Supernal Dawn

  “What are you doing?” Lee asked, clear by his tone that they weren’t supposed to engage this group but move on and behind the building.

  “I need parts!” Tinker was using a metallic cylinder no bigger than a pencil, but he’d somehow made a pile of circuit boards and wires at his feet. “Almost,” he said and yanked out a thick bundle with a flash of sparks. “There! Now we can go.”

  The two of them skirted the mass of black, went around to the backside of the office building it touched against, with Tinker molding and soldering boards as they ran.

  “There’re two inside,” Anna said, “on the third floor. One of them is Discord.”

  Sound Mastery Five, Lee recalled from the file. He was leader of the Sentinels, could create and alter sound, use it as a weapon. He was not a dude to take lightly.

  “Who’s he fighting?” Lee asked in a hushed voice, as they entered through a broken doorway and started up the stairs. There were nine others in the buildings, not including the two they were after. “Any idea?”

  Tinker had combined what he’d scavenged with pieces he kept in various pockets all over his uniform. His creation was starting to look a lot like an oddly-shaped rifle.

  “None,” she replied. “Be careful.”

  Shouting rang out from upstairs, followed by a piercing whine that slowed and dropped in timbre until it ended in a blast. The building shook with the force, nearly took them off their feet. Lee sensed a body go past and hit the street. A second blast followed, much closer than the first. A hole appeared in the stairwell, dripping blue around the scorched brick and mortar. Lee looked wide-eyed at his partner.

  “Christ, dude! You trying to kill us?”

  Lee more saw than heard Tinker say he was sorry and realized the ringing in his ears overpowered all other sound.

  “Unbelievable,” he said, as he resumed the climb up the stairs and tried in vain to clear his ears with a finger.

  Luckily, his eardrums healed quickly. When they reached the third floor, he saw Discord looking down at the sidewalk from a giant hole in the wall at the end of the corridor. There was nowhere for him to go, unless he planned to jump.

  “He’s down there,” Discord said without a look back, “with the other two. I can tell my guys to back off, if you think you’ve got it under control.”

  Tinker tossed a handful of black metal balls across the floor and leveled his rifle at Discord.

  “We’re here for you, too.”

  His last word repeated itself in the air, over and over, growing faster and more high-pitched until it struck him in the chest. Tinker went flying back and fired as he went, a fiery blast of blue light that tore through two floors above and exited the building. Tinker was out cold, with numerous broken bones and punctured organs. Lee set to work on healing him from afar.

  He sighed and shook his head, knew they should have waited on the stairs until he was ready. He had cells duplicating inside Discord but needed more time. Slowly, Lee held up both hands.

  “I don’t have any offensive powers.”

  Discord looked back over a shoulder. He was older than Lee, though not by much, with short dark hair and a long nose. He wore jeans, construction boots and a long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

  “Then you’re an idiot for coming after me.”

  Me, me, me, meme mem ME!

  Lee crashed into the wall beside Tinker, breath knocked from his lungs, chest and ribs fractured. He was already healing, when Discord took a step toward the stairs.

  Metal lines exploded out from the balls Tinker had thrown, stuck to whatever they touched with a dab of hardening foam. The spheres then broke down into tiny puddles, melding to the floor. Five lines had struck and held to the wall, forming a weak web, but three were attached to Discord.

  Unfortunately, none of them had touched skin.

  He tore the lines free, pulling away bits of clothing. A little pissed at the ruined jeans, he tossed the lines aside and kept walking.

  “Wait,” Lee gasped, still healing, “just wanted...to help.”

  “You think you’re helping people?” Discord asked, his voice an accusation. “I help people,” he said angrily. “I save lives, every day.”

  “You could do so much more,” Lee said, breathed a little easier as a rib healed its way out of a lung. “With the right resources, you could help people beyond the few blocks you’ve claimed. You should join us, make a difference.”

  Discord balked.

