by JD Cole
“Uh, da’kine, okay, comic books are stories told with art. The writers draw a bunch of action scenes on each page, and then add text when they need to, but the pictures are the main way the story is told. This comic, Nine Lives, is about these nine alien pirates with a space ship called the Wozorren, they steal some kind of device that ends up being a super secret weapon that every government in the universe wants, so they spend all their time getting into space battles trying to keep the weapon away from everybody.”
“I see,” Zaiyensa replied, “and this… unique… armor is based on the pictures in this comic?”
“Yeah, the Wozzoren’s pilot, Robin, she’s the only human on the crew and the power armor she wears during battles looks sorta like this. I added all these other extensions,” he pointed out various parts of the armor, “to try make it look more faery-like.”
“It looks like nothing any faery has ever worn,” Zaiyensa frowned.
“What if you shrink it down?” Kim said. “I mean, if you’re going to enchant it to make it powerful, does it need to be that bulky?”
Devon stared at it, twisting his lips one way then another as he considered. It had taken months within Lifishi’un to get to this point, with Zaiyensa first teaching Devon how to ensure he retained most of the memories from this dream world long enough to use them . After that had come Devon’s wishlist for enchantments, every single one of which was beyond his skill to create until now. He had gained incredible knowledge and experience since then, learning to weave different dream constructs to keep Kim entertained at the same time he was figuring out how to refine the spells he wanted to pour into Kelli’s new armor.
“Yeah…” he looked at Kim, then Zaiyensa. “I guess you’re right. I mean, it wouldn’t need to be all bulky and heavy to protect her, we can use the enchantments I came up with to deflect attacks and stuff, right?”
“That is correct. And as the pinnacle of the fairer sex, I have to say I find that thing hideous. I would never wear it, but you know the queen better than I do.”
Devon nodded. “Okay, yeah, I can see your point. Let’s do something a bit more sexy, then.” He stared at the armor and concentrated, reforming the metals into a curvier, more feminine shape. When he was finished practicing and finalizing what the armor would be, Zaiyensa would end the Lifishi’un and they could get started crafting the real thing.
~ ~ ~ ~
“Greenbay, this is Popper, come in!”
“I see them, Popper,” Greenbay replied. “Hoo-boy, looks like the fight’s comin’ to us, guys!”
“We don’t have much to send you, but reinforcements are on their way,” Popper called.
“Much obliged,” Greenbay assured him. His HUD stopped counting the amount of enemies pouring out of the front gate toward the woods where he and the snipers were. The computer had a built-in limit for tracking hostile targets, to keep his field of view from becoming cluttered with data. He estimated there were at least five hundred Shadowlanders rushing over the berms at him. They were a mix of zombies, alligators, wolves, and steroidal cows —his men had taken to calling the minotaur mother-heifers. He readied the rotary cannon on his shoulder even as Pieman lobbed a hi-explosive mortar shell into the mass. It thankfully did not hit any kind of magical shields, and over thirty goblins and irenaks were blown to pieces by the blast.
“Let’s save the rest of the shells for Boss,” Greenbay radioed while the sniper teams began picking off enemies. The spotters had taken up their own .338 caliber rifles and joined Dez and Charlie Brown sending long-distance greetings. “Feel free to use your HEXSRs for max effect though,” Greenbay told his ValianTs. “Those zombie things apparently don’t know how to die correctly.” Greenbay began to unload a withering amount of gunfire from his shoulder mount, cutting down scores of goblins, and all three ValianTs let loose with their plasma rifles at the larger faeries, firing ammunition that chemically heated into a molten alloy that both burned through —and clung to— its targets. It was designed to perforate tanks, but it also worked wonders on the enemy fae that were massed together.
The fifty elves and dwarves that General Khun had stationed with them eagerly waited for their opportunity to finally kill shadowlanders. They knew better than to run out in front of the battle platforms while their weapons fired, but it was clear that a good chunk of the attacking force was going to make it into the woods shortly.
