by Ken Rivers
“Glad to hear we’re tight enough now to be a unit, B.”
“What names?” Pusi squealed.
Lana cocked her head to one side and chirped, “How about Midori for the green one, and Aoi for the blue one?”
“I like!” Pusi said.
I primed the bike for ignition. “Where’s Yari?”
Pusi and B just looked at each other and shook their heads. “Lana? I’m asking you.”
The engine fired to life and I turned my rumbling baby around to face the mists that still blocked our way out.
Lana’s answer came croaking and screeching from her avian throat. “She went with Tawa.”
17
Lana launched off the handle-bars. The sweet smell of exhaust fumes mixed with the outside air as I took off after her.
“Did they have sex yet?” I yelled to her but she didn’t hear me through the swirling mists. The chalky white clouds posed little danger to me, anymore, but Pusi and B were still vulnerable.
B punched my arm still sheathed in stamina and power. The rail-bike zigzagged a little. “Is that all you fucking care about is whether he nailed your crush or not? You were gone for four days, ASSHOLE!”
“Yeah, I found out that the mists have properties other than suffocating people to death.”
Pusi rubbed my leg and purred, “On Pusani, lovers ranked, too. New reason I like you every day, Marrrk.”
“Thanks, Pusi.”
B punched me again. “Cut the shit, Mark. We thought you took off and left us. That’s what Tawa said, anyway. Then he kept us from seeing Yari. Then we were kept in confinement for our own good. Then moved against our will. You saw what those guards were about to do. And then, Mr. Fucking Punctual, you roll up bare-handed and maul the shit out of four of their elite guard—”
“Three guards. Bird girl kill one.”
“Shut it, furball! Where the fuck were you, Mark? What happened?”
I got everyone up to speed as I kept my eyes on Lana. I told them everything. That is, I told them everything except the part about almost getting head from a three-peat centenarian. That was a tale much better suited for when I was black-out drunk and feeling a bit more vulnerable.
B sat silent through the whole story. We were near the break in the mists. She wrapped her arms around me, slid her head into my lap, buried her face against my stomach and stayed there for a long time. She didn’t let go and she didn’t look at me. “I’m glad you’re not dead,” she said, “and you smell nice. Like spring flowers.”
“So Marrrk is Father now? And blue hair is Mother? All have baby together with Tawa? Pusani have litter, so multiple fathers common. How big blue hair’s litter?” Pusi was having a difficult time keeping track of the roster.
“Pusi, nobody is having a litter,” I said.
We cleared the mists but still had a distance to go before reaching topside. Lana perched behind me, blew up in a puff of green light, and wrapped her arms around my waist. “I’ll explain it later for the Pusani by drawing pictures in the dirt,” she said.
B popped her head up and looked us up and down from head to foot a couple of times. “Fuck, I wish I had a video of you two. I bet it was a five-star shit show.”
“Be nice, B.”
I was happy to see B joking around. It brought a smile to my face and the air flowing around me calmed and died away. Suddenly, shapes of purple circles and yellow stars slid into my periphery view and I felt the bike list right.
When a tree falls over and bashes you in the head and no one else can see or hear it, does it matter what made you feel like passing out in the first place?
Nope.
“Mark!” B yelled and yanked on the wheel one second too late. Rock exploded, metal crunched, and we spun instantly. My head snapped back and I felt myself lift off the seat.
When I came to, we were back on the plains above. My bike was a little beaten up but it still looked functional. B and Pusi stood over me as Lana’s hands cupped my head in her lap. My hand came away from my shoulder streaked in blood. I felt five puncture wounds through my torn jacket.
“You fly from chair so was no time for be nice. You bleed now but you live.”
“I owe you, Pusi.”
“Is no problem. I think blood very sexy,” she purred and rubbed her soft cheek across mine.
“I can’t stand the sight of it,” B said. “Had my cycle chemically stopped before the academy.”
“Jeez, B.”
