by Ryan Tang
She raised her wrists and fired the chains. The blue links latched onto the thick machine and wrapped around its arms and legs.
"I'm not letting you go! Come back here! Get back here!"
The bloodstained Paragon scrunched its shoulders together. There was a mighty screaming heave. Alex was rocked viciously forward. The girl let out another cry of fright.
Alex shouted again.
"No! No! I'm not letting you go!"
But there was little she could do. The other machine was bigger and heavier. The chains were at their breaking point.
The white machine's missile launcher twirled around before Alex could fire. There was a harsh crack, and then the chain on her left arm snapped. Alex swung wildly to the side. She fumbled with her composite rifle, but it was impossible to aim. She had no control, and a stray shot could kill her friend.
The white Paragon sheared through her other chain with its freed pincer.
"I knew you would do that. It won't work. He knows you. He's seen into my mind. He knows how you fight! On my blood, you can't win!"
Alex clenched her teeth as tears dripped down her cheeks.
On my blood.
That was the phrase Steel and Sooner had used, but she'd never heard Leanne say it before. Leanne was from Plenty, not from Generosity.
The blast of red lightning once again came close enough to singe her cockpit.
She cursed. It must have been Steel controlling the machine. Leanne would never shoot to kill her.
The launcher swiveled. Alex dodged one streak of red lightning, then another. Alex lunged toward the fleeing machine, but a spray of missiles forced her to retreat.
She'd hoped he would turn and fight, but instead, the white Paragon had used the distraction to fly farther and farther. It was almost at the Gate now.
Alex cursed again.
The librarian fired three more sniper shots, but to no avail. The lightning launcher and missiles covered two of the bullets, and the third only managed to make a dent in the left claw. The stiff shoulder armor stopped her fourth attack.
The stolen Paragon turned to the Gate, which opened as soon as it approached. Just as Alex expected, Leanne must have given herself some sort of backdoor. The machine whirled around. The chest opened up, and an enormous cannonball shot toward her. Alex deflected it with her shield, but the impact was so great it caused her to drop the controls. Her machine spiraled back towards the ground.
Steel laughed in Leanne's voice.
"Just give it up. I admit you got me good on Diligence, but there's no deceiving me now, not after I've bonded."
Alex flicked a switch at the side, and Eternium poured down from the roof, forming mosaic blue spacesuits around her and the girl.
The girl murmured. She wasn't scared. It was just like the first time they'd met in the Spire, when it somehow fell to her to comfort Alex. She just sat on Alex's lap, fiddling her shard of Eternium as she stared at the battle outside.
"Alex, are you going to be alright?"
"We'll have to be."
Alex flew after the white Paragon. She deeply regretted bringing the girl with her, but she didn't want to show it. She didn't have time to drop her off.
If Leanne escaped, nobody on Plenty would ever see her again.
____
Steel floated outside, wearing a red and white spacesuit. Unlike Alex's, the suit wasn't made of Eternium. It was evident the people of Generosity couldn't command the holy metal. They were here to steal it.
There was a bulge at his shoulder that hadn't been there before. It was the same strange swollen rock she'd seen his family holding in the picture, only now she knew it wasn't a rock at all.
The purple thing's faceless heads separated then turned towards her. There were nine of them in total that surrounded the fat main body, which was gorged with blood. The Familiar was a combination of a hydra and a leech.
On my blood.
Alex raised her gun and fired, but it was no use.
The Paragon easily blocked her attacks. When she switched back to the sniper configuration, a bolt of red lightning sent her scurrying away.
Leanne's voice echoed through space. Her friend was utterly broken.
"I give you my machine."
Steel laughed airily as he stepped inside the cockpit.
"Alex! Where's the romanticism? Don't you want to duel?"
It was still just a game to him, just like his exploits on Diligence. That was how it'd been until he discovered the Broken Hands didn't work. It was all just a game until he was losing.
"Well, you guys were able to pull off a stunning upset on Diligence, but I don't think it will happen again."
He stepped into the cockpit, and for a moment, Alex feared that he would throw Leanne outside. But to her relief, Leanne was slumped over in the back seat. She'd kept her survival in mind when she built the cockpit to include two people. The handsome man took the controls, and then red lightning flared around his stolen Paragon.
The white metal grew brighter and brighter until it shone like a thousand suns. The glow was so intense that Steel's machine looked a pearly white hole in reality with red bloodstains oozing through it.
And then the metal liquefied. Alex had never seen anything like it before. The geysers of Eternium were a sight she could never have imagined no matter how many times she read The Familiars. The molten metal sprayed joyfully into the air, twisting and turning to form sinuous muscles. If it hadn't been for the tragic circumstances, Alex would have cried out in joy.
The two machines stared at each other.
"A Paragon and a Familiar. Two hearts that fight as one. The power that the real Families have waited all this time for. You made us go a little ahead of schedule - we were supposed to get the Paragons first - but I got there at the end."
Alex's mind raced. All the stories described Paragons built with Liquid State Eternium as supernaturally fast and powerful, but Alex wouldn't know until she saw it in action. There was only so far that words could go. And his machine would have the powers of his Familiar as well, the fat leech-hydra that'd let him control Leanne like a mannequin.
