Dire Symbols

by W A Rowland

  “Oh no,” he said, just before Hand threw out an arm and Liam was hit with a blast. It wasn’t energy, but it felt heavy. It wasn’t kinetic either. It felt like the world had suddenly gone on its head and he was falling sideways. Like…

  “Gravity shift! You should probably run now,” Lily shouted.

  Liam put down a field, but suddenly he started falling the opposite direction away from it.

  He tried again, but was again thrown in a random direction away from his field.

  “How?!” he yelled, being thrown around like a rag doll. Luckily, Lily had had the foresight to make a bubble for him once Hand had thrown his first gravity bubble.

  “Not sure. Hold on,” Lily said.

  “Holding on,” Liam blurted, trying not to lose his last meal from the intense sense of vertigo he was experiencing.

  Just when he thought he couldn’t handle anymore, Thea’s huge bulk barreled through Hand, and started to pummel him. This gave Liam the opportunity to use a kinetic field to get out of the gravity bubble long enough to regain his equilibrium.

  “Let’s never do that again,” he moaned, but his fight wasn’t over yet. Stepping up to him was a very angry Jax, eyes also glowing white.

  “Ohh, come on…” Liam groaned as Jax suddenly burst into flames.

  Liam tried a kinetic field, but the flames just whished in a different direction like they’d been hit by a still breeze.

  “I think he’s made entirely of fire now.” Lily deadpanned.

  “Well fu-” his expletive was interrupted as Jax leapt at him. Liam launched himself into the air again, desperately needing a moment to breathe and plan. But that would not happen as Jax lifted off the ground and followed him.

  “And he can fly. What was this guy’s power set before again?” Lily asked.

  “No idea!” Liam said as he narrowly avoided Thea flying across his path. He dove at the last second, but Jax wasn’t so lucky, getting hit by one of Hand’s gravity fields and getting pulled in the wrong direction. While he wasn’t losing his balance like Liam had been, it seemed like he was having a heck of a time going in any one direction for more than a few inches before Hand shifted the gravity again.

  “Ok, so everyone is getting new powers,” Liam said as he decided to try flying up towards the top of the sphere. He made it to the top without incident and used a field to lash himself to the top of the sphere. The scene below was chaos.

  Hand and Jax were fighting now. Jax was actually throwing fire at the big man, who just kept jumping out of the way while tossing Jax around like a rag doll.

  Steven and Thea had started fighting again and Sarah was just now coming around after Liam had tossed her into the wall. She winced when she tried to stand, so he’d probably done something to one of her legs.

  Hopefully, it wasn’t broken. All around the chamber, yells and screams of anger and hate echoed as his friends tried to murder one another; all of their eyes shone white with power.

  “It’s probably the same powers they’d get if you enhanced them,” Lily pointed out.

  “Really?” Liam said, observing Thea punch a hole in the floor almost six inches deep. “Ok, safe assumption,” he admitted.

  “So we need to get them out of here,” Lily said.

  “They don’t seem keen on leaving,” Liam said as Steven did something with his hands and Thea started screaming and punching randomly around her Illusions maybe?

  Thea stopped screaming as Steven walked mechanically over to Sarah and was healing her.

  Sarah seemed to be doing something with her hands as well, and Steven’s movements were robotic. Unnatural. No sooner had he healed Sarah’s bruises than she released some kind of energy blast into his chest, sending him flying. Thea, seeing a new threat, charged.

  MOVING DOWN THE LINE

  Liam needed to stop this before someone got killed. Eventually, one of his friends would do something they’d definitely regret. Hand and Jax seemed to be in a stalemate more or less. He was turning to look at Thea and Sarah when something caught his attention. A low rumbling noise coming from one of the walls. Through the din of screams and curses, he heard a low growl. A bubble had formed in one of the side walls. The same wall he’d buried Julian inside.

  “Oh shit!” Liam gasped as the wall exploded outward and Julian, pitch black and furious, erupted from his temporary grave.

  “He does not look dead,” Lily pointed out.

  Liam was frozen. How in the world had he survived that?!

