The normally passive equipment came alive. Suspension rigs pulled themselves out of the floor and began swinging their chains. A workbench pulled itself up, twisting its legs around to stand on two of them, the vices attached to the other end flexing open and closed threateningly. Two cutting tables arose, one powering up the plasma cutter, the other whirling circular saw blades. The arm on the laser cutting rig swiveled around to point at the werewolves. The ceiling fan detached itself, now whizzing around the room as a drone. Even the upstairs appliances became active. The coffee machine robot and the self serving tea kettle marched down the steps, their contents boiling aggressively. Only the refrigerator was left out, still at the kitchen doorway, trying to figure out how to fit its bulk through the opening.
The three werewolves that had made it through the opening did not know what to make of the sudden strange movements, but in their animalistic state, their minds were simple. Threats, prey, and goals - those were the only things that mattered. The woman was obviously prey. The moving items weren't a threat as far as their feral instincts could determine, so they were ignored. They had one goal: get the object for their employer. The blonde werewolf pounced across the room. His leap brought him down in front of Jaya, who stood in front of the only work table that hadn't yet animated itself, the one that held the Sphere.
Jaya fired the shotgun again, but the werewolf had been ready for this attack. Shifting to his right, he evaded the blast, the beanbag just clipping his side. He swept his clawed arm in front of him. Jaya was thrown to the side, the shotgun clattering to the floor. Her cheek and her shoulder hurt, but she hadn't been gutted or grievously hurt. She was more bruised than cut. That still meant she was pretty banged up and staying down for a while.
"Cherry Zeta Seven Five - Evade!" she shouted from the floor.
At Jaya's command, the final workbench leapt into action, its previously straight and solid legs pulling from the floor. Like a donkey or other equine creature, it jumped out of the werewolf's grasp and galloped around the room, the Sphere held by a three fingered robotic hand that emerged from the side of the table. The werewolf was even more infuriated when a speaker on the workbench emitted a neighing sound.
The blonde werewolf lunged at the table, but the worktable dodged by leaping to its left, a high jump over a red-brown werewolf that was having his own troubles with a mechanical opponent. The blonde werewolf coiled to immediately spring over his comrade to pursue the table with the Sphere, but that route was cut off as the spinning ceiling fan whizzed down, swooping over the werewolf, covering the table's escape.
The blonde werewolf looked around to find that all the other members of his pack inside the garage were currently occupied. One was dueling with a cutting machine spinning dangerous circular blades. The machine was losing the fight, rapidly losing components due to werewolf attacks, its mechanical movements slowing and stuttering. But even with this damage, its blades were dark with werewolf blood, its attacker becoming more cautious. Elsewhere in the room, another werewolf was struggling to free his hand from the vice attached to the other workbench. But the werewolf couldn't completely focus on that, since he was simultaneously dodging the short range laser of a cutting rig. The plasma cutter was in pieces at the garage door, two new werewolves stepping over it to join the melee.
The fresh werewolves hadn't yet gotten involved in the machine madness inside, so at least one had a clearer head. The Sphere was all they really wanted. The other stepped forward in a rage, wanting to smash and being indiscriminate on what got smashed. But that first clear-headed werewolf watched the galloping worktable. It was evading all attacks but essentially trotting in a circle around the garage. It had no place to go. Waiting for the right moment, the werewolf lunged forward and grabbed a hold of the worktable as it galloped by. Unfortunately, the robotic engines, the weight of the table, and sheer inertia were on the worktable's side, as the werewolf's hold wasn't enough to stop it. But the wolf man did not release his grasp. In response, the worktable reared up in frustration, its metal legs peddling in the air in an equine parody of hooves, trying to kick off the werewolf that held it. None of the legs connected, to the workbench's robotic chagrin, and its legs fell to the floor. With effort, it still was able to pull itself forward, legs straining against the floor and the dead weight of the werewolf that dragged behind it, canine claws scratching the floor. From her position up against the wall where she dragged herself, Jaya winced at the damage to the floor. But some weird part in the back of her mind, perhaps addled by shock, was glad that the werewolf wasn't dragging his butt on the floor like a dog.
