Science and Sorcery Box Set

by Ryan Tang

  Alex stepped into the darkness. Unlike her machine from the Spire, the Peacetime model wasn't made from Eternium. Without the internal radiance of the legendary metal, the light of her eye-cameras was barely enough. She struggled to see what was right in front of her.

  She shook her head and cursed.

  They should have torn the walls down sooner. It'd been another thing they'd just forgotten in all the chaos. The Gate was opened on one side, but The Wastes were still closed off from three other corners.

  There was just so damn much they had to do, so much evil caused by Stock, Waters, and Southern Robotics.

  Get people out of the cube homes and into real houses.

  Undo the damage from the quake.

  Return the Eternium to the core.

  Clean up the rivers of blood in the Library Courtyard.

  Try to figure out who was missing.

  And now the ghosts and the missing Eternium.

  Alex shook her head. Being an ace wasn't just about being an excellent Paragon pilot. It was about everything.

  The further she stepped into The Wastes, the easier it was to see. It was impossible to hide Eternium. The strange glow permeated through the darkness. She recognized all four colors. It was purple and gold, the bright flare of the boy's toy Paragon in his hands as he sneaked through the book-corridors. It was teal and silver, the colors that'd blazed in Jon's hands as he sat in the Spire and mourned his brother.

  Alex saw them and smiled. The design was the same as the boy's toy Paragon. The machine leaned against the wall, the colors flaring with an unmistakable brilliance.

  The head was diamond-shaped with a single cyclopean eye in the center. The colors in the eye were split in two, just like the rest of the Paragon. Half the eye was red, and the other side was green. One half of the machine was gold on purple. But once it crossed the center of the Paragon, the gold abruptly changed to teal and the purple morphed into silver. The familiar twisted painting danced along the machine's armor, elongated and distorted with stray tendrils, gaping suction cups, and leering eyes. There was a dancing glyph along the machine's thigh that the librarian recognized from that night deep inside the Spire.

  The massive shield was the only weapon it carried. On one end, the kraken was gold on a purple background. On the other, it was teal on silver.

  The colors of Jon's soul alongside the color of his brother's.

  Alex smiled sadly.

  "How did you find it?"

  Jon's voice was slow and sad.

  "I recognized Paul's machine. I knew he must have made others. The Paragon called out to me when I was wandering around..."

  He trailed off for a moment.

  "I wanted to tell you. I really did. But this is all I have. He made this for me, you know?"

  Her heart broke to hear him sound so sad. He was one of her students.

  "Ms. Alex!"

  Alice broke in.

  She must have been in the cockpit with him.

  "You can't take the machine, Ms. Alex! What if there's a rogue Paragon! What if the orange pod comes back! And! And! And! It's the only thing left of his brother! You can't take it! You just can't! It's his brother! His brother made those machines for him and his friends!"

  "Yeah."

  Alex stared at the black walls around her and cursed Stock. By now, the thought was almost reflexive.

  Kids shouldn't grow up in darkness.

  They shouldn't have to worry about dead brothers.

  Alex took another look at The Wastes.

  They were completely abandoned. She'd have to do something about the lack of light, but otherwise, this was a perfect training ground. They could start putting their defense force together.

  "And what about the ghosts? And the way the Paragon just appeared? We need to protect ourselves!"

  Alex smiled.

  "We've dealt with that for now."

  She sighed.

  "You need to bring the machine back, Jon."

  "Yeah."

  He knew. He was sad and tired, but he knew.

  Alex smiled.

  "But it doesn't have to be right away."

  She put her hand into the ground and activated the Eternium Veins. The thin strands of holy metal surged through the surface, feeling their way to the colony's core. The Eternium cried out to her as the shellfish sword burst through the ground. The circular tentacle guard expanded, fitting snugly around the Hands Paragon's massive mitt.

  Her students gasped as she raised the sword high in the air.

  "It might not be now. It'll take time to get to where you can summon a machine on command."

  Just like the others, Jon had been driven by grief. It shouldn't be that way. He was just a boy.

  "But Eternium will always be by your side. Fred will always be by your side."

  She twirled the blue sword back and forth, and then saluted with it.

  "Come. I'll train you, so you're ready. And I'll show you why you won't have to worry about some orange pod."

  She twisted her voice to a gentle taunt.

  "I don't even need an Eternium Paragon to beat you."

  She wasn't foolish enough to use her rifle. The risk of an accident was too great. But otherwise, they could fight all out.

  There was nobody else in The Wastes.

  Alice laughed a little and began to cheer.

  "Get her! Get her!"

  The four-colored machine stood, raised the shield, and charged.

  ____

  Alex raised her machine's hand. She'd never fought in a Hands Paragon before, but she remembered Jared telling her how he'd used his hand to hold off Eternium bullets. The gangly machine was very fragile. The protective gel was her only shield.

  There was a tremendous crash as the boy's shield instantly crushed her hand. Jon's machine was a blur of light, faster than even the highly mobile Hands Paragon.

  Alex cursed.

  Jon was using an Old Earth Paragon forged from Eternium. Jared had only fought one of Stock's false Eternium-gilded machines.

