The City of Monsters

by Matthew McCollum

  The fey had disappeared, to the surprise of no one, but Laura and Derek seemed to be worried about her for some reason. Ling still didn't get how the singers worked, but apparently, they were afraid one of them could infect all of the homunculi at once or something.

  More interesting to her was the changeling, Loga. He seemed like the Paladins—a single power, the ability to hear screamers, and immunity to infection. It brought up some interesting questions. No one could figure out why he had been cured when no one else had. Too many possible answers, Ling guessed.

  Speaking of screamers, she was worried that even if more did attack, they wouldn't hear them. With a hundred captured screamers constantly droning in the background, it was a miracle they could even sleep at night. At least Butler had followed their advice and grouped them together, so hopefully, they'd be able to distinguish new ones. But she had her doubts.

  Some of Congress were crying out for a vote of no confidence against Butler because he hadn't been able to prevent the attacks, but they were in the deep minority and were getting shouted down. The fact that Derek and Laura had apparently personally saved and fought beside one of the senators from South Central didn't hurt at all.

  Ling's thoughts were interrupted when Akane's opponent, Flynn, sat down on her other side, trying not to make it too obvious that he was watching her. She ignored him, but Ling held out her hand to him.

  “I'm Ling Yu,” she said warmly. “Akane's roommate.”

  “Flynn Neilson,” he returned, shaking her hand. He had a strong grip, probably the result of years of these mock-duels. “What brings you to class today, Ling?”

  “I had some free time, and Akane invited me.” She shrugged. “Seemed fun.”

  “You an athlete too?”

  “Soccer, mostly. Got in on scholarship, but that might be drying up.” Games were getting canceled left and right with the threat of screamers. They hadn't actually attacked anything like that yet, of course, but it was a logical assumption. At least, that's what Laura said. Luckily, Ling was pretty sure she wouldn't get kicked out of school as long as she was a Paladin.

  He whistled softly. “Yeah. Those zombies are a real problem.” He shook his head. “Hopefully, Butler will find and stop the Composer soon.”

  Ling frowned. “Who?”

  “It's all over the place,” he said nonchalantly. “Has been since the burners. The zombie lord, right? There has to be one. They're calling him the Composer. You know, in relation to the singers.”

  Ling glanced at Akane. She seemed as surprised as her.

  “I think it started right after Butler released the report on Triple I,” he said. That was the easy term for the Incinerated Intersection Incident. Then he nodded to himself. “Yeah, that was it. Somebody on one of my message boards started using it, and it caught on.” He shrugged. “You know how this kind of thing works.”

  He was right. Memes were a part of Domina culture almost as much as the toy maker. This city had been built on three things: Crime, the toy maker, and the internet. They were the machines that kept the city running. The names for most of the subcultures had originated in much the same way.

  But something about it didn't feel right. Ling couldn't quite put her finger on it, though. No, wait, that was it: There was already a nickname floating around. Flynn had even mentioned it— “zombie lord.” ZL. So why did the new one suddenly become so popular?

  She was thinking about it too much, and Flynn was waiting patiently for a response. He seemed nice enough.

  “I hadn't heard that one,” she said. “But I've been so busy these past few days, I've barely been able to check my mail.”

  Speaking of which, Akane's phone buzzed. Just a text message. With singers around, people were avoiding actually listening to things like the plague. At least the recordings of singers... well, singing, didn't have any effect. Otherwise, some asshole would probably have already managed to turn half the city as a prank.

  Which was odd, the more Ling thought about it. Why didn't this... Composer just attach a singer to some big speakers? Now, it made sense, since everyone was warned and prepared to some extent, but the tactic would have been simple before Triple I.

  Very little of what this person was doing made any sense. Why was he only launching one attack every few days? Why didn't he start with a huge attack?

  Akane interrupted Ling's thoughts simply by gathering up her stuff and standing. She replaced her wooden sword on the rack as Ling was scrambling to her feet.

  “Derek,” she said by way of explanation. Flynn was still nearby. “Monster hunt.”

  “Uh...” Was that code for screamers? Ling didn't hear any.

  “You can stay.” Akane shrugged. “Or come.”

  Okay, so just a monster hunt. “But is it all right for you to just leave class like this?”

  Flynn cut into the conversation smoothly. “We're allowed to leave once we've fought at least once.” Ling had watched him fight twice, including the one with Akane. She had fought four times.

  She nodded and headed for the door. Ling followed.

  It took him a minute, but as she half expected, Flynn caught up with them once they were outside. He looked hesitant.

  “Um...” It was almost endearing, really. He was clearly smitten with her. No wonder he didn't even bother hiding it. “I know you're going to meet with Derek, but...” He shifted his feet. “...can I come?” He made a slight verbal backspace. “It's just that I've never been good at fighting monsters, and I was thinking maybe I could get some pointers from watching you fight. You two fight, I mean. Three, I guess, if Ling will too.” He shut his mouth with some effort.

  Ling glanced at Akane and was surprised to find that she was blushing slightly. She leaned forward and whispered into Ling's ear. She nearly jumped in surprise, but repeated what she said anyway:

  “You can come, but you're not allowed to tell anyone what you see.”

