The Last Holidays

by Grover Young

  It also didn't take a brainiac to see most of them were, at the very least, broken. Grey, however saw an opportunity.

  “Lapis Lazuli!” He yelled, “Stop his blood from reaching ...”

  A ringing peal of thunder knocked them from their feet as the Darkness roiled like water in a boiling pot.

  “Aww hell,” Grey cussed, struggling back to his feet. He had a glimpse of a tidal wave of teeth and claws came charging out of the darkness. That was enough for him.

  “Run,” he hissed to Claire leading them into the trees where they couldn't be seen. An explosion of screeches and shrill screams shook the hillside.

  She needed no encouragement, as she bolted through the trees like a scared rabbit. He would be damn lucky to save the cheerleader and himself – to hell with saving the world.

  “Lapis Lazuli!” Her name was called, “Stop his blood from reaching ...”

  She felt like such the fool and an idiot, but she couldn't help herself. The moment that evil sonofabitch had died, the bonds on her had disappeared. The chains on her very essence and soul were just gone.

  Maybe she didn't have a beating heart or need to breathe, but it caused whatever she did have to skip a beat and to inhale in surprise and shock. It was wonderful and yet terrible all at once. She was free. After thirty years, the shackles were gone.

  Her eyes turned skyward, stinging with tears she didn't know this body could produce. Next to her Ebony was weeping with body shaking sobs while Emerald held herself as she screamed, both of them finally able to express their soul deep agony.

  Two others, Kokab and Levana, collapsed to their knees, like puppets with their strings cut.

  Even with her speed, Lapis had barely begun turning as she pushed the Bastard's corpse away. The drop of bloody spittle had vanished into the pitch black disk.

  The blackness, impossibly, began to ripple as it was a curtain and a riot of movement was happening behind it. Then, starting where the bloody drop disappeared, reality 'tore' as a horde of creatures charged through.

  The other automatons, which she guessed must've been truly dead or so far gone it didn't matter, reacted as the wave of screeching, toothed and clawed monsters came near the Bastard's cadaver. Obeying their last orders, they defended it.

  It was hard to make out a single shape in the mass of death that swarmed at them. The best she could do was compare them to the extinct 'terror birds' that had ruled the prehistoric Americas. Standing at about five feet tall they had short wings, but more than made up for that with a wicked toothed beak and talons from hell.

  She didn't need to be a tactical genius to know this was a fight she couldn't win. There were too many of the bird-like demons and, although each golem was powerful, they were also fighting as individuals. As she watched, an automata was literally taken apart by the clawed horde like by a school of piranhas, so quickly the construct didn't have time to repair itself.

  Ebony, still fighting her shock from being freed, stared in confusion, while Emerald had stopped her screaming, looking about also in befuddlement. Kokab and Levana were starting to come to themselves, but far too slowly.

  “Get Emerald!” She yelled at Ebony who, as one of the Six, was near her. I'll get the other two.”

  The stark black feminine sculpture stared at her in incomprehension for a second before nodding.

  “We'll meet at the Bastard's house!” Lapis leaped into the air, using her flight to boost her over the sea of snapping razor sharp teeth.

  Ebony fired off a blast of her darkness that acted as solid as any battering ram, smashing the demon birds aside. Grabbing Emerald, the black automata took a running jump down the hillside.

  Landing, Lapis crushed one demon bird's skull in a golden hand. She noticed that, whatever the bones of these things were made of, it was extraordinarily strong. Good, so was she. A clawed foot sliced into her, but as another tried to take advantage and widen the already healing metal she had for flesh, she snatched the talon out of the air throwing it into the mass of demons still erupting from the gate.

  Scooping up Kokab who had come to her senses enough to dodge the attacks coming at her, Lapis snagged the arctic white form of Levana who'd also begun defending herself.

  “Hey!” Exclaimed the speedster automaton named for the Jewish word for Mercury. “What the hell is going on!”

