The Carnelian Fox

by Kay MacLeod

  “What, these jerks think they can keep me here forever now?”

  “Elder kits are one of the most expensive items available, Sam. These guys have way more sway with the authorities than you’ll ever have. When they figure out you’ve consumed a single use piece of equipment worth that many credits, you’ll be working off that debt for a good ten years.”

  “What and if I say no, they lock me in a crappy little room forever?”

  “No. They’re well within their right to take back their property in whatever form it’s in now.”

  “Well they can’t because, because it’s…” The realisation smacked me, and I glanced over at Finn, watching our conversation while poised to intervene. Eli nodded and massaged his temples.

  “Think I’d ever give these creeps a second glance if they didn’t have the legal right to take Lyle as payment? And I used the kit by accident, they had it out in the mountains and I thought I’d found an old cache. You just stole it from a manned lab.”

  “After they had me kidnapped and brought here!”

  “That’s how these people work, Sam. It’s your word against dozens for trying to convince the police you didn’t break in yourself to find that kit.”

  “Oh damn,” I said. “I am screwed.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “That’s it,” Eli said, a tremble in his hands as he pushed himself to his feet. “We need to get out of here.”

  “After everything you just said?” I grabbed his sleeve, forcing him to look at me. I needed to figure out what was happening, whether I could trust him this time.

  “Bad enough they did this to me. They can’t do it to you too. Or to Finn. We need to get out, out of the country so they can’t track us.” He glanced each way down the corridor and let us out of the lab with his key card.

  “Are you serious?” I whispered as we stepped back out into the complex. “You want to ditch everything and leave?”

  “I am. You get to decide whether to keep your status and family or your first Gem. You don’t have to make the same decision as me, but I think I know you well enough to guess you will.” He grabbed my hand and led me the opposite way than I’d approached. At least he wasn’t taking me back to the cell.

  Should I fight him off? Part of me wanted nothing more to do with him. But it terrified me I’d end up in the same position if I didn’t learn from his horrendous experience. If he’d even told me the truth. How was I supposed to know what was right anymore?

  “Do you think Mrs Capshaw would let them do that to me?”

  “She’s got her own goals, Sam. Who do you think wanted you brought here? Who do you think is calling the shots and spending the cash to make this happen? And who is damn well rich enough to leave unused elder kits around where unsuspecting Primes will just stumble upon them? She bloody knows what she’s doing. That woman wants control and contingencies. She doesn’t make allies, she makes threats. Wouldn’t surprise me if this is how she planned all this to turn out after you didn’t follow her every direction like a good little girl.”

  What should I believe? The word of a guy that used me and lied to me or the mum of my dead best friend that had always seemed to look out for me? Put that way, it was obvious, but both had hidden too much from me. This was bigger than me and my dreams of being a high-ranking battle Prime.

  “I need my team.” I locked my legs, refusing to move as Eli tugged my wrist.

  His eyes widened, and he re-summoned Lyle.

  “Get Sam’s wristlet from the supply room, meet us outside ASAP, okay?” He handed his cougar the card and turned his attention back to me. “Good enough? I’m hoping you have a key, seeing as you got this far?”

  I nodded in response to both, then let him guide me again.

  We took a single step before he barred the way and slammed a capsule set against his thigh. Neive’s colossal body filled my sight.

  Her foe was out of my line of vision, but the centipede advanced. Vines grew from between her armoured plates and I heard the sizzle of corrosive spray pumping from her mandibles. When she slowed her momentum, Eli released Zeke. The mantis crackled past us, electric sparks powering his unnatural surge forward.

  Finn stayed at my side. His blazing orbs danced around his body in a nervous formation.

  “Where do you two think you’re going?”

  I spun round to see Davies approach us from behind. Finn’s lips curled back into a savage snarl. With a sly smile, Davies tapped capsules on each of his holsters.

  A muscular monitor lizard, a human-sized raptor, a hyena, and a tank of a scorpion filled the passage.

  “Damn it,” Eli swore. “Kira and Veil won’t fit in here.”