  “You think you’re the good guys? You hunt people like me and my friends. And I’ve seen what you do when you find us.” He glared down at Lee and asked, “When was the last time you actually helped someone?”

  Lee thought of Jen’s mom, how it had felt to cure her cancer.

  Discord quietly asked, “Were you wearing that outfit when you did it?” Lee looked away. Was he wrong? “Open your eyes, man. You and your friends out there, you’re on the wrong side.”

  He continued on toward the stairs. Lee hated himself for it, admired the guy and the other Sentinels, what they were fighting for, but there was no logical way to explain letting him get away. They knew what Lee could do. He didn’t want to let them down, his team, Will or even Anna. They were his friends, and they were also fighting for a good cause, one he at least partly believed in.

  “God damn it,” Lee said and paralyzed him.

  Discord stopped as if frozen and fell over.

  - Ember -

  Ember watched as Allison sparred with Brody. She didn’t like the way he put his hands on her friend, but Ember wasn’t about to say anything. That would only set him off, probably get her pulled back into the ring with him, and she disliked him touching her even more than watching Allison act as if she was a total pushover. He seemed charming enough when they weren’t fighting. Lee even seemed to like him, for the most part, but guys never really saw what jerks other guys were, unless they were being bullied by them in some way.

  There was just something mean in the way Brody made his takedowns, like he had something to prove. With the guys, he was uber-competitive, but he seemed determined to constantly show up the girls. Except Alexandra. But then, he clearly had other ideas about her.

  Ember glanced across the floor to where Alex was showing Kevin a new way to drop a bigger opponent. Hell the girl could have Brody as far as she was concerned. Ember had liked his looks well enough when she’d first laid eyes on him, but it was clear he wasn’t a proponent of feminism, and that put him on the “No Way, No How” list. After all, the Macconal matriarchy was older than the U. S. Constitution.

  Suddenly, Allison slammed Brody onto the mat. His breath was forced from his lungs in a deep whoosh. The look on his face was priceless, and it was all Ember could do not to laugh out loud. Allison reached out a hand to help him up. He slapped it away, and tried to sweep her feet out from under her at the same time. Allison jumped back, losing her balance and landed on her butt. She glanced at Ember and raised an eyebrow, but kept her comments to herself.

  Ember read a thousand words in that one look. They’d been friends for long enough that they’d already had a connection, practically speaking one another’s thoughts when they were together. But since the Rumbling, the connection seemed more pronounced. Not quite psychic, but close enough that they were the most synced up members of the team.

  Allison picked herself up and strode over to where Ember had been watching. She grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat from her face. “Jerk,” she murmured just loud enough for Ember to hear.

  “Yeah, but score for you. He was totally buying your oblivious act until you dropped him.”

  Allison smirked. “And I never even took drama.” She grabbed a bottle of vitamin and mineral enhanced water and gulped it down, then wiped her mouth on her towel. “I don’t know about you, but I do love the whole eat and drink what you want without having to wo
rry about dieting.”

  Ember shrugged. She was still the same curvy shape and size she’d been when they’d first arrived at the facility. Maybe she’d grown a bit more muscular, but Allison had grown thinner, more svelte. It made her look less dangerous, less lethal, than Ember knew she was. That’s probably what had made Brody let down his guard.

  “He’s not going to fall for it again.” Ember finished the last mouthful of her drink and tossed the bottle into the recycling chute. The extreme sweetness of the liquid made her want to brush her teeth.

  “S’okay.” Allison shrugged. She paused, her face creasing into a frown.

  “What?” Ember asked.

  “Charly just suggested we wear less when we spar with him. Thinks that’ll distract him.”

  “Are you sure your handler is female?”

  “Well,” Allison said. “Aren’t they all technically gender-neutral like Zeta?”

  “Wait. What are you talking about?”

  “The AIs. I’m still trying to figure out how they have any gender if they’re basically bodiless. I mean, how do they choose?”

  “AIs?”

