Take Aim

by Charles Case

  Reaching for more power, Corbin realized just how low he was getting after keeping Tis pinned to the ground. He was at a quarter of his capacity, and he could feel that sapping away alarmingly fast as Leela fended off the golems’ raking talons.

  Each slash to his armor left him stinging with pain and barely able to focus. Leela’s long training rose to the back of his mind, and he began to breathe, letting the pain wash over him. He shoved the pain to a lonely corner of his mind and sectioned it off. He could still tell it was there, but it no longer consumed him. Finally, he was able to focus on offense instead of just defense.

  Rationing what power he had left, he siphoned as much of it as he dared into his strength. He felt himself harden even more, and suddenly he was able to push and shove where moments before he was pinned under the weight of tons of living rock.

  Corbin pulled his feet in and with great effort was able to get them under himself. He felt dozens of furious blades raking his back as he pushed up to a squat. Another shot of power, and he pushed with everything his legs would give him.

  To his surprise, it worked. He forced the small mountain that pressed down on him up and they began to slide off. When he was halfway standing, he gave it everything he had.

  Corbin burst upward, throwing most of the golems off so that they either stumbled backward or were thrown to their backs. He suddenly had some room to move and took full advantage.

  Corbin quickly punched a hole through the golem’s chest that was directly in front of him, followed up by mule kick backward that sent another golem flying. He blocked an incoming blow with his forearm and sent a vicious uppercut after that blew the top of the golem’s torso off, making the entire thing crumble.

  He wanted to use his gravity ability, but with his power reserves already this low, he didn't use the costly move. Instead, he tore at the enemy with his iron-hard hands and fingers, tearing off limbs or punching holes in their great bodies. Six were down before his strength waned and he needed to feed more power to his body.

  He was about to take a swing at another golem that had regained its feet when a green blur flashed between them, slowing just long enough to swing a rod through the golem’s chest, then moving on to the next.

  Corbin smiled. Seeing Seena next to him gave him hope that he would be able to get to Tis in time. That thought made him glance toward the Colossus, and he caught a glimpse of silver and red still making its way over the heads of fighting golems and supers.

  A figure bounding out of the melee caught his eye, and he blinked in confusion when he realized it was William. Seena must have convinced him that fighting Tis was the right thing to do.

  The pause cost Corbin a large fist to the face. While he could take the hit with relatively little damage thanks to Leela, the thing still hit like a ton of rocks.

  Corbin stumbled back a few steps and focused on the battle at hand, hoping that William would be enough to hold Tis back until they could get free. Although what they were going to do when they got there was beyond him.

  Every move cost Corbin more and more power. So much so that he started to experiment, and found that if he waited to feed his strength ability until he was just about to make contact, he could use less power to a similar effect as powering the ability the entire time. He needed to give his strength a small constant feed to maintain it, not nearly as much as he had been.

  Seena slid from one stone figure to the next, either slashing the rod through their bodies or impaling them with such precision that she hit the controller and they crumbled to the ground.

  “I need to get to Tis,” Corbin shouted over the sound of grinding stone and relatively close chain-gun fire.

  Seena slid into him, using his arm to balance herself. They had cut the number down to only six golems, but Corbin saw more of them breaking away from their current battles and heading their way.

  “Go,” Seena huffed, holding the rebar like a staff, her feet set wide. “I’m too fast for them to hit unless they get lucky.” She blurred, stepping forward and slashing down an enemy that was getting too close, then she was back. “I have plenty of power, but with Tis in the air like that, I can't get to her. Besides, Gert can fend off these guys’ attacks well enough, but Tis would cut me down in an instant.”

  Corbin hated leaving her, but he needed to trust that she knew what she was doing.

  He nodded, then pivoted and launched himself over another three golems that were approaching from the rear in a single bound. He landed and pumped his legs, running for all he was worth.

