Metamorphosis

by Marty Chan

  Amina returned to her friends.

  “Well?” Ehrich asked.

  “Nothing. We might have a chance if we can get into the tunnel now.”

  Tesla stroked his chin. “It’s a risky venture, but what other choice do we have?”

  Charlie wheeled forward. “If what I heard from my friends is right, whatever Ba Tian has planned, he’s going to do it at the execution.”

  Amina agreed. “We have to secure the exoskeletons. We still might have a chance.”

  Ehrich surveyed the guards on the perimeter. “No chance of us storming the place.”

  Charlie agreed. “They have it locked down tight. I could try to sweet talk them into letting us inspect the place.”

  Amina grabbed Ehrich. “I can’t believe it.” Her hands were starting to shake.

  “What? What’s wrong, Amina?”

  She pointed down the street. Ehrich turned and was at a loss for words. Covered in soot and staggering toward them was

  Mr. Serenity.

  Desperate Times

  Amina sprinted toward her mentor with her arms open wide. The weary man could barely lift his head, but he managed to eke out a grim smile when Amina bear-hugged him and lifted him off the ground.

  Ehrich and Tesla joined the pair and peppered the man with questions.

  “How did you get out, my dear friend?” Tesla asked.

  Ehrich cut off the answer. “Were there other survivors?”

  “What caused the fire?”

  “What happened to everyone else?”

  Mr. Serenity waved the pair off and tried to catch his breath. “Give me a moment. Please.”

  Amina grabbed a wooden crate to use as a chair and helped her friend sit down. Bess wheeled Charlie over with Dash close behind.

  “Water. Does anyone have some water?” Amina asked.

  Bess rushed off to collect some water from a nearby rain barrel while Amina tended to Mr. Serenity.

  “Sir, are you all right?”

  He patted her head. “I will be. For now, I require a bit of water and some rest.”

  “My friend. What happened down there?” Tesla asked.

  “To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what happened. I was working on the Infinity Coil in my lab when I heard a series of explosions through the city. The next thing I realized, fires were everywhere. I collected what I could and attempted to go out and help, but the fires were so intense. It was as if the city was melting in front of my eyes. I had no choice. I went back into the building and jumped in the sled.

  By the time I got to the surface, I could barely breathe from all the smoke. I sent the sled back, hoping others would follow. I waited, but no one came. I held out hope for as long as I could, but I suspected no one else would be escaping. I thought I’d try to find you at the tunnel project.”

  “I’m glad you were able to make it out. What do you think caused the explosions?” Tesla asked.

  Mr. Serenity scratched his bald head. “It might have been one of the weapons engineers. I know they were testing explosives to use in the war.”

  “Do you think it was Ba Tian?” Amina asked. “Maybe one of his operatives stole into Purgatory.”

  “Unlikely, Amina.”

  Ehrich’s eyes narrowed. “Or it could have been Kifo. Maybe he escaped from the Infinity Coil.”

  Mr. Serenity shook his head. “I doubt it. There’s no way the assassin could extricate hims—” A coughing fit interrupted the rest of his thought.

  Amina rubbed his back.

  Bess returned with water. “Here you go, sir.”

  Mr. Serenity took the cup from her. “You’re too kind. I’m surprised you are here.”

  “It’s a long story, sir,” Ehrich said.

  “I have all the time in the world now.”

  Ehrich brought him up to speed about their work on Coney Island, the return of Ba Tian and Farrier, and the recruitment of Charlie and Bess as their allies.

  “This is all that is left of our rebel forces,” Amina said. “Sir, I fear we have lost the war before we have even gone to battle.”

  “I’m afraid you might be right. Our army is gone. Perhaps the best thing we can do is flee.”

  Amina shook her head. “No, I refuse to give up. The only thing we know for sure is that Ba Tian is back in this world. We must secure the exoskeletons under the tunnel.”

  Mr. Serenity coughed. “You cannot be serious, Amina. Look at us. We’re barely enough to take on Ba Tian. Even if we retrieved the exoskeletons, we have no army. You must go.”

