Daughters of Dusk 1

by Michael Hudson

  But then there was this whole tonight stuff. He had already thought about what he would do if they told him they wanted to disappear on him, but he didn’t know exactly how to let them know about it. Then again, like a lot of his ‘plans’ he supposed they would be able to figure out sooner or later what his thoughts for them were. Yeah, that sounded like the best plan, and so he came back into the car like nothing had happened.

  The only moment he really questioned this choice was when, about two blocks away from the house, he heard one of the backdoors to the small car open, heard some sort of thud, and saw that Ovelia wasn’t there anymore. He lifted his foot to slam on the breaks, but only heard Mary’s voice tell him, “Keep driving and don’t react. She knows what she’s doing.”

  “But I was going twenty miles an hour!”

  To which Wren only snorted. Peter glanced at X, who was showing nothing as she looked at him. He kind of just assumed she was in on this too and sighed as he kept going. It’s not like he was going to stop Ovelia after all. He did add to the other two though, “Is she going to be back for breakfast tomorrow?”

  Both of them spoke in unison this time with a solid, “Yes.”

  Peter slowly nodded at that, before turning his focus back to the road. When he finally turned into his driveway though he couldn’t help but let out a small sigh. He had been at a bit of a higher level of focus then he was used to these past few days and having Ovelia gone for the night might help with his stress. In fact, all of the girls being gone would help him just relax. It wasn’t his place to stop them from having fun after all and he just hoped they didn’t get themselves hurt.

  And so, he turned off the car, brought the girls in, and about five minutes later, Wren and Mary ran out of the house without a word.

  To which Peter only yelled back at them, “Be back for breakfast, okay?” Unfortunately for him, the only response he got was the closing of his front door and X’s tilted head. He shrugged to the stoic girl with a sigh as it felt like steam came out of his head. “What? It’s not like I can stop you all, so I just want to know you all will be back in the morning. Is that so bad?”

  X shook her head, a twinge of pain running inside of her as she thought to herself how it wouldn’t matter.

  After all, while she didn’t know what the other three were up to, she was certain that by the end of tonight, it would be her duty to kill every living thing on this planet.

  ======+++++======

  George picked up his radio, cursing at himself as he confirmed that target O had been missing for a minute now. She hadn’t come out of the car, and they were told that if they were missing for a full minute, to call it in so a search of the city could be done. It was something that the team had been thankful for not having to do before now. They should have known something was going to happen though, as it was only three hours before the sun would set, and another hour before their operation began.

  Just as he was about to turn on the radio though, a soft voice broke the stillness in his room. “Please don’t.”

  He grabbed the pistol at his side and turned as fast as he could, his heart hammering in his ears as he knew who this had to be. Indeed, Ovelia stood there, the front of her suit unzipped to her belly button, allowing the sides of her breasts to be shown easily, not that it was something that the trained soldier really took in. Not when a killer was only twenty feet from him. “Why are you here?”

  Ovelia paused, looking away, before putting a hand on her face and taking in a shuddering breath, before she slammed her fist against the wall. She then backed away from it, whispering to herself as she let her eyes, and the tears in them, be seen. She looked horrified to George, and the cracks in her voice helped add to that as she spoke. “I… I’m scared. Scared for my team, but especially me. We can tell something is going on, and… And I don’t want to die.”

  George paused, for a moment looking at the girl as something beyond what he knew her as. After all, she was still a young woman, and if they had noticed them bringing in extra troops he couldn’t blame her for being scared. Besides, if he was going to be stuck in this frozen state, befriending one of these babes could really help him pass the time. “You don’t need to be. You and the other two aren’t our target. Simply the unknown one.”

  Ovelia was quiet as she looked at him from between her fingers, before whispering to him, “R-Really?”

  “Yeah, so you should head back inside. James is going to be asking me why I haven’t said anything pretty soon.”

  Ovelia swallowed hard as she brought one of her hands out from behind her, the box of condoms in it. “I… I know it’ll be safer here, and I’m ready to repay you both for your kindness, so just… Please let me stay.”

  George paused for a moment, taking in the fact that she was still crying, but the condoms told a different story. She wasn’t here to protect her friends. No, she was here to save her own hide from whatever they were going to do, even if it meant abandoning her friends. It sickened him, but at least it didn’t change anyone’s plans. Only made it so the celebration afterwards would be even better. He now only had to make sure he didn’t have to share her too much. “Alright. I’ll tell James that we won’t tell anyone about you. You’ll need to sit in the corner though and stay quiet.”

  Ovelia nodded, watching as he turned back to his radio. Her hand slipped up, reaching to the outside edge of her left breast where someone couldn’t see the bulge there. From it she pulled out a cheesy pair of sunglasses with metal frames on it, one of Peter’s she guessed that she had found in the house, and waited for ‘James’ to respond to his radio. In that moment, she lifted the glassed in a practiced motion and let the afternoon sun glint off of their edge.

