by Jamie Hawke
I turned back to see Charm still on the dragon’s neck, light claws digging into its scales so she wouldn’t fall as the beast turned. She glanced back our way and shouted, “I got this,” then took her other hand and formed a blue circle of shield-light around it, pounding away at the dragon’s scales. It was actually working, too, but then the dragon balked and Charm’s grip came loose. She flew through the air. I flapped to get in closer, but she grabbed hold at the base of one of the dragon’s wings.
A perfect spot, I thought, continuing my push. Gale appeared in front of the dragon, sending a flurry of ice and snow at its face, so that it pulled up and gave me a clear shot. I came in hot, pulling up a bar to show me how much time I had left before my dragon form would fade. It was already below fifty percent, so not long.
“Breaker!” Charm shouted, two claws of light now digging in, but her body being flung about. I had to act fast.
My claws at the ready, I threw myself at the beast, only to find it spinning around to get at me, tail whipping against my face before its massive jaws were there. Its teeth were like massive broadswords, purple energy welling up to come in for the shot.
Gale appeared again, hitting it in the mouth with everything she had before its tail caught her as well, swatting her away like a fly and sending her tumbling down. I had to trust that my team would catch her. The dragon was vulnerable, so I dropped, putting everything I had into the attack on its right wing.
My claws hit, scraping along the surface, not doing a damn thing. So I went old-school on it, busting out my days as a preschool scrapper. Time to bite. My teeth sank in and I spread my wings to catch the air, pulling back. As I’d hoped, the action had the dragon going forward and me backward, with my teeth stuck in that wing. With a massive scraping and ripping, its wing was in shreds.
One down, two more going down, apparently, because not only did that send Charm off to plummet toward the ground, but two seconds later my dragon power was gone and I was following her. Arms flailing and panic setting in, I racked my brain for a way out of this one. As I fell, I vaguely noted Harp managing to grab Gale from the air, but there was no way she’d be able to get her to safety and then come for us, too.
I angled myself toward Charm, and she turned to see me.
“This is insane!” she shouted when I was close enough to hear, then held out a hand.
I managed to clasp it, pulling us close. “Can you teleport us?”
She shook her head, watching the ground come up fast. “No idea how I did that before.”
“Well… shit.” The ground was coming fast, so I did the only thing I could think of. Reaching out with my free hand, I imagined I was touching the mist as we passed through it, then attempted my travel skill. It worked, and a moment later we were coming out of it sideways, hitting the ground and rolling.
Phew! What a relief. Neither of us were dead or full of broken bones.
Charm leaped up, pulling me with her, and kissed me. “Let’s do stuff like that more often. What a thrill!”
“Let’s avoid it when possible.” I turned in time to see the dragon slam into the ground, plowing through it, heading right for the team.
They had the right idea though. Andromida was already at work to engulf the beast, pummeling it with metal while Twitch actually changed the planet’s surface beneath it to open up in an attempt to swallow the dragon.
The attempt failed, with plasma blasts going in all directions. They would have taken out Aegriss if it hadn’t been for a save by Laurel and a quick shield maneuver by Twitch. Aegriss was blasting it, aiming directly for the hole that Charm had torn open, and I was starting to see her value on the battlefield. Analysis, areas of attack, and other elements of a battle that any machine might do better at than us in our moments of panic.
I kind of wanted to punch myself for thinking of her like a machine again. But it wasn’t that, I thought as I charged forward to help. It was simply her skill, her area of advantage. And anyway, I didn’t have time to feel guilty. We had a dragon to defeat.
My travel ability got me up close to join them, Charm right beside me. We went back on the attack. I aimed a barrage of my tempest attacks at the beast’s open wound, while Gale, now recovered and seeing what we were doing, hit it with an ice spear.
It lunged one more time, its long neck allowing it to angle up. It was about to send another blast when Andromida thrust her hands up and her tunnel took her, plowing right through the beast’s mouth, metal tearing at it from the inside.
