Sidekick

by Carl Stubblefield

  The cluster of dots split and resolved into five supers, one using a jetpack and another with his hands on the shoulders of two others. A light blue aura outlined him and the two other supers he was ferrying to the island as they hung there, reminding Gus of cats held by the scruff of the neck. Wreckognize wouldn’t work from this distance, so Gus nicknamed another super, also wearing an exosuit with visible hydraulics and augments ‘Jetpack.’ He had one super he was carrying with him.

  As soon as they touched down on the beach, the aura disappeared and they both shook free, rotating their shoulders like throwing off an uncomfortable load. Jetpack dropped his partner, who jogged as he touched down until coming to a stop, kicking up plumes of beach sand. After checking some switches, he pulled a gun connected to a cord from his back and powered up, glowing light illuminating a line from the pack on his back to the butt of the rifle. A loud electronic hum resonated as the super moved up the beach. Not the stealthiest setup, but maybe he didn’t care.

  Jetpack landed nearby, and as he turned, Gus could see cybernetics covering one eye. He pulled a flap open on his shoulder and a small roiling mass floated out. It sat there stretching and reforming, like a flock of starlings, and then dispersed as the cloud spread out, particles shooting in different directions. That done, he fiddled with the large bracers on his forearms, activating them and taking a practice shot at a nearby palm tree.

  As he clenched his fist around a crossbar, the cuff surrounding his hands shot a ring-shaped beam of energy that ripped through the tree, snapping it in half. The top half fell towards one of the other supers, who casually reached up one hand. The fronds began to brown and wilt, shriveling to a husk and flaking to ash. In the time it took the tree to fall forward, the trunk darkened and crumbled. The coastal wind carried the ash away before most could hit the nonchalant super.

  “Watch what you’re doing, idiot! Why don’t you just announce that we’re here?!” a rippling bodybuilder super growled.

  “You are a fool if you think they do not know we are here. The sooner they come, the sooner we finish.”

  The muscular super punched his palm and yelled in dissent. Tattoos flared along his arms and he increased in height as his muscles enlarged.

  Gus smacked a bug that alighted on his cheek as he watched the scene.

  As he did so, cyber-eye snapped his head to the right and looked directly at Gus. “There! Go! Go!” he shouted.

  Gus flew upward, still cloaked, but found himself feeling little pings against his skin as he moved through the air. Rings of energy spun in his direction, following his movement and Gus would have been hit had he not suddenly deactivated Advanced Flight. Gravity pulled him down and Gus swore he smelled burning hair as the ring sailed overhead. Gus could see a murmuration of the bug-like creatures following him, like a contrail on a jet. And pointing directly at his flight path.

  The muscular super sprang into the air towards him, clearing twenty-feet of vertical per leap. The rest of the crew was following, some taking aim and charging attacks. Beams occasionally zipped too close for comfort in between the leaps of the musclebound super.

  In desperation, Gus flew towards Aurora. He pulled upward and a bright flash enveloped him. The light bursts were spectacular, like being inside of a firework as it went off and Gus almost forgot to keep juking and spinning, distracted by the spectacular display. As he sped through the pyrotechnics, he saw multiple tiny flares as the small pursuers were consumed. Gus flew straight up, to get out of range of any stray shots or other unknown powers.

  Panting, he looked down on the scene and could see that they had lost him, at least temporarily, in the sparkling haze Aurora had created. The two cybernetic supers with weapons fell back now that he wasn’t being actively tracked. They swept their weapons back and forth, looking up at the sky, preparing for an impending attack. From their vantage, it must have looked like he was responsible for the Ion Storm because none of them were stalking closer to Aurora’s hiding spot. Yet.

  “Maybe you should scan them and see what we’re dealing with, yeah?” Nick prodded.

  Gus’ head cleared after the near-fiasco. Wreckognize revealed the muscle-bound guy to be Silverback, whose main skills were Resilience: extraordinary resistance to projectiles and explosive damage due to a passive ether shield that absorbed and deflected attacks above melee speeds, and Bound, which was basically enhanced jumping and Enhanced Strength.