  And what neither sniper saw was Wren and Mary slipping out of the front of the house and sprinting in opposite directions. Even better was when George realized and believed Ovelia that she didn’t know where they went. He didn’t tell the others on his team though, because it would have meant revealing her and the betrayal they had already done. It would mean a court martial, maybe even treason accusations, and with how secret the whole project had been… Neither sniper was happy with themselves that they had fallen for the trap, but decided to focus on the positive, such as less targets to mess up the operation, and an ally in the making in the form of Ovelia.

  All of which was just as she had planned. When he wasn’t looking though, Ovelia stole a pack of George’s rubber rounds silently and retreated to her corner, silently tapping on the bullets one hundred times each in preparation for what was to come.

  Storm

  X stepped out of the front door and into the moonlit night. It wasn’t the first time she had done it since arriving in Alaska. In fact, she liked the cool crisp air, the freedom of being able to come and go as she wanted, and the small noises that came with the night. Noises she had missed. Abilities she had missed.

  And abilities she would lose if she did not act now.

  She didn’t want to of course. The past few days… They had been like paradise for her. She wasn’t stuck in a hole, wrapped in chains, or being drained of her blood. No, she was allowed to be safe, quiet, and… Happy. Happy with a man who never seemed to once try to actually tell her what to do. Just suggest and let her choose. A man who was just trying to make her happier.

  But he was one man. One man in a world that hated her. On a planet that only desired her power. That was why fifty five unfamiliar signatures were spread out in front of the house and along the street. Soldiers having come likely to incapacitate, or kill, her. Peter couldn’t stop them, and he was an outlier. One out of billions of people.

  Her hair rose as a white aura surrounded her. She would not be caught off guard this time though. She would fight, and she would win. After all, she could feel that she was more powerful than she had ever been before. That she would be able to cut these men down in swaths. She merely waited for them to make the first move. To give them the chance to prove her wrong. Prove that there cou
ld be more like Peter.

  One of the men before her spoke, and she felt time slow as she prepared herself. His words were simple. A command to a man named George to take the shot, non-lethal. Not that that was a kindness. It just meant that they would try to capture her before they tried to kill her.

  And in response, the man heard a female voice, soft and musical, say back, “Non-lethal? That’s no fun. It’s a good thing I fixed that.”

  And then, before the men could react, a silenced sniper rifle fired. To anyone who knew what the bullet looked like, it would be a long, gray bullet shaped like any other sniper cartridge. To X though, she saw something else. The traces of her power that another had inherited, planted as a hundred glowing, little motes of light that fizzled and popped on the bullet.

  It moved quickly, but X immediately could tell where it was aimed, and it wasn’t at her. No, instead, it came down on a soldier that began to turn towards the building the bullet had come from. It smacked against the man’s helmet, forcing him to begin to fall from the force, but it wasn’t lethal. It wasn’t what the female voice that she recognized had promised.

  And then the motes went off. The first popped and went into its brothers, causing them to glow. Then the five it touched went into the next ones, forming a wave of coalescing energy that cascaded around the bullet. It then formed into a single wave, wrapping around the bullet as a large ball, larger than a man’s head, and crackling with energy that only X and Ovelia could see.

  And within ten milliseconds of the effect starting, the ball burst, and an invisible shockwave crashed outwards from it. The man whose helmet it had smacked into felt the wall of force first, even if it was only for a moment. His helmet sank in, pushed by the solid mass of force, before the real impact pushed it all the way in, the steel puncturing his skull and turning his head into a spray of red. The other two men who were directly next to the bullet didn’t fare much better as one of them found their arm ripped off before his eardrum exploded with enough force to rattle his brain and shut him down, and the other found his ribs to be crushed with enough force that everything those bones were meant to protect were suddenly punctured and crushed by the ivory trappings.

  Those fortunate enough to come next weren’t killed, and for the most part didn’t break more than a couple small bones, but were still knocked on their asses and disoriented as their minds tried to figure out how, with no sound, they had been thrown back like by a grenade. Those beyond that didn’t question it. After all, they had heard the voice too, and they knew they couldn’t wait for it to merely go away, not if it had acquired a sniper rifle, and they headed for the building while ignoring their primary target for the moment.

  They didn’t get far before the sound of a car alarm got their attention. About a hundred yards away from the bulk of their force, they saw as a small car parked on the street begin to move. Or, more specifically, begin to be lifted into the air, with a woman underneath it with bright red hair and a devil’s grin being revealed to be why it moved. They saw her bend her legs, and then she threw the car.

  Most of them expected it to fall on them. The ones nearest to the building with Ovelia hit the ground before they could be crushed, before finding another rubber bullet killing them. Instead, they were reminded that these girls were still based on humans, and winced as the car went about twenty yards and screeched against the pavement as it skidded another ten.

  The problem was that no one could see Wren now though, and commands started being made for people to move in, with two teams keeping an eye on X, one going after Ovelia, and two going after Wren. They couldn’t entirely ignore any of them, but they couldn’t face their target with the others out and about like this. They had all been supposed to be in the house though, so command only questioned why they weren’t, and who had betrayed them.