The snipers took turns evacuating the trees, quickly visiting their mule drone to swap out the components on their immers, reconfiguring the sniper rifles into light machine guns. As their immers were readied, they joined Greenbay’s battle platforms in laying down heavy fire. This forced the oncoming wave to begin swinging wide to enter the woods from either side. Charlie Brown was the last sniper to leave his perch. After reconfiguring his immer, he grabbed the MMGL from the drone, a Modernized Multiple Grenade Launcher. He quickly fired off all eight grenades, accounting for another eighteen goblins —twenty others took what should have been fatal blows from his attack, but got right back up— then he dumped the weapon and picked up his immer.
From far across the field, near Khun’s command camp, bright blue beams began killing and dismembering the goblin force on their north flank. Greenbay zoomed in to see two Paladins using what he assumed were laser weapons to great effect, downing just as many enemies at a time as he was with his plasma fire. “Hey Popper,” he radioed, “make sure the General negotiates to get us some of those Star Wars blasters when this is over!”
“HO-LEE SHHET!” Matrix yelled over the radio. Just then, two massive pillars of fire shot into the sky from opposite ends of the treeline. The faeries all cheered as the traps their mages had woven before sunrise were triggered by the invaders. The pillars quickly fanned open like a peacock’s tail, slamming down on several groups of enemies and incinerating them. “Who wants some barbecued gator with a side of fried dog?”
“I would settle for some New York strip,” Dez replied, spraying 6mm death into the wall of enemies in front of him. “Those mother-heifers are getting way too close for my liking. They look like Beelzebub.”
“Rare or medium?” Greenbay joked, popping off a HEXSR in the direction of one minotaur. The stupid cow actually took a swing at the rocket with its ridiculously huge sword. Greenbay had no idea if the walking bull managed to hit it, seeing only the fireball that killed the minotaur and everything around it. Pieman and Matrix each fired off their HEXSRs and killed three more minotaur and a wolf, and scores of irenaks and goblins. There were three minotaur left, but while one of them began sprinting faster to reach the trees, the other two turned and ran back toward the safety of the walls. Again the faeries cheered at the sight of their new human allies so casually destroying their enemies, but then the goblins were in their midst and the battle was well and truly joined.
~
Boss held his fist up, a gesture that sent a silent command to his team’s HUDs for them to cease fire. General Khun Rhee had magically appeared nearby, saluting them with his “my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours” claymore. He rode that funky lizard-beaver looking animal straight into the rushing goblins, swinging his massive sword one-handed like it was a cheerleader’s baton. The way that goblins and irenaks practically fell over dead in his presence was almost comical. Back and forth the general rode, cleansing the courtyard of enemies and buying more time for the slaves to flee.
Even as Khun attacked the enemies around him, Boss could see the general was not looking at the hordes. He seemed to be seeking something specific. Khun answered the question a moment later by summoning a fierce lightning bolt from on high that speared into a distant group that Boss couldn’t see. Unlike the necromancers’ lightning attacks, the general did not appear to need to summon storm clouds first. Khun Rhee swung his mount and continued his attack-while-searching pattern, launching another lightning bolt when finding what he sought. Boss blinked as Khun looked directly at him for just a moment, and he somehow heard the faery general in his head: The sorcerers who were blockin
g your artillery have been destroyed, but please try to avoid launching your weapons where they might injure me. With that, the general turned and resumed slaughtering his way towards the large ethergate.
~ ~ ~ ~
“Hey, Dev. Dufangen said you wanted to see me?” Kelli looked much better after her rejuvenation bath and whatever magic her mages had used to perk her up. She was dressed now in a ruggedly professional vampyre outfit of black leather trousers and a red leather vest over a thick black shirt, her sleeves loosely rolled up her forearms, and her long snowy hair tied in a tight ponytail held together with shiny mythrill cords. She hadn’t bothered with more than minimal makeup before leading her royal entourage, including Dufangen and Sorvir, to meet Devon in her recovery room.
Devon stood before her, his hands behind his back. “Yeah, so, um, wink wink, I wanted to give you a gift, kind of an early wedding present for whenever you get married.” He gave her a huge, slow wink, and Kelli chuckled nervously.
