by Jaxon Reed
She pulled out a short iron rod. It quickly grew to six feet in length. Then she reached in another pocket and pulled out three iron ball bearings and threw them underhanded at the fast-approaching truck. They grew to the size of bowling balls and raced toward the driver’s side of the cab.
Felix gaped at the expanding iron balls heading for him. He braked hard, then jerked the wheel to his left just before they hit. The globes slammed into the side of the truck, tearing holes into sheet metal.
The truck slid to a stop. The ball bearings, now slightly deformed from impact, raced in a wide circle back toward the windshield. Felix disappeared just before impact. A cloud of glass fragments exploded into the truck’s cabin, the balls slamming into the back wall.
Nancy threw her rod like a javelin. Immediately it separated into eight shorter pieces. They made a U-turn mid-flight and quickly flew in a tight circle around her, providing a mobile shield of iron.
Felix popped into existence nearby. He smiled and said, “I can’t touch you at the moment. But I can touch them.”
He popped out of sight again.
Cait said, “He is heading for the scientists.”
Nancy turned and jumped back over the cars toward the building. Felix popped into existence at the entrance and made a pushing motion with his hands. The door and most of the front wall blew inward. Cries of alarm came from inside.
As Nancy landed, another version of Felix peeled off the original, running to the right. Then another jumped out of him and ran to the left. The clones attacked her with bolts of light flying from their hands. She ducked, and rolled out of the way, some of the light bouncing off the rods circling her.
Nancy flicked her wrist and the iron rods shot out toward the duplicates like missiles. Four headed for the one on the right, four toward the one on the left. The clones winked out of sight before the rods could reach them.
One popped up behind Nancy and shot another bolt at her from behind. She flew straight up, narrowly missing the streak of light, and with a wave of her hand sent several spikes after him.
He popped away, and the spikes split in two groups again, seeking him or the other one like flying bloodhounds.
The clone popped into existence 50 yards away, beyond the jumble of cars and the wrecked truck. He stretched an arm toward Nancy, still floating in the air, his pinky pulled down, thumb and three fingers pointed at her. He mumbled an incantation as power coalesced around his hand.
Rick ran around a corner and slid to a stop, out of breath. He took in the scene before him, Nancy floating in the air and Felix standing with his back to him, aiming his hand in her direction.
Rick slapped his sides, momentarily forgetting into which pocket he had placed the iron rod. He found it, pulled it out and threw it at Felix without stopping to think.
Despite a clumsy throw, the rod instantly straightened and lengthened. It picked up speed and flew like a javelin, heading arrow-straight toward the clone.
Before he finished the incantation, the sharp iron point of the rod struck him in the back. He screamed and exploded in a cloud of oily black smoke.
The rod dropped to the pavement with a clang and clatter. As Rick walked over, it shrank back to its original size. He bent down and retrieved it.
Rick said, “That came in handy.”
Another explosion from the building caught his attention, and he looked up in time to see Nancy’s spikes dispatch the other clone.
Rick said, “Dang, how many Felixes are there?”
He ran toward the building and Nancy.
Nancy walked inside slowly. Most of the front wall had collapsed and a gaping space yawned open where the door had been. She carefully stepped over broken boards and plaster.
Inside, a group of men in white lab coats floated in the air, an aura of crackling yellow light holding them up. She recognized Oppenheimer, a man of medium height on her alternate. He had thick brown hair edged with gray, and pop bottle glasses made his eyes look extra large.
Nearby Albert Einstein floated in the air, his photogenic face displaying shock mixed with wonder as he hovered beside the others. His wispy gray hair floated gently in the air currents.
Felix stepped out, standing on the floor and drawing her attention. He kept one arm stretched out toward the scientists as they floated.
He said, “Not another step, huntress, or I’ll kill them all.”
Nancy smirked and held out her right hand. The spikes reassembled and came flying to her as a whole lance again. She snatched it out of the air and assumed a fighting stance.
A trace of fear brushed Felix’s face when he saw the rod. But it quickly vanished. He replaced it with a sneer.
He waved at the scientists floating in the air and said, “I think you’re forgetting that I hold all the cards here. Or call this ‘check’ if you want to use a chess analogy. Most of the brain trust for this world’s Manhattan Project is literally in the palm of my hand. If you make another move, they will all die horrific deaths.”
Nancy glanced at the men, helpless in the air, then fixed her gaze back on Felix. The corner of her lips lifted up in a smile.
She said, “Challenge accepted.”
Nancy flung the rod at him. It separated and the pieces raced forward, eight sharpened points flying through the air. He popped out of existence and for a moment the aura around the scientists disappeared. The men fell toward the floor a couple feet before the aura enveloped them again, arresting their fall.
Nancy looked everywhere but could not see the fae. The spikes separated into pairs, racing around the large open area looking for someone to kill.
A disembodied voice floated down from the ceiling, as if from a distance. “You have cost the life of one scientist, huntress.”
A man screamed. Nancy looked to see if Felix had chosen Oppenheimer or Einstein, but one of the other scientist’s legs and arms ripped off his body, blood spurting everywhere. After several minutes of screaming, his head wrenched off, too. The yellow light surrounding him disappeared. The bloody torso and all its pieces dropped to the floor.