  Her hand was a shattered ruin.

  "Fuck!"

  Her curse echoed along the empty Wastes. Her students burst into laughter, and Alex blushed. She was still trying to swear less in front of her kids.

  Their machine continued charging forward as they giggled. Alex fell back, twisting her ruined hand to the side. She used their excessive momentum against them, subtly shoving their machine off balance.

  They stumbled, exposing their back.

  She could have won the fight then and there, but instead, she smacked them in the back of their head with the flat of her blade.

  The four-colored machine crashed loudly onto the ground.

  It was an amateurish mistake. They'd committed everything to the charge without considering that she could still use her broken hand to knock them off balance.

  Alex grinned.

  The legendary pilots of Old Earth frequently said the skill of the pilot mattered more than the strength of the machine.

  "Hey!"

  "Not fair!"

  "We were laughing!"

  She brought her sword back up again.

  "Don't get distracted!"

  Alex was getting a little distracted herself.

  Her battle-mind wasn't active. She didn't feel the supernatural rush of perception. Instead, it felt like she standing at her podium at the Spire. It was like the three of them were in her reading room.

  "You know, one time, when I was fighting against Matthew, there was even an earthquake."

  That'd been a duel for the ages. They hadn't known each other back then. Matthew had just been another name on the simulator screen - Dr. X - hoping to win a fortune at Stock's promised tournament.

  "But I was able to stay focused, even when my pod was shak –"

  CLANG!

  The split-colored Paragon leaped into the air and domed her in the head with a crushing downward blow.

  Alex staggered back.

  Her cockpi
t rocked back and forth.

  One full half of her screen went dark. One of the eye-cameras was shattered to bits.

  The Hands Paragon stumbled back, but its miraculous programming saved it. The gangly machine fell back into its usual hunched position.

  Jon and Alice giggled.

  "Stay focused!"

  Alex could only laugh with them.

  "Goddamn it!"

  "No! No! Stop! Stop swearing to distract us!"

  Alex laughed, and they laughed with her.

  Jon raised the shield again, angling it to protect his head and cockpit as he dashed forward.

  Alex responded with a savage upward blow.

  Jon brought the shield down as he leaped.

  The Eternium weapons clashed and clashed.

  Jon pivoted to try and turn to her damaged side, where she couldn't see him. It was an astute insight, but Alex was used to those tactics.

  Alex spun and twirled as Jon eagerly pushed forward. She carefully kept him on her left, ensuring he stayed on the side she held the sword. It was just like her duel with Matthew, although the roles were now reversed.

  Jon struck and struck. The librarian kept her student at bay, making sure that he couldn't come too close. Against his shield, her advantage was the reach of her sword. If he got inside her guard, she didn't stand a chance, not with her gangly Paragon.

  The boy had good instincts.

  Ace pilots knew to press their advantage to the fullest. Jon fought aggressively while staying cautious. A lot of pilots swung their melee weapons too carelessly, overcommitting to a strike and giving their opponents a chance to counter. The gaps between Jon's attacks were tiny. He fought like a seasoned veteran, not a total newcomer. Alex could barely see the slight seams in his assault, and the Hands Paragon was too slow to take advantage of it.

  Jon angled the strikes perfectly. He usually struck with the sharp edge to force her onto the defensive. But when he got a chance, he barreled forward with the broad flat of the shield to knock her back.

  Eventually, the difference in their machines began to show. Alex's arm was built of lesser metal. It groaned from the strain of cushioning Jon's constant attacks. The shield battered relentlessly downward.

  Alice cheered and cheered.

  "Get her! Get her! Get Ms. Alex!"

  Alex waited and waited, but Jon made no mistakes.

  Her arm wailed louder and louder

  She was running out of time.

  She would have to create her own gap in his defense.

  She feinted at his leg, hoping Jon would bring his shield down to block. Once he did, she'd shear off his head to leave him blind and stumbling.

  He didn't fall for it. He ignored her attack completely and sent the edge of the shield darting up to her head instead.

  "Shit!"

  Alex's eyes widened in surprise, and she yanked the controls back. For the first time in the fight, she felt her heart pound against her chest. The excitement of a fighting a close duel flared in her stomach.

  She'd barely ducked back in time. The shield came so close she could hear the wind whistle in her cockpit.

  The librarian smiled.

  She couldn't believe he'd never practiced before, but they had no simulators in The Wastes. The young boy was a genius. She had to start training him soon.

  But for now, she had to show him the strength of an ace.

  She whirled her ruined hand around and smacked Jon hard on the side. There was a shower of sparks. The hand snapped clean off, but she didn't care. It'd done its job.

  Jon's luminescent machine stumbled. He fought to maintain his footing.

  She brought the sword down at the head.

  He brought the shield up just in time.

  There was a long melodic note.

  The shield was pinned right in front of his head.

  She brought her sword back and attacked again.

  With the shield so close to his head, Jon would struggle to see what was happening. She smiled. She had to practice with Matthew again. Pinning the shield was a crafty trick, and Alex was eager to learn others.