The slowed workbench did not get far. A second werewolf leapt onto it as well, his massive body belly flopping down on the top, his sheer weight falling straight down on the table. The table didn't break, but between the weight of the two wolves, the workbench was held in place. Both wolves growled, their snouts snapping at the table as their bodies were tensed and still to hold the workbench, but their intimidation was lost on the cold, unfeeling piece of robotic furniture.
This did allow the bruised and very pissed off blonde werewolf to reach the workbench. With a petulant movement, he snatched the Sphere from the three fingered hand which held it. Taking a moment to confirm the Sphere was not a fake, the werewolf looked at the device, the shimmering Brass penetrating through the beast's consciousness to the man behind. Confident in this victory, the blonde werewolf held the Sphere up high above his head in triumph, letting loose a victory roar. This hubris was his undoing. Before the other wolves could join in on this triumphant howl, Jaya's machines attacked. Leaping into the air, one tiny machine was not willing to give up. The blonde werewolf howled as boiling water was splashed in his face by the self serving tea kettle. Using one hand to clutch his face in pain, the werewolf still held the Sphere, but that brief moment of weakness was all that was needed. Launching itself off the debris of the broken plasma cutter, the coffee maker robot sailed across the garage. It landed on the blonde werewolf's shoulders. Before the wolf could shrug it off, the coffee maker's tiny hands grabbed the Sphere. Then it leapt off to the ground, using its tiny legs to skitter under debris.
"Get that... thing!" shouted the blonde werewolf, only one eye open due to pain.
As the coffee maker robot scampered from one bit of debris to another, a werewolf grabbed at it. Its claw nearly connected with the small robot, but luck was not with it. To save its diminutive robot friend, the ceiling fan whizzed down, its spinning blades colliding directly with the werewolf's face. It was only a ceiling fan, so of course the blades were not sharp enough to cause serious damage to the wolf, but it was still painful. It was even more painful when the mangled and crushed ceiling fan exploded in the werewolf's face a second later. Such was the risk of using Avalon Brass.
Up against the wall, Jaya smiled at the performance of the coffee maker. Then she clutched at her shoulder, which was definitely bleeding. She also felt a drop of blood running down her cheek. But she pushed that pain aside and was proud at how the defensive system was working. She tried not to think about how her precious equipment was being destroyed by feral werewolves. There is no prouder moment for an inventor than seeing their scientifically improbable and mechanically extravagant creations holding their own in a lethal fight against beings that don't even exist according to conventional science. She also knew that any of them destroyed could be rebuilt - and they'd be better than before based on the data gathered from this battle.
Despite all that, her heart cringed as she saw the coffeemaker meet its end. The little robot was leaping all over the room, its diminutive size helping to keep it away from the large werewolf arms that grabbed at it and the bodies which dove for it. Like the gingerbread man of fables, it kept itself out of their arms with dexterity and speed, which seemed out of place for a coffee maker, even if it was a robot. Then tragedy struck. As it ran by the torn open garage door, a werewolf arm shot out and grabbed it. The sixth werewolf had been outside, keeping watch with th
e bikers. Realizing his compatriots were taking too long, he had looked inside and saw the maddening little robot running around and causing trouble. His grip on the coffee maker solid, the werewolf slowly squeezed, each of his digits exerting a crushing force on the appliance-turned-robot. The plastic began to crunch, the metal pieces bending from the pressure. Then, with a heartbreaking beep, the coffee maker fell apart in a rain of broken plastic, the Sphere dropping to the ground. As the device rolled on the floor, the sixth werewolf grabbed it. He let out a roar and pulled his arm outside.
And then the great garage fight was over.