She pulled back at the last minute, dropping as the metal continued in. There was a horrible, grinding sound mixed with the sounds of our barrage of attacks as its chest opened and we were in. The dragon couldn’t take this combination. It lurched one final time, then fell limp.
We all stood at the ready, not totally sure it was over, until it faded from sight and my screen showed that I’d hit level thirty-three.
In the dragon’s place was a woman, curled up on her side. She was pale, light brown hair pulled over her face. After a moment she sat up. I gasped, quickly turning away.
“Well done.” Sam stood there without any concern for her nudity, as I could see from my peripheral vision. No details, but enough to know she was standing there with her arms at her sides. A clacking sounded and armor flew in at her, wrapping around her nude form, so that a moment later she was the Shadow Mystic we’d met.
“You…?” I turned back to her. “You were the dragon?”
She shook her head. “I summoned the dragon, and through me it came, but I was never the actual dragon.”
“Confusing.” Charm picked at her teeth with one of her claws. “Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t comment on your hot bod.”
“Really?” Gale laughed. “Remiss?”
“Well, you never know—what if one reason she sacrificed herself to live hundreds of years by herself in this weird place is she was insecure about her body, but now I’m telling her it looks damn good. So, no more insecurity.”
“I’m not sure that’s how it works.”
“Well, if a guy says it, it’s creepy.” Charm turned to me. “It was nice though, huh?”
“Honestly, I looked away the moment I realized what was going on,” I said.
Sam held up her hands. “First, thank you for that. The perfect gentleman. Second, thank you Charm, but… you’re making it awkward. Rest assured, any insecurities I might have had didn’t come into play with regards to my decision to sacrifice myself.”
Charm shrugged. “Who can blame you, with a bod—”
Laurel was there, hand over Charm’s mouth, trying to hold back a laugh. “She really doesn’t know when to stop.”
Charm moved the hand away, grinning. “It’s true. One of my strengths as a… Oh, I was gonna say human. Should I…?”
“Versus…?” Sam looked from her to the rest of us.
“There’s a theory now that she’s actually either a descendant of some alien race that started a legend of spiritual beings—kitsune—or she is an actual spiritual being.” I nodded to the tails. Sam frowned, considering this.
“Interesting. I like it, but let’s go with spiritual being, because that’s fun.” She gestured around. “Plus, you all just saw a dragon, so why the hell not, right?”
The grin on Charm’s face upgraded to full-on about to explode with excitement. She even did a bit of a jump. “I nominate Sam, the Shadow Mystic, to be the decider on all things worth deciding about.”
Sam chuckled, shaking her head. She let out a sigh, then looked each of us over.
“Should we… get going?” I asked.
“Of course.” She gestured to the ship, and walked with us. “It’s just that I used to have a team like yours. Not as… ridiculous, but a team, and we worked well together.”
I nodded, getting how being away from my group would hit hard.
Sam kept going past the ships, and I cleared my throat. “Aren’t we going to check out the… place?”
She ch
uckled, then pointed at the sky above us, past the ships and almost at the horizon. “That’s it.” We weren’t sure what to expect, so joined her to look at the sky. Once we were all at her side, she explained, “When the dragon’s there, you won’t be able to see it. They shouldn’t have had a chance at finding it, but with magic—or powers, or whatever you want to call it—time has a way of making rules no longer rules.”
“See what?” Aegriss asked, and I imagined she was analyzing it, using her zoomed-in sight to look for more than we could make out.
“Give it a moment.” Sam held up a hand, counting down on her fingers. “The dragon’s essence has to fade, to be re-spawned. And then…”
The sky lit up at the point we were focusing on, turning pink and orange like a brilliant sunset, all but a section of it that took on a brilliant blue.
“That’s the point.” Sam crossed her arms, shaking her head. “Fuck, they really managed it. Though I don’t understand how.”