“Oh, yeah,” she returned the exaggerated wink, “one of these days, yeah, I might maybe get married… anything to get some presents though, right?”
Devon brought his hands out front, holding a wide metal bracelet. It was emerald-green like her eyes, and the way it glimmered, everyone knew it was a magical item. “Here,” he said, “put this on.”
Kelli took it and held it up to admire. There were several obviously-enchanted gems and over a dozen tiny runes carved all across the surface, but she saw there was also an inscription inside the band; Kelli K. “This is beautiful! Thank you! It’s not just jewelry though, I can tell.” She squeezed her fingers together and slid it over her wrist, again admiring the quality.
“You gotta say the magic words to activate it,” he said.
“Uh… please and thank you?”
“No! The magic phrase is, ‘Devon no ka oi’.”
Kelli rolled her eyes and chuckled. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously!”
Kelli shrugged and nodded. No ka oi was Hawaiian for the best. “Okay, Mr. Humble.” She cleared her throat. “Devon no ka oi… oh!”
Kelli’s hair and clothes flustered as she felt the ether enchantment begin summoning the rest of the armor. The pieces began shimmering into place over her body, beginning at her wrist and continuing up her arm. The chest piece and other limbs quickly followed, the whole process lasting only a few heartbeats. Kelli staggered backward a few steps in surprise, then looked down at herself. “Holy crap, Devon!”
Devon began hula dancing in-place and singing. “Everybody knows, I’m no ka oi, I can turn your socks, into sweet fresh poi…”
The Sprite Queen rushed over to the mirror next to the wardrobe opposite the bed, her bright eyes beaming with excitement as she twisted and turned to get a good look at her reflection from every angle. “This looks kinda’ like Robin’s BWRS-19 combat suit from Nine Lives!”
Devon looked at Zaiyensa and Kim. “I told you guys.”
Where the comic book BWRS “bewers” was bulky, like a shorter VT-4 ValianT, Kelli’s armor had been considerably trimmed down. The knee, elbow and shoulder blocks from the BWRS were identical in every way except size, with their softly-rounded edges, hi-tech patterns, and even the built-in thruster ports. The boots and gauntlets were BWRS-like, with thick but sleek mechanical edges and ports that could accept additional attachments; but again much, much smaller than depicted in the comics.
“A lot of that stuff is just for looks,” Devon admitted.
Also similar were the very mecha-like chest and abdomen, much more comic-book-Hollywood than the ValianTs. The biggest deviation Kelli saw from a BWRS was that the legs and arms were all shaped to her slender form rather than being sharply-edged blocks of tank armor, and had runes and faery-inspired etchings in the metal. There was also a rigid leather-like battle skirt circling her waist and thighs, and this was decorated with various Hawaiian petroglyphs.
The biggest change Devon had made was that her armor’s pauldrons were large, anime-inspired protrusions. They covered each shoulder but also jutted downward beside her, being almost a meter in length. Despite their ungainly appearance, the pauldrons left her arms completely mobile in every direction.
“Those,” Devon said, “are not for looks. I’ll explain in a bit.”
Finally was the helmet, which was opened and folded back in two sections like a clamshell on either side of her face. The helmet itself protected the back of her neck while also giving her long hair room to flow out underneath it.
“How do I close the helmet?” she asked. “I wanna’ see it!”
“Just think ‘um,” Devon told her.
Immediately, the helmet panels unfolded from beside and behind her head, wrapping around her face like fingers locking together. Numerous silver platelets and rods at the top flipped into place, giving her helmet a crown that was faery-like in appearance, though the robotic helmet was pure BWRS. Kelli turned back to the mirror. “Even cooler than the BWRS! This is incredible!” Kelli gushed. The smoked eyepieces were not much larger than her own eyes, but the enchantment made the helmet completely invisible to her, giving her full visual awareness. “There’s even blood element fused with this armor! And, and…” Kelli’s eyes wandered as she used her sixth sense to explore the armor’s many enchantments. She looked at Dufangen, Sorvir, and the other sprites and mystics that were her entourage, then summoned a large blob of water from the moisture in the air. The blob straightened and took shape, becoming a watery sword that she grabbed hold of. Kelli stuttered in wonder. “You guys don’t need to merge with me anymore! This armor, it’s not just boosting my strength, it’s got like an encyclopedia of spells I can call on whenever I need to!” She released the sword and it evaporated.
