Attack Doll 4: Primes Emeriti
Page 12
Chapter 12
The second wave of monsters appeared not too long after lights-out. "Looks like we're going to have to split up the team after all, kids," Wizzit told us all as we gathered in the common room. "Got monsters near Paris and in Mike's home town of Auckland, New Zealand. I have contacted Alvaro and Cathy. Mayumi has not responded yet; it's early morning in Tokyo, and she may still be asleep."
"I can go knock on her door," Bill offered.
"You could," Mike replied, "but Trevor would attract less attention than a six-foot-three Westerner, and he speaks Japanese."
Bill frowned. "Watashi wa nihongo ga hanesemasu."
"Yes, well, maybe you can," Mike said without batting an eye, "but you'd still attract more attention than I would like. Trevor, off you go. Bring Mayumi back here to get her blaster and then meet us in . . . Paris, I think."
"Wait a sec," I objected. "I'm on your team, right? Don't you want to send Trina to Paris, since she actually speaks French, and since you already know your way around Auckland?"
He grinned. "Auckland's nothing special, mate, and I've never been to Paris. Padma also speaks French, don't you, love?" Padma nodded. "Good. Then she can translate for us."
Trina gave a resigned shrug of her shoulders. "Auckland for me, then."
Wizzit gave me Mayumi's apartment number and whisked me off to Japan while the others were activating. A bit nervously, I rehearsed how I was going to ask to see her; despite Mike's confidence in me, my Japanese is fairly rusty. Her husband opened the door; I had met him once, briefly, although I had no idea whether he would remember me.
Before I could launch into my prepared speech, he exclaimed, "Ah, you are Mayumi's friend! Are you here to see her?"
"I am," I said, giving him a slight bow.
He glanced back into the apartment. "She will be available in perhaps five minutes. Please come in. Would you like some tea?"
I accepted, figuring that to refuse would be impolite. Mr. Chikamatsu (I had never learned his first name) placed me in a chair and gave me a cup of tea and then vanished into their bedroom. He emerged about ten minutes and one cup of tea later, with Mayumi following.
She looked pretty incredible, I have to say. She is the oldest of all our former Primes; I knew that she was pushing forty pretty hard, but standing before me in the Prime's quasi-uniform of shorts and a tee-shirt, she didn't appear a day over, say, twenty-four. Seems to be a side benefit of having been a Prime, because Cathy and Alvaro are the same way.
"Why, hello, Trevor!" she said excitedly in English. "I assume you are here to notify me of a monster attack. Where are we going?" I glanced at her husband, but she dismissed my concerns with a wave of her hand. "Oh, he knows all about my former life. And besides, he doesn't speak much English."
"Well, in that case, we'll stop off at HQ to pick up a weapon for you and then we're going to Paris."
"That sounds wonderful. It has been ages since I was in Paris. Let's go!"
After a quick stop to pick up her triple blaster, we materialized outside of what looked like an immense castle built of white stone. A tall wall, rectangular in shape, surrounded the main keep, with an inner tower looming high above. It was nighttime, but the tower was all lit up, probably for tourists. "Welcome to the Chateau de Vincennes!" Wizzit said happily. "The others are by the north gate, which is ahead of you and to your right, just off the Avenue de Paris."
I turned to look at Mayumi. She and I were very different in appearance. With my force shield activated, I appeared to be vaguely human-shaped and surrounded by a glowing, swirling blue mist that prevented anyone from discerning my features. She, on the other hand, looked as though she had been poured out in a foundry, a copper-colored android made of pure, living metal. An interesting look, I thought.
She and I dashed forward to join the rest of the group. Well, okay, maybe "dashed" isn't quite the correct word here. I was well aware that, despite her appearance, Mayumi was just a thirty-nine-year-old woman with a gun. A very fit, very experienced woman with a very effective gun, to be sure, but she didn't have the speed, strength, and endurance benefits of a real force shield as I did. Let's say we jogged forward.
When we reached the north gate, we saw what appeared to be a large horse prancing about in the middle of a lighted street, presumably the Avenue de Paris. And when I say large, I mean really large -- like, twice the size of any Clydesdale you have ever seen. And man, did it look mean! I had never seen a horse with fangs before.
The beastie was attacking any car that came near it. As I watched, it lowered its head as if it were a bull and charged a small van of some sort. I winced at the head-on impact, but it didn't seem to bother the horse at all. In fact, it raised its head and somehow managed to lift the van off its front wheels. It couldn't quite seem to pick it completely off the ground, so after a minute or two it did the next best thing: it set its hooves and wrenched its head to one side. The van rolled over on its side, and the horse, satisfied, pulled away and went in search of other prey.