“At the Citadel, they have these alien devices,” I said. “Called Per-Neters, I think. Maybe…?”
“They wouldn’t have had Earth’s coordinates,” Laurel explained, “but we believe a certain super traveler gave them access, and other supervillains working with them in this way have made it possible.”
Sam frowned. “In my time, the Per-Neters were only legend. Something Hadrian mentioned in passing, but I never thought they were real—or if they were, I thought they’d ceased to exist long ago. This isn’t great.”
“Is there a solution?” I asked.
“There always is. In this case, it’s get in there, kill them all or find some way to hunt them down and expel them back to their own world, then seal the gates again after we’ve followed them through.”
“Followed… Oh, shit.” I knew exactly where this was going. “To get the rest of the Per-Neters and ensure the enemy can never cross over again.”
“That, or kill them all. But your way seems far more… humane.”
Shifting of feet followed. My team had signed up to do this, to stop Ranger and other supers, and help the Citadel. To go into another dimension, or travel to the other side of the universe if that’s what it was… but both options were asking a lot.
For now, I simply nodded. “Well, standing around doing nothing sure as hell won’t save my galaxy.”
“No, it won’t,” Sam said, and so we all headed to our ships, connecting up with Sam again, and made for the gate. It was time to return to Earth.
Before we went through, I decided to test the ability of my skillsets one more time, using my most recent skill point. Applying the it to the troubleshooter skill and then swiping the paladin and traveler profiles together, I laughed out loud to see that it worked. Now more worrying about what was active or what wasn’t.
From now on, I’d be able to do whatever the fuck I wanted, whenever necessary. Hey, maybe I was starting to become overpowered. But judging from what I knew about our enemy, I’d need it.
16
Looking Earth over as we arrived, it seemed the same piece of shit as when I’d last seen it. No large-scale invasion, no signs of Nihilists or Muerta, or any other alien force. Lamb and Twitch continued to keep us cloaked from scanners and Shimmer worked to keep eyes off of us.
“Where’d they strike?” I asked, realizing this had to mean Muerta hadn’t gone after Earth first.
“Oddly,” Twitch paused, glancing at her screens and transferring imagery to the ship’s display, “the signals I’m intercepting show attacks here.” She indicated several planets outside of the solar system but still in the Milky Way.
“Zoom in.” I nodded in confirmation when she was close enough. “Interesting choice.”
“What?” Shimmer asked.
“She took out Planet Kill and Paradise Planet One.”
“The first was Earth’s largest source of entertainment,” Charm offered. “Maybe to hit them where it hurts in the fun department? That would devastate me.”
I scratched my arm, staring off in thought. That didn’t seem right.
“Or more likely,” Aegriss chimed in, “to hit the Elites where it hurts—their bank accounts. Planet Kill is, or was, one of the main reasons many Elites were able to live as they did.”
“And also Paradise Planet One,” Twitch reminded us. “Which I’m going to assume was where a lot of the top brass lived?”
“Top Elites,” I said. “Military commanders and politicians are elsewhere—spread out, really. Some would have been wiped out in that, yes, but others are on Earth and other planets or even space stations, while most of the military commanders are with their respective fleets.”
“My guess then,” Gale said, analyzing it all, “if your military is anything at all like ours where strategy is concerned, is that they’re now preparing for a major defensive or an offensive maneuver. Forces around the world are on alert or already called out to the more important planets.”
“That last bit certainly wouldn’t surprise me,” I admitted. “Earth lost its value long ago, at least as far as the Elites are concerned.”
Sam’s image came up on the screen. “What do you make of it?”
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Shimmer replied. “They’re attacking, but out there.”
“So why haven’t they come to Earth, yet?” I asked. “If they… Oh!” It hit me. “Of course. Her real goal isn’t to simply make me suffer, but to have me here so she can destroy Earth and me. Or us. She said that so we’d come here. She’s waiting for us to arrive before making her move.”