The blonde werewolf roared. All the other wolves answered with a roar, disengaging themselves from whatever fights they were having with the garage machines. They walked, pounced, and limped out of the garage. Only the blonde werewolf, his movements still bruised and hurting, bothered to turn to look at Jaya. His giant maw opened, revealing his teeth and his lolling tongue. Then the jaw snapped shut. As he turned, leaving her against the wall and bleeding, she heard a noise that she didn't recognize at first. After a few moments she realized it was the werewolf equivalent of laughter.
The motorcycles all came to life in a massive crescendo of growling, spluttering vibration. Jaya pulled herself off the wall and limped to the garage door, still clutching her shoulder, to watch them. She wanted to do something, but all her creations had been disabled or outright destroyed, her shoulder was bleeding, and after what she had seen there was no way she could match one werewolf, much less a whole group of them plus bikers, in a fight. She saw most of the bikers on their cycles, but there were still three half naked bikers struggling to get at least some clothes on before they got on their bikes. None were in their werewolf forms.
There were still no cops, nothing to even indicate the 911 dispatcher had done anything. But it had all happened so quickly, maybe not as much time had passed as she thought.
When the bikers had all gotten on their bikes and were finally pulling away, their escape seemingly assured, Jaya felt that same rumble as earlier. She thought it particularly odd that the rumbling was stronger when the bikers were pulling away than when they were sitting in front of the garage. In a moment, she realized that the first rumbling had not been the bikers and neither was this one. As the bikers took off down the street, whooping in success, they seemed not to notice the vibration that was beginning to exceed that of their bikes. As one of the bikers held the Sphere high in the air as a trophy, Jaya felt the rumbling sharply increase in intensity.
Something was very wrong. She wasn't sure if it was her wound or the vibration, but suddenly she felt off balance. She needed to shift her footing to stay standing. Had everything been shaking equally, she would have thought it was an earthquake. But it was not consistent. It was a rumbling in the ground... and it was moving.
Finally it was significant enough for even the riding bikers to notice. They became conscious of something other than their own drunken enthusiasm and the rattling of their bikes only a moment before it all happened.
There was a great crunching and cracking sound. Some of the bikers were flung from their vehicles, but the explosion came at the tail end of their entourage, so most only wobbled in panic as the asphalt broke apart behind them in a cloud of debris. If that was the only thing that happened, it would have already been very dangerous. But that was only a side effect, not the true threat.
Something had broken through the ground with great speed. The seeming explosion of asphalt was just its emergence. They couldn't see what at first, but their animalistic senses felt the thing behind them even while hidden deeply in their man-forms. Fear raced through all their veins. That feral beast that lurked deep within their flesh and souls knew a great and sudden panic. That primal beast knew many things - the sickly fear-sweat of prey and the clean fiery musk of a predator. What it didn't know was what it felt like to have those tables turned - until now. There was suddenly an even bigger predator. And they knew what it was like to be prey.
From that cracking asphalt erupted a gigantic white serpent. Only the head and some of the body emerged, but it came quickly, flinging bikers from their motorcycles. Most were thrown into the air and crashed down safely onto the hard ground, but one unlucky biker was right above the serpent's emergence and fell into the massive beast's maw. The serpent's head rose to twenty feet into the air, one red eye taking in the scene before them. Peering at the retreating bikers for not even a moment, its head lunged forward, its jaws snapping at the bikers. Its teeth closed on another biker, his cries adding to the chaos in the night, but he was not enough for the serpent. Rather than spending any time consuming him, the creature opened its jaws and tried snapping again, but its gigantic teeth closed on nothing, the bikers now too far away.
Jaya saw the feared faces of the bikers looking back at the serpent, and though she was also afraid of the gigantic beast, she was at least slightly pleased to see the bikers run with their tails between their legs. Though she tried to never wish death upon another being, part of her was disappointed that the biker with the Sphere was not eaten by the beast.