  The open-doored structure wasn't that far away but there were dozens of enemies between him and Tis, and he didn't have a lot of power left. He cursed himself for not taking every opportunity to enlarge his well over the last few days like Seena had. He had forgotten how quickly real battle drained a full well.

  He leaped again as he charged a group of golems fighting with a black-clad super William had brought with him. Soaring over the battle, Corbin could see that the super was using a fire ability, either sending concentrated flame or simply throwing explosive fireballs. The ability wasn't quite as effective against the stone, but it was working. He saw a golem turn red hot, then white before sloshing to the ground in a pool of magma.

  Corbin was past before he could see any more, and focused ahead. Tis was passing through the doors about a quarter of the way from the top. It looked like she was heading for the Colossus’s chest.

  “Leela,” Corbin shouted. “How does she activate that thing? Are the keys for a control panel deeper inside the structure?”

  “I don't think so.” Leela sounded uncertain. “I didn't know much about the project except for what I’ve already told you. But if I had to guess, considering how much power was coming off the one key we saw, I would say that they’re also a power source.”

  “So if we can maybe unplug or destroy the keys once they are on the Colossus, we can shut it down? That doesn't sound all that bad, actually.”

  “No, I don't think that would work. I remember that it was supposed to get more powerful over time. So, it must feed on power somehow. Maybe it ingests the power?” Leela began mumbling, trying to figure out how it could work. “Maybe it absorbs metals like I can do… no. That doesn't make sense. There were no metals with essence imbuing them, at least not very powerful ones. I mean we used to imbue metals for gadgets… Oh, god! Corbin, I think I understand. Oh, god. No wonder they didn't want to turn that thing on.”

  Corbin juked right, then rolled under an outstretched arm and continued onward, ignoring the enemy at his back and instead focusing on speed.

  He hadn’t seen William since he first took off after Tis, and Corbin wondered where the man had gone. He was probably caught up in a fight and couldn't break away.

  “What is it?” Corbin prompted, leaping again.

  Tis was now at the Colossus, and her slender arm was reaching toward the metal skin of the behemoth. He wasn't going to make it.

  “It pulls the essence from things. From everything. The metals are just the beginning. It had to survive and grow in my time, where there weren’t deposits of metal filled with our essence. It must pull the essence from living beings as well. I think that thing will steal the power from anything it gets its hands on.” She was silent for a beat as they hit the peak of their arc and started heading down again. “This is so far from the Way that it’s no wonder my people refused to use it. I can't believe they even built it.”

  Corbin saw that Tis was holding a barely-glowing object between her thumb and forefinger. As he watched, she pressed the small symmetrical object to the Colossus’s metal chest, and the metal parted, taking the object in.

  “Shit, she put the first key in.” Corbin was tempted to use his gravity ability and fly in, but his well had hardly anything left, and she still had two more keys to go. “Gravity is the last resort. I need something left to fight her when I get there.” He was talking to himself, but he didn't care.

  He landed and immediately p
ushed off again, a golem’s talons raking across his chest, but he hardly even noticed because he was so focused on Tis.

  She had the second stone out and was pressing it into the slot the Colossus made in its chest.

  Corbin was still fifty yards away, and she was reaching forward with the third key. Corbin prepared to use up the last of his power just to get there, but before he could, William’s black-clad and bloody form shot upward from a group of golems and power-armored troopers in close combat.

  William moved with incredible speed, his blood-slick metal arms reaching for her. In the blink of an eye, he went from the ground to plowing into her and they both smashed into the ceiling.

  Corbin smiled. William had made it, and now Corbin had a little power left in him. If the two of them could cooperate, they might be able to take her down… Corbin's eyes widened in horror.

  The skin of the Colossus was closing around the third key. She had somehow gotten it in before William was able to pull her away.

  Corbin landed a dozen yards from the thing’s giant legs, sinking a good twelve inches into the soft dirt that had spilled in through the doors. Tilting his head back, he looked up the length of the Colossus. The construct was huge, dwarfing everything around it.

