by Tom Harem
As soon as we were done, we headed to the room where we had seen Tom arguing with Foxel. He was sitting in front of a table, among reams of papers, with a pair of bottle bottom glasses.
"Someone has to check yesterday's reports," he said, his throaty voice and a fuzzy smile, "I'm starting to get tired of saying this but follow me."
Victoria was right. He was much slower than on the previous day, the tie with a gray and black pattern was curved, and he had a pale, almost ghostly tone. He took us into a room in one of the perpendicular corridors. Apart from one or another person on the way, the place seemed almost empty, a rest after the storm that had hit the organization yesterday. He opened the door to an amphitheater with dimmed lights and with a naphthalene ball smell as well as cheap cigarettes. Five people, three men and two women, were seated, far from each other, with a computer lying on their lap. They looked at us as soon as we came in, but quickly went back to the work of seeing multiple images flashing on the screen and making calls to other Hunters.
"They're watchers. Older people, who can no longer fight, tend to stay here and give out information through calls or communicators. Younger people, like you, can help in battle. It's not always like this, but it's the usual. We get the requests for help minutes before they reach headquarters and we can analyze which ones are special. They have a different frequency, you know? You probably know that, but let's keep going." Tom said as he walked down the stairs towards the stage table, " This room is usually fuller than this but after yesterday most are resting. Take this, you'll need it." He said and took one of the laptops off the table. It was all black and it had a sticker that said "Hunters."
"Don't we win anything?" Elisa said.
"The computer is for the group. There's a program that shows you special missions that no group has yet accepted. You can accept them without having to come back here. Try it."
Victoria turned on the pc and, with the help of Tom who explained everything to her, accessed the program and a list of missions came up. She scrolled down, ignoring the missions that had an acceptance stamp and those that were against rank A beasts, until she found one that seemed right for us.
Rank C beast - city of Eretreia - appearance reported 7 minutes ago.
Victoria read out loud, "Can I accept?"
Chapter V
We all agreed. We were all C rank, except for Elisa who was above us, but we needed to maintain our cover. We had to start somewhere, and it would be a good start for the current team. We still missed Kendra, but we couldn't get sloppy just because she wasn't there. We had to fight for her, get revenge for what they'd done to her and punish them for it. Tom told us that there was still no news about Gordon and even the infiltrators they had in the Reapers were in the dark.
"No one even knew what was going to happen yesterday. Apparently, only the high-ranking staff knew," he added, "But, come on, get the hell out of here. Your weapons are in locker 33. It's the second door on the right side from the entrance. Your bow is there too." He said, facing Victoria, handing her the key.
He still accompanied us to the entrance of the amphitheater and wished us good luck greeting us with a tired nod. We all went to the locker room, where dozens of lockers were located, some still ajar and others closed, few of them with special locks. Victoria opened the locker and, one by one, we removed our weapons from there. She had a nearly transparent rope bow that allowed her to shoot 3 arrows at a time or use it as a shield. I'd seen her use it proficiently dozens, maybe even hundreds, of times. She was faster than she looked and had a habit of always using the same strategy. She would shoot three arrows from afar, wait for the other person to reciprocate so she could see her attack and how he or she moved, then use her shield to protect herself, and only then finally strike seriously.
We were already at the door when Tom called us back.
"I forgot. Don't go out that way. Go through that door. The black jeep is yours." He said, pointing to a door on the other side, "here's the car key. I'm sorry, I'm tired." He added and gave me the key.
I was sick and tired of being there. Of the same sounds, of my sluggish body and of still hearing Kendra's voice complaining of the pain and Ashen's face covered in ashes. I had to get away from all that and there was nothing like a good battle against a beast in order to forget everything.
The door led us to a garage whose lights went on as soon as we stepped in. It was packed with dozens of cars and a few vans, nothing as flashy as Ashen's. Most of them were black, a couple of reds and blues, but none that would attract attention on any road at sunset time.
"It's that one over there." Victoria said, pointing to a black jeep, behind a light blue car.
It stood out from the rest. The black wheels were thicker than the others and even the color appeared to be much polished compared to the other vehicles.
It had air conditioning, radio, space for three people at the front and four in the back. Elisa took the seat next to me and Maggie and Victoria went to the back seats. The exit from the garage led us to what I assumed to be the backside of the previous night's buildings. I turned on the radio. A rock song, one of those that are performed in stadiums for thousands of people, energized me. A rush of adrenaline that ran through my body until the colors before me sparkled. The brown on the old walls of the antique buildings shone in the light of the incandescent yellow lampposts and the sky, despite a few gray clouds, had a pale and crystalline color. I put the desired location on the gps. We were 15 minutes away from Eritrea and the streets were deserted, the walls covered with names and graffities like all the others in that area.
"Damn, I hate these streets. They remind me of those in my area." Elisa said and opened the window, "Well, even the smell is the same. That rotten smell, as if these streets hadn't been cleaned in years. They probably weren't."
"We're getting to the highway. And then it's quicker," I told her, "I hadn't even noticed. It's almost 1:00 pm already."
