crap." Lisa stared at the wall for a moment. "Charlie-six, then."
Noelle stared at the list of options being displayed on the table before her. "Charlie-six," she agreed. "Do it."
Weaver nodded. Again, she concentrated. The dispositions of forces shifted, frustrating Zion's attempts to anticipate their attacks. On the holodisplay in the middle of the table, tiny points of light moved and darted. Faces formed in the clouds and on the ground, made of such materials as metal, bone and water.
"Pull back the left wing now now now!" snapped Noelle. "He's changing tactics!"
Weaver didn't hesitate; the commands went out at the speed of thought. Even as Zion turned to slash a wave of golden energy at the left wing, it was fading back. A few were caught and began to fall, but then they blinked out of existence, or were traded out for lifeless dummies.
The respite for Dragon had not been long enough. Zion renewed his attack on her last module, blast after blast smashing into her. An explosion ripped across half of the viewing area.
"Dragon's down." It was Tattletale.
"Forty-five percent of forces now available. Injured being healed." Accord's voice was calm and controlled.
Noelle snapped more orders; the attacking forces, reinforced by the incoming numbers, went to yet another battle plan, hammering Zion unmercifully. And then … he vanished.
"Where's he gone? Locate him, now!" Noelle's voice rose over the confusion. "Every second he's out of sight …"
Weaver looked up. "He's in Medical."
<><>
Zion
The Warrior stepped between dimensions, reappearing in a vast underground space. It paid no attention to the forms, writhing or still, that lay on the multitudinous beds. Drifting to the ground, it moved toward the shard-enhanced being that was in the process of returning a damaged creature to full capacity.
She turned at the Warrior's approach, backing away. The entity moved faster, catching her and lifting her from the ground with a hand about her throat. Her shard attempted to affect the entity's body, but it had already made its biology immune to her abilities. Leaning close to her, it whispered two words.
"Call them."
Her face was turning red as she struggled vainly against its grip. But she did not obey its command. A golden glow built in the Warrior's free hand as it repeated the words.
"Call. Them."
From its observation of the anomalous being and the other immature female, they had an emotional attachment to this female. It needed to destroy them, but was having trouble locating them. This one had been easier to locate, as damaged creatures had been transported to this point. Putting this female under threat should cause the anomaly and the other immature female to attempt to defend her. The entity would then destroy them, removing the threat.
The female was not speaking, even to beg. Belatedly, the Warrior recalled that these creatures needed to inhale oxygen to speak and to maintain life processes. It placed her on the ground once more, releasing its grip. She had to know that she could not escape. For the third time, it spoke.
"Call them."
It was totally unprepared for what happened next.
<><>
Mike
I should have said 'Doorway to Butcher'. But I had no time to worry about that; I needed to stay alive long enough to pull this off first.
The Doorway had dropped me right into the middle of the Teeth as they attacked some small town or other. They had been surprised by my entry, which was the only reason I was still alive.
Animos had been closest; I hit him with a larynx punch which put him on the ground. In the next second, Vex's razor-sharp force-fields had surrounded me. Closing my eyes, I clamped my forearm across them. The razor-shards bit into me, but Riley's subdermal armour did the trick.
My combat mods took in my surroundings and painted me a picture of where Vex was most likely to be. I lost more clothes and some skin getting to him, but the kick I delivered caved in his chest. The thousand and one razors that had been flaying me alive vanished into nothingness.
If I hadn't been already hyped up on combat endorphins, this would have been a hell of a rush. As it was, I was playing it by the numbers.
Spree came running at me; all of him. Which, in the event, was a crowd growing larger by the second. I smashed my way through the front wave, but there were even more coming at me; in the time it took for me to swing a punch, he popped five more out.
Fuck it. I hefted the gun and took aim. The targeting reticule blinked and I pulled the trigger. There was only the smallest of jolts as the bolt travelled back of its own accord and chambered the next micro-missile. Nine to go.
The missile blasted through sixteen of Spree's clones before it hit him just under the left cheekbone. It exploded inside his head, a detail that L33t hadn't told me about, and his headless corpse slumped to the ground. All of the clones began disappearing, the closest ones starting first.