It was then that I noticed the long, sharp, glittering horn protruding from its forehead. O-kay, not a horse, then -- a unicorn. I guess that would explain the way it had attacked the van.
"Glad you could make it, Copper," I heard Mike's voice say. "You can start shooting any time you feel like it. Watch out for this one, Blue. It's nearly skewered Yellow already."
"I'll be careful, Red," I replied. "Copper, let me know if you need anything."
She held up the blaster two-handed, sighted along the barrel, and snapped off a shot. "Will do, Blue."
I ran up to the Avenue and circled around the unicorn. It was eying me suspiciously; behind it, I could see Padma and Nicolai approaching cautiously, their axes raised. Before they could strike, the unicorn spun about, slashing at them with its horn. They danced back, and I ran forward. The thing must have had eyes in the back of its head, though, because it kicked out with its hind legs as I drew near, and I had to throw myself to one side to avoid having a pair of hoofprints embedded in my chest.
Mike ran in from somewhere, broadsword swinging. Somehow the unicorn pivoted on its two front hooves to meet his charge with a thrust of its horn. They dueled for a few strokes, sparks flying everywhere, and then with a twist of its head, the animal sent Mike flying backwards.
"Down, Blue!" I heard Mayumi shout. I somersaulted backward; a second later, a beam of energy sizzled through the air just above where my head had been. It struck the unicorn on its flank, but for all the effect it had, Mayumi might just as well have shined a flashlight at it.
"This thing is too strong!" Mike exclaimed. He whipped out his own blaster, aiming for its eyes, but it had already spun about to confront Padma. "Wizzit, we may have to bring in Junior Prime Pink."
"Help is already on the way," Wizzit chirped in reply. "Team Orange has completed their mission in Auckland and are teleporting in now."
There were five simultaneous flashes of light, and suddenly there were ten of us fighting the monster instead of five. Alvaro and Cathy had the same metallic look to them as Mayumi did; Cathy was a bright silver, and Alvaro, a darker gray. The two of them plus Trina aimed their triple-blasters at the unicorn and fired, driving it back from Padma.
"Thanks for stopping by," Mike commented. "Everything went well in New Zealand, I take it?"
"Monster was barely worth our time," Trina replied disdainfully. "Three shots and he went poof!"
"This one is giving us a lot of trouble," Padma said. "We cannot sneak up on him, and he is so fast that it is difficult to hit him."
"Let's try all our blasters on him at once," Trina suggested. "On my mark. Everybody ready? Three, two, one, fire!"
The creature was bathed in light as all ten of our blaster beams hit him at the same time, and he let out a loud, horsey roar, but if the blasters hurt him, it didn't show when we stopped firing. His he
ad went left, then right, as if he were searching for the source of the attack, and his gaze locked on Trina. She was standing in the middle of the Avenue de Paris, gun hand outstretched. She snapped off another shot as he charged toward her, horn lowered for the attack.
"Orange, get out of there!" Mike cried out, but Trina stood her ground, still firing.
Then, to my amazement, the unicorn stopped with his horn about a foot away from goring her. He stared at her for a moment, then lowered his horn until it touched the ground at her feet. He blew, but other than that, he didn't make a sound. Slowly, he walked forward until his head butted up against her shoulder. He was doing it gently, but he was so big that it knocked Trina to the ground.
Before she had a chance to scramble to her feet, the big unicorn knelt before her and tried to lay his head in her lap. It was too big to be entirely successful, but soon most of his horsey face lay across her legs, and he stared up at her with evident devotion.
"Wh-what do I do now?" Trina asked nervously.
"Pet him," Bill suggested. "Stroke his nose and scratch him between the ears. Tell him what a good boy he is."
Trina began crooning softly to the horse-shaped monster and stroking its nose. Slowly, its eyes closed, and it seemed to sink into a deep slumber. "So now what?" Trina asked. "Do we attack it while it is asleep?"
"Take hold of its horn," Wizzit suggested. "My scans indicated that it is the source of its power. If you can separate it from its horn, it should disintegrate."
"All right," Trina said with a shrug. "Here goes nothing." She took hold of the horn with both hands and pulled. At first, nothing happened. Then, as she strained one way and then another, I heard a sharp crack! and the horn suddenly came free in her hand. She scrambled away as the unicorn's body began sparking; within two minutes, nothing was left of it but a pile of dust.