  Jet appeared in Gus’ peripheral vision and he mentally instructed it to hamstring Silverback on his signal. That would allow him to drop in and Leech him while he was in the lead and separated from the others.

  The others were too far away to lock onto with Wreckognize and, rather than give chase, they were carefully working their way toward the manor, with the methodical military caution of someone clearing an engagement zone. Once they reached the main patio, they stayed close to the door of the manor, holding back.

  Hovering closer, Gus gave the order and Jet raced forward in a blink, slicing into the back of Silverback’s meaty legs. There was a brief flash and the blade skipped as it hit Silverback, not cutting nearly as deep as Gus had expected. Still, the titan of a man let out a bestial roar and fell forward. There were some shots fired from the direction of the manor in Jet’s direction, but the naginata easily evaded them as it retreated.

  Getting an idea, Gus ordered Jet to fly through the intervening space and target whatever was signaling the others. The shots tracked upward as Jet zipped and zoomed about and Gus dropped down to Leech Silverback. By the time he reached the man elbowing himself forward in an army crawl, the cuts had stopped bleeding and then the gaping wound closed and knit together. He swiped out, growling as he struggled forward. Gus almost tried to reach in and rely on Leech’s stun effect but another super was fast approaching with an arm outstretched towards Silverback.

  Gus took to the air again, glad he hadn’t dropped out of stealth.

  Wreckognize revealed Ash to be the simple name of the super who vaporized the tree. He wore a flamboyant red jacket with exaggerated shoulder pads flaring out and curving upwards. Ash began sweeping his hands back and forth in front of him and a wave of something passed over Gus. As it did, it sucked out a third of his health and MP.

  The effect was so jarring that he lost focus on his Camouflage and Advanced Flight and crashed to the ground, barely staying on his feet. Gus dashed backward to get out of range, half expecting to brain himself on a tree in his haste, as the two supers charged toward him.

  He took flight again but hovered much lower than normal, about twenty feet above the ground. The timing would have to be right, and he had to force himself to face this rabid rhino of a man without fleeing or escaping into stealth.

  Silverback perked up and got him in his sights. As predicted, he jumped up towards Gus, grabbing him around the waist in a huge bear hug.

  Gus slapped his arms on the sides of the bald man’s head and hit Leech, draining Enhanced Strength first. The hard tone of the man’s muscles seemed to relax into something more like flab. The vascularity and tautness of his skin disappeared as his strength stats were robbed from him.

  The unconscious and weakened Silverback let go of Gus. Gus grabbed him and clung on as they fell, allowing the burly man to take the brunt of the fall back to earth. It still shaved off another five percent of his total health as they hit and Gus bounced off, spinning onto the beach. Spitting out sand, Gus shook his head and crawled back to the prone man.

  He quickly absorbed Bound and Resilience before dodging back into the air as Ash reached toward him. He felt a pull before he got out of range and lost a tenth of both his MP and HP. Gus glanced and saw his HP was at 252/620 in just a matter of moments of fighting, then it began quickly decreasing, along with his MP.

  Wiping sand out of his blurry eyes, Gus squinted as he activated Wrecks and Parks on Ash. Instead of totally stunning him, it only dropped him to one knee, but the draining effect paused.

  Ash looked up and grinned, G
us’ HP and MP beginning to slowly trickle away again, picking up speed.

  A sensation like ice cold fingers wrapped around Gus’ heart and pulled. Gus could barely keep himself in the air as he was reeled in, Ash staring him in the eyes the whole time.

  There was a jerk and Ash’s eyes rolled up into his head. Jet appeared as he fell face first to the ground, butt of the shaft having cracked into Ash at the base of his skull. Jet tipped as if in salute and sped off as Gus felt a crushing pain in his left side. He fell to the earth and pain lanced through his hip and cracking ribs as he landed hard, dropping him to only 42 HP remaining.