I like it. But I had to remember to save ammo for Zion. Because I was damn sure I wasn't gonna take him out with just one shot.
Hemorrhagia came running at me from one direction, blood-blades already growing from her arms, as Butcher stepped out from another. I knew who was the more dangerous, and I swung the gun in her direction. In reply, Butcher's oversized Gatling gun came up to train on me. My targeting reticule blinked and I squeezed the trigger …
… but she fired first.
<><>
Contessa
"Doorway from Glory Girl to Medical. Doorway from Golem to Medical."
Contessa took a deep breath. Her Path seemed to indicate that this was the best choice. I hope so.
<><>
Vicky
Vicky grunted as she heaved the fallen beam up and away, freeing the trapped man. He didn't move, so she drifted down alongside him, checking for life signs. There was a heartbeat and he was breathing, but he showed no signs of consciousness.
God, I wish Amy was here. I would tell her sorry in so many ways. I was an idiot.
She couldn't leave the man where he was. As carefully as she could, she lifted him from the rubble and carried him to his front lawn, where she left him in the recovery position. I hope this isn't making him worse. But I don't have a choice.
Flying to the next house around the perimeter of the crater edge, she began to search once more for survivors, even as she heard the distant sound of sirens approaching. They're gonna have their work cut out for them. So am I.
And then the portal opened beside her, and what she saw drove all thoughts of search and rescue out of her mind.
<><>
Mike
I was already dodging; not that it mattered. The lowest barrel on the Gatling spat flame; I felt the hammer-blow in the middle of my chest like someone had driven a railway spike right through me. It went straight through the subdermal armour, through my reinforced sternum, through my heart, and punched out a rib on the way out the back. Yes, I felt all of that. I went over backward like a puppet with the strings cut; L33t's gun fell from my hand.
The bloom of fire from where she had been standing faded away; she had teleported to avoid my shot. Clever bitch. Time seemed to slow down, even as I felt blood pumping out of me in industrial quantities. The world darkened around the edges. Another bloom of fire, and Butcher was standing in front of me. She looked down at me, her Gatling slanting down to aim at my face.
And then Riley was right there, also looking down at me.
"Jesus, Mike," she complained. "Why do you always do this?"
I tried to talk, but coughed blood instead. The bullet – or bullets, I hadn't been counting – must have hit my lung as well as my heart. Sorry, I wanted to say. Didn't mean to.
"Well, sorry doesn't get the job done." She knelt beside me. "Wow, you're a mess. She took out your secondary heart and your right lung. Welp, good thing you've still got one of each."
Why are you here? How are you here? Why can't she see you?
"Okay, newsflash? Not really here. This is a little thing I stuck in your brain when I did that work on it, a while back? Just in case you're wondering, it's not talking in complete sentences. It's just shoving the concepts into your head and letting your brain stitch it together in a coherent fashion. Also making it look and sound like I'm saying it. It's about a twenty-to-one ratio, so I can tell you stuff before she finishes the job. Anyway, any second now the sphincters are gonna close off and kill the blood flow, and then I'm gonna hit you with an endorphin high that'll get you back on your feet. You're going to have about a ten minute window of opportunity, then you're gonna fall over hard. If you're not in front of a doctor then, you might just die for real. So get with the program. And don't be such an idiot next time."
But she's about to shoot me again.
"Sorry, can't help you with that." 'Riley' patted me on the cheek and gave me a chirpy smile. "Three … two … one …"
I felt the rush of life into my limbs once more, and my eyes snapped open from where they'd drifted almost closed. But the Gatling was still there, with Butcher behind it. She smiled cruelly. I saw her finger tighten on the trigger.
<><>
Amy
In the time since Vicky had gained her powers, Amy was pretty certain that she had experienced every level of emotional outburst of which her sister's aura was capable. I was wrong.
The tide of pure rage that washed over her made even the anger that Vicky had been showing at the party pale in comparison. Somewhat inured to Vicky's emotional assaults, Amy still felt it keenly. Zion, on the other hand, was already highly emotionally charged; the aura hit him like a battering ram.