Steel smiled.
"Well then, I'm really raring to try this out. But if you back down, I'll be happy to let you run. You let me turn tail after Diligence, after all."
There was an angry edge under his jocular tone. His defeat on Diligence clearly still rankled him. He'd mentioned something else interesting too, that the real Families had been waiting to gather Familiars and Paragons together. Did he mean the Major Families? It'd certainly seemed like Leanne didn't know anything about it. She'd thought the blood oath was a joke.
Alex raised her composite rifle and made herself laugh. She swallowed her fears. An ace provided love and comfort to her friends, but she also struck fear into the heart of her enemies.
Alex forced her mouth into a sneer. Leanne had taught her that trick. Speaking arrogantly could sometimes scare people. It made them think you knew something they didn't.
"If you think you'd win, you'd just fight me now. You're just worried about losing again."
Steel didn't respond.
The girl nudged her.
"Do you really think you can win?"
"I'm not sure, but we need to try. She's our friend."
The girl nodded solemnly.
"And besides. Leanne left Nico here. It means she thinks we have a chance."
Steel chuckled.
"No. It means she knows we're killing her for treason once we get back home."
The white machine attacked.
Alex caught the claw on her bayonet just before it wrapped around her cockpit.
Steel brought the claw back again for another strike, and then the duel was on.
____
It was just as Leanne said. The machine had been built to defeat her. Alex's style relied on finesse and precision, on finding the single moment to strike for victory. But the white Paragon's heavy armor nullified most of her attacks
, and the heavy launcher forced her into close combat.
When the fight began, Alex intended to keep the bloodstained Paragon away with her bayonet. Her composite rifle significantly outranged the white machine's pincers. She could just keep chipping away at the thick armor with gun and blade.
But the sheer speed and power of Liquid State Eternium rendered all her strategies completely moot. It was all she could do to survive.
Steel attacked over and over again, striking with several weapons at once. It was a never-ending barrage of Liquid-State Eternium empowered blows. His limbs moved so swiftly that Alex had no hope of retaliating. She moved her shield and bayonet in a tiny arc around her body, carefully keeping her cockpit under guard. She envisioned Matthew's careful movements and desperately sought to emulate them. It was the precision and accuracy of playing the perfect notes, only with her life on the line.
Steel's style relied solely on raw power. The blows rocked her machine over and over again. To Alex's horror, her arms began to crack from the sheer force of trying to parry the blows.
She gave way over and over again as the two machines spun back and forth in the sky. Back inside Plenty, her Paragon's greatest advantage had been its speed and agility. But due to her opponent's Liquid State, she now found herself outmatched in every aspect.
The white machine feinted toward her head with the massive scissor-like claw.
Alex ducked back, but then a massive foot lashed out and caught her in the side of the crescent arc. The girl let out a squeal of fright, and Alex cursed herself as the cockpit rocked ferociously back and forth. What the hell had she been thinking, taking the girl with her? She should be safe in the apartment right now.
To her shock, the foot stayed anchored on her machine. There was a disgusting sucking noise, and the thrusters on the left side began withering and dying.
Steel laughed.
"You should have just given up! I wanted to give you a chance!"
There was no escape. The enormous foot had latched onto her machine. Steel angled the lighting launcher, but Alex grunted and surged forward, bringing herself closer to his machine so he'd have no chance to fire.
The claw hammered down. Steel didn't even try to slice her. He simply used the arm as if it were a club, bringing it viciously downward over and over again.
Each time, Alex met him with her new shield, the one on which she'd drawn scenes of Plenty.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Every once in a while, he'd mix in a vicious kick.
Soon Alex was relying on feel alone. The arm and leg flowed forward over and over again, moving so quickly that Alex had no time even to think. Her battle-mind overrode her conscious thought. She was simply guessing where Steel would strike.
All the while, the latched leg continued draining and draining. The foot swelled to twice its previous size, and blue shades mixed with the red and black as the Eternium on her left side thrusters turned saggy and distended.
Alex swore. She angled her bayonet at the swollen leg, but then the pincer hacked again, and she was put back on the defensive. She had no opportunity to cut off the intrusive foot.
The claws raked at her rifle arm, and Alex barely twisted to bring up her shield in time. She grunted with satisfaction as she caught the twin prongs against her knife. She slid forward only to be met with a savage kick, harder than anything she'd ever felt in a Paragon before.
Her machine spiraled back toward the colony. She desperately fought with the controls, but it was useless. Her bones cracked as she smashed into the translucent dome around the colony. Alex screamed and explosions rocked her machine. The domes had been built from reinforced Eternium during the Paragon Wars. It was far more painful than smashing into a building on Metropolis.
Red lights blared through her cockpit.
There was a wailing crack, and then her rifle arm disconnected at the elbow.
"No!"
Alex cried out and reached for it, but Steel chuckled and fired a red bolt from his gun. Her arm exploded, and her signature weapon burst into flame.
The bloodstained Paragon had already looked strange, but now, with one of its legs swollen to twice the usual size, it looked utterly bizarre.