  “We're getting the hell out of Dodge!” Lapis replied, launching herself into the cold sky.

  “Levana?” She asked, the automata named 'white' in Jewish, “Are you alright?”

  “I think so,” replied the white figure dangling beneath her, “That name. I had another name.”

  “We all did,” Lapis sighed. Was there anything such as therapy for displaced souls trapped within magical constructs? “The Golem Master killed all of us and used our spirits to animate these 'bodies'.”

  “I, I, remember.” The quick-silver bright Kokab stuttered with a whimper, “The pain.”

  “Stay with us,” Lapis ordered, “The sonofabitch is dead, but he released those damn things before he bled out. Maybe I couldn't do much to him while he was alive, but I sure as hell can mess up what he had planned since he's dead.

  “Besides,” she added, “I think I was once a hero.”

  “I think I was too,” Levana said, as she looked back at the hill that was fast blackening with bird demons.

  “Not me,” Kobab whispered, “I was a thief. I think, maybe. Everything is so jumbled up.”

  “That doesn't matter,” the white automata replied back, “only who you are now.”

  “And who is that?” The silvery feminine magical construct retorted, “So many of my memories are so mixed up or just gone. I don't know who or what I am.”

  “How about just someone who is pissed off,” Lapis suggested, “and is more than ready for a little payback?”

  “I guess that will work,” Kobab nodded hesitantly, “Where are we going now?”

  “Back to the mansion,” she answered, “we have to meet Ebony and Emerald there, plus I have to go inside for something important. Besides, while that SOB might have preferred to keep us naked, sculpture or not I want clothes. He had stuff there when he wanted us in costume.”

  There was quiet as all recalled 'why' he usually wanted them dressed up.

  “Eww,” Kobab made a face, “now 'that' I wish I didn't remember.”

  “All of us were helpless,” Lapis told them both, “That's part of what I'm going to take care of now.”

  They landed outside the old Dean's house. Neither Ebony, nor the man she believed to be Grey Wolf, had made it down the hill yet, but they could see the invading demons progress because of the rapidly disappearing forest. The hilltop was now bare, and they could see the line of falling trees.

  “We better make it fast,” Levana inclined her head at the sight, “They're going to be here quick.”

  She and Lapis had to steady themselves as Kobab was abruptly gone in a blur of motion.

  “Okay,” The white automata raised her crystalline blue eyebrows, “that was fast. Quicksilver for a speedster. That makes sense.”

  “The Bastard tried to match the bodies he made fit the powers of those he used to animate them,” Lapis bitterly explained, “Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. The ones that it did received the 'honor' of being his tools of choice.”

  Her tone made it damned clear that term was anything but a compliment.

  “I take it that Kobab and I weren't counted as among his successes?” Levana asked, lightly running up the stairs despite being made of metal.

  “No,” Lapis shook her head, “his speed was always his greatest advantage, but not so much as an offensive ability. As an automaton, she is stronger and much more resistant to harm, but without that creative spark that made him such a pain in the ass as a villain, she really wasn't that effective.”

  “I take it that applied to me as well.” She walked through the door Kobab had left open.

  “Yeah,” the golden wo
man sighed, “he believed he'd refined his 'process' so he could capture what made you such an impressive fighter, which in a way worked, because he could command you to perform nearly perfect kata's all day long.”

  “But again, without that creative spark as you called it, something was missing,” Levana finished for her, nodding understanding.

  “Exactly,” Lapis agreed, “he wanted unquestioning obedient slaves, but he also desired the special skills that put those he chose in a class by themselves.”

  “Not realizing that imprisoning the soul made the other impossible,” the martial artist continued.

  “More like ripping it to pieces, burning it to ash and then pouring molten metal over what was left,” Lapis replied, with pain in her heart. She remembered all too well the torture that had trapped her sense of self away in the deepest, darkest corner of her consciousness.

  “A mad man,” Levana shook her head at her own memories, “but a genius all the same. I can't believe this body of metal seems to be just as responsive and alive as I used to be.”