  “What? How’d the immortal, super-juiced, undead werewolf survive some rocks getting dumped on him?” Lily asked sarcastically.

  “Ok, very bad,” Liam hissed out.

  Julian let out another ear-splitting roar, shocking everyone in the room. The others had actually stopped fighting each other and all turned to stare wide-eyed at the monstrous wolf.

  For his part, Julian looked like he was still healing from his brief imprisonment in the wall.

  Liam watched in horror as his friends all charged at the beast. Even wounded, Julian was going to tear them apart.

  Liam released his field holding him against the wall and landed next to Steven, who was shaking his head as he stood up. His eyes were still white, but now his face matched them.

  “So you weren’t lying. Doesn’t change anything,” Steven said and charged at the wolf despite Liam’s protests.

  If Steven, who was normally the voice of reason in the group, wasn’t willing to give it up, then nobody else was going to either, but Liam couldn’t just let them all get killed by Julian.

  As he charged in, Liam first put a field around himself, and then started putting bubble fields around each of the others. Hopefully, if one of them did catch one of Julian’s strikes, the field would slow him enough to give them a fighting chance.

  This proved to be a good idea as he saw Julian swipe and hit Hand hard enough to send him into the wall despite his increased mass. But Hand just got up and shook it off. The battle was intense as Hand and Jax mixed fire and gravity to burn and crush the wolf while Thea went after his legs, breaking one then the other, then back to the one which had healed already.

  None of them were being careful with friendly fire though as Steven almost got burned by a large fireball that Jax had thrown. In the process of ducking, he caught a giant foot and was sent flying back against the wall where he crumpled unconscious.

  Liam got an idea then; it would be almost impossible to pull off, and he’d probably end up getting himself and everyone else killed, but hey, what did he have to lose at this point? Flying to the exit tunnel, he quickly laid a track of kinetic fields, pushing everything out towards the entrance. Then he used fields to move Steven’s unconscious body onto the track and woosh, he shot out of the tunnel where a final field cushioned his landing outside the antechamber.

  Liam hoped that by the time he came around, he’d be himself again, but also remember to not try to reenter the anchor chamber. Liam repeated the same thing when Sarah too was tossed, unconscious to the wall. His friends were not faring well in the fight.

  Both Thea and Hand were sporting severe wounds and would pass out from blood loss eventually, but neither seemed intent on giving up. Drunk on power and bloodlust, they continued to recklessly attack the massive beast. Liam decided to risk them being conscious on reaching the outside and threw a field around Thea, who had stepped away from the fight to catch her breath. She immediately flew back, out of the chamber, with much swearing and promises of imminent painful death, despite barely being able to stand.

  This only left Hand and Jax. Hand, Liam could handle, he just needed to reinforce his fields, but Jax would be a problem. In his current form, Liam’s fields didn’t seem to affect him, but somehow Julian’s attack still did. He had some kind of physical form.

  Liam just had to figure out how to affect it. His answer came when Julian clamped his hands down around Jax and Liam could see the man’s form compress inside the big claws while he tried to burn his way o
ut.

  So that was it. He was only partly incorporeal. Compress him and his density would increase enough that he could be moved.

  Liam took the opportunity, and as soon as Jax burned his way through Julian’s hand, Liam caught him between six fields that boxed him in, pushing him together while Liam pushed him out of the room.

  Hand was all that remained, besides Liam and Julian. Liam could hear cries from down the hall, but he couldn’t tell if they were angry or not. He hoped they hadn’t resumed trying to kill one another. That would really suck if he came out to find a bunch of bodies.

  He caught Hand as the big man was flung by Julian’s claws, and he subsequently flung him out the door, to Hand’s roaring displeasure.

  That was it. Phase one complete. Time for phase two.

  Julian looked hurt. He had holes going all the way through him and he wasn’t moving nearly as quickly as he had been as he stalked towards Liam.

  “Stupid move, demigod. They’ll still die once I get out,” Julian’s deathly deep voice echoed in the empty room.

  “Maybe, but you have to get out first,” Liam said.