The disembodied voice returned. Felix said, “And now, you will do exactly as I tell you, or the rest of these men will suffer a similar fate.”
Chapter 8
Rick ran hard for the collapsed wall in front of the building. He slid to a stop at the jumble of cars. Just as he decided to climb over the vehicles instead of going around, a sliver of blue-green light appeared to his left, quickly growing wider.
Cait stuck her head out. A strong whiff of flowers floated out of the crack in reality.
She said, “It is time for you to leave, Mr. Strickland.”
Rick gaped at her in surprise. He said, “What? No, Nancy needs help!”
“She is quite capable of handling this, Mr. Strickland. You, on the other hand, are mortal. It is time for your exit.”
“I’m not just going to leave her there alone. That thing might—”
“Kill her? It cannot. But it can kill you. She does not need your help. She has handled several fae over the centuries, without anyone’s help. Please step through the portal, Mr. Strickland.”
A horrible scream rang out as Felix dismembered a scientist. Rick whipped his head back toward the building, momentarily forgetting about Cait. Then he turned back to her and said, “Well, they’re dying!”
He jumped on top of the first car and ran across its hood. He jumped to the hood of a second car, and a third, watching carefully where he placed his feet on the uneven metal surfaces. When he jumped to the hood of another car, he never saw the gaping hole lined with blue light, suddenly floating in the air, waiting for him.
As soon as he jumped through, it snapped shut and he winked out of existence.
“My, my,” Felix said, his voice booming down, unseen. “I imagine that fellow’s death just set back the United State’s nuclear program by several months. Terrible shame if they all die this way, huntress. Such a dreadful way to go, too. Impossible to fix them w
hen they’re decapitated and dismembered like that.”
Nancy clenched her teeth, not rising to the bait. Instead, she mentally tested the bonds of the aura holding the men.
“Tut, tut,” Felix said, as another scientist lost his arms and legs, screaming pitifully. “I will have none of your probing.”
The man’s head ripped off, torn away by magical force, and the screaming stopped abruptly. His torso and head dropped in a bloody pile next to the other body parts on the floor.
Nancy shouted, “What do you want, Felix?”
His laughter trickled down from above, then cascaded in a torrent, echoing off the floors and the remaining walls through a magical enhancement of the sound.
“What do I want? I want nothing more than to plunge this world into chaos. War is the perfect opportunity for my goals. For some reason this pesky country of yours has a bad habit of ending the most glorious conflagrations, on practically every alternate.
“But I want this war to last! I want misery, pain, and suffering! I want the Third Reich and Imperial Japan to spread suffering throughout Europe and Asia for as long as possible! I want to create a haven for fae everywhere. They are strewn about the multiverse but they can come here and revel in chaos!”
“Fine,” Nancy said. “Show yourself and I’ll wrestle you for it.”
The laughter returned, mocking now. It bounced along the floors and almost felt like water slapping against her ears.
“You know how murder cases work, don’t you detective?”
His voice sounded almost gleeful now, Nancy thought.
“Private investigator.”
“Whatever. You know if there is no body, there is no crime. And if you can’t find me, you can’t stop me.”
Another scientist ripped apart, arms and legs popping off simultaneously, bones and tendons twisting with a horrible wrenching noise. Then his head pulled up and away, ending his screaming. The limbs on a fourth man began stretching outwards. Nancy noted Oppenheimer and Einstein were at the end of the line, at the far left.
“Bastard is saving them for last. Where is he, Cait? How’s he able to stay cloaked and still use magic?”
“He is not cloaked. He is hiding himself among dozens of clones. I cannot tell which one is him.”
“We’ll kill them all, then.”
She flung her rod into the air, and the pieces separated, hunting for targets. They swarmed out of the gaping hole in front and flew up the side of the building.
“Did they go to the second floor, Cait?”
“Yes.”
Nancy clapped her hands above her head and sent a huge wave of force up to the ceiling. Plaster and broken planks came raining down. She flew up through the hole and stopped in time to see the spikes take out half a dozen clones of Felix at once.
About two dozen remained, all pointing their hands downward. They turned toward her simultaneously, hate and anger creasing each identical face.
They said, “You lose, huntress!”
Below, screams of the remaining men rose in anguish.
Rick ran wildly through a field of wildflowers. He stopped and looked around in confusion. Gentle fields stretched in all directions, mostly covered in purple petals. They spread everywhere. The flowers covered the ground and climbed over things. A nearby fence, its outline dimly visible through the foliage, looked completely suffocated under their weight. Several trees carried tons of the fragrant blooms, a carpet of petals underneath each one.
Above, the sun peeked through white fluffy clouds in a brilliant blue sky, giving everything a warm glow.
He turned, and behind him he saw a doorway of blue-green limned light closing rapidly, cars visible through the quickly shrinking gap.
“No, no, no!”
He ran back toward the split in the air, but it winked out before he could go through it. He stopped on the grass, a plume of purple petals flying up in his wake, fury and physical exertion flushing his face.