  She brought her hand only slightly backward, flicking with her wrist to maximize the velocity. She didn't need to gamble with a hard strike. Instead, she rained down an endless torrent of precise and quick blows. The cutlass relentlessly hammered the shield.

  The air sang and sang as Eternium clashed.

  The kraken shield was very durable, but it wouldn't last forever. Cracks began to form.

  Alex slowly lifted herself higher and higher, improving her angle by hovering in the sky.

  She slashed and jabbed, keeping up her barrage of attacks, never giving Jon a chance to return on the offense. She struck high at his head. She stabbed low at his leg. She flicked her sword in from the side, hoping to chop off an arm.

  Every strike was directed from a ruthless downward angle. Jon was pinned on the ground.

  Eventually, he grew desperate and leaped into the air.

  The reckless move made him vulnerable.

  In a real battle, she would have cut his cockpit, but she wasn't done yet.

  Instead, she whirled around and delivered a ferocious backhanded blow, slicing off his shield arm and then kicking him hard to the ground.

  "Don't take risks you don't need to!"

  She turned down for the follow-up, but Jon was already gone. He kicked off the ground and flew backward, snagging the shield in his other hand as he escaped.

  As she turned, he hastily brought it up in front of his vulnerable cockpit.

  He was creative and careful. She had a chance to stab him there, just for the smallest moment, but otherwise, it'd been a perfect escape.

  She'd tell him how to improve after the fight. He was doing an incredible job. She didn't want to distract or discourage him.

  Alice started cheering again, her voice reverberating in the darkness.

  "Good job getting away! Good job!"

  Alex grinned.

  "You're strong!"

  But Jon was frustrated.

  "Bah. You could have killed me there."

  She thought he was talking about when she swept off his arm until he clarified.

  "You could have killed me twice."

  Alex was pleasantly surprised.

  "Not a lot of people would have seen the second chance. We need to get you in the simulator after this."

  "What's that?"

  They didn't have things like that in Block 12. They didn't have things like that in the pitch-black darkness of The Wastes.

  She laughed.

  "It's a way for us to fight in Paragons without destroying everything around us. It's a practice cockpit."

  She could hear the excitement in his voice as he and Alice talked about how much fun it was.

  Then he turned to face her again, a smile in his voice.

  "I don't need practice. I'm going to beat you right now!"

  He raised the shield again.

  Alex took a deep breath.

  The two Paragons, the four colored one built from Eternium and the blue zebra-striped machine wielding the shellfish blade, faced each other weapons raised for one final confrontation.

  She'd been in this position so many times before.

  She always preferred staying on the defensive.

  She wanted her opponents to charge toward her.

  In this case, her machine was fast and strong, best suited for the offensive. An armed Peacetime model was indubitably a glass cannon - nearly as fast as Eternium Paragons but with nowhere near the armor - but Alex couldn't change who she was.

  This was what she was born to do.

  To win it all with a single perfectly-timed stroke.

  Alex released every thought from her mind, and her whole world became the shield in Jon's hand. By now, she knew how he liked to fight. She was familiar with his weapon's weight.

  She was ready.

  She wouldn't be taken by surprise.

  Then the shield t
ransformed.

  ____

  The kraken emerged out of the shield as if it were a live monster rising from the deep. The metal twisted elegantly, becoming three-dimensional before her very eyes. The tentacles grasped downward. The remaining parts of the shield joined together into a great Eternium staff.

  And then the shield had become a beautiful mace with a kraken's head. It was the same weapon wielded by the purple and silver machine she'd encountered in the Spire courtyard. The transformation must have been an innate capability of the machine. She'd learned from her experiments that it was impossible to transform or repair a Paragon after it'd been summoned.

  Jon was just as surprised.

  "This. That's what I always played with. A mace. I had a mace. And Fred had a shield. And we would fight on the front lines together."

  Alice cheered.

  "You can't lose now! That means you can't lose!"

  Jon's tears gave way to a grin.

  "Get ready, Ms. Alex!"

  He lowered the weapon and charged.

  The librarian stumbled back.

  Her position was all wrong.

  She'd been expecting to stab around a shield, not clash against a mace.

  Jon slammed the weapon down, aiming to crush her remaining eye.

  Alex pivoted away.

  The blow missed, but for a brief moment, Jon was on her blind side now.

  She acted solely on feel.

  Jon brought the mace back down again.

  She couldn't see it.

  She couldn't hear it.

  But somehow, she knew.

  It was coming down from behind her. It was right at the back of her head.

  It was right...

  There!

  She ducked and leaned forward.

  She flicked her cutlass upward, just so.

  There was a tremendous clang as her handguard caught against the staff of his mace. She slid the blade forward, a move she'd practiced countless times before.

  Her handguard hit the base of the head. She twirled the controls, and then she'd jerked the weapon clean out of his hands. It soared through the air and across her field of vision, going from her blind right side to her undamaged left.

  Jon and Alice let out simultaneously cries of surprise.

  "How?"

  "What the hell?"

  She turned and delivered a mighty kick, sending their machine tumbling to the floor.

  Jon tried to get up again, but she pushed him down with her foot.