  “Artificial Intelligences,” Allison, said slowly.

  Ember looked confused.

  “O-M-G!” Allison clapped her hand over her mouth. “You didn’t know? All this time and you didn’t know?”

  “Jeez!” Ember said. “Thanks a lot, Zeta. Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

  “I figured you were smart enough to figure it out,” her handler replied. “Guess I was wrong.” There was more than a hint of humor in Zeta’s tone. Humor at Ember’s expense. She felt her face grow hot.

  Allison shook her head and elbowed her in the ribs. “Don’t go getting all bent over it,” she said. “No one needs to know but us. I didn’t even realize you didn’t know until just now, since we really never talk about our handlers.” She nodded toward Brody and the others. “And they’re too wrapped up in themselves to have noticed.”

  Allison’s face grew serious. At the same time, Zeta’s voice crackled loud in Ember’s ear. “Incident response required. Suit up.”

  They’d trained for this, Ember told herself to keep from freaking. She ran for her room and yanked on her field suit. But this team was way different from going out on a run with her cousins. Or from doing anything at all magical. This was new. No matter the drills, the sparring, the exercises, they hadn’t yet been field-tested.

  On the way to the hangar, Ember found herself dodging around a larger cadre of ghosts. They hung in the air at odd intervals along the corridor, swaying and staring into the far distance. “Crap! What’s up with them?”

  Running beside her, Allison glanced ahead at their teammates. “Seem fine to me. What the hell are you doing?”

  “Nothing,” Ember grumbled over the sound of their boots clattering against the floor and ricocheting off the hard walls.

  “Looks like you’re practicing duck and dodge maneuvers.”

  Ember rolled her eyes, then skirted around another specter. “It’s nothing,” she said, long years of keeping clan secrets sealing her lips.

  “Whatever you say,” Allison put on a burst of speed and shot forward, reaching the aircraft ahead of Ember and bounding inside.

  Ember ran up the ramp. She was still strapping herself into her jump seat when Lee came through the door.

  “Nice of you to join us,” she called as the engines whined.

  Her brother looked angry.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing.” Lee turned to Kevin. “First mission. You pick a call sign?”

  Lee and Kevin continued to talk quietly to one another and Ember tried to ignore them. Only, she couldn’t help but laugh when Kevin suggested that Lee’s call sign had something to do with special education.

  “He’s only joking,” Allison said. “We all know you’re the smart one.”

  Leave it to Allison to try and be the peacekeeper, Ember thought. She caught herself fidgeting and glanced around. The tension in the craft was so high she could almost smell it. Everyone was on full alert. Kevin’s joking was his way of dealing with nerves. Alex’s was chewing on her cuticles, like she did now.

  Brody leaned close to Alexandra, whispering something to her. Ember tried not to stare while wondering what Alex could possibly see in Brody. Sure, he was good looking, but an arrogant ass is still an ass, no matter what he looks like.

  Allison tapped Ember on the elbow, her long dark curls already coming undone from the braid she’d forced them into. “You good?” she asked, her voice tight.

  “Yeah. Good.”

  “Don’t worry,” Kevin said. “We got this.”

  Ember glanced at Lee. He was stronger than her in so many ways, but he was still younger than her. Still her little brother. And they were so outnumbered in their fight against the chaos of the disconnected Affected.

  The craft landed, settling to the ground within range of their targets.

  “Let’s do this,” Brody said, assuming his role as team leader. “From here on, I’m Aegis. Sound off.”

  “Flux,” Ember called out over the sound of the helijet engines and the explosions coming from within the cloud of smoke that hung over the nearby intersection. The darkness was filled with flashes of light, and the smell of burnt plastic and fabric filled the air, along with the bitter ozone of fried electronics. She flexed her bare hands, hoping their month of combat training would be enough, knowing that training was nothing like going into a real battle.

  A car flew through the air and slammed into a building, crashing back to the ground and setting off a cacophony of horns and sirens, which surprised her. What was the point of setting a car alarm these days?