And so, half a second later, did Glory Girl.
Streaking along the length of the cave set aside for Medical, Vicky rammed into Zion's back at her top speed. Still dazed from the wash of terror that her aura engendered in him, he was smashed off his feet and sent flying into the cave wall. Vicky was on him a moment later, her fists pummelling him, every blow a pile-driver. Her aura was still going full-strength; over the thunder of her fists slamming into him, Amy could just barely make out the words, "Leave my sister alone!"
She only had the advantage for a few seconds, during which time she drove him a good foot into the cavern wall. Then he had recovered and adjusted for her attack; in reply, he unleashed a blast that sent her tumbling back across the cave. Amy watched her fly overhead and slam into the far wall, followed by Zion.
She had taken the blast unscathed, and the impact with the wall hadn't harmed her either, although Amy wondered about the structural capability of the roof. Simply put, a cavern was a very bad place to have a cape fight in, especially with Brutes involved. To make matters worse, Vicky was unable to react in time as he pinned her against the wall with one hand and readied an attack with the other.
"Ames!" Vicky called out. "Run!" Frozen to the spot, Amy watched the golden glow build up. She's going to die, and it's all my fault.
The cavern wall groaned as it shifted, opening up and covering Glory Girl entirely, also encasing Zion's hand in the process. Zion wrenched his hand back, breaking away small pieces of stone, then prepared to blast the stone away. Before he could, however, the mass of stone reformed once more, forming an image of a face more than six feet high.
Zion recoiled, the golden glow fading. He looked around; all over the cavern, that face was repeated everywhere in a variety of sizes, ranging from six inches to six feet across. Amy, backed up against the wall, was standing right between two of them.
Abruptly, Zion disappeared, and in the emptiness that followed his departure, Amy slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. She wanted to either cry or throw up. Fortunately for her pride, she did neither.
"Are you all right?" It was Golem, of course, placing a small object back into the pouch at his belt. "Did he hurt you?"
"N-no. I'm fine." She accepted his hand up. "Vicky?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry." He did something with one of the square panels hanging at his belt, and the stone encapsulating Vicky groaned as it slid apart. The blonde fell out of the wall, dropping to the floor in a limp pile.
"Vicky!" Amy hurried over to her and knelt down. All around, the others were starting to move again; she didn't know whether they had been frozen into place by terror or by one of Zion's powers. I suppose it's much the same thing, in the end.
Riley was the first to reach her as she placed her hands on Vicky. "Is she all right? Are you all right?"
"She's not breathing." Amy gave Vicky's diaphragm a jolt; the blonde inhaled convulsively, then gasped raggedly for a few moments as her eyes opened slowly. Satisfied that she was going to be okay – there were no obvious injuries – Amy turned to Riley. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks to Golem."
Slowly, still looking a little groggy, Vicky sat up. She glared at Golem. "Was it you who locked me into the wall?"
"I, uh, yeah?" he asked. "It was the only thing I could think of to do."
She got to her feet, jabbing a finger into his chest. "Do you realise I could have suffocated in there?"
"I thought you could, you know, break out," he protested.
"Not through a foot of stone, with no leverage!" she snapped. "I nearly died!"
"If he hadn't done that, Zion would have killed you," Amy reminded her quietly. "So how about some thanks for, you know, saving your ass?"
"No, she's right." Golem hung his head. "Sorry. I screwed up."
Vicky frowned. "Yeah, you did. So … what's that buzzing noise?"
<><>
Mike
Just as she squeezed the trigger, Butcher's head exploded. I rolled aside as the Gatling went off, blasting chunks from the asphalt. Coming to my feet, I wrenched her hand away from the trigger, then dropped the multi-barrelled weapon. Gingerly, I looked down at the hole in the middle of my chest. Blood had spread out from it to cover the front of my body; fortunately, it wasn't still pumping out. Fuck me. That micro-missile took its sweet fucking time getting back.
In the next second, I lurched as the first voice began to bellow in my head. Usurper! Usurper! You are no Butcher!