Lana waved her hand over my arm and the pain dulled greatly. “I think nothing of it. It’s just necessary liquid in the machine of life,” Lana said. “Mark, you need to learn to control this power sooner rather than later.”
“Shit, I think he did a spectacular job back there,” B said, “give some credit where credit is due.” B had my back.
Lana stood and gave no hint of emotional reaction to B. “I don’t pat people on the back for being able to walk at the same time while holding a ball AND not pissing themselves. All roads from this point lead to Mark facing Tawa. If that happens five minutes from now, Mark will lose. If he doesn’t get stronger and learn how to stay conscious for more than five or ten minutes, then again, he will lose.”
“Look you feather-brained witch tit sucker—”
“B, chill. Thank you for the support, seriously. But, what she says is mostly true.” I caught Lana’s eye. “Although her social interaction skills need some work. She’s right, B.”
Lana kept her nose far above us, “It seems as though time here on Levani has helped at least one human tighten up his logic pathways. Of course, he isn’t one hundred percent human any longer, so maybe that’s the only part that can hear the sense I’m making.”
B was all fire at that point. “Maybe he needs to dust some more feathers off that pussy of yours. You ain’t tough.”
Claws shot out from Lana’s fingertips. “My feathers aren’t dusting you, you, hairless meat monkey!”
“I’m furry!” Pusi clapped. “So, B last place in ranking?”
“I like you furball,” B said, “but I’ll shave you while you’re catnapping if you keep that shit up. You all better get on the right side of this argument.”
Lana retracted her claws and sighed. “There are no sides, now. Look.”
She looked off toward the horizon, where one of the suns was still bringing with it the start of another day. We all squinted and tilted our heads back and forth. Pusi was the next to see it. She whispered to us, like the faintest sound would draw what we saw straight to us. “When last Kaiju killed, we celebrate many solar cycles. Dancing, ecstasy, and freedom. Pusi born from that energy. But that,” Pusi pointed, “that impossible.”
B and I caught sight of it last. A great writhing mass of thick sinew tightly wound around a cylinder of bone and guts made of steel mesh. It lifted above the rising sun, wingless and quick. A great fat sea snake set loose in the blue ocean above us. It moved too fast for its size.
“With the old Mother gone,” Lana started, “Tawa has taken Yari to become the new Mother with him. I told him he was wrong for breaking the cycle of things. That maybe it was the reason our people turned black with disease when using our birthright. He sees it different. He seeks to blame all but himself.”
She sniffled a little. “He told me that if my eyesight was better in the sky than there with him, on the verge of his new beginning, then maybe I’m better suited to stay outside. Stay where he knows he can use me.
“I chose to help you, Mark. Or maybe I was chosen. Who knows. But, the clean logic points in only one direction for me. I will see you become the new Father. Yari needs you. We all need you.”
I looked past my rail-bike to see the more fortunate Jian-Di rise from alternate emergency exits scattered over the plains of the floating island. “I hope all of them feel the same way you do. I don’t think we can fight the entire Jian-Di by ourselves.”
“I am not the only one who chose sides today. But, I can’t tell where those who question Tawa h
ave escaped to from here.” She imploded into her little green ball and spread her glossy black wings. “If they shoot at me, I’d say it’s safe to assume they’re not on our side. Be right back.”
Pusi and B helped me to my feet. The wooziness had dissipated along with the weakness in my legs. Pusi kept watch for Yari and the Kaiju while B dressed my arm. “So, can you do anything else besides punch through stuff?” B pulled my jacket back over my shoulder.
“That, and I can’t really feel pain. Plus, I feel like I can go forever, like nothing can stop me.”
“Keep talking like that and I might dress you down right here, lover boy.” She winked. “Seriously, no jumping or fireballs or super speed?”
“Nope.”
“During my training to be an elite badass at the academy for future badassery,” she laughed, “we were tested on every kind of weapon. Projectile, hand-to-hand, non-lethal options, everything. The long-distance fights bored me. I only chose my baton after seeing which best suited my talents and fighting style. You might want to take that knife out and start poking things with it to see what happens. If you can’t keep your stamina up indefinitely, I should have a second reliable option to—”
Her eyes grew to the size of evening dinner plates and and she pointed. “Is she doing what I think she’s doing? She’s bringing the Leviathan right for US!”
