by L Bowers
Another light flash, another slip, and I was back in my time with my back arched and hands gripping my half-metal head in anguish as I shouted at the sky. I had gone back over and over again, somehow able to manipulate this time slip when, as far as I knew, nobody else could. That man and woman had gone through, but from what I could tell of their travels, it had been somewhat random.
Me, though? I used my ability to look at codes and patterns to see the runes that floated in a digital world in front of me, somehow using another power in this metal body to always return to that exact spot where I had found Crystal. Where she was already part snake, already lost…but not dead. And each time, they killed her. No matter what I did.
Although, I supposed there were options. For example, if I turned on the Marines and killed them all, would that keep her alive? It was possible, but it also would mean killing Marines. It would mean becoming the monster the metal wanted me to be. As for going further back in time, there was no way that I knew of. The code I saw involved a specific time, but I didn’t know what to adjust or where. Only how to repeat it, to get me back to that one spot.
Why? I hadn’t the foggiest. As I collapsed to the ground and considered whether or not to give up, I thought it through. Perhaps this spider body had once contained one of those animal spirits, something that tied it to the old ways. Maybe there was something about this planet, a place or device that controlled time? I could imagine ancient people using it to move through the galaxy, or changing the location of an entire planet so they would never need spaceships. Now, somehow, I had managed to tap into it.
Of course, that was all pretty out there. Maybe. It was also possible that whatever inner force allowed my time slips also gave me hints of what was happening and how. And if that was the case, it believed I could make a difference.
Instead of sitting there and wallowing in sorrow, I had to try again. I picked myself up and glanced around to see that the sun had moved in the sky. It wasn’t the same time as when I’d gone into the time slip. Was it the same day? Another glance around showed an open field, and to my surprise, that man again. He approached me at a jog.
I pushed myself up and refused to show weakness, then turned to him and waited, watching, and looked down at him as he stopped.
“You tried to tell me something before,” the man said. “I’m ready to listen.”
I nodded, drew a breath, and repeated what I had tried to tell him before. About how the magnets worked on the creatures. Except, as I spoke, his face scrunched up in confusion. He was a Marine, right? There should have been no reason for the confusion. Both of us spoke English. Even if we didn’t, his suit should have come with a translator chip.
“I’m telling you, the magnets from your guns, if you have the same issue as we did,” I insisted, “they’ll work.”
He shook his head. “Something’s off about the way you speak. Like there’s interference. It wasn’t that way with the other SEALs, so—”
“Maybe it’s because I’m trying to help you!” I said.
“Maybe because you’re trying to help,” he said as well, and I chuckled at the absurdity of the moment. We were right, I assumed. The alien metal in me knew what was happening and fought back, although I had managed to suppress it.
As I glanced around and looked for a better way to communicate, I noticed something in the distance. When I stepped closer, I realized it was a transport vehicle, and it was being pursued.
“Dammit.” The man put a fist on his chest. “They might try to fight you, so give me a minute to explain, yeah?”
I nodded, then indicated more objects coming into view. We both knew that based on the flight pattern and speed they weren’t with him but were chasing the transport vehicle.
“Wonderful,” he muttered, then motioned me back. “To the rocks! Take cover, and be ready for a true shitstorm.”
I did as he said, but as I moved for the rocks the digital floating runes appeared, and my longing to save Crystal took over again. This man needed me, so I ignored it, but when I turned to see where he was, I stumbled through the time slip instead and halted where the fight between Crystal and her attackers took place.
Now I couldn’t escape this place when I wanted to. Or pretended to want to. I charged in and tried to scare off the Marines, then shouted at Crystal to stop fighting and retreat, but as soon as I reached them I was back with the man in my time, the fight now on the ground.
“Where’d you go?” he yelled while shooting from behind a rock as robot animals and a couple of SEALs I recognized engaged in combat with the Marines.