  “And who will stop me? You?! Five of you pitiful excuses for divinities couldn’t stop me,” Julian said as he stalked towards Liam.

  Liam could tell that Julian was stalling for time while he recovered his full strength.

  That was fine, because Liam was stalling too.

  “Time to die, demigod,” Julian growled and leapt. Then Liam acted. All around the room, bright kinetic fields lit up. Every surface, every curve of the sphere bright with white fields, all with the same purpose. Pull In

  Liam had needed the time to prepare the fields. Lily had suggested daisy chaining them, so once he placed the last one, he could power them all at once. It was a novel idea, as he’d never considered placing a field, but not powering it.

  All at once the room shook. Stones began to fly inward towards the core as Julian flew through the air. To Liam, time stood still as he pulled everything down on their heads. If he couldn’t kill Julian outright, he’d take away his source of power at least, then maybe the others could finish him enough to lock him away for another thousand years. It was a stupid plan, like all of his plans, as it would definitely also kill him, but in this case, Liam recognized the risk, and went with it anyway.

  “It’ll be worth it,” Lily said in his ear, calmly, as the world around them started to compress. Everything, including Liam, got flung towards the center of room, towards the glowing ball of pure power that had started all of this. Maybe this would destroy it… Would that hurt the world? There were fourteen of these, and hundreds of smaller ones. Maybe the world would be ok without this one?

  Liam and Lily reinforced the fields as everything continued to flow inward, moving like molasses. Julian was hit mid-leap by a flying chunk of rock even bigger than he was. Liam was flung inward towards the powerful center of the anchor point.

  “Sorry, Lily, guess this is it,” he thought as he saw a stone slab, easily ten tons, barreling towards him. “Sorry, Cindy, wish we’d had more time,” he said and closed his eyes.

  REQUIEM

  Liam opened his eyes. He wasn’t dead. He sat up and saw the familiar looking insides of Joshua’s cabin. Maybe he was dead after all.

  “Hello, Liam,” he heard a familiar voice, turning to see none other than Bast herself sitting in one of Joshua’s arm chairs. Joshua was standing across from her, leaning on his walking stick grinning.

  “Bast? Joshua?” he said, feeling a bit groggy.

  “Am I dead?” he asked, then looking around and not seeing Lily, started to panic. “Is Lily ok!?”

  “Relax, Liam. Lily is fine. She’s holding down the fort while we have this little chat,” Bast said in her warm tones.

  “Chat? What is going on? Last I saw, I was about to be flattened!” Liam said.

  Joshua piped up. “That’s still happening; we’ve got maybe ten minutes relative time before you get smushed like a pancake,” he said with a chuckle. Liam did not appreciate his joviality at discussing his imminent demise.

  “If I’m about to die, why am I here?” Liam asked tersely.

  “Well, Joshua and I were discussing it and we figured you could use some…let’s call it mentorship for this next part,” Bast said with a smile.

  “Which I am adamantly against, I’ll have you know!” Joshua said angrily.

  “So why are you doing it then?” Liam asked curiously.

  “Because I told him I’d leave dead mice and hairballs on his pillow for the next few centuries if he didn’t agree to let me help,” she said with an evil grin.

  “Wait. I thought th-”

  “Irrelevant!” Joshua screamed. “You’re here now. Let’s do the thing and get you back to being smashed. I like that part,” Joshua said tersely.

  “Do what thing? What are we doing?!” Liam asked, exasperated.

  “Well, you’re about to get killed, but you’re not going to die. It’s very important that you believe that, Liam. No matter what happens, you are not going to die,” Bast said.

  “Ohh, this crap again. Look, Lily tried that already, and I couldn’t do it. She had to trick me into it,” he said frustrated.

  “Listen, Liam, would I lie to you?” Bast asked rhetorically.

  Liam sucked on his teeth for a moment until she started talking again.

  “You’re going to be killed, but you aren’t dead. That’s the first piece of advice I can give you. The second is this: You spent all your time figuring out what everyone else’s enhanced powers were, but you never figured out your own,” she pointed out.