“That’s not all,” Devon grinned. “Try summoning your wings.”
Kelli did so, but instead of her normal sprite wings appearing, a huge ethereal cape of emerald light exploded from around her pauldrons, its long train floating behind her and forming a large collar high around her head, giving her a most royal appearance. The wispy cape caused her to levitate in the air.
Kelli’s eyes were saucers as she stared into the mirror. She spun in midair, the cape weightlessly twisting with the motion, and she hovered toward Devon. “I honestly don’t know what to say, Devon, this is so cool!” she hugged him.
“That armor should be impenetrable while you’re wearing it, even from most magical attacks,” Devon told her. “Well, except for necromancy. I have no—” he caught himself short, managing not look at Zaiyensa as he remembered her admonishments. He couldn’t say things like “I have no idea” around these faeries. Instead he covered with, “Let’s just say I needed to leave some things up to you to figure out. Y’know, to build character and all that.”
“You sound like my dad,” Kelli snorted, pausing to hope that Derek was close to rescuing him.
“Yeah, sorry.” Devon caught her mood at the mention of her father. “The Hood going rescue him, Kel, no worry.”
“I know,” she nodded. “If anybody can bring him home, it’s the Hood.”
“And one more thing,” Devon raised a finger, “kinda’ small-kine important: your armor sort of runs on batteries — pure elemental magic. It needs to be recharged after you use it, and I think it takes a long time. But you can charge it by taking it off and submerging the bracelet in water, or burn it in fire, or bury it in faery dirt… that kind of thing.”
“How do I take it off? The same magic words?”
“No, just say pau hanas” Hawaiian for all finished, “when you no need the armor anymore.” He scratched his head, silently grateful that Zaiyensa had relented and outright crafted a couple of these enchantments for him. “And the armor will let you know before you get too low on magic.”
“So, if I get hit with fireballs or lightning spells, it just charges my batteries?”
“No, it doesn’t work like that. It has to be unaltered magic energy, something not actively manipulated with spell
s. But, the good thing is you can still use your own magic, wearing this armor won’t change how you cast spells or anything. So da’ kine, if you like save energy, you can use your own magic and save the armor’s spells for when you get tired, li’dat.”
Kelli nodded then looked at Dufangen. “I’m ready to go just like this. None of us has to go through that binding ritual again. Can you get an ethergate ready for us?”
Dufangen nodded and gestured to the two other mystics, and they followed the Royal Counselor out of the room.
“I wish I could go with you and be your aumakua,” Devon said, referencing the Hawaiian belief in guardian spirits. “But this isn’t like last time… we actually know some of the rules, and have responsibilities now. Still, I remember what happened to you after Boston. This armor’s main job is to protect you, but I also tried to craft it so you don’t have to go through that binding again. The armor won’t make you anywhere near as powerful as you was when Sorvir and those guys was binding with you, but it’ll keep you from getting hurt, at least. When you learn how to master the birthright on your own, this armor will be pretty useless to you, so maybe I’ll make you a new one to celebrate your first-born when the time comes!”
He gave her another goofy wink, but the flowing collared cape disappeared and Kelli fell to her feet, stumbling as Devon caught her. She sucked in a deep breath, grateful that the helmet hid the sudden pain in her face. “Whoah,” she said, hoping no one could hear the tears behind her words, “guess I need to practice landing in this thing!” She quickly composed herself, reaching up to grip Devon’s shoulder. “This is awesome, and it’s gonna be a big help right now. Exactly what I needed! I really can’t thank you enough, Devon.”
“Eh, if you have a boy, you can just name him after me,” he laughed.
The queen forced a laugh in reply, her heart screaming but unsure of how to process the unspoken truth she’d discovered after waking, unsure even of whether to be concerned about it.