A second one began to scream as well, then a third. And a fourth. With every extra voice, begging, threatening, cursing, I found it harder and harder to think straight. What was the plan again?
And then, blessed peace, as an imaginary glass wall slid down between my mind and the voices. I could still hear them; they just didn't matter. The brain mod that I'd asked Riley to install was finally paying off.
Emotion became a distant concept; I found my thoughts slotting into logical lines. Pick up L33t's gun. I picked up L33t's gun. It had been lying next to Hemorrhagia's sprawled body; the bullet that had punched through me had gone on to hit her. That, I believe, is the epitome of irony.
The bracer on my wrist had been buzzing for the last few seconds. I lifted my arm and paid attention to it. Marching across the screen were three words.
ZION IN TACTICAL.
<><>
Taylor
She had bugs in the cavern, of course; she had bugs everywhere. When Zion had first appeared there, she didn't know what to do; vectoring capes into the hospital to fight the bad guy was about the last thing anyone wanted. Amy's in there. Oh, god. He'll kill her.
She was just opening her mouth to call for a Doorway – I won't let him hurt her – when Vicky arrived on the scene. The resultant fight was over in seconds; the initial attack, the retaliation, then Theo's intervention. I'm going to have to thank that boy.
Zion's disappearance from the cavern was a huge relief to her, right up until the golden glow lit up Tactical.
Slowly, she turned to face him. Zion, the hero, saviour of so many people. The source of all the powers. The thing that wanted to kill the world.
Zion hovered there in midair, his feet a good six inches from the floor. Emotions radiated from him; anger, frustration, sadness. His costume was still spotless, despite the damage that had been dealt to him so far. On his bearded face was an expression of what could have been mild annoyance. Raising his hand, he pointed at her; a golden glow began to build up around it.
Bugs rushed into the space around her as she dived to the side. More attacked Zion's eyes, more in the hope that they would obscure his vision than with the expectation that he would be harmed by them. Neither ploy succeeded; his hand tracked her unerringly, the glow growing ever brighter.
I'm gonna die. Sorry, Dad, I -
Abruptly, Zion jerked backward, then vanished as something punched a hole through the wall right where his head had been.
"Coming through!" It was Mike's voice; Taylor looked around. He had appeared from a portal at the far end of the room, covered in blood and waving a gun that looked like it could make a serious hole in the side of a battleship. "Taylor, we have to go!"
"What? But I -"
She didn't have any more of a chance to protest; he grabbed her arm and dragged her along with him. "Doorway to Redrock!"
<><>
Mike
We stood atop the huge sandstone monolith, its undulating surface extending out to a drop-off in all directions. Heat haze rose around us. I scanned the sky, looking for telltale signs of Scion. "Can you locate him?"
"No, I – yes!" Taylor swung and pointed.
I stopped and dropped the reticule on the distant golden glint. Restraining the impulse to fire off the whole magazine – after this, I would have six rounds left – I squeezed the trigger once. The missile shot away; Zion whipped sideways, then opened a portal to disappear through.
"Doorway to Beachfront," I muttered. We stepped through the portal, but only got ten yards along the sand before Taylor called a warning; I shielded her body with mine as sand fountained nearby. Zion had found us again. Capes appeared overhead and began attacking as I called up yet another portal.
<><>
From one part of the world to another we jumped, occasionally stepping to a whole new Earth for variety. Sometimes we were just ahead of Zion; at other times we held a substantial lead. But it seemed that he most definitely could track us now, whereas before he had not been able to.
Butcher's powers. It's gotta be. Zion can track those. But it wasn't as though I could do anything about it, right then.
When she could, Taylor relayed where we were and Noelle dispatched capes to aid us. They attacked him in battle plans coordinated by Taylor even as we stepped through portal after portal. The attacks slowed him down, there was no doubt about it. What I wanted was for him to get close enough for me to nail him with a micro-missile. But he was being very cagey about them, after the first encounter. And time was ticking down for me.