"It felt good to sleep until later. It's been a while since we've rested so much." Maggie added.
"You're right. Victoria, I'm assuming the earliest you talked about was 11:00, wasn't it? Are you still running late for your duties?"
"It seems like some things never change," she answered me. She had the computer on her lap and kept telling us what the beast was doing. From the building's destruction, to the glass shattering we could hear in the recording, to the burning tar, "we must hurry. One of the police bullets must have hit a critical spot. He's pouring oil down the street and using his metal claws to ignite. I've never seen a beast capable of taking advantage of what's around him. Now I understand what you're up against."
The jeep didn't move as fast as the cars we were used to. I pushed the pedal all the way down, but it didn't make much difference. The only one was that we were already on the highway and I didn't need to brake to avoid hitting the walls as we drove through narrow alleys on our way there.
Lightning rays escaped through the clouds cracks and the wind screamed along.
"Turn next night." The GPS voice rang through the car.
A curved and uphill road, one of those that if I looked out the window, I could see the highway below us, and that leads us to a different part of the city. On that side the sun shone brighter and the clouds gave way to a lazuli sky.
"Are you ready?" Victoria asked us.
"Why shouldn't we be? I've been doing this a lot longer than you have." Elisa answered her and pulled a Hunter App out of her pocket, "I can't believe I have to pretend to be a C rank. Tom gave me this before we went to the garage. I don't even remember how to use it anymore."
"You better not talk to me like that," Victoria replied, grabbing the bow tightly until the skin of her fingers turned red, "I don't know if you're used to treating others like that, but not towards me."
Elisa laughed and slid her tongue across her thick lips, "Maybe we should solve this some other way."
"That's enough!" I interrupted, "You better find a way to get along. W
e're on our way, and we have an issue to solve. Behave yourselves." I told them.
"It's your luck, girl." Elisa said to her.
Victoria didn't answer her. Maggie was listening to the whole conversation but didn't say a word. I could see from the rearview mirror that she couldn't take her eyes off her glove. She had her hand closed and rubbed it against her leg. The buildings towered in the distance, taking shape and color, until we heard shots blasting through the air.
"Get ready." I repeated.
"Get in through here. Turn right and then on the second left. The beast is destroying a mall." Victoria said, keeping calm as usual.
The buildings there were different. They weren't made of bricks or stones. They were modern, tall, each floor with several crystalline windows and most of them with flowery attached on the outside. Skyscrapers that stretched above the skyline only interspersed by a four-stadium size garden. The city was a huge circle full of these same high-rise buildings and with dozens of entries.
"It's a technology business town." Victoria said, as I was making the last intersection, "each building belongs to a different one."
"There's a Lenetius here, isn't there?" Maggie finally spoke. Victoria avoided answering her, but she repeated, "Is there or isn't there?"
"There is one." Vic answered her.
"Let's focus now, shall we?"
As soon as I heard Vic asking, I knew something wasn't right. To do so was because she had seen something in Maggie's eyes that shouldn't be there, a darkness that grew through the fissures in her light eyes. Maggie didn't answer her.
Finally, we reached the beast. It was as big as a five-story building, half the one he was destroying, and the whole body was covered with steel pipes. He had two missiles on his back of which the extremities resembled two horns on his oval head. They seemed to get weirder and scarier, distancing themselves from the animal similarities in order to appear authentic robots that could make decisions for themselves. He had grey rectangular legs that matched the hexagonal chest of the same color, except for the black vertical lines in the middle.
"Now they even decorate their beasts?" Elisa said and laughed, "Let's get this over with as soon as possible."
The beast had crushed every car on that street. He had what looked like a giant glove in his hands and kept punching the buildings along the way. People were flying along with the shattered glass as if they were mere straw dolls. We left the car quickly and placed ourselves in a horizontal row, preventing it from passing. He looked at us, his eyes being just two craters that covered half his face, and as we waited for him to advance, fireballs began to hit him in the chest skeleton. Maggie fired them as she approached it fearlessly. I called her but she ignored me. Or maybe she was so lost in her revenge that she didn't even listen to me.
"What do we do?" Vic asked me, "She's not going to stop. She's letting go of all the anger she earned at her father as well as the guilt she feels."
"We help her. The beast will strike back." I told them, "Let's go. Use everything you have to buy time while I go get Maggie. I don't think that's the kind of beast we want to get close to."
They both agreed. They weren't exactly happy that they had to work together, but they both knew that work was above a pity discussion. Victoria placed three arrows on her bow, bent her knees and fired them at the same time. They flew up through the sky until the sun rays covered them and only then did, they fall at high speed, denying the beast a chance to defend himself before they landed on his head. He was stunned for a few moments and I seized the opportunity to run to Maggie's. Elisa did what she could to freeze the beast's feet, but we quickly realized it would be impossible. The monster seemed to have its own heating and the ice turned to water in a few seconds.
"We must retreat. Quickly." I told Maggie as soon as I got close to her.