  “Flare,” Allison shouted over the din. She stared at the chaos, unconsciously pushing a stray curl behind her ear.

  “Keys,” Alex said firmly, she looked ready to open up the gates of hell, which, Ember reminded herself, she could.

  “And we already know Tinker and Remedy,” Brody said. He paused a moment, getting that look that told Ember he was listening to his handler, the AI—she now knew—he laughingly referred to as Kirk. “Eight hostiles.” Brody nodded at them. “We’ll pair up.” He pointed at Alex. “You’re with me. Flux and Flare take the north side, Tinker and Remedy, south. Your handlers will relay all further info and open communications channels until we regroup. Once all hostiles are secured, XTU will pick up the trash.”

  “Wait,” Lee said, “why aren’t they helping? Is this really the time for a test?”

  “Orders.” Brody shrugged, staring around at them meaningfully. “All right. Go time.” He headed out with Alex on his heels.

  Ember grabbed Lee by the arm. “Did you do something to Allison?” she whispered.

  “Like what?” Lee frowned, glancing over at Allison. “Oh, hell no. I wouldn’t, Besides, I couldn’t.”

  Ember looked at him in disbelief.

  “Seriously. Can’t.” He shrugged. “Why? She doing something off?”

  “No,” Ember said, unable to put her finger on what was nagging at her about Allison. “Forget it.”

  “Fine.” Lee pulled away and signaled Kevin to move out.

  Ember watched them go.

  “Ember,” Zeta’s voice crackled in her ear, bringing her back to the smoke and noise and the task at hand.

  It’s just another job, she reminded herself. Different team, different enemy, different tactics...so, not really just another job. But there were still people depending on her. She glanced over at Allie.

  “You gonna be ready any time soon?” Allison asked, holding out her hand to show Ember her comm-link and shrugging. “I was getting tired of the nagging.”

  “Put that back where it belongs!” Ember said. It was an old punchline and to be honest, she couldn’t even remember the joke anymore, b
ut she and Allie had been sharing it for so long, it still always made them laugh.

  “Lead on.” Allison stuck the earpiece back in her ear and took up a position just behind and to the right of Ember as they headed off.

  “Zeta,” Ember said as they jogged north, “can you link us up?”

  There was silence in her ear for so long, Ember wondered if the comm-link was working. “Zeta?”

  “Hold on,” Zeta said. “It’s not just a flip-switch, you know. Also, we need to talk about the way you request things outside of protocol.” Ember’s ear was suddenly filled with the sound of someone breathing heavily. “Partner link activated.”

  “What the—?”

  “Hey Al—Flare,” Ember corrected herself. “I thought it would be easier for us to coordinate if we didn’t have to deal with the noise. Also, without having to manage the cross-communication commands.”

  “Oh,” Allie cooed. “I didn’t know we could do that.”

  “Technically,” Allison’s handler, Charly, grumbled, “you can’t.”

  “Oooh. Even cooler.”

  “And you still have to use those commands to communicate with the rest of the team.” Zeta reminded them. “If things get hairy, we’re going back to normal channels.”

  “I think you mean when,” Ember said, dodging a huge piece of flaming shrapnel that flew out of the smoke and directly into their path. Once clear of the smoking debris, she slowed down to take stock of where they were.

  “North access on the westernmost corner—” both handlers tried to speak at once.

  “This is why we don’t link,” Allison’s handler griped.

  “Zeta, how about you handle status and let Charly manage logistics?”

  “Fine,” Zeta groused. “Not like it takes a genius to read a map.”

  “I heard that,” Charly said.

  “Northwest corner access,” Ember cut off the bickering. “Got it.” Maybe linking up wasn’t such a good idea after all. “Zeta, what’s the status inside?”

  “Access clear. No hostiles, no civilians present.”

  Ember reached the door and yanked it open. “How about some light?” she asked, stepping clear.