It almost ran out altogether when we emerged through a portal and he was right there in front of us, having anticipated which way I would go. I've been too predictable, dammit. His hand was already up; I would never bring the gun to bear in time. And he was too close for a Doorway to work; the one behind us had already winked out. So I grabbed Taylor by the waist, pulled her close, and teleported.
We landed fifty yards away in a burst of flame, and I called up another portal before Zion could get to us. "How did you do that?" she gasped as we jumped through.
"Long story," I replied flatly. Two more portals took us back to another beachfront, but Zion was closing on us once more. He was right on our heels as I called up the next portal. "Doorway to Eden!"
We landed on unstable footing; Taylor staggered and looked down at what she was standing on. "What is this?"
"Zion's other half," I said, raising my bracer to my face. "Tactical. Timer. Now."
"Timer running." We had ten seconds.
"Zion!" gasped Taylor, pointing; the golden man was already hovering above us. But he wasn't looking at us. He was looking down at the form beneath him, partly extruded from the flesh-garden that was Eden.
"Good. Doorway to Greenfields." With rather more haste than usual, I hauled her through. The portal closed behind us, leaving us standing on a wide grassy pasture. I wasn't even sure where it was, or on which Earth; I'd just been given the waypoints to memorise. Hopefully, that'll hold him for just long enough. "Doorway to Sanctuary."
<><>
Bakuda's Workshop
Friday, May 27, 2011
"Okay, so how big's this bomb you want again?" Bakuda leaned back against her workbench with her arms crossed, the goggles she was wearing giving her a slightly fish-eyed look.
Mike smiled, ever so slightly. "Let's say, hypothetically, we don't actually need the planet any more."
Her eyes widened. "You're shitting me."
"I shit you not."
"And what, exactly, are you going to do with this bomb?"
He chuckled. "Since when are you worried about that?"
She shrugged. "Not worried. Just want to make sure that you don't set it off on the same planet that I'm standing on."
"Nope, that's a given. We're gonna piss Scion off by blowing up his girlfriend. Twice."
She blinked a couple of times. "You realise, that statement doesn't make any sense at all."
"That mean you can't make the bomb?"
This time, her eyes narrowed. "Fuckin' watch me."
Mike grinned.
<><>
Present Day
Zion
The Warrior was temporarily distracted from the chase by the sight of the Other, the Thinker. The body that the other entity would have presented to the world was there, interrupted in the most delicate stage of its formation. Downward the Warrior drifted, coming to rest beside the slumped form.
Reaching out, it ran a hand over the long hair, the delicately-shaped arm. It had not returned to this site in all the tens of cycles since it had discovered that the Thinker was no longer functional.
But this was not precisely the case. There was life in there, faint but viable. The Warrior had powers under its control that could possibly …
The detonation was enormous.
<><>
Mike
"Dad!"
Taylor!"
I watched the reunion of father and daughter as I tried to catch my breath. Having just one working lung was not good for exertion. How long has it been? Not less than five minutes, I gauged. Which meant I had five minutes, or less, until the endgame.
"Mike, good God, what have you been doing?" Gladys reached out a tentative hand, as if unsure where to touch my skin. In all fairness to her, I had been torn up by Vex's razor-sharp fields, then Butcher's gun had almost killed me. But I was still functional, for the most part. I only needed a few more minutes.
"Pissing Zion off," I told her in a matter-of-fact tone. "Paige, I need the decoy."
"Right here," Paige said. She and Sveta came out of the building, carrying the decoy between them. It was a life-sized model of Taylor, in full Weaver costume. I picked it up, grunting at the effort. Everything was an effort, now. I had no doubt that Riley's combat endorphins were running out.
"I have to go," I stated. "I won't see you again. Have a good life. Be safe."
"Mike …" It was Gladys, her hand on my arm. From behind the glass wall that held Butcher trapped, my feelings for her watched, but could say nothing.
I could not use emotion here. Truth would have to do.
"Gladys, you're special. You've always been special. I'll always remember you. But I really have to go now."
Turning away, I called up another portal and stepped through, carrying the faux Taylor.