Then as quickly as it appeared, the white serpent receded back into the hole. It didn't try to attack the downed bikers. It had devoured two, but as sudden as it had come, it was now gone, leaving just a lingering stench of blood and rotten fish. Staring at the now empty dark crack in the street, the bikers who had been thrown from their motorcycles hastily got back on, not even thinking about their comrades who had driven off without them. They nervously took off down the street at great speed, every second or two turning back to see if the beast would emerge to finish off the job.
Only after both the monster and the bikers had disappeared did Jaya finally catch her breath. Things settled into a fearful calm. The sound of the motorcycles receded into the night, and the gaping wound in the street revealed no more creatures, only a broken absence. It was then that she realized that she had heard a description of that serpent before. That was the monster from Dane's story, the thing she didn't believe was real. She now knew it was very real. Lethally real.
As if on cue, from the opposite end of the street came a familiar face. The bikers had fled one way and Dane came running from the other, his satchel knocking against him. Behind him, Abby was hastily paying for the cab.
In the opposite direction, past the broken crack in the street and the biker's retreat, Jaya finally heard the sounds of siren. Still bleeding and feeling lightheaded, Jaya smiled. The police and Dane shared an amusing trait: better late than never.
At least he was here, she thought. That was comforting. So comforted, she fell into unconsciousness, Dane barely catching her in his arms before she hit the pavement.
Bikes, Beer, and Barbecue
Mingxia exited Husker International Airport and followed the Jinmu employee to the black luxury sedan they had sent for her. She would have preferred a limo, but Jinmu was still new to New Avalon and resources were tighter than elsewhere. They were trying to keep everything in-house for now, so they didn't want to hire an external limo service. A sedan would have to do.
She winced in the morning sun, her eyes overwhelmed. When she got into the back of the sedan, she was glad for the tinted windows. She had actually slept on the long flight from Hong Kong. Though many others of her kind kept to human-like sleeping schedules, it was unnecessary. They needed to sleep only a few hours every few days, and if they were fortunate to have access to some of the rare herbs that Thousand Hands did, the need for sleep could be eliminated entirely. Mingxia preferred the latter option; there was always far too much to be done. But on the long international flight she found herself without the ability to do much of use. She decided to indulge herself and sleep. It was a good idea at the time, but she didn't wake until the flight was landing and she was still groggy.
Her excitement was subdued, but still ran through her. After so many years, everything was happening at once. They finally had a way into New Avalon. For a long time Thousand Hands seers had s
uggested that the Queen Mother was in Avalon, but their eyes were blind, their visions blocked, their auguries fizzling. Preliminary reports from Jinmu employees confirmed that she might be here. But it was more than that. The Deserters were almost definitely here. After decades, Red Heaven believed they had found them hiding in the shadow of the Queen Mother. A smart move, Mingxia admitted, but an ultimately futile one. The purges would begin again. She already had two purge squads on the way in after dealing with visa issues.
As the sedan took her west into the city, she felt the presence of something big. She could see why Jinmu employees thought the Queen Mother was here. But once she was on the bridge going across the river, she felt it even more strongly. Oh yes, something very big was here. Sleeping, but here. She smiled.
Mingxia then cocked her head suddenly. There was another presence, mixed in with all the others in New Avalon. She had expected the Deserters, but this one energy stuck out because it was one she had known very well. It had been so long.
Her eyes narrowed and her face twisted in anger. It was him. It had to be him. The decades had neither dampened his power nor softened her anger. She had vowed to kill him and she still would. She said his name out loud, spitting it across the city.
"Fei Zhang. The Betrayer."
Abby woke up to the smell of eggs and tea. After the chaos of the night before, decisions had been made. In particular, that Wong and his wife, Meilin, would be staying with Abby for the time being. Jaya's garage was in no shape to defend against attackers. Though Wong had said it was unnecessary to move them, he had finally relented and allowed him and his wife to be lodged at one of their apartments. Alastair's was vetoed, as well as Linda's. Both Wong and Meilin agreed that they had no desire to stay in Dane's apartment, as that would be "as far from safe as possible". So that left Abby's.
Burning Monday: (Dane Monday 2) Page 8