Steel raised the launcher and fired, but compared to the raw power of Liquid State Eternium, avoiding ranged attacks was easy. Alex twirled to the left, then back to the right. In every picture she'd ever seen of the Mad Nobles, the deposed tyrants had exclusively used melee weapons. Now she knew why.
Steel twirled the enhanced foot around, spinning it so fast it looked like a typhoon. Moments later, he was on her. Alex jerked her Paragon back, and the foot passed inches from her face. Steel recovered at once and slashed with his claw. Alex angled her shield to deflect his blow upward, then fired off a salvo of missiles. There was a tremendous explosion, but he didn't even notice. The white machine's limbs subjected her Paragon to a never-ending whirlwind of deadly strikes.
Claw.
Claw.
Claw.
Left foot.
Right foot.
Left again.
Claw.
The song of Eternium was louder than ever before. It was a roaring symphony that deafened her ears in spite of the beauty.
Left next.
Then right.
An overhead cut.
The foot that hadn't swollen yet lashed at her head, and she couldn't dodge in time. Steel laughed as the armored limb latched on to Alex's face. All her vision was obscured by the massive foot. A series of pipes descended.
Alex saw her chance. She opened her mouth and bit down hard.
There was an enormous explosion that sent Steel's machine veering into the distance. The fires consumed her head, searing her Paragon's eye-cameras and mouth. Her screen flickered to black, but Alex still fought on. She emptied her missile silos, spreading the fire to maximize her chance of a hit, hoping beyond hope she could catch him while he was invulnerable.
There was an enormous explosion, but she couldn't see the results.
Her machine was in a deplorable state. She'd lost her right arm and composite rifle. Her missile launchers were out of ammunition, and she'd lost most of her chains back in the colony. The thrusters on the left side no longer worked. The head had shattered to pieces. The row of shark's teeth drifted through space.
The girl panted, briefly gazing up from the shard in her hand.
"Did you get him? Did you?"
The girl immediately returned to staring at the Eternium crystal. The pink and gray sparks flew and the shard twisted in her hand.
"What can I do? I want to be brave. What can I do?"
Alex sighed. There wasn't anything the girl could do. She couldn't summon a Paragon, not in space. And even if she could, the girl would only get in the way against an opponent with the power of Liquid State Eternium. The librarian cursed herself again for bringing her.
Alex activated the backup cameras in the shoulders, and Steel's machine flickered back into focus.
The right leg had snapped off at the thigh. The swollen foot had exploded as well. Globs of red, white, and blue Eternium drifted through space. Flames seared beneath the thick armor. The lightning launcher was a sparking ruin. Steel purged it, and the weapon exploded in a gout of crimson fire.
"Teeth. Cheeky."
There was no amusement in Steel's voice.
Alex let out a choked gasp. Her back felt like mush. She'd gotten a lucky break, but that was nowhere near enough damage. Moments later, the scissor-like claw streaked toward her. She ducked and jerked at her controls, but her Paragon was barely able to respond.
The missile launcher spat suppressive fire to prevent her from flying to the left. With her left side crumpled, she had no chance of going to the right.
The pincer streaked toward her.
The girl murmured.
"Crash into him."
"What?"
"Crash into him. We can
't beat him in a Paragon. But outside..."
Alex blinked. The girl was right.
Alex swung her shield forward in a massive arc, using the edge of the dome rather than the front to increase her distance. She'd learned that move from Jon. It was just the slightest difference between the edge and the front, but the Paragons had the strength of a thousand people, and the slightest difference meant the world.
The strike caught the claw just as it was about to snap shut. The twin blades screamed and screamed as they slowly ground down her beautiful shield.
The chest panel opened, revealing a massive cannon. Alex didn't hesitate. She hurtled forward, pressing the thrusters with all her might. The Eternium controls filled her fingers with blissful heat.
Their only hope was to bring their machine so close to Steel that he couldn't fire without endangering himself. That was the problem with chest cannons. If anything went wrong when you were firing, you were screwed.
"What are you doing? What are you doing? Can't you see?"
Steel let out a choked cry of surprise.
The chest cannon did not fire.
The two Paragons slammed together with such force that the cockpits nearly melded together. She could hear Steel screaming on the other side of the wall.
"What the hell? What the hell was she thinking? What is wrong with her!"
If Leanne responded, Alex didn't hear her. She smashed the Paragon forward again and again, bashing the two cockpits against each other. Eternium shards littered the air. Before long, Alex could see into the void of space, but the white machine's thickly armored cockpit remained unbroken.
There was a heart-breaking crunch as the scissors finally sheared through her shield. The Eternium shards rained down on her.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Just give up!"
Alex slammed her cockpit forward once again, hoping beyond hope that this time, the thick armor would break. The Paragons crashed into each other, going chest to chest. But still, the armor seemed impenetrable.
A pink and gray spear spiraled through the air like a lightning bolt.
There was a jarring crack as the cockpit was forced open.
The girl panted.
"Us too. We're also two hearts that fight as one."
____
Alex leaped out of the cockpit, grabbing a sharp shard of her shield.