“Kaiju,” I correct her, “it’s a Kaiju.”
Lana came screaming overhead and swung in tight circles, shrieking at us to run. Behind her the sky grew dark, and the Kaiju came for us.
“He saw me!” Lana cried.
“Where’s Yari?” I yelled up at her.
“With Tawa, but she’s not assisting him. Only watching. She has a guard unit attached to her.” The ground under us began to tremble as the beast drew lower to the plains grass. It was on a collision course to scrape us off the cliff edge like an unwelcome fly on someone’s windshield.
“Go now!” she screeched.
We hurried onto the bike, the seat forming to my clenched ass perfectly. The engine flared to life regardless of the damage it had sustained. Dirt and grass flew up behind us as I raced along the cliff’s edge.
I could’ve angled to run under the beast, but it was so large that if it decided to crash on top of us, there would be no escaping from the sides. “Hold on!” I yelled over the rumble of the engines and the island. Protective shields slid over B, Pusi, and the tiny Kaiju in the pods.
There was no time for caution. I took that hot fiery beast between my legs and went full fuckin’ throttle. It pulled right hard and I struggled to correct it. The damage had thrown off the alignment.
We cleared the proximity of the Kaiju’s gargantuan maw, but the beast barreled hard to catch us from behind.
Shit. Only eighty percent capacity.
It was enough to keep us just out of its reach. The stink of a million tons of morning breath sucked and poured from inside it.
“Mother?” the child’s voice was in my head again.
We were moments from death inside the sky demon behind us. But the voice, it pulled at a part of me. Like I needed to give it a hug or something. Well, fuck that. I wasn’t a hugger in normal conditions, anyway. But, maybe I could connect with it. Turn it on Tawa and stop the shit right then and there.
“Autopilot on,” I yelled.
B’s muffled voice came screaming through the blast shield covering, “You better not fall off, Mark. You’ll be Leviathan food and we’ll be screwed!”
I tapped on the opaque shield. I knew she could see me through it. “Don’t worry. If you crash, you’ll be perfectly safe. If the Kaiju eats you, you’ll be fine as long as it takes a shit inside seventy-two hours. These bad boys are black-market tech. I could only afford the two, though.”
There was one universal truth that all mechanics knew. If you want to solve a problem, ya gotta get in there. All up in the guts of the problem. Root around until ya find it and then repair or replace. Replacing meant taking stuff out and putting it back together. Simple shit. But repairs, that was always my forte. Rip it open and make it new again. Make it better.
I called upon the unbreakable rage. I hoped it was as unbreakable as I thought it was.
“Take care of Midori and Aoi for me, Pusi! Eject!” The seat launched me into the air, and I spun around to face the black monster.
The innocent whimper came to me again. “Where’s Mother?”
Levan and its floating islands, Pusi, B, Lana, Midori, Aoi, and my baby with its flaps and power-drive on full-swing-open-go disappeared from view. In their place were teeth and an endless gullet. The jaw slammed shut and all went dark.
18
The hard-ribbed insides of what I imagined must have been its throat, bounced under me as I rolled and tumbled to a sprawling stop. I felt the body heave upward, and my journey banging off the inside of the last Kaiju began anew.
I thought it would be a lot wetter, but it was bone-dry. A silent shudder of peristaltic motion tickled my feet. Then the mists came.
My fists were ready to cut through anything that came my way. The rush and the high assured me that I was safe, but I knew I didn’t have much time.
A halo of mist accreted around me but didn’t come closer than arms-length. The mist was thicker at one point than all others. It slowly took shape. Head, torso, and arms, but its legs remained ripples undulating from beneath.
“Why?” it asked.
I thought about what to say. It didn’t frighten me at all. I felt like anyone would feel for a child lost in a crowd. I felt sad for it.