  “You do know that it's freezing outside and we're essentially naked, right?” Lapis recovered some of her humor. She kept quiet about being 'too' sensitive in certain places.

  “Yes,” She agreed, “but I also feel alive. Real or not I can feel my heart beating and the air going in and out of my lungs.”

  “Find some clothes and get dressed,” Lapis chided gently, “We're all shell-shocked, but we really don't have time. Not right now. Try not to think about the past, but focus on what needs to be done now.”

  “You are, of course, correct,” Levana agreed, “My focus is all over the place and that's abnormal for me.”

  “None of this is normal.” The golden automata called over her shoulder, “However, we survived while the others did not. Let's not throw that away.”

  Getting to the basement and the Bastard's working rooms wasn't hard. Any wards and protections that didn't go down with his death were keyed to her and the other automatons anyway.

  No, it was the next part that was the toughie. It was made all that much more difficult by the absolute lack of time. Passing by the tables, runic circles and shelves full of artifacts, she decided to try the most straight forward method first.

  The vault was a not so small bank safe that, for whatever reason, was installed in Misktonic University's Dean's residence. This being Arkham she hated to even try and guess why. The thing was about the size of a walk-in closet or small bathroom. It was also magically warded and protected up the yin-yang because that was where the SOB kept the things he truly wanted secure.

  She sighed, finding it closed and locked. Unfortunately, this was one of the few secrets of his she didn't know. After listening to him monologue for more than thirty years, she figured she knew damn near as much as he did about most things.

  The door was specifically designed to fit as seamlessly as possible. Gritting her teeth, Lapis dug her fingers into the hardened steel. There was a squeal of protesting metal and then the very foundation the safe was mounted upon creaked and groaned.

  Sparks flew as the disturbed magical wards had their say. However, her power sucked up that energy and added to her own with scarcely a thought. Unluckily for the wards, once that power reacted to her, it created a link; she used it to drain them as dead as the proverbial doornail.

  Forcing a corner of the safe door down, she grasped the safe's frame, warping it even more to free the door's bolts holding the thing closed. It was as messy as tearing open a plastic sealed package used to be for her in the days before she'd been murdered and transformed into her current self.

  Knowing that madman's insanity all too well, she prepared herself for one last booby-trap. Wrenching the heavy door open, it went off, probably with the intention of not only killing the would be burglar, but to destroy the contents as well.

  Years ago, before her murder, Lapis wouldn't have been able to prevent that. Now, however, with her golden body being such a perfect conductor, she absorbed the blast like a sponge, leaving not so much as a single ember behind.

  She knew exactly what she was looking for. Often she'd been called on to move the heavy padded box to his workroom. This caution made her open the box first. Inside in carefully fitted slots were fifteen hand-sized stone disks that were covered in symbols and writings. In three other of the slots were only a piles of dust. As she watched another of the stones crumbled before her eyes.

  There weren't any time left at all.

  Closing the lid, she rushed out as fast as she could.

  Grey was impressed. Claire had run like a frightened deer through the snowy woods and only now was starting to show signs of slowing. Of course, the shrill screams of the monsters behind them probably helped keep her going.

  He'd managed to slip another bolt into his crossbow and re-secure his weapons so they were where he needed them to be. However, make no mistake. If he had to fight these things, he was dead. There were simply too damn many of them.

  Additionally, even with the head start, the horde was gaining on them. Sure he could move considerably faster than Claire, but he wouldn't, no couldn't abandon her. Hearing what sounded like a runaway freight train behind them he brought his weapon around.

  The stark black form of Ebony and the metallic, electric blue of one of the other golems wasn't what he was expecting. Made of polished ebony wood even her hair was black, gleaming like obsidian strands. What stood out the most was her striking amethyst eyes.

  The other one had brilliant emerald eyes, and her hair was more of those strands that looked like a wave of scintillating green. Against the deepest blue he'd ever seen, her 'skin', she was striking as hell. However, it was obvious to his eye that she wasn't 'holding' things together as well as Ebony. Her movements weren't as sure of themselves, and there was a certain spooked wildness in her green eyes.