<><>
Zion
Dazed by the explosion, the Warrior realised that it had been blown into interplanetary space by the sheer concussion. Much of its energy reserves had been depleted in surviving the attack. Looking back, it saw damage on an apocalyptic scale; such was the force of the explosion that the very planet had been cracked in half. But it cared not at all about that. What it cared about was that every last fragment of the Thinker must surely have been destroyed in the blast. This, coming on top of the realisation that the Thinker could have been restored, caused an upwelling of anger and frustration unmatched by any that had gone before.
The anomaly had to die. Along with the immature female. This was what the Warrior was now fixated upon. Its combat sense stated firmly that she was the greatest danger to it, now. Which suited the Warrior just fine; she was going to die, and very soon now. It reached out, detecting the string of stolen shards trailing the anomaly, along with the emanations from the immature female's shard. He was on the move again, and her with him.
This would not save them.
<><>
Mike
I heard the scream of rage as it echoed through the upper atmosphere. Chancing a look around, I could see Zion, but only as the very head of a long golden streak lancing down from above.
"I believe that Zion is angry," I reported over the bracer, and called for a portal. It appeared, and I stepped through it. However, he stepped with me; each time I appeared in a new world, he was right there on my trail. No matter where I ran, no matter how I dodged, he wasn't letting me go this time. He wasn't playing games any more.
Or so he thought. I was playing a game. It was called 'keep-away'. So far, I was winning.
It appeared that he still couldn't anticipate me; when I deliberately went against the logical suggestions thrown up by my combat mods, his shots went wide, or he overshot into a different world. But he was tenacious as hell, never flagging, never falling back far enough to lose me.
I ducked through portal after portal, until he got too close to allow them to form; this was actually to my advantage, because being that close allowed me to use some of Butcher's other powers. Festering wounds, which he ignored. Rage, which worked well enough on him; normally, he might have ignored it as well, but it exacerbated the monumental fury that now consumed him. The ability to hit any target I shot at, which kept him from getting too close. And, of course, teleportation. Time and again, I slipped out of his grasp. I could feel his frustration growing. That's one pissed-off hyperdimensional space whale.
Gone was the slightly detached expression he had worn previously. He now showed a visage distorted by pure rage and loss. Each time he got close, I enhanced his rage even further, avoiding his blasts by narrower and narrower margins. Three times, he fired a wide-angle blast that nearly caught me; I got out of the way twice by way of a Doorway and once by using Butcher's teleportation. But I couldn't keep it up; even if I wasn't running on empty, he only had to get lucky once.
<><>
Zion
The Warrior's entire being was focused on one task. Destroy the anomaly. This foe had avoided destruction over and over again, all the while preserving the entity's other enemy from the Warrior's wrath. The immature female was obviously unable to run, but she was still capable of using her power to call down the shard-enhanced creatures upon the Warrior. It would take just one attack to destroy her, but before the entity could do that, it had to eliminate the anomalous being that was protecting her.
Finally, it saw its chance, as the anomaly stumbled. He was already halfway through the portal, but the Warrior's attack caught him on the legs and lower back. Golden energy began to eat into his flesh as he fell to the ground on the far side of the portal. The portal closed, of course, as the entity neared, but the Warrior could step between worlds just as easily. However, before it could, another portal opened, revealing …
The Warrior stopped moving. There, before it, stood a figure with long hair, alabaster skin and an oh-so-familiar face. However, this face was neither a static simulacrum, as the shard-enhanced creatures had been producing, nor dead and unresponsive. It was the Other, fully realised. The Thinker, returned to functionality.
The Other took a step forward, reached out a slim hand. In return, the Warrior also reached out a hand. Unfamiliar emotions arose within the entity; hope and joy, that the Thinker had somehow transcended destruction and had returned to stand at its side. Together, they would make these planet-bound creatures pay for the degradation and anguish.
Their hands touched.
The detonation was not as powerful as the first one, but it took the Warrior utterly by surprise. When it managed to cease its tumble through the air, it saw that where the Thinker had stood, there was now quite a sizeable crater.