  A loud, clanging ratcheting noise began to fill the huge room. At first, Corbin didn't know what it was, but then he noticed the metal restraints that held the Colossus upright were releasing one by one. Starting at the shoulder, large metal scaffolding began to detach and swing away. There were hundreds of the things, but they were rapidly swinging back in sequential order.

  Movement at the ceiling caught Corbin’s eye. William and Tis were locked together and trading blows like boxers that had become entangled. William had an arm wrapped around Tis’s shoulders and was slamming his fist into her dragon mask repeatedly, while she rained punches into his gut and sides. Tis was obviously holding them aloft, and each of her punches deformed his torso upon impact. William had to have a dozen broken ribs and massive internal bleeding, but he was not letting up his attack.

  To Corbin's surprise, William was actually doing quite a bit of damage to her mask. The dragon’s muzzle had caved in and he was sure the metal of the mask was touching Tis’s face. It was brutal to watch, but with his power as low as it was he was better off letting William have the first turn before he jumped in.

  Then, it was all over. Corbin wasn’t sure if William had finally succumbed to internal damage or if Tis had somehow levered his arm from around her shoulders, but one second they were locked together like fighting cats, and the next William was falling.

  Corbin judged where he would fall and prepared to catch the man, but he never got the chance.

  When William was halfway to the ground, the Colossus moved with frightening speed. A huge arm snaked out and caught William by the leg. The jolt of the sudden stop had to have dislocated his hip, but William didn't make a noise, leading Corbin to believe the man was unconscious or already dead.

  Tis and Corbin watched on with fascination as two red slits slowly opened on the giant mound of a head. It looked to Corbin as if the fires of hell lit those two hollow eyes. The thing rolled its shoulders as if stretching stiff muscles, then lifted William’s body to eye level and stared blankly at it.

  At first it seemed as if the Colossus had frozen, but it soon became apparent what was happening. A bluish haze like smoke from an incense burner began to rise from William’s body. It started slow, but within seconds there were billowing clouds of the translucent smoke coming from him. The smoke was not rising as it should, but instead curling back toward the Colossus’ hand. When it touched the metal skin, it was instantly absorbed. All of a sudden, the blue smoke ceased and they got a good look at what was left of William.

  His corpse hung limply, somewhat shriveled, and almost ghostly white. His new metallic arms were completely gone, absorbed by the Colossus, leaving behind nothing but a bloody stump at each shoulder.

  The giant hand opened and released William, who limply fell fifty feet to crash into the floor a few yards from Corbin.

  “We need to get as far from that thing as possible,” Leela said, in a trembling voice. “Now!”

  Shocked back to reality by her words, Corbin leaped from the hanger, landing and bounding away again to put some distance between them and that killing machine.

  “Corbin!” Ren’s voice crackled in his ear over the comm. “Get clear! We’re going to try and take that thing out.”

  Corbin looked up and saw three dropships and six fighters flying in formation over the battlefield. They came screaming in, then pulled up hard, using their landing jets to slow to hover mode.

  Corbin didn't waste any time and began a retreat, making sure not to jump high enough to be caught in the line of fire.

  All nine ships opened up with everything they had. Auto-cannons, rockets, and laser blasters began pouring fire into the open doors. Corbin saw the Colossus rock back from the sheer force of the ordinance slamming into it, then the entire room filled with explosive fire as the rockets met the target.

  The ships didn't let up, giving the Colossus everything they had. For a second, Corbin held out hope that it might work. The Colossus could be vulnerable now before it had a chance to absorb too much power. Then one of the fighters exploded in a lancing beam of power.

  Corbin squinted, holding a hand up to block the light of the intense barrage and saw Tis flying right for the ships, her hand glowing as she shot another beam and cut one of the dropships in half. It exploded before it ever hit the ground.