“Back.” I knew he wouldn’t understand me. I eyed his rifle, then held out my hand.
He shook his head. “Not a chance. A Marine doesn’t give up his rifle.”
I grunted my annoyance and held out my hand again, this time using my flesh one as I realized the first had been my metal arm. I could see how that might be unnerving. If he was going to have a chance here, he needed to trust me. His eyes were on my hand as he debated, then raised it my way. I reached, but those damn runes appeared again, and I was gone before it could come.
There I was with Crystal. She slithered around, rose tall, and turned to look at me.
“Kill them all!” she shouted before a metallic laugh took over. “Let’s swim in their blood!”
“Crystal, enough!” I shouted back and motioned to the Marines who were regrouping. “Please!”
“You dare turn against our directive?”
I scurried over to her so that she could see my eyes, and me hers. “Crystal, do you remember our kiss? Do you remember that cave? Before…this.”
She blinked, and a hint of recognition showed through. She slithered back. “What… What are you doing to me?”
“You need to listen.” I held out my hand. “Together, we can change this. Together, we can be us again.”
For a few seconds, I thought she would take my hand, and somehow it would all be over. Then the shots came again. One tore into her exposed breast, and she roared, then lifted back onto her tail so that she was tall above me.
Her voice echoed with a metallic twang. “We must kill them all.”
She shot back down at them, but I wasn’t about to let it end like that. I leaped after her before she could get too far, and jumped. I landed on her tail, scurried up it until I had her, and grabbed her in a bear hug to try and tackle her to the ground.
That didn’t matter, of course, because she simply rose into the air again on her snake tail, then slammed me down onto the ground as she writhed and turned to face me. We were so close that I felt her breath on the flesh of my remaining cheek. A forked tongue emerged, and metal fangs extended, but her eyes met mine again, and she paused.
“We aren’t us anymore,” she whimpered. “Please leave me be.”
“I can’t. Not like this.”
More shots came, but I held her to me. I didn’t think of her nudity or mine, or our skin and metal pressed together like that. I recalled my affection for her, and my need to be free of this time-slipping bullshit—but only if she was at my side.
She pursed her lips as the sounds of bullets and shouting drew near and nodded. “Together, we let them have us. Like this, yes?”
I held her tight. “I have a better idea. Will you come with me?”
Confusion showed in her eyes, but they stayed focused on me as she nodded.
This time, the runes were there again, and this time, I happily let it bring me back to my time. As I had hoped, Crystal was there with me, in my arms. A glance around, however, showed that the man I had tried to help wasn’t. My first thought was that I had screwed it up and had come too late.
A yelp sounded from nearby, then a growl, and I let go of Crystal so I could push up and look over the rocks. Drag marks went away from me and to the right, around a tree and more rocks, so I sprang up and said, “On me.”
Crystal moved as fast as I did. A second later, the two of us rounded that tree and saw the man ther
e, his rifle on the ground as a robot tiger creature with pink light in spots on its body, and spikes on its tail bit into his armor and created large gashes. The man tried to fight and back away, but it was no use.
At least, it was no use until I went for the rifle, activated the magnetics, and slammed it against the creature’s head. It wasn’t exactly as I had remembered, but the beast went slightly slack, whimpered, and couldn’t move.
“Holy hell.” The man scrambled away, looked at it, then at Crystal behind me—his eyes widened at the sight of her—and he said, “Not you again.”
“She’s with me.” I held up a hand to show she wouldn’t be a problem… I hoped. Then I returned my focus to the rifle and grinned. While the gun could only go so high on the magnetics, my digital sight showed me runes like codes and patterns of my surroundings, and one of the darker rocks had code similar to the rifle. I heaved the weapon and connected robot tiger up and against the rock, and the result was instantaneous. Blue light shot out of the beast, and the metal did something weird—it went through a rapid rusting cycle, then collapsed in pieces.
“What?” Crystal came to my side. Her tail had her at my level now, and her metal had stopped the blood from her chest.