Again. They had done it to the entity again. Twice now, it had grasped completion, only to have it torn away in the most insulting way possible. Fury and rage returned in full force, amplified by the sorrow and loss that had been reawakened.
The anomaly would die.
<><>
Mike
I lay on the rocky ground, gritting my teeth so I wouldn't scream. Riley's combat endorphins were good, but they had just about reached their limit with me. My legs weren't much good for anything any more. Even if I had the strength to get up, I wouldn't be running anywhere. I raised my bracer to my face. "Plan … Omega," I gasped.
"Mike, we can still pull you out." That was Noelle. "Just say the word."
"No." It was getting really hard to breathe. "This. Way's. Better."
"But -"
"Do. It."
A sigh. "It's been an honour."
"Me. Too."
The world was darkening around the edges. I panted for breath. My fingertips were growing numb, which was vastly preferable to what was happening to the remains of my legs. I didn't even notice when the gun disappeared from my unresponsive hand.
And then Zion appeared before me. I'd thought he was angry before. Now, he was literally incandescent with rage. Golden light streamed out from him so vividly that I felt my clothes beginning to smoulder.
In the early stages of the chase, I'd decided on my last words. I'd be defiant, I had decided. Fuck you, I'd say. You're a figment of my imagination. You don't even exist. And then, because it seemed funny, I'd give him the finger with both hands before he killed me.
Maybe my words would give him pause. Maybe he would realise just what I was. Or maybe my insult would enrage him even further.
However, I never got the chance. Before I could even draw breath to utter the first syllable, he unleashed a storm of energy upon my prone body, and upon the animatronic decoy.
At least it was quick.
<><>
Sanctuary
"Plan Omega six is a go."
Taylor heard Noelle's words, but they didn't mean anything to her. All of the Omega plans were based around the concept of Mike sacrificing himself to draw Zion in. This meant that Mike was dead.
Of course, the original Omega six plan had involved more anti-Zion guns, and someone other than Taylor doing the shooting. But she was the one holding it. It was up to her.
"I repeat, Omega six."
Danny nudged her; abruptly, she came back to herself. "Doorway to behind Zion."
The portal opened; ahead of her, she saw the golden man, in a transport of rage, blasting the landscape into oblivion. She raised the heavy gun in both hands, pointing it at his back.
Mike's dead. You killed him. Taylor wasn't a fan of the death penalty, but in this case she was willing to make an exception.
She didn't even feel it when the gun fired; all she saw was the pause, the turn and the look of utter astonishment. Reflexively, she fired three more times before the bolt locked open. The golden form popped like a soap bubble. All that was left, all she saw before the portal closed, was a hole in space with a vast something beyond.
<><>
Tactical
"Front door is open. Repeat, front door is open."
Noelle nodded sharply. "Green light. Go go go."
"Green light, roger," replied Dragon. "Let's go, girls."
Three portals opened into that world; each one admitted a subtly different Dragon-style suit to the location. Each held an oversized launcher. They hovered before the hole.
"Dragon, launching."
"Pandora, launching."
"Theresa, launching."
One by one, each of the projectiles arched through the hole in space, into the pocket universe beyond.
"Dragon here. Packages delivered."
"I copy packages delivered," Noelle replied as calmly as she could. "Everyone out of the universe. It's going to get very unfriendly in there."
"Roger that."
<><>
Bakuda's Workshop
Friday, May 27, 2011
"Okay, this is me talking, so you know I'm not kidding when I say what the fuck?"
Mike raised an eyebrow. "Wow, are you sure you're the real Bakuda?"
"Fuck you," she stormed. "There's big stuff, and then there's what you just asked me to build."
He held his hands out, palm up. "So … what, you can't make it?"
She rolled her eyes. "Of course I can fucking make it. But what the fuck do you want with a flesh-dissolving bomb that big? Are you looking to depopulate fucking China?"
"No, you misunderstand." He was grinning broadly now. "I don't want a bomb that'll do that."
"Then what do you want me to make?" If that vein in her temple throbbed any harder …
"Three bombs that size."
The look on her face was absolutely classic.