  Corbin’s chest tightened, afraid that Ren had been on that dropship. He knew he had to stop her, or she would destroy the rest of the ships before they had a chance at taking out the Colossus.

  He bunched his legs up and timed the jump. Exploding upward, Corbin used only a little of his gravity ability to steer, and slammed into Tis, wrapping her up in a bearhug and dragging her stunned body to the ground.

  They smashed into a pile of rock that used to be one of her soldiers, scattering the smaller rocks and crushing the larger. Corbin lost his grip on Tis and rolled to his feet, only to find her already up and taking aim at him.

  She was too fast, and a lance of white-hot energy slammed into his chest. He felt his well drain by half as Leela did her best to keep the energy from ripping through them.

  Using most of what was left in his well, he funneled power into his strength and gravity abilities, doubling his strength, and rocketing himself directly at Tis. At several hundred gravities, he moved faster than she could even think to get out of the way. He slammed his fist into her face with everything he had. He saw her eyes begin to widen then his fist crushed the dragon mask’s muzzle back, folding it inward. She was lifted off her feet, her arms and legs limp, dragged behind her head and torso.

  Corbin cut off the gravity, not trying to reverse it to save the last bit of power he had. He hit the ground and rolled hard, his body able to take the impacts. Digging a free hand into the ground, he was dragged to a stop halfway back toward the Colossus.

  Fire still rained from the remaining ships, creating too much smoke and flame to see anything inside.

  To Corbin's amazement, he saw Tis stumbling to her feet only a few hundred feet from the open doors. The sound of artillery was so loud that he couldn't hear anything but its angry roar, but he saw the telltale glow around her hands that were swinging up to aim at him.

  He started to funnel everything he had left into one final attack like the last one. One more hit would probably take her out, but he could tell before he even tried that he just didn't have enough power left to pull that off again. His mind was sluggish from the tumbling stop he had just made, and a sore spot on the back of his head told him that once again Leela had saved his life with her armor.

  Tis must have been a little more with it because before he could do anything the white beam of energy blasted from her hand and came right at him.

  A jarring shove made his head snap
to the side, almost breaking his neck. The smoking hole beside him, though, told him that Tis had somehow missed. Then the fact that there was someone sprawled across his chest registered.

  “Seena?” Corbin was still a little out of it, but he recognized the green color of her suit. Although the red coloring was new.

  She didn't move, just laid on him, her arms hanging limply. He blinked and went to wipe his eyes, but stopped when he saw that his hand was red, too. Why was his hand red?

  The world snapped back into place.

  Corbin's eyes went wide, and he sat up, cradling Seena in his arms. She was unconscious, and there was a large chunk of her side missing. The green suit had been blasted through, and the torso underneath along with it.

  It all suddenly made sense. She had seen Tis about to blast him and had used her speed to get there and push him out of the way, but she had caught half the blast herself. Gert wasn't anywhere near as strong as Leela and stood no chance of stopping the energy beam.

  Corbin quickly melted his glove away and touched her exposed skin around the wound. He pulled every last scrap of power he had left in his well out and dumped it into his healing ability. Healing was costly if he didn't know exactly what to heal, and he had no idea what organs were damaged or missing, so he just used it all, but he knew it wasn't going to be enough.

  The wound began to close. Corbin could see organs growing back under all the blood. At first, it was quick work, and he hoped that he might have enough, but before the bloody mess was half-closed the healing slowed then stopped completely.

  “No!” Corbin shouted, his mask falling away, then his armor. He felt the supernatural strength fade to nothing as he fed every last scrap of power he possessed into her. It wasn't enough.

  Corbin’s eyes filled with tears, blurring his vision. He pulled her close, burying his face in her neck. “Seena. No. Leela, is there anything more? We have to be able to save her.” Leela was quiet, unable to communicate without any power running through her metal body.

  Then Seena sucked in a breath, her back arching and making Corbin pull back to see what had happened.