  Chapter 24: SECRETA

  AKANE

  It was a stupid, stupid thing to do. Akane knew it was stupid. Stupid, stupid...

  There was no reason to bring him, and a thousand not to. He was annoying. He was weak, not cut out for fighting. He was just trying to get into her pants.

  And most of all, he couldn't know about their powers.

  “So what's your favorite anime?” Ling asked.

  Flynn shrugged. “Hard to say. I liked Gundam for a while, but it's been going on for so long, everything gets repeated eventually. Though there was that one about the guy with the hypnotic eye and giant robots... can't remember the name.”

  But why not? He had promised not to speak a word of this, and he seemed trustworthy enough...

  No, he wasn't. That was stupid. He wasn't trustworthy or nice or sweet or kind. Akane's brain was just plastering delusions onto him, since he was the first person to ever actually show any interest in her. She was projecting her desires for Derek onto a more viable subject, nothing more.

  Ling was giving Akane a look, but she didn't seem all that perturbed by Flynn's presence. That should have made Akane feel more confident, but she probably assumed Akane knew something she didn't, something that made him seem more trustworthy.

  But she didn't! She had only known him for four days!

  Ling turned her attention back to Flynn. “That sounds familiar, but I can't remember it either. Is it shounen?”

  He frowned. “Hard to say. It's one of those genre-busters.”

  “Shounen is a demographic category, not a genre,” Ling said. “Who was it marketed towards?”

  He thought for a moment. “Boys, I guess.”

  “Then it's shounen.”

  “Hey Akane, Ling. Who's this?”

  Akane looked up. They had reached the mouth of the alley where Derek was waiting, and she hadn't even noticed. It was really close to her class, still within the campus, which was one of the reasons Derek had called her. If it was outside campus, it would be both too far away and not enough of an emergency to pull he
r out. They had gotten the mission earlier but had delayed it because of her class. Apparently, now the monsters were doing enough damage to actually constitute a real problem.

  Derek stood in front of the alley, hands on his hips and a smile on his face. Adam leaned against the side of the building.

  “Wait, don't tell me...” Derek furrowed his brow, considering. “You're... Neil, right?”

  He flinched. “Flynn Neilson, actually. Neil was my father.” He shook Derek's hand. “You're Derek Huntsman, right? You saved my life once.”

  “Right, I think I remember. Crabswarm?”

  “Land piranhas.”

  Derek clicked his fingers in frustration. “I knew it was some kind of swarm. So what brings you around here? On your way home?”

  This was why everyone loved him. Saving people was one thing, but the fact that he honestly, truly remembered them, treated them as people rather than victims to make him look better... this was it. People would die for him. So would Akane, of course, but she knew she didn't count.

  “Actually,” Flynn said a little bit too excitedly, “Akane invited me on the hunt.”

  Derek blinked. “Really?” He turned to her. “You sure?”

  Akane knew what he was asking. She could have signaled to him, got him to find an excuse to send Flynn away. There were a thousand good reasons, not even considering their secret.

  But she didn't.

  Instead, she just nodded. Derek paused for a moment, then shrugged.

  “Good enough for me. You know how to use that sword, Flynn?”

  Flynn had a sword as well, one that was a bit better than Akane's. He already had it out of its case and had it belted onto his waist, mirroring her. He really was a pretty good fighter. Maybe if he was actually being serious, he'd be able to be useful.

  “Second best in the class,” he said.

  “All right,” Derek said, clapping his hands together. Adam stepped away from the wall and unbuckled the holster on his pistol, but didn't draw it yet. “Laura got dragged to a shopping trip with Lizzy, but that's fine. It's just an alley crawler. Difficult, but simple enough. Adam, you're on point. You remember what that means? Good. Akane, Flynn, second position. Ling, you're on rearguard.”

  Everyone nodded and arranged themselves as ordered, though Ling grumbled a little. Adam had his pistol ready, though Akane didn't see his other guns. A pistol would probably be enough in this case.

  They inched into the alley slowly, careful not to make more sound than necessary. This was a deep one, the kind that the crawlers liked, and it twisted around a few times until Akane wasn't completely sure where they were. The nest of buildings wasn't a maze—there was only one choice at each turn. But it was still disorienting.

  At least the alley was wide. The brick walls were covered with smelly crawler slime, which you didn't want to touch unless there was absolutely no other choice.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Flynn whispered to Akane. “Going after a crawler with guns, I mean.” He frowned. “Ling and Derek aren't even armed.”

  He was too close. She could feel his breath on her face, and her heart beat a little faster.

  She took a step away from him, and he didn't pursue. “Watch,” she said simply.

  He blinked but shrugged. “I guess you and Huntsman know what you're doing.”

  She just nodded. He'd understand soon enough.

  It took about ten minutes from entering the alley to finally find the crawler, but they never let their guards down. Still, it was pretty surprising when they turned the corner and it was just there.

  It looked like nothing so much as a giant earthworm—which, basically, it was. Luckily, worms were never designed to be much bigger than a pinkie, so crawlers rarely survived long. They could do a lot of damage in the meantime though, which was why monster slayers occasionally got called in.