<><>
Present Day
Zion
The Warrior stirred, rebuilding its body. It would destroy the creatures once and for all. Nothing treated it like that and yet lived. Once its new body was complete, it would -
As its eyes finished forming, it saw the first bomb. The last thought that went through its head was analogous to Oh, no, not again.
One bomb, it might possibly have survived. With two bombs, the odds would have been against it. The third ensured that it didn't stand a chance.
<><>
Tactical
"Dragon here. Sending through a throwaway probe. Getting signals back now."
Noelle clenched her hands so tightly that the nails bit into her palms. "Yes?"
There was a long pause. Lisa was pretty sure that nobody in the room was breathing. She watched dust motes falling through the holodisplay, flaring with tiny bursts of laser light.
"We have positive confirmation. Zion is dead. Repeat, Zion is dead."
The room erupted in cheers and whistles, but Lisa didn't feel like joining in.
Maybe later she'd celebrate, but not right now.
End of Part Fifty-One
Epilogue One
Last edited:
Dragonskyt
Ashen one, hearest thou my voice, still?
- Location
- Kiln of the First Flame
I see...
...
Is that it for Mike?
Will he... will he return somehow?
...
Is that it for Mike?
Will he... will he return somehow?
IIRC, isn't I, Panacea a continuation of sorts?
Silverias
Seeing is Believing
- Location
- Squiddy Places
It is indeed, with the same memories, so something of Mike continues...to become a schizophrenic voice in a teenage girl's head.
- Location
- Australia
And I got one to go.
Xomniac
Clockwork Purveyor of Prose and Originality
...Ack, you magnificent bastard, I GOT THAT REFERENCE! XD You, sir, have displayed the epitome of a good writer: pure genius comedy in the midst of epicness, present in an utterly seamless manner.
Well done. I look forwards to the final chapter of this tale, sir. It has truly been an honor.
- Location
- The U.P.
So you did him as a security guard, a voice in Panacea.
I am putting my money on a voice in Squealer. She just thinks she took some great drugs. Mike has troubles taking control when she is high which is most of the time. So he has an unwilling host which leads to superfun times for everyone.
- Location
- Australia
Uh, 'one to go' was in reference to one more chapter of this fic (the epilogues).
I'm doing "I, Panacea" and following that is the extremely cracky (and only canon if you want it to be) "I, Scion".
GameDragon
Too Hot To Handle
- Location
- Challenger Deep
Well. Zion is dead, Mike is dead, alot more people are alive , and the story isn't over. Hopefully.
ecs05norway
Zenryoku Zenkai!
"Hypothetically, imagine we don't need the planet anymore."
heh.
I love Bakuda in this.
heh.
I love Bakuda in this.
GameDragon
Too Hot To Handle
- Location
- Challenger Deep
Almost forgot about this. This was also hilarious.
Rukatin
Malfunctioning NPC at best
- Location
- Land of Confusion
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sig worthy! With permission of course.
- Location
- Australia
You have it.
Yeah, I'm cutting the story short. Only 450K words. Barely an omakeAck dude, damn it, i am just this close to using some language that is ban-worthy. Why do does this have to end just now when is getting even better, this was an awesome chapter. AWESOME. And now it's over
No_Meaning
Self-Requested Ban
- Location
- Location
Awesome stuff. The scene with 'main' Dragon before she went down was heartbreaking.
Only part I disliked was parts of the Zion battle. Feel it could be fleshed out a lot more in the beginning and middle stages. Just incandescent rage while the underlying grief and sorrow that could have made it all the more real and painful was...cardboard-ish. Just empty, the scene with the THINKER replica would have been so much more powerful.
Can't wait for the epilogue and see how this ties in with I, Panacea.
webxro
Benevolent Bystander
- Location
- Where you need me
Yeah, I'm cutting the story short. Only 450K words. Barely an omake
Something to read in a lazy Sunday.
Now maybe i should re-read Recoil for a bit, because this chapter has really put me in the mood for some Worm.
Thanks
- Location
- Australia
The chapter was already ten thousand words.
If you want to give me an example of what you were looking for, I'll read it.