  “My own? I thought my enhancing was my enhanced power. I mean… ” he stopped mid thought. “Isn’t it?”

  Bast just smiled at him while Joshua grumbled about messing with the future, and leaving people to their fate.

  “Give Cindy my best. Tell her to stop in please and say hello; I miss her so much,” Bast said and waved goodbye.

  “Wait. Cind—” And then Liam found himself back inside his body with a ten ton slab of rock just a few inches away.

  “Believe I’m not dead. What the he—” And then he was hit.

  Liam floated in the room for a minute, not quite sure what had just happened. He saw his body, he saw the rock, he even saw Julian. Everything had happened just like he planned. So why in the world was he still here!

  “Heya!” Lily squealed next to him, making him jump, err… float up.

  “What in the— Don’t do that!” he yelled, reaching for his heart, which wasn’t there.

  “So what? I’m dead now?” he asked, looking at the cheery Lily. “Am I a ghost?”

  “No, silly, you died in an astral anchor chamber. This is your astral body. Didn’t Bast tell you?”

  “She just told me to believe I wasn’t dead and to think about what my enhancement would be,” he answered confused.

  “Well, the first one worked, apparently, or you wouldn’t be here. So now we get to figure out the second. Oh, and we only have a few minutes before the anchor point explodes, so we need to be quick,” she added at the end, making Liam double take.

  “Say what now?” he blurted out.

  “I think it’s something to do with the way we can sense and affect astral connections. Maybe like a connection manipulation or something, you know, so we can take away others’ connection to the astral plane? That would be cool,” she said musing as she floated in circles.

  “Wait, stop, why is the anchor exploding!” he said, trying to get her to backtrack.

  “I can’t really explain it to you; lots of interplanar physics involved that even I don’t understand. Something to do with the chamber shape being disrupted and physical material entering the conduit. Weird stuff; connection manipulation. That’s my guess.”

  Liam just stared dumbly at her.

  “Hey look, it’s Cindy!” she said excitedly.

  Liam spun, shocked. There right next to the entry tunnel on the rough stone
that was under the sphere’s surface, her face a mask of anguish and pain, stood Cindy. She was screaming something, but Liam couldn’t make it out. Time was moving so slowly right now. He followed her eyes to where she was looking and saw the slab of stone that had hit him spinning away, a red stain on its surface. How long had she been there? Not more than a few seconds surely, but already he could see a bit of white leaking into her eyes.

  “No, Cindy, don’t!” Liam screamed, terrified that she was about to lose what little control she had.

  To his surprise though, she didn’t seem to change one bit as the power bled into her over the next long moments. He watched as she put her hands up and began to spin them. Everything went from moving like molasses to freezing completely. Liam watched with interest now as Cindy slowly rolled her wrists and time began to rewind. So it had been Cindy, that day at the landfill. He’d accidentally enhanced her while she was standing next to him, but how’d she known how to use her power so quickly? The rest had taken minutes to adjust, she’d just done it in seconds real time.

  “Dude, it’s time manipulation, she had minutes to spare I’m sure,” Lily chirped, but she was back inside his head; wait, he had a head! He opened his eyes to see Cindy in front of him, everything in the room frozen. It was the moment before he’d collapsed the room, he could see Julian readying his leap, the fields powering on to pull down the walls.

  “Hi, Liam,” Cindy said softly looking up at him, the white leaving her large brown eyes.

  He didn’t know what to say or what to feel, but he knew what he needed to do.

  He knew his enhancement. What he alone could do among the world of demis. What the guardian had given him his powers for. He could protect. That’s what he’d always wanted to do, protect people and here, he could do just that.

  “Thanks for the save, I owe you one,” he said to her as he wrapped her up in a hug.

  “Actually, you owe me two now,” she said smiling.

  She clung to him and they sat there for a moment as time literally stood still, but now he needed to act. She was here, so his plan was about to take a drastic change. “Guess I need to start making good on that debt then.” He said smiling, enjoying the feel of her in his arms as their long moment stretched on. But it couldn’t last.