“I could not let you hurt my friends. I—”
“No. Why you? Where’s Mother?” It floated to just outside the halo around me. I suspected my newfound air armor was to thank for the breathing room between me and the mist child.
“Do you mean Saiina?” I asked.
“Mother is Mother.” It rippled in alternating patterns. Clockwise. Counterclockwise. Clockwise. “I felt her, then I didn’t. Then I did when you came. Now, it's… different. I sense possibility, like a seed in the earth, waiting to bloom. Like me. But, it’s not me. Where is Mother?”
“Saiina has passed on. She talked about you a lot, though.” I knew she said it was an abomination and needed to be stopped, but this presence didn’t seem like that to me. “Hopefully soon, there will be a new Mother and Father and—”
“No Father! MOTHER IS MOTHER…” The mists bulged and seethed and pushed the hazy shape into the edge of the halo. My skin tightened for the first time since diving in there. The mists both dissipated and refreshed at a constant rate. It rushed forward, touching off a storm of fog and fuel to push past my defenses. Crashing waves threatened to break through my ever-shrinking tsunami breakwall.
The arm was the first to breach. Its head was next, twitching as the mists that held it together jetted inward. Eye sockets began to take shape, tall and hollow and incapable of holding light. “MOTHER…” it howled at me from the front and whispered at me from behind. It screamed at me from the top of the slowly diminishing barrier. The mists roiled and frothed and looked like the color of blood.
“Ok, back to Plan A.”
My emotions cycloned around me. They were there for me to harness, collect, and focus into a singular action. My sense of purpose had been the only thing missing. My sense of hate for the insanity that threatened my one chance at eternal love. He had accosted everything I had come to hold dear. He made whatever the mist child was. Granted, it was all within the few days, but I knew a good source of motivation when I saw it.
I ran from the mists. They gave chase. I ran a hundred yards, and then I ran another hundred until I came upon the walls. Their curvature was gone when face-to-face with them.
I clutched the energy that radiated out from me. It was there for the taking. As it circled down into my fists, the force was massive. Power to break in half anything that was stupid enough to stand in my way. Everything felt puny compared to what I was. What I was becomin
g.
“WHERE IS MOTHER!” the banshee shriek hurtled into me. But it didn’t move me. Not a shudder. Not a single shake. I looked back to meet its gaze.
“Hopefully, waiting for you on the other side. She was an epic MILF.”
Its progress slowed as it looked at me with so many questions strewn across its foggy dome. “MILF?”
“Ask your dad,” I said and lunged at the wall. I threw all of my rage at it. Rage for my friends, for Yari, and rage for this creature. It could’ve had a happy life if its Father hadn’t gone and fucked everything up by leaving the Mother. The story was one that had been repeated over every age, every galaxy, and maybe every dimension of existence. Fathers dropping the fucking ball.
My fists plunged into the steel mesh inner wall of the last mistake Tawa Yen would ever make. I kept them there, sunk up to the elbows, and pushed my judgment out into its flesh. The wall beamed with bright reds and yellows and finally orange.
“I don’t know my Father,” the voice finally cried.
The blast was imminent and unstoppable. I saw that the form had stopped advancing, and just looked on at me. I felt a twinge and a sinking in my guts of sadness for that creature. “Neither do I.”
I braced for the impact and watched the misty figure melt away in the fires of my revenge.
I wondered what it looked like from the outside. This big, coiled beast glowing orange from one side. Then chunks of axial connections and muscle belching outward, showering the Jian-Di’s hideaway island in mazes of jiggling tissue that once formed a part of the invincible behemoth floating overhead.
The mist avatar must have wanted very little to do with me after the explosion. It didn’t follow me through the cauterized wormhole I drilled.
Night turned into day. I was free and free-falling. Green. Black. Green. I spun through the air head over foot, flung my limbs wide and steadied myself. Ten seconds from touchdown coming in at a hard angle, I caught sight of a large group following one man. I was cocksure enough to believe that I would survive the fall.