“Memories,” I told her. “You’ll find you’ll remember more in time, too.”
She didn’t have anything to say, but the Marine sure did.
“Holy shit-stained flapper jacks.” He clearly tried to swear but was caught off-guard by what he had witnessed. He got up, then took his rifle and stared at it in awe, especially at the magnetics, then turned to me. “You might have turned this whole battle around.”
“I hope so,” I said.
His eyes went wider. Then he turned to the rock. “Something about it is interfering with whatever distorted your speech. I can understand you.”
“No shit?” I beamed. “Ah, this—this is Crystal.”
“Or was,” Crystal said, then realized for the first time that her upper body was nude and covered her breasts with her arms. “And you are?”
“We were supposed to be your rescue mission,” the man said. “I’m Goshawk. And… It’s a pleasure? Sorry, it’s… I thought you were dead. I saw you go up against my men before and—”
“I brought her back,” I cut him off and explained. “Stopped that from happening.”
Goshawk shook his head in amazement, while shots and roars from behind snapped us back to the situation.
“Come on,” he said. “We have a war to win.”
We started, but Crystal was the one to say, “Won’t your side attack us?”
“Not if they see you fighting your kind. And I’ll work to get the message out as fast as I can.”
“Roger that.” I motioned for him to lead the way, then pointed to the left. “We’ll flank the robots there and distract them so you have time to get back to your people.”
“Thank you.” He nodded and gave Crystal one more uneasy look before he charged off.
I turned to her too, took her hand, and said, “Welcome back to the right side.”
She nodded. “How do I know I’m fully back?”
“If you fade, let me know. I won’t let you go dark again. And you do the same for me.”
She gulped, nodded, and joined me as we charged off to join the fight.
23
Goshawk
My Marines had stopped the vehicle and surrounded it. They fired at the attackers while making sure they didn’t shoot in the direction I occupied. I couldn’t say how grateful I was for that. A bullet to the ass would ruin an already jacked-up day.
Then the distraction started. A large rock slammed into a stag-like machine and folded the rear legs under it at angles they weren’t made to bend. A majority of the enemy in my way turned to face the newest threat. My new friend, the brutish half-man charged into their ranks while swinging a large black rock like it was a misshapen club. The heads he hit suffered dents, but the machines fell to the ground as if someone turned off their power switch. Unfortunately, the rock broke and shattered into pieces too small to use soon after he engaged the enemy. His next tactic was a simple one. Bash ‘em until they can’t move. He flashed me an annoyed look when he caught me standing in place and staring.
I shook myself out of my stupor and turned toward my team. Flying low to the ground took me to them in a couple of seconds. I shoulder-checked the first machine I came to, then sliced it in two with my talons. When I didn’t see who I was looking for, I went higher to clear the Ground Hog. I landed on the far side behind Standish.
He glanced back and nodded, then went back to shooting. “It’s like a damn carnival booth. Line ’em up, and I knock ’em down.” He shot a dog sentry in the head, dropping it to prove his point.
“It’s about time,” Angela said over our private channel.
“Sorry,” I replied. “I was a little busy making new friends.” I told her the short version of my meeting with Bryant.
“So Snake-bitch is back, and both of them are now good guys?” It was hard to miss the disbelief in her voice.
“Looks like it,” I replied. “Spread the word not to attack them unless they start any trouble. I’ll do the same. Having one of them as an ally might be a good thing.”
“Or it might start everything going horribly wrong. We’ll have to hear about it from Kopf till the end of time,” Angela replied. “Let’s hope that isn’t the case. I would hate to have to sit through his horror movie education to learn how to behave around monsters.”
I laughed as I moved away from Standish to lend a hand. Now that I was behind friendly lines, I felt it best to use my rifle so I wouldn’t get in anyone’s way and catch a metal-jacketed love letter from one of my Marines. During the attack, I described the use of magnets to neutralize the enemy and where the info came from. More than one person stopped shooting to look in the direction of Bryant and his serpentine girlfriend.