  He couldn’t breathe as he scrambled for his pocket and quickly consumed a pink and red gel. The pain subsided somewhat and he had to greedily eat another red gel before the pain faded and he coughed up blood. The red restored fifty points and the pink helped him regenerate 2 HP per second.

  Seeing a shadow over him, Gus rolled over just in time as the ground where he had fallen shimmered and puckered into a crater. He continued to roll until he made it into some nearby foliage and activated Phase-Shift. The flying super began peppering the area with distortions that crushed everything in their sphere of influence about the size of a beach ball. Nearby palms kinked like garden hoses as the effect bent them in half, and the existing ground cover was flattened and rapidly approaching Gus.

  There was a loud boom, followed by a dazzling display of shimmering particles, glittering sparkles of purple, pink and green fizzling like a crate of lit sparklers, spiraling toward the ground. The super turned and stared at the spectacle.

  Gus averted his eyes as Aurora had mentioned and dashed forward, hitting the super low in the back. Pain flared in his side from the collision, then he pushed. The momentum launched the dazed invader into some nearby palms where he hit with a big crunch, loosening some coconuts. From there, he tumbled out from the higher tree, flipping like a contestant on Wipeout into another lower tree, disappearing into the bushy fronds.

  A red flash warned Gus that his MP was below ten percent and he quickly dropped Phase-Shift. His HP wasn’t much better at only 27/620. Checking his minimap to find the other two supers, Gus saw that the three supers that he had downed had turned from red stars to hollow red circles. Gus smiled weakly, knowing that would come in handy to determine if a super was truly unconscious or was just faking to lure him close.

  He was tempted to drain the others but instead crawled to get into some cover before approaching the other two supers in front of the manor. He leaned his back against a small dune while he fished in his pockets for some more red gels and bit down on two in rapid succession, panting to catch his breath. He sighed as the pain in his side began to fade while he watched the remnants of Aurora’s ability fizzle in the air above.

  As the last spirals of sparkle dust or whatever it was were fading away, the two remaining supers came out of their daze and started firing at the small dune Gus was hiding behind. He cringed and slid further down as their shots kicked up explosions of sand and plant debris. As he stared up into the blue sky, there was an assortment of sweeping energy beams and some kind of energy bullets filling the air, leaving no safe way to approach.

  Gus rolled to the side and tried to peek, but they were expecting him and he barely ducked back into safety before a whirlwind of dust and small shredded scrub plants puffed up into the air with the shots. A hot glob of something fell on Gus’ hand and he shook it off, looking at it as it cooled. The orangish material solidified into a grayish-brown glass, a red blister rising almost instantly.

  Even when he tried to skirt around and move to the sides, they quickly picked up his location and began firing. Gus got a nasty burn on his arm as a beam nicked him. He almost grabbed another gel, but held back, not wanting to form a bad habit of using them too freely and not having them when truly needed.

  Gus wanted to Phase-Shift, just to get out of there, but he wouldn’t be able to sustain it with his depleted MP. He reached in his other pocket and pulled out some blue gels. Even among the whir and pulse of their shots and their detonations, the tearing noise of the Velcro announced his position and he had to roll to another nearby dune as the ground started exploding around him. One of the supers was flanking his position so they could get him into a crossfire.

  Gus had lost his gels in his escape. He was running out of options when he heard a high-pitched noise like a camera flash charging. The shots paused briefly as they evaluated this new development, the noise rising in pitch. It reached its peak tone and then a muffled *ba-tang* sounded and Gus ducked and covered his head, expecting some huge cannon to blow him to oblivion. He felt a wave of energy wash over him, followed by a wave of heat, then there was silence.

  There were no more intermittent shots, and Gus checked his status. He noticed no other changes or debuffs. After a tense minute, Gus hazarded a peek and saw the two men lying on the ground. Expecting a trap, he checked his minimap and their icons had shifted to hollow circles. Gus’ shoulders slumped in exhaustion as he finally relaxed. Thank you, Aurora.