“The balls on that bitch,” Charm said, and let out a laugh. “She’s so sure of this force she’s bringing, she didn’t even think for a minute we’d stand a chance.”
“Of course, they didn’t know we’d be bringing the Shadow Mystic herself,” Gale pointed out. We all turned to look at the screen where the image of Sam nodded, thoughtfully.
“And now that we’re here,” Sam looked around at each of us, “where are they?”
“Incoming,” Shimmer said, and looked at the sky. “That would be my guess.”
“Then let’s stop sitting around pondering and get to work setting up a defense plan.”
“You don’t think we should be on the front line of defense?” Shimmer asked.
“These supers coming,” Sam said, “they’re not going to show until they’re sure you’re around, right? That, or they’re going to start wreaking havoc if they found out you weren’t here at all.”
“That’s my latest theory,” I said.
“Exactly. Let the Earth forces meet the alien forces first, and then we lure the supers out, set the trap.”
Shimmer nodded, but then frowned. “And if the supers attack first?”
“We’ll be waiting, ready. With this ship, and yours I imagine, traveling around the Earth can be accomplished very quickly. We find a place to lie low, wait for them to strike. But I have another part of my plan—you all do as we just discussed, while I stay with my ship and do what I can to draw attention. That way, you all have a target.”
The plan sounded solid enough, so we made our way to the closest continent to find a spot to lie low until the attack came. Coming in over Europe, I started to get excited. Traveling the world had always been a dream of mine. While I knew this was supposed to be the time to worry about our future, I looked forward to this adventure.
“Paris,” I blurted out. “Lamb, take us to Paris.”
Twitch glanced over, an eyebrow raised.
“A strong defensive position?” Shimmer asked.
“Sure.” AI Lamb was already guiding the ship in, but Sam frowned in my direction. “What? It could be. No?”
Sam laughed. “It’s come a long way since the last invasion, and I’ve been gone so long, who knows. But you want to tell them the real reason you want to go there?”
“It’s fucking France. I don’t know—croissants, delicious crepes.”
Sam laughed. “As far as my scanners are showi
ng, it’s as good a place as any.”
“And your family?” Shimmer asked me. “Wouldn’t you prefer to go to them?”
“I’d considered it, but… if Muerta wants to take us out for killing Threed’s sister,” I cringed, wishing I’d worded that differently, “Er… Plague… well, I think I’d want to be as far away from loved ones as possible.”
“Good point,” Twitch said. “This way, if she has some way of knowing we’re here, it’ll lead her to this France place and their excellent defense.”
Sam sighed. “Okay, signing off for now. As planned, you all find somewhere and get ready. Do whatever you need to do—meditate, whatever—to get in the right mindset. I’ll be hovering up here, on the lookout.”
“Roger that,” Gale replied, and then the connection cut off.
We flew down toward the land below, soon flying down near the Eiffel Tower and watching as the city of Paris flashed by.
“Don’t go too far, I actually want to see the city,” I said.
“We need to land somewhere I can keep the ship hidden from view until we’re on the ground, and where we can continue to keep it hidden afterwards,” Shimmer said. “Right by the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre aren’t our best hopes for that.”
I sat back, annoyed, and watched as more of the city flew by.
“Marseilles?” Laurel asked.
I turned back to face her. “What?”
“I’m kind of an Earth nerd,” she admitted. “I remember Marseilles was one of the turning points in a big battle during the invasion.”
“And I’m showing there’s a port there,” Lamb said, displaying images now. It looked like a beautiful city, one that had old areas with historic buildings from long ago, others completely rebuilt with tall metallic gleaming buildings and hyperloop trains.
“I could get us in there, or…” Twitch leaned in toward the screen, indicating a rocky hill with a building on the top. “What’s that area?”
“Notre-Dame de la Garde,” Lamb replied, “built atop the remains of an old fort.”