  Their worst fear was met though as three men found out that none of the girls were still inside. When examined, the coroner would have a hard time figuring out what exactly happened to the bodies, but X could see. Could see as Mary dropped out of a tree and threw three butter knives towards the nearest soldiers. Each found their mark in the men’s necks and they dropped like flies. By the time anyone noticed their disappearance though, Mary had already picked up one of the men’s assault rifles and shot it like a burst rifle into two of the men heading for Ovelia, dropping each of them in turn.

  Not that X was surprised. She was more surprised at what it was that seemed to help her aim. An ethereal ghost that hung over her, green unlike what Ovelia and Wren had with their white colors. Even her own powers were white, which was what made her know that they had inherited shards of her abilities, but this one was different.

  And, as a man came up on Mary’s flank and tried to shoot her, the spirit pulled on her, turned her, and made it so that within the span of the man firing, and the bullet reaching Mary, she had dodged it and fired back, five bullets finding their mark in the man’s head.

  The final question for X in how this would go laid with Wren though. She was strong, yes, but if she planned to survive this, she would need more. Need to do something others couldn’t with just their fists.

  And X quickly saw it as the girl walked towards the force, heading to the right of the car, where a building could cover her flank, and opening her hands. From her fingers, long scythe-like blades, as long as most of her body, began to form from them, made of white energy that most wouldn’t see. A flex of her hand confirmed that the blades couldn’t hurt her either, but when a man came around the car, he found out how real they were.

  She moved fast, stepping forward with a spring in her step, like a cat upon its prey. Her blades reached him long before her hand did, but they did act as extensions of her hand as X could see Wren’s hand pause for a second from the impact. It stopped her for no longer though, as Wren had launched herself with the force of a cannon at the man and his chest exploded in red as her hand reached deep inside of him.

  She didn’t stop mutilating him though as she was painted in his blood. No, she then gripped the man’s spine and held him up as she turned towards those coming for her. They screamed at the sight, before opening up, ripping through their now dead compatriot in a hail of bullets. When she was close enough to another person though, she went from sprinting to a crouched leap, leaving the body above her as she sprang towards her next victim. Those she didn’t take as shields though weren’t spared, X saw, as a flick of Wren’s wrist sliced two men into fifths.

  The piece of resistance though was when she put her hand on her head, her fingers pointed behind her. In theory, she was vulnerable on her back, and even if she was inhumanely tough, a bullet would still pierce her.

  The claws were another case, and not a single bullet even came close to denting them as she continued to work on the right flank of men.

  Between the three of them, it only took five minutes for everything to grow quiet. The silenced weapons had seen to it that not many had come out to see what was going on, and X could tell that those who had heard anything had quickly gone back in. Add to that the fact that the government would likely not want intruders, that would explain the lack of police. That left only her, the other three girls, and a pool of blood and bodies.

  And a question for her to ask as she walked off of Peter’s lawn and to the three who were gathering with each other and going over injuries and next steps. She didn’t care about any of that though as she opened her mouth, felt her throat shake, and let out a hoarse, “Why?”

  All three of the girls stopped talking at the hoarse whisper before turning to X. Wren didn’t smile or anything though as she turned her claws off and breathed heavily, blood coating every inch of her. She only looked at X through cold, confident eyes. “You’re from the facility, and the fourth of our team. We didn’t need anything more than that to protect you.”

  “You’re one of us, and hopefully will one day will truly be a part of our team. Until then though,” Ovelia said as she carried now two sniper rifle cases
and a bag of ammo, both lethal and non-lethal, in her hands, “we will make sure you stay safe.”

  “Besides,” Mary said with a smile and a grin as she checked the safety on her rifle, “you’re obviously different, and now that you’re talking, we’d love to know how.”

  X was silent for a moment as she stared at them, before allowing the slight hint of a smile to her face.

  Click.

  Boom!

  There was no silencer on this one. Nothing to slow the anti-tank rifle’s bullet as it was aimed to rip through Wren’s back, and then go straight through Mary’s head. It was the squad’s backup plan. To have one man, hidden deep in the bushes catch X off guard with a bullet no one could stop.

  But it did stop. In fact, it got no further then barely out of the muzzle before it stopped dead in its tracks, turned towards the man, and then went straight through his eye.

  X then looked at the girls and asked, “F-f-frie?”

  Wren glanced at where the rifle was, paled for a moment as her body began to shake, before looking back at the woman before her and barely managed her normal grin. “Better that then enemies.”

  To which X only nodded. She didn’t move as quickly as the rest did though, with Mary moving to take care of the backyard sniper with her assault rifle, Wren heading in to start trying to clean herself, and Ovelia went towards the now third rifle to take it for herself, just as the girls would do with every weapon that night.

  X only watched them, thinking to herself that four people out of billions was still a very small amount, but it was a good start, and she wouldn’t want to lose them. Not before they did anything wrong to her.

  Epilogue/Aftermath

  “Damnit Haverson! Suppressing the news about this is going to cost thousands, not to mention the complete failure of the mission. In fact, the only success we technically had was in keeping the three other threats in that damned house!”