  She and he jumped as Ebony scooped up Claire just like a running back, snagging a fumble.

  “Come on Crossbow Boy,” the black golem urged as she passed him, “If you don't step up the pace you're going to be bird feed for sure. That just won't do because we owe you big time.”

  Grey grinned. Okay, maybe he would live through this after all.

  “Oh relax,” Ebony lifted the cheerleader in a fireman's carry, “we don't work for that guy anymore. William Tell over there took care of that problem in spades.”

  “Well, then,” he grinned at the blue girl as they ran, “let's make tracks. You can call me Grey.”

  “I'm Emerald,” she replied, not noticing the exertion at all, “I think. That's the only name I remember, although I'm sure there used to be another.”

  “Don't worry about that right now,” he advised, pushing himself harder, “You've all had one hell of a shock and deserve all the help that you can get. However, like usual, we've got a situation here.”

  “That's about par for the course.” Emerald hesitantly returned his smile, “This sort of thing seems to go with being a hero.”

  That didn't keep Grey from seeing the shadow that passed over her face. Lapis Lazuli and Ebony appeared more mentally intact than these others. Damned if he knew why, but if this disaster was as bad as it appeared, then the world would need all the help it could get.

  “When my wolf spirit first bonded with me, I thought I was going crazy.” He let his wolf guide him through the woods. If there was anything his spirit wanted to do right now, it was get as far from those things as it could. Besides, it helped distract him from the realization that, somewhere along the way, some of the golems had become people. Their faces had expressions and character instead of the blank lifelessness of statues.

  “I couldn't tell which memories were mine or if they were my spirit's,” His feet ate up the ground breaking out of the woods onto the edges of Arkham, “At times I didn't know if I was wolf or human, however I learned a trick.”

  Crossing Boundary Street they ran down Church Street, taking the opportunity of the mostly clear terrain to spee
d up to a full run.

  “Focus on the now,” Grey said, between breaths, “Who you are at heart will come through in the form of your actions. In time, with those new memories, the old ones will be easier to put into context.”

  “Easier said than done,” she looked behind them, “They have almost reached the edge of the woods.”

  “It always is,” he agreed, glancing back too. Black, ominous, swirling storm clouds were forming over the hilltop. The woods that had once hidden the crest of the hill, was now gone, completely obliterated by the hoard of onrushing velociraptor-like demon things.

  “Faster it is.” Sprinting, Grey ran full out for the three figures standing outside the Dean's house. Unless they knew something he didn't, shouldn't they all be running?

  “You want me to do what?” The man she knew had to be Grey Wolf exclaimed.

  She'd breathed out in relief as she saw that Ebony and he had joined up and were coming right to her. That gave her a little time to sort through the pile of clothes Kobab had rushed out to them.

  With distaste, she'd moved the maid's costume to one side. It wasn't the fact it was so feminine that put her off, but because it represented all the long decades she'd spent as that Bastard's slave. However, the others weren't much of an improvement. Occasionally, he had them dress up to recreate some social event such as the holidays, but usually it was for sex. There were way too many schoolgirl outfits and outright fetish stuff, even if it was badly out of date.

  Maybe the styles she knew best were from the seventies and early eighties, but the Betty Page look was so not her. She couldn't even say what her 'look' was. She'd once been male, but like so many other things that'd been years ago. Her every gesture and movement was feminine and had been so for as long as her scrambled memories could recall.

  Rummaging around, she found an outfit he'd intended for them to wear during archeological digs. The riding beeches styled pants, loose blouse and short jacket would work, she decided. The jacket would make her bust a little less prominent and made her feel a bit more comfortable. Footwear was unneeded and besides, they didn't have time for that anyway. The whole point was for them to feel more like people and less like things and shoes weren't required for that. She'd spent most of her childhood barefoot.