by G. X. Knight
That was until an all too familiar voice blared out from the trail behind us. “You call that a kiss? I’ve seen lipless troll frogs make better efforts than that. Put your backs into it, people.”
We shared a duo of deep sighs as Maeve and I pulled away from each other. Both of our heads slumped low in defeat. “Hi, Sway.” I said in my best what-are-you-doing-here voice. I still kept my head lowered hoping that if I didn’t look it meant she wasn’t really there. But she was, and she kept right on talking.
“At least grab her ass when you go in. A kiss without an ass-grab is like a margarita without the tequila. Come here, Kata, let’s show them how it’s done.”
I still wasn’t looking and now I definitely kept my head lowered when I heard Kata walk up and drop a cooler and chairs. Thankfully she responded with a stern, “No way,” before laughing at Sway, “I haven’t had nearly enough to drink yet, and I told you that you were cut off from this after that incident with the British skyboarding team.”
Sway let out a reminiscent breath, “Now those were good times.”
I didn’t know. –I didn’t want to know. I chose to ignore it and grabbed another burger while Maeve made nice and helped them with the few things Kata carried. “You didn’t help her?” I said to Sway somewhat accusingly.
“She’s got it.” Sway said, “Besides, I won’t make her carry it back down.”
“Well that’s good.” I said.
“Because you will do that for us, Robo-Arms.” I should have known. “We only keep you around for the heavy lifting.” Sway had this way of crooking out enough of a smile so that you couldn’t tell if she was being serious. It made her just likeable enough to only want to throw her over the side of the cliff.
Everyone settled in. I kicked back with my burgers. Maeve, Kata, and Sway set up the chairs, sat around the lantern we brought, and laughed over the friendly ribbing Sway was giving Maeve about the kiss. This was the most normal I had felt in weeks. I wasn’t used to always being around people I like. I hated the customers where I used to work, Dad and I didn’t hangout, and my DOA social life was a joke. I really wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to do now. I watched the socialite pros to see how it was done.
Sway was the head Butterfly. She had her black and purple hair held by her favorite set of silver chopsticks. She wore her typical workout gear of little black spandex shorts, and a matching shirt that was short enough to show off a star shaped piercings around her navel. If not for the black and blue leg and arm warmers she would have seemed down right plain. She was always so comfortable in her own skin and with her own style. Sway wasn’t always the easiest person to have in the room, or on your firework lookout spot, but I had to give her props for her confidence. She didn’t strike me as the type to ever get scared, and you knew exactly where you stood with her. There’s something to be said for not having to worry about pretense. –Not much … but something.
Kata, as usual, was dressed similarly minus the arm warmers, and in her signature pink. It was so weird the way they coordinated their clothing. She didn’t have nearly as much metal as Sway on her belly, save a single pearl that dangled from a short silver chain. She was always a step behind Sway. Sway would enter the room; Kata would enter the room. Sway would start a conversation; Kata would end it. It wasn’t as if she was a tagalong, quite the opposite, it was more like the two were symbiotic. Part of what made Sway so tolerable was Kata. She would knock the edge off Sway’s comments with a laugh or a smile. She had her own confidence, but it wasn’t as pronounced as Sway’s.
Oddly enough, despite Sway’s take charge “I know it all” attitude, Sway almost never made a move without first conferring with Kata. I’d say they were like sisters, but after that tidbit concerning the British skyboarding team (whatever a skyboard was) I don’t think that would be an apt description at all.
Maeve held my attention as I studied each girl’s social reaction. I still had so much to learn. Seeming to sense my interest, Maeve gracefully stood with a wink and waggled her finger for me to join them. I took the seat she offered, and then she settled lightly on my lap. Slender but firm arms wrapped around me while Kata and Sway poured shots of something that smelled like gasoline and moldy-rug.
“How cute,” Sway bit her words toward us before pouring herself another drink.
Kata, ever our pink-clad champion, told her, “You’re just jealous because all the guys you like end up being creeps. I think they really are cute.”
Sway kept on, “Well, I guess it makes sense that a girl who runs around in Spiritan Armor would have a metal fetish.”
I shot Sway a metal bird. “You couldn’t handle a Cyborg.”
Her eyebrow lifted knowingly, and a playfully evil smile spread across her face, “As I helped turn you into my version of perfect, let’s just say I made sure you’ve got it where it counts. I could handle you all night long.”
That time Kata agreed with her PIC (Partner in Crime) via a deep amen of an, “Uhm-hum!”
Maeve found it way more amusing than I did. “Hey, he’s my boyfriend,” She said, “Keep your hands and your dirty thoughts off. None of you are handling anything but the drinks. Pass one.”
The three girls did a shot. I stuck with my water. I didn’t need anything else to get me loopy after being called “boyfriend” by Maeve.
Despite the invasion, I decided I was going to enjoy myself. The bright side: Largo wasn’t there. I really liked the guy, but as he was endeavoring to make sure I was as up to date on Amalgam customs as I could be, he was approaching that point my Dad had reached when I had “enough.” I needed a break and wanted to just live by seeing and not having to be told.