To his left, he saw Cait, staring at him with her arms crossed.
“Open that doorway right now!”
She did not answer, but stared at him impassively. He looked around, and suddenly realized how isolated this place felt. A gentle breeze ruffled the flowers, but otherwise he heard nothing. No birds, no cars, no insects. Absently, he noted the flowers were predominantly wisteria. In a far corner of his mind, the thought he had never seen that many in one place briefly floated through his consciousness.
Then he noticed a path nearby. It seemed to end in the middle of the field, heading back in a certain direction, cresting a gentle hill.
The head of a person appeared on the other side of the hill as he watched, then the rest of a body came into view as a man crested the rise. A tall and bearded man walked steadily down the path, striding purposefully toward him. Blond hair down to the man’s shoulders moved gently in the light breeze.
Still peeved, Rick put his fists on his hips and waited for the newcomer to arrive.
When he drew near, the tall man smiled, flashing straight white teeth through his golden beard. He stuck his hand out and said, “How are you, Mr. Strickland? My name is Jason.”
Habits and manners took over, and Rick shook the proffered hand, though reluctantly. He stared daggers at Cait while doing so. She remained indifferent, staring back at him with a completely emotionless expression.
Jason said, “You might say I’m Nancy’s boss. Cait’s too, for that matter. And I’m afraid we can’t let you go back to your world at the moment.”
Rick’s ire bubbled up, and his nostrils flared. He said, “And why not? This is the critical moment! I should be there, helping her.”
Jason shook his head, a smile playing on his lips. He said, “On the contrary, Mr. Strickland. This is the moment Cait agreed to shield you from.”
The Walker stopped and looked at the computer’s human interface with a smile. He said, “Don’t correct the grammar, Cait. I know that was a dangling participle.”
Cait made an impassive nod of her head, but said nothing.
Jason continued, “You’ve been a great help so far, Mr. Strickland, but Nancy needs to tackle this part alone.”
Skepticism creased Rick’s face in a scowl. He said, “It’s not right to keep me here. That thing is out there killing people important to the war effort! Let me go back and do what I can. If I can’t help her, at least let me do something!”
The Walker rested a hand gently but firmly on Rick’s shoulder. He said, “I like your spirit, Mr. Strickland. But I disagree. The best thing you can do right now . . . is to stay alive.”
He guided Rick by the shoulder, and as they walked back to the path a couple of Adirondack chairs appeared as if by magic.
Jason said, “You see, as I’m sure Nancy explained to you, we had to break a couple of rules for your world. Time is a funny thing. For us, all these events going on that we just pulled you out of have already happened, centuries ago. So basically, what that means for you is, you can’t die right now. We know, since you are from our past, that you have a life to live, a woman to marry, kids to raise. We’ve already observed it, because Nancy asked Cait to check up on you shortly after she joined us.
“So if you go back and get yourself killed, it really messes things up. And since you’ve already, technically as far as we’re concerned, lived a long and full life . . . we can’t take any further risks that might interfere. In fact, looked at another way, we already know you did not die in this little conflict. So . . . you can’t go back and try to help or get hurt or get killed . . . because you didn’t. Does that make sense?”
He pointed to the chairs and said, “Have a seat. Would you like something to drink while we wait? You like coffee?”
Nancy wished for more iron. As spikes ran through clone after clone, the disparate versions of Felix evaporated in puffs of smoke. But there were too many, and the iron had yet to find the real Felix. The remaining versions of the fae continued acting as one, with an outstretched hand pointin
g down at the floor, two fingers and a thumb sticking out, pinky and ring finger held tight against the palm.
She could not tell which replica could be the real Felix, and she did not care. The spikes performed their job efficiently, quickly puncturing each clone. But if she had more iron, they would finish quicker.
Just before the spikes reached one of the last versions of Felix, it disappeared.
“That one!”
Three of the spikes flew off in a wide circle while the remainder quickly dispatched the remaining clones.
Cait spoke over the neural interface and said, “Downstairs!”
Nancy nodded and jumped through the hole in the floor, quickly followed by all the flying spikes.
Hovering in the center of the room, Felix held his arms out to either side. On his left, a squirming and deeply unhappy Albert Einstein stared back at Nancy. His expression portrayed disappointment, more than anything.
On his right, instead of struggling Oppenheimer floated limp and still, a look of resignation on his face, glasses slipping to the end of his nose.
Felix said, “There’s not many more after these two, huntress. I’ll find Enrico Fermi and everyone else in America who knows anything about nuclear reactions and bombs, and I’ll kill them, too.”
She locked eyes with the fae as her spikes quickly reassembled into a lance. She held a hand out. It rushed to her and she grasped it out of the air.
“Give up, huntress.” Felix said. “I can kill them long before the iron reaches me!”
Nancy said, “Can you? We’ll see about that.”
She threw the lance at him, and time seemed to slow down. The rod broke into spikes again and they spread out in a shotgun pattern.
Felix’s face burst into anger and his lips curled back in a snarl. He flexed both hands and a huge arc of deadly white light flashed out to either side.