I realized there was a problem when Bryant worked his way closer to the transport. A Marine to my left stopped firing. He cocked his head to the side as if the weapon obscured his view. At that point, he had my full attention, and I saw him smile before sighting in. “Hey!” I shouted. “He’s on our side.” I moved as I spoke, and slapped the underside of his rifle a split second before he fired. The shot went high, and Bryant was unharmed.
“What the hell?” She, Corporal Seriph asked. “I had him in my sights, jackass.” She pulled an earbud from her ear, and I understood. Loud rock poured from the tiny device. No wonder she didn’t know what was what.
“You don’t understand!” I shouted to be heard over the gunfire.
Her head finally turned, and her eyes went wide when she saw it was me. “Sorry, Sergeant, but I had a great shot all lined up.”
“And that would have been friendly fire.” I explained the situation to her and hoped that would be the last time I had to. Like everyone else, her expression said she thought I was telling a fanciful story. I pointed at the pair. “Take a good look at what they’re doing. If I were wrong, they would be charging us with those machines backing them. Not kicking the ass of the same enemy we’re fighting.”
“All right,” she conceded. “I’ll let them be, but if they get squirrely—”
“Then you do what needs doing,” I cut in.
I saw a shimmer from the corner of my eyes. When I looked, there was a white line in the air like the atmosphere had cracked. It only lasted a moment, but I thought I heard someone say that it was too soon. I shook it off as an effect of the fog of war and went back to work.
The two half-humans laid down a thick carpet of destruction that went right up to the Ground Hog. What surprised me most was the short time it took them to get to us and the sheer numbers lying in ruin at their backs. With their help, the battle was almost won.
Fate decided that I was counting my chickens way too soon, as she always does. A loud rumble caused the serpent to rise high enough on her tail to look over the Ground Hog. Her eyes went wide,
which caused me to turn and jump. She crouched and let her tail coil, then sprang up at the same time my wings manifested. She planted her hands on the vehicle and used it as a springboard to leap to the other side.
“No!” I shouted, but it was far too late.
She had jumped in front of Jones and took a thick metal horn to the back. The machine, a big rhino-like thing with a head that was one large horn, kept running with her impaled. It didn’t stop until it hit the transport hard enough to cause the thirty tons of fun to rock and almost tip.
Bryant roared. He used his many legs to scale the transport and drop on the rhino. In a matter of seconds, his rage-fueled attack turned the body of the beast into Swiss cheese. Once it stopped moving, he severed the head from the body and pulled his woman free. She coughed, and dark-colored blood flew from her mouth.
“No,” Bryant said in a small voice. “I can go back. I can stop this from happening.”
She let her head roll to the side, so she was looking at Jones. “And she would die if you do. No, let me go, Bryant. I don’t want to be like this and…” Coughs caused her whole body to quiver. “Let me go. I saved a jarhead. I’m a hero.”
“But I can…” She placed a finger on Bryant’s lips and shook her head. It was a slow movement that looked like it cost her a great deal.
Bryant nodded. He pulled her into a hug and held her close. Her lips moved, but I couldn’t make out the sounds. Then her head fell back, and her arms went limp.
Bryant roared again. Despite the rage burning in his eyes, he gently laid her on the ground and looked down at her still form for a moment. His legs jerked like pistons, and Bryant was up and away. He dropped in the middle of the machines and attacked with the viciousness of an enraged wolf pack. The man finished the battle with his two hands, which caused us to stop firing so we wouldn’t hit him.
Bryant shuffled over with his head down after pulling the last machine apart one piece at a time. “I’m going to bury her. I’ll be back.”
“Do you…” I started to ask if he wanted help, but Jones placed her hand on my shoulder and shook her head. We watched him leave and didn’t move until he was out of sight.