There must have been a Speak of the Devil Claus. My heart sank when Maeve slid out of my lap and onto to the ground as subtly as possible. We had just finished some funny Kata-narrated Largo stories when out of nowhere Largo seemed to appear from the trail. He was smiling his standard fatherly grin, when he called out a bemused, “You better have saved me some of that Dwarven Ale!”
It had become funny as yet another person crashed mine and Maeve’s “secret” party. I guess I should have sent Cade and Drake invites while we were at it. Sway and Kata both let out a questioning snigger toward Maeve’s sudden reaction as she pulled up her legs to her chest there on the ground to look as if she were comfortable. None of us thought Largo would care about her sitting in my lap.
“You want the chair?” I whispered.
She shook her head and leaned her back against my leg. I was happy to have her touch.
“Welcome to the party.” Kata greeted warmly. “What brings you up this way?”
“Fireworks.” Largo answered matter-of-factly, “And someone took all the Ale. I learned at a young age: Go where the Ale is.”
Accusing glances shot from Sway and Kata toward Maeve concerning who took Largo’s Ale.
“Guilty.” She squeaked while raising her hand.
I was learning an important lesson too: There were going to be no secrets in the Harbor House.
We resituated our seats toward the edge of the cliff since it was close to firework time. I offered Largo my chair. He politely refused, so I insisted that Maeve take it. I didn’t feel comfortable sitting there and making her sit on the ground. Call me old fashioned.
Largo and I stood shoulder to shoulder behind the girls. Just off in the distance I could see a trailing smoke plume streaking upward. “Here we go,” I said.
I guess the others couldn’t see it, because Sway fired back, “How do you know?”
A dazzling sparkle of thundering reds and blasting blues answered her for me. I just smiled a told-you-so grin. She turned and said nothing. Being a Cyborg had its moments.
I had never been much of a smoker. Most of the time I tried to avoid the smell as much as possible, however I was starting to like whatever odd concoctions Largo used in his pipe. His match flared, and to my delight, the scent of a springtime field after having been freshly mowed filled m
y nose.
We enjoyed a few salvos of yellow explosions that crackled out into pictures of smiley faces. Those were Maeve’s favorite. She cheered for each one. Even Sway seemed to forget about being mean long enough to “Ah” with enjoyment over the booms. During an arc of blue and green sidelong jumpers that fizzled outward into the water, Largo silently handed me a piece of paper. On it was written a single name:
FALOR
I meant to roll my eyes, but as they shone just about as bright as the fireworks, I figured that would be rude. “Can’t we do the lessons tomorrow?” I asked. “Or is this another name suggestion?” Everyone had been getting in on the name game. Nothing quite fit.
He thought I was funny, “That’s a place, and while there may be a lesson involved, first and foremost I have a run you need to make.”
“What kind of run?”
“The information-gathering kind of run,” He clapped when a rainbow of colors spiraled around each other and then blossomed into hundreds of smaller colored explosions. He continued, “It seems we might have our first glimpse of someone trying to use the knowledge gleaned from your brief stay with the Street Vipers. The village there is a special place, and it has been ransacked by someone with tech that matches the description of the shoddy Viper patchwork you would still have if Pink and Purple there had not been able to fix you up.”
Kata and Sway fist bumped at the “Pink and Purple” comment.
I knew this was going to happen. I had hoped that perhaps they wouldn’t be able to duplicate my results, or maybe even they would have had a change of heart and decide that it was something that could be used to help people instead. Of course, that was wrong. It was just my luck that the first signs of Cyborg tech would have been used violently. Admittedly, I wasn’t much different. I trained every day to attack and defend. I was learning how to hit harder. I could use my new senses to pick out an enemy’s weak point. I’ve sent two people to the hospital. The only thing that kept me from being as dangerous as Maeve was my inability to use the green crescent-shaped Dragonstones magically encrusted on the back of my hands.
Every Dragonstone gave their users different abilities. I still had no idea what mine did. How do you train with something you have no instruction manual for? All they did was glow, so unless I needed to be found in a dark room, they were little more than ornaments.
“Wouldn’t this be a better job for Maeve?” I asked. I wasn’t trying to push her out onto the front lines, but if anyone could handle herself, it was the Celtic Bombshell. She really was a beast when it came to fighting. During fight training, we all ended up on our backsides. None of us could pin her. The only one who had come close was Kata. She was nearly as nimble, and almost as cunning. Still, for all my strength, and all of Sway and Kata’s brains, we had not been able to get her. Sway and Kata deny it, but I think they’re working on something in their lab that might give them an edge against her. I say more power to them. If they can invent something that can beat Maeve, it would be able to handle just about anything that might come our way.
Largo agreed, “It probably would. Actually, just about any of you should be able to handle this, but I want you to go. I have my reasons, not the least of which, it’s just time for you to get out of the house. I don’t want you losing touch with the rest of the world. That’s when bad things start to happen to our people.”