"No, I won't back down. I will destroy this beast. Everything my father did will burn." She said, her voice sounding crisper than usual, the sweat dripping off her forehead as she drew the flames in her hand closer to her face, "The only thing I have of him is this glove. The weapon he gave me to test, to be his guinea pig, now it's going to be the reason for his demise. You have to understand my side. I can't just stand still after everything, you know?" she said, her eyes shining even brighter under the light of the flames.
She tossed another fireball at the beast's face. The flames crashed onto the beast's metal face and dispersed into sprinklers that leapt into his chest. The beast moved again and the first thing he did was to remove the three arrows from his head and break them in half. Bursts of electricity travelled through the top of his head for a few seconds until they fizzled into the air.
"Hell, why doesn't this work?" Maggie said, and for a moment I saw the same look in her that I saw in Elisa when she was angry. That morbid gaze of someone who believes in the world but not in people.
"We have to get out of here. NOW" I told her, the beast already marching towards us, leaking oil down the road around him and using one of his five metallic feet fingers to scrape off the ground until it burned. The flames devoured the already destroyed buildings, deforming the structure until there was nothing left but scorched metal.
"But..." Maggie started but I pulled her arm and pushed her to come with me.
"We don't have time. If you stay there, you won't stand a chance. There are other ways to deal with this." I told her.
"And why can't I handle this the way everyone else does? If it was Elisa, or even Kendra here, would you stop them? I don't need help." She said and walked in the opposite direction until my fingers slipped through the soft fabric of her dress, "I'll reach the full potential of the glove," she added.
She looked at the glove until it completely overheated, turning bright red and boiling. I told her to stop, but she ignored it. The beast was progressing, but even that didn't get Maggie out of the way. She closed her hand, her teeth gnashing and her veins bulging on her neck, and when she opened it again, she had a red plasma in her hand. The material was shapeshifting at Maggie's will. First into balls, or maybe rocks, and then into thin red thread arrows with the tip being a burning x. Her eyes reddened due to the glare and the sweat ran down her face like a waterfall. The young facial features acquired adult contours, the lines between the nose and the cheeks getting more prominent.
"Get out of there. Hurry!" Victoria screamed, firing three more arrows that drilled through the smoke. Two of them didn't even hit the beast and the other one hit him on the shoulder and broke in two. Goddamn it, she didn't have the same kind of metal as my bullets and without Gordon on our side the only way we could get that kind of material was Lipa. Well, I'd have time to think about it.
Maggie just kept standing there. She lifted her index finger and the three arrows positioned themselves in front of her, facing the beast, just waiting for her command. The silhouette of the beast emerged amidst the smoke, his feet dropping onto the floor like mini bombs, and the flames following him as if they were under his control.
"You, work together." I ordered Elisa and Vic. They kept attacking, one by one, instead of working together, "We don't have much time."
"I'll take care of this." Maggie said and stepped forward.
The beast was only a few meters away from her and all it had to do was swing his hand from one side to the other to dispel all the smoke in front of him. It looked even bigger than before or maybe it was just the fact that he was so close to us. I could see the screws on his shoulders and in the groin area as well as the fact that the monster had no teeth and the hole in his right leg that kept leaking oil down the street. She snapped her fingers and one of the blazing arrows fired toward the beast, breaching through the thin fog curtain that still separated the two and hitting it right in the chest. I had no idea what circuits it had hit but the beast lost control, beginning to spin on itself, hitting all the buildings it hadn't yet destroyed around it, punching them and kicking them as the chest reddened. Maggie snapped her fingers again and another arrow was s
hot at the beast. This time perforating the left knee, forcing the beast to kneel on one knee and emitted a sweeping metallic grunt.
I didn't like to see her so lost in her revenge that she wouldn't hear anyone else, but we had to take advantage of the situation.
"Let's hit him with everything." I told them, and I shot a bullet right in the center of the forehead. He got half shaken and turned his head at a dizzying speed until the bullet came out and fell on his body, bouncing from his chest to the ground, tinkling along the way.
The beast was trying to get up. He dragged both hands through the flames beside him, struggling on the ground to stand up but the burning arrow on his knee would not let him. He couldn't bend it. The scorching odor was getting worse. It became almost impossible for us to stay there without covering our noses. Our clothes were already coated with ashes. Maggie's dress looked different now. No longer had a bright color, only remnants beneath a grey veil lingered. Maggie released the last arrow. It flew in a straight line and hit the beast right in the navel area, if it had one, the flames spreading through the black lines of slight density that encircled the beast's hexagonal chest. Then, three arrows with the frozen tip hit the other knee. I looked back and saw Victoria pulling arrows out of her pocket and putting them in her bow. Before firing them, Elisa froze the tips to increase their strength and impact, as well as the possibility of immobilizing the opponent. They had found a way to work together and there was no doubt that the beast couldn't even reach our level. I couldn't waste any more of my own bullets and I had to pull the secondary pipe forward. Normal bullets would have to work.
Still, the beast hadn't given up. He kept trying to get up even though he couldn't bend any of his knees and still had his chest on fire. He lay down on the ground, the missiles on his back pointed at us, and a strange noise, resembling crackling, came from him.
"He's not thinking..." Vic started.
"Shit, he's going to fire the missiles." Elisa's finished.