  But this one was huge.

  It was as wide as the alley—ten feet, maybe a little more—and just as tall. Akane couldn't even see the other end since it was curved around the far corner, and probably another besides. It just crawled slowly away from them, the slime it had already spread on the walls helping it along. It hadn't quite noticed them yet, but it would soon.

  Adam stumbled back, blatant surprise on his face. “I thought we were after a rat!”

  Derek cursed. “Silver and gold—that's why you left your other guns behind?”

  The great beast rumbled and slowed to a stop. Then it started creeping towards them, trying to find the source of the vibrations.

  “Adam, to the back,” Derek spat. “This is way bigger than I thought. We might not have the firepower to take it out.”

  Normally, crawlers were only about a foot wide and maybe twenty long. Big and dangerous, no question, but swords took care of them pretty easily. Akane didn't even know where to start with this thing.

  “Ling, get ready. Akane...” Derek paused. “Just cut the damn thing.”

  She did as ordered, rushing forward with sword drawn.

  The crawler hadn't quite noticed them, but it edged in her direction as her footfalls sounded on the concrete. Before it had a chance to try and take a bite out of her, she slashed its “face” with an upward cut.

  It wasn't deep, by any means. An ordinary crawler's skin was tough to cut, like animal hide, and it was clear from the amount of resistance that it only grew tougher with size and age.

  Regardless, clear blood began to flow from the wound, and a low, rumbling moan echoed through the alley. The crawler opened its mouth and lunged forward, hoping to snatch Akane up before she could attack again.

  She activated her power, slowing down time by about ten percent. She was getting better at controlling it. Normally she just went all out and drained her reservoir in seconds.

  But ten percent was more than enough with her natural reflexes. She backed up to Flynn, momentarily out of reach of the crawler.

  He glanced at her. “Did you just—”

  Before he could finish, the worm lunged again, this time at him.

  Akane froze.

  Getting in the way of a normal crawler was a bad idea. Jumping in front of this one would be suicide.

  But...

  She was thinking about it.

  Derek, thankfully, was better suited for this than her, and conjured a strong glowing blue shield in front of Flynn. The worm bounced off it, confused, its mournful moan changing tune.

  Flynn stumbled back, his jaw nearly falling off. “That's... you're...”

  “Ling!” Derek cried. “Wall, under the worm!”

  She obeyed with a grunt of effort, planting her feet solidly and thrusting up with her arms as if lifting a great weight. In response, the crawler's head got flung up ten feet as a large mound of concrete erupted out from under it.

  The creature wouldn't be distracted for long. Akane saw her cue and activated her speed, this time at about half capacity.

  It was strange. When she was using her power, everything seemed easier. She guessed it made sense that her sword would cut easier, but why could she jump higher? Was she moving too fast for gravity somehow? That didn't actually make sense, but that was what happened. She made a mental note to ask Laura about it.

  She jumped on the left wall, planting her foot on the brick. Before she had a chance to fall, she jumped to the other side of the alley, higher up, and repeated the process. The third jump landed her on the creature's head, such as it was.

  She let her speed fade, and before the worm could notice her presence and try to buck her off, plunged her sword down into its head.

  The crawler screamed, a deep, undulating sound. It wasn't dead yet, not by a long shot, but it was definitely hurt. She leaped back to the ground just as the worm started thrashing, trying to throw off the rider that was no longer there.

  Flynn had recovered, and rushed forward. He stabbed upward at the worm's underbelly, eliciting another scream of pain. Although he got covered in clear, smelly blood, Ling's mound of concre
te kept him mostly safe from being crushed. The crawler's attempts to squash him just kept putting it in his reach.

  Akane heard gunshots and saw spurts of blood appear on the creature. Adam, doing all that he could. Well, it wasn't much against something of this size, but that was all right. If nothing else, it would teach him not to forget his bigger guns. If he had brought the Saint George, this would be over already.

  Eventually, the worm summoned the brainpower to retreat, pulling beyond Ling's mound and out of reach. The mound sunk back into the alley—Ling's doing, no doubt—though it didn't get perfectly flat, and they followed the fleeing creature. Akane avoided using her power. Her reservoir was still low, and that was no time to be charging in.

  The crawler moved faster than they could chase it, but it was leaving a long smear of clear blood, so they followed it easily. Of course, there seemed to be only one way for it to go, but at least they didn't have to worry about losing it if it found a way to escape.

  Such as by carving a path through a building. Which it was doing right now, its tail end disappearing out of sight.

  Derek cursed behind me. Akane could see the problem. Hopefully, their employer had thought to empty these 'scrapers, but he might not have. And either way, there was going to be a lot of damage. These were just lecture halls, so there wouldn't be too much expensive equipment, but the cost of the stadium chairs they used here added up very quickly. Akane knew that from annoying experience.

  They ducked past the shattered door—the worm had selected the weakest point instinctively—and into a white corridor. It seemed to be abandoned, which was good, and the trail remained clear. They followed it for a few turns until it disappeared into a room. Another lecture hall, a history one, if the plaque outside was anything to go by. They piled inside, trying and failing to keep a formation. The others just didn't have as much experience as Derek and Akane did.