There above the world, beneath the incredible firework display, I knew what he meant.
The firework finale started, and I don’t think anyone was watching as the sky boomed with rolling shadows of every known color. The girls were watching us, and listening to the conversation. I would have done the same thing. I’m a total eavesdropper. Maeve looked proud, Kata looked excited, and Sway looked like I was about to be thrown into a meat grinder, and she liked it. I’m still trying to figure out if we’re really friends.
“So, Falor, huh?” I said observing the note, “Never heard of it. Is it close?”
“Not in the slightest.” Largo said.
“Can I take the Skipper?” That was the name we, well I, gave the car with the Skip drive Maeve and I stole from the Vipers.
Kata cleared her throat, “Well, that’s not going to be possible for a while.”
I gave her a questioning look.
“We took it apart.” Sway said unapologetically, “We wanted to see how it ticks.”
Awesome. “So I guess there’s an Amalgam bus I need to get tickets for, since I have no money, means of transportation, or flying armor?”
“Come now,” Largo said, “I know you’re still somewhat new, but I thought you knew me better than that.”
He tossed me a little black box with a metallic green bow, which he had just pulled form his pocket. I opened the box and out fell a silver key into my hand. It had the words: KAWASAKI: NINJA ZX-10R – GREEN/BLACK, written on the keychain.
I was stunned. “You got me a motorcycle?”
“We got you a fast motorcycle.” He said proudly.
“And not that it needed it, but we might have made a few tweaks to it.” Sway added.
Kata grinned, “Not quite as fast as Skipping, but close.”
I stood and stared at the key. My last car was old, and broken. I’ve never driven anything new, much less, cool. Despite a heavy case of speechlessness, I was able to throat out a quietly sincere “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” Largo said from the distance. I hadn’t realized everyone was leaving. I looked as he disappeared with the girls down the edge of the trail, “Just grab the stuff on your way down. You know we keep you here for all the heavy lifting.” The girls, even Maeve, that traitor, laughed.
I didn’t care. I was too excited about my new motorcycle. I hurried and grabbed everything in both arms. The faster I was done, the faster I would see my new ride.
SONS OF HADES
I traveled for more than a day almost non-stop. Every once in a while there was a pit stop for food, gas bathroom, and a little rest, but overall I worked that bike to its limit. I had tunnel vision concerning this little outing. I wanted to get it over with, so I could get back to Maeve. It was all I could do to leave her that early morning from the ferry parking lot. I watched her start to disappear in my rear view for only a few seconds … then I realized - I didn’t know how to work the clutch to change gears, so it really was all I could do to leave as the bike moaned wearily in first gear. So in the middle of my big emotional goodbye, my girlfriend had to give me a quick crash course on Motorcycles 101. I am a goober!
Falor was tucked away behind a Shade. It was a barrier that helped keep out Slates. I found it by following a series of rivers. Largo’s instructions were exact and spot-on. I would have been in trouble if he hadn’t have been, because Falor was out there. Early before sunrise, still in the sunglasses that hid my eyes, biker jacket and gloves that hid my arms, I rumbled the bike Maeve and I jointly named Clutch, through the gates of Falor.
Around the village, great waterfalls of all sizes and power cascaded into rivers that ran down, around, and through Falor. Lush grasses rippled beneath the moonlight. Trees reached their fruit bearing branches high into the mists of the falls. Along every land bridge and dry mountain crevice, little homes were nestled deep inside the moonshadow as their inhabitants slept. Closer inspection revealed that a few homes had burned down along a Southern corridor that led down into a ravine. I started to investigate, when off to the North, a single light burned to life.
I followed a cobblestone path that took me toward the new light. Slowly, I parked Clutch and made my way to the door. I was about to knock on the maroon tiger-face knocker when it opened, and on the other side, a boy no older than thirteen, held out a hand bearing a pale orange stone fragment.
“Stay back, Street Viper.” He said, “Falor is under my protection. Get on your bike and leave now, or face the consequences.”
“Whoa, easy there Slugger,” I said, taking a step back, “A guy named Largo sent me. He said you were having som
e problems.”
“Nothing I can’t handle.” The squirt said determinately. “Now get back on that…” He paused after craning his head to look around me. He took one glance at Clutch and almost squealed. “That’s cool.” He gushed.
Damn straight it was.
“Want a ride?” I asked hoping to get him to calm down.
He looked to me, and then to the motorcycle. He put his hand down and nodded. For a kid who should be worried about zits, homework, and girls, he wore the weight of worlds. He invited me into his home and made an amazing citrus tea for me. He admitted that he knew I was coming, but it wasn’t him who sent for me, rather one of the village elders. He had been named Falor’s new protector, but it seemed there were some who were having issue over the appointment, and so that’s why Largo was called. I couldn’t blame them. He was little more than a boy. I mean I wasn’t the oldest rooster to strut this side of the henhouse, but he had no business being, what essentially was, a sheriff.