  He hit his last option, bringing out his own scorpion. I’d never seen Tryst in action before. The red-edged grey carapace seemed dull, like it absorbed all light. His heavy pincers stretched out before him, clacking out a steady rhythm at the impending combat. The curve of his barbed tail arced up over his head, a bubble of pooling corrosive lava emerging from the tip. Eli could be an ass, but that boy sure built an effective team.

  The pair of arachnids let out identical hisses, then charged in to lock claws. Finn wanted the rest. I couldn’t scan them; without my eBand I had no way to check their stages or stats. I didn’t know Finn’s strengths and weaknesses anymore since he’d evolved twice after I’d last scanned him. He’d have received an upgrade with his mature form too. I suspected that was the complete dispersal ability though, not every shadow type could do that.

  Guess I would have to wing this. Even more than usual.

  I wasn’t too worried about the monitor and hyena, they had frost and plant as part of their typing. Finn’s superpowered flames would take them down. The dark-coloured raptor that blurred at the edges of his scales might pose a threat. Also, Davies scorpion had blue-brown chitin and a bigger bulk than Tryst. For once I didn’t fancy Eli’s chances.

  The balls of spinning black and red flames that orbited Finn careened towards his foes, the hyena leapt aside but the stubby-legged monitor took one to the snout.

  The raptor darted in, phasing to shadow form for a split second to avoid the attack. Finn raced in to meet him, conjuring more swirling fireballs. The hyena let loose a bolt of electricity, but a floating orb intercepted, detonating on contact. I dropped to my knees with my hands over my ears. A persistent ringing dampened my senses, but a yelp from the injured hyena cut over it.

  Part of the wall vaporised in the explosion, dust coated the air and my throat. Crumbling pieces of rock littered the corridor. This was stupid. We would end up killing ourselves fighting with such powerful Gems in a space this cramped.

  Flank heaving, Finn pulled in a gulp of air, then unleashed a torrent of flame across his foes. My vision flickered at the brightness as he ditched his stronger shadowflame for a basic flamethrower. It made sense in a fight against a shadow type raptor that could shrug off that kind of attack. He knew what he was doing.

  Within seconds, the frost monitor fell. If it had even got off any ice moves, the flames already melted its effects. Davies recalled his Gem, at least he wasn’t cruel enough to push it too far. Was he just another Prime this organisation had coerced into working for them? Did he have an elder too? I couldn’t tell by looking at his Gems, but Lyle didn’t appear that special at first glance either.

  Davies’ scorpion twisted Tryst’s claws aside, its tail striking over and over to find a gap in its opponent’s armoured shell. Tryst fought back, bracing his spiny legs and pushing to release his pincers. He sprayed the enemy with a mist of corrosive lava, but the other scorpion drenched it with a jet of water.

  It wasn’t like Finn was free to help, his two foes occupied his complete attention. He tried to land a finishing blow on the hyena to take it out first. But the raptor was quick to intervene, and its constant phasing avoided Finn’s retaliatory strikes. That was one impeccably trained monster. I had to get Finn onto that programme when we got out of this awful place.

>   Another rumble sounded from behind me, where Neive and Zeke held the line. A screech rang out from the foundations below and part of the ceiling plaster crumpled, raining down in an itchy cloud onto my scalp.

  “This is crazy!” I sought eye contact with Davies. “Just let us go before we all end up buried in this base.”

  “Stand down, both of you. I have backup on route, and they’ll be here any second.”

  “You want to fire more cannons in here? Are you insane?” I scraped out a handful of plaster from my hair and tossed it aside.

  “I complete my objectives,” Davies said, still not reacting to the fact that his operation was falling down around him.

  “What, so your aim is to kill all of us?”

  A yip of pain filled my ears. I recognised Finn’s voice even after all the changes he’d gone through. A deluge of water from Davies’ scorpion brought him to his insubstantial knees. Out of the fight, Tryst curled in on himself, his tail and pincers wrapped in close to his shell. His armour sported fresh dents, and his legs were trapped in the stone floor where the earth powers of his foe locked him in place.