  After firing an Ion Storm that took out the tiny insect drones, Aurora saw that two supers moved to guard the manor entrance, trying to prevent a retreat. She suspected they would hunker back if attacked, hoping to avoid ranged attacks that could miss and damage the manor. They were lining up shots as Gus popped in and out of view, fighting the other supers. It was only a matter of time before they got a lucky shot.

  Both of the armed supers were relying heavily on cybernetics, so if she could activate the new manor upgrades, they would be neutralized. She used Dazzle in the center of the courtyard above the grass and the two supers moved out of their cover to more easily see what was happening.

  Aurora took her cue and snuck to the manor door and slipped inside. Sprinting to the elevator, she bashed the button to the control center. She wondered if there was some upgrade to allow faster manor transport as the elevator began its lazy ascent. Crashing out of the elevator, she ran to the console and approved EMP Targeting. An antenna on the roof of the manor hummed to life as the coils charged. This unlock had no upgrades, and Aurora held her breath as the two supers were close to the edge of effect around the field. Don’t walk forward, don’t walk forward…

  The Dazzle effect faded and the supers retreated closer to the manor, getting back under cover, bracing themselves as they fired at Gus. One directed the other, who moved laterally to get a better shot.

  At last, the pulse had reached full charge and Aurora activated it, and she saw the ripple of energy spread out. And slumped back into the chair when the last two attackers collapsed, unconscious.

  Basileus hit the console as he watched his mercs get beaten by one guy. Wait. What was that? He scanned the video back and froze the frame. There she was. Aurora slinking in the background, making her way to the manor door while the others were looking upward, focusing on some explosion above.

  He knew he should have ended her back at headquarters.

  See what being a good little servant gets you? a voice chided.

  I wouldn’t have let this happen, another taunted.

  Basileus felt a growl in the back of his throat as he stared at the screen. It would have taken so little time to get rid of her. Maybe she had already escaped by then. If his father hadn’t been in such a hurry, he would have seen that she was gone.

  Too late to worry about it now, but experience told him if he wasn’t decisive, the same problems came back to haunt him, again and again.

  He tried to calm his escalating rage, and quiet the voices. Just get the mission done. Appease your father until you have taken the manor and then Manticorps. Archon will have to hand over the reins after success here. He could hold out just a bit longer. If he could regain the manor, finally he could be free.

  He’s forgetting about the girl. Typical.

  Basileus’ eyes widened. If Aurora was here, she had to have snuck on board. He called his comms officer. “What’s the status of the burst transmission?”

/>   “We just started it, it’s at about 24%—” came the languid reply.

  “Shut it down!”

  “Y-yes, sir… transmission aborted. Any data mid-transmission is probably corrupted and will have to be recompiled and sent again,” the tech replied, suddenly attentive.

  “They can wait. The relay will be back in position in thirty-six hours. I’ll have something better to report by then, anyway.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Lay My Claim

  Gus slumped to the grass in exhaustion. “Woof to the woof!” He laid there staring at the indifferent clouds. He had dragged the others all onto the manor’s lawn but he felt exhausted. He was grateful that his minimap showed where the downed supers were or he wouldn’t have found the super who had fallen into the branches of a tree. Deciding it would be safer to Leech him while on the ground, Gus pushed and prodded with ether leashes until he could get a grip around the man and drag him down to the ground, then transport him to the lawn.

  Congratulations! You have subdued 5 opponents trespassing on privately-owned territory.

  5,000 XP (1,000 x 5) awarded for non-lethal methods.

  2,500 FP (500 x 5) awarded.

  6,200 XP to level 16.

  You have (20) stat points to assign.

  Gus sat heavily on the ground and hung his head. That was too damn close! And where the hell was Aurora?

  He stared at the twenty stat points, feeling like an idiot for not allocating them sooner. At least this encounter made it painfully obvious—he needed much more HP and MP. He dropped ten into Intelligence and the other ten into Constitution, raising each pool by two-hundred points. 840 HP still seemed low for total health with how hard those supers hit.