  I’d thrown myself into the path of a water attack to help Finn before. That was the night Callum had died, and what would he have thought of all this crazy stuff happening with his family? I’d just blast against Finn’s back and bounce off him If I dived into this stream.

  “Phase out!” I stepped towards him, my maternal instincts taking over. They couldn’t beat him, not now. He was all I had.

  A shadow ripped up from the floor and smothered the attacking scorpion. It crawled all over its body, a thick dark entity that consumed every scrap of light around the arachnid and sent it rigid, tail quivering in the air.

  “Way to go, Finn!” But when he lifted his drenched muzzle from the ground, I caught a glimmer of confusion in his gaze.

  Lyle materialised at my side, putting me on the verge of throwing up with the jolt of nerves he triggered. He dropped a bag at my feet. My eBand and wristlet. Then he faded back to nothingness and his silent paw prints on the soaked floor showed him bounding in to face off against the raptor that was causing us trouble.

  I grabbed my capsules and hammered them all with shaking fingers. The rest of my team were here. They were here. They were all okay.

  Their stares wandered around the insane situation they found themselves in.

  “Eli’s with us, the rest of these creeps need to back off. If we don’t get out soon, they’ll take you guys again. I’m not letting that happen.”

  ‘Are you all right?’ Rica’s concern bled through her link.

  “Yeah. I am if we get away from this crap hole.”

  Sev pushed forwards, misting the hyena with his frost cloud. Charlotte scurried after Lyle’s paw prints, followed by Dew. Vortex seemed a little overwhelmed by the shouts, battle noises, and press of bodies, sticking by my side to fire off water attacks of his own.

  Rica sat herself down at my ankle and stared off into the distance, purple energy leaking from her eyes.

  ‘I’m not technically allowed to use my abilities on a human. There are ways around that little rule, of course.’

  Oh damn, what was Rica planning? Whatever it was, it had to be better than something I would think of.

  Purple haze appeared around Davies. Well, around the fallen matter that surrounded him. The floor under his feet lifted as the cracked structure gave way with Rica’s telekinetic pull. The chunks of decimated plaster and wall gathered around him like a cocoon. Rica gave a little grunt and then drew in her prey.

  ‘We take the leader; the rest will fall in line.’ My girl was so smart.

  “That’s the best idea I’ve ever seen!”

  ‘Obviously.’

  Rica bowed down as though a weight piled onto her shoulders. I sometimes forgot how small the red panda was, her personality was so big.

  The coating around Davies peeled off like an orange skin, each flap dropping to the ground. Inside, an undulating mass of silvery purple surrounded him. Tentacles rippled free with every bit of masonry that fell away. I didn’t need my eBand to tell me that this was his elder. The jellyfish floated using a mix of air abilities and a glowing psychic field emanating from its quivering body.

  I dropped, grabbing my agonised skull, huddling into Rica. Her mental screams tore my mind to tatters along our link. Psychics couldn’t affect humans, but they had ways around that rule. My lungs seized as they echoed Rica’s whistles of audible pain. I didn’t know what that thing was doing, but the power behind it was insane.

  Disorientated, I stretched my hand out for my wristlet, brain gouged and ripped and shredded. Coordination crumbled, I floundered to figure out how to make my fingers meet. But Rica understood. She lurched into me to nudge my fingertips to her capsule. Then disappeared.

  Somehow, I was flat on my back. I still felt like someone had their nails in my head, but I had some clarity now my psychic link wasn’t being sabotaged. Through blurry eyes, I saw a new group pull up behind Davies. More of his men with Gems of their own. Vortex’s face crashed down in front of me, his typing left him vulnerable to the intense psychic energy from the jellyfish. I recalled him too, once my dead limbs found his capsule.

  Where was Finn? Not in the puddle he’d collapsed in before, he was back in the fray somewhere. The crackle of Sev’s blue frostflame lit up the far wall, I trusted he’d be fine. Lyle dived from the shadows to plunge his claws into Davies jellyfish, punishing us all with the psychic backlash that pulsed through the corridor.

  Fresh tears in my vibrating eyeballs, I looked for the rest of my team with a frantic flutter in my chest. They were going down too fast. My guys were so far behind these maxed out Primes still. With more joining in we didn’t stand a chance.

  “Eli, what are we going to do?” I choked on the charcoal and powder in the heavy atmosphere. It was getting harder to breathe.

  “I’ll try to get Zeke back here…”

  He was so distant, intent on his own battle ahead.

  “I’m pulling my tab,” I announced.

  “Sam! You know what that will mean? How we look right now?”

  “I can’t keep this up. My team can’t.” The moisture spilled from my eyes and down my sooty cheeks.

  “Recall them, get close to me. We’ll make a break for it, see if Neive can push us through.”

  I caught sight of Dew, tapped his capsule. Then brought in Sev from his dance around Davies scorpion. The thing turned and jabbed its stinger down. Hard. Into Charlotte.

  Heart tumbling over, I smashed her capsule with my fingertip. Nothing happened. I looked down, maybe I’d hit the wrong one. No, it was hers. She was the only full red one left. I tapped it again. Her scaled form remained sprawled on the chipped rock as the scorpion retracted its tail and poised to strike again.

  I ran then. Ignored the dizziness that nauseated me with every step. Forgot about the whipping bolts of elemental attacks between me and my draco. Her capsule had malfunctioned, and she was in danger.

  “Stop!” I shouted, throwing myself over her body, so small against the huge mature Gems surrounding her. It was difficult to remember the time when she was the largest Gem I had. The scorpion backed off a pace, hesitant to attack through a human.

  Brushing aside a crumpled wing to examine her, I tried the capsule again. I tried different angles, varied the pressure. Nothing. I wasn’t about to let the creeping horror seep into my thoughts.

  No. I needed to find out.

  My eBand brought up her vitals. Her lack of them anyway.

  The sting to the heart was fatal.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  How could I let this happen?

  Callum had entrusted his draco to me and now I’d lost her too. He would be so disappointed in me. I’d disappointed myself.

  I threw myself over her, cheek against her rapidly cooling scales. The hole in Charlotte’s chest leaked muddy water. I’d been idiotic enough to send a cub to fight a monster with two
evolutions and two type advantages over her, what did I expect to happen? Guess I always saw her as the tough one. The tank with the bulk and armour. Yeah, maybe at my baby level. If she’d ever got the chance to grow up, she’d have been able to handle a challenge like this.

  Hopefully she’d reunited with her real Prime.

  A reminder assaulted my mind I’d need a new Gem quick - the government would revoke my full licence without six members on my team. As if that was a top priority right now.

  Looking around, I couldn’t see a way this would end well. Not for me. No way was I leaving Charlotte behind or exposing any more of my Gems to danger.

  Finn battled the jellyfish alongside Lyle. I don’t understand how that thing fought both when shadow attacks were so effective against psychic. Were its air abilities enough to make up for the disadvantage?

  I didn’t have the appetite for this. The strategies filled my head, but I didn’t care, wasn’t interested in the play of advantages and skills. There was a dead cub at my side and my world shattered once again.

  I pulled my tab. Pressed the report crime option.

  Let the police come and break this up. Let them think I’m a thief. I’d tell them these people were murderers.

  “Sam?” Eli appeared next to me in blind panic. Grabbed my sleeve. “What happened?”

  “They killed her.” I didn’t cry a single extra tear. I was too empty. Everything but grief seemed out of reach.

  “You SOSed?” He looked down at the loose tab still crushed between my white fingers. “We have to go, now. Get up.”

  With a shake of my head, I draped myself back over Charlotte’s motionless form.

  Another detonation rocked the room. I’m not sure what happened, but Finn stayed by my side. An elder must be strong enough to survive this, right?

  “Zeke, watch your left flank! Keep pushing, Neive! Come on, please. Stand up, here’s my hand, just follow me, okay? You can’t stay here, please.” The garbled begging sounded like a different person than the snapped directions from the pro Prime. But nothing provoked me to do anything but wait. This was already over.