  Dash cleared his throat. “What about my idea? Use the people here.” He pointed at the Dimensionals lined up along the buildings outside the project.

  Amina chewed her bottom lip. “They’re not soldiers. They’re civilians.”

  Dash nodded. “Yes, but they have the numbers we need.”

  “I’m with Amina,” Mr. Serenity said. “They would be lambs to the slaughter.”

  Tesla crossed his arms. “I’m not so sure, my friend. In des-perate times, we must consider all options.”

  Charlie pointed out. “You can waste your breath arguing or you can ask them. If they turn you down, then you can figure out what to do next. Fretting over what they’re going to say isn’t going to help any of us.”

  “Only one way to find out,” said Ehrich. Good idea, Dash.”

  He beamed.

  Ehrich began to walk toward the Dimensionals. Dash fell in step behind his big brother. They aimed for the purple-skinned woman standing at a barrel fire and holding court over a small group. Ehrich had seen her before and guessed she was the leader.

  He extended a hand to her. “Hello. I’m Ehrich Weisz.”

  She eyed him suspiciously. “What do you want?”

  “I’ve come to you with a chance to make a difference in this world.”

  “How? Are you going to get me my old job back?”

  “Are you the leader of these workers?” Dash asked.

  “I’m Hexacate.”

  “My name is Dash. I’m trying to find my way home and I think you can help.”

  She smiled. “This is our home now. We must make of it what we will.”

  “Not for long unless you can help us,” Ehrich said.

  She raised her hand. Eyes blinked at Ehrich from her fingertips. It reminded him of the boy he had rescued from the general store.

  “What do you mean ‘not for long’?” Hexacate asked.

  “Ba Tian is here.” Dash blurted.

  “Ba Tian,” she spat. “I would love to meet him eye to eye.”

  “You may have a chance,” Ehrich said. “He’s preparing to invade this world.”

  This caught the attention of the people nearby. Some moved closer while others scurried away to pass the word on. Hexacate straightened up to her full height, towering over Ehrich and Dash.

  “You’ve seen him?”

  Amina joined the brothers. “Yes, we have. We need an army to fight against him.”

  She cocked her head. “We’re not fighters. We’re workers.”

  Ehrich stepped toward her. “But you also know what Ba Tian can do. This is your chance to stop him and exact your revenge.”

  “He would decimate us,” Hexacate said.

  Dash shook his head. “Not if we can even the odds.”

  A hush fell over the gathering crowd. Hexacate crossed her arms. “What do you have in mind?”

  “We can use his machines against him.” Dash said.

  Hexacate looked from Dash to Ehrich to Amina, confused.

  “Tell him, Amina,” Dash said.

  “Hexacate, what if I told you that below your feet are the very weapons the warlord used to destroy your worlds?” she said. “And all we have to do is get down there and take them.”

 
“I would say that you’re mad.”

  Amina turned to the Amazonian woman. “Is there any chance you will help us?”

  Hexacate looked at her workers, now crowding around to hear the conversation. “My first priority is to my people. We can’t afford to upset the humans based on what you claim. Prove to us there are weapons below and we might be able to talk, but right now, all we have is your word, and that’s not enough.”

  Amina protested, “We’re all in this together. Would you stand idly by while Ba Tian destroys this world?”

  “You’re the one from Purgatory, aren’t you?”

  She nodded.

  “I thought so. I heard about your paradise under the city where only the chosen are allowed to go. I’ve seen you come around here. You see how my people have suffered up here. Yet, you never offered us sanctuary in Purgatory. Why not?”

  Amina had no answer.

  “You don’t have to answer. I think we all know why. We weren’t worthy of you. Now you need us. You come to us when you have no other options. Do you think that would endear you to us?”

  “He will destroy us all,” Dash said. “Please. You have to take a stand.”

  “I’ve seen what the people in this world are capable of. I suspect Ba Tian has finally met his match. I’m sorry, little boy, but we cannot help you.”

  Hexacate turned her back. The others grunted approval and walked away.

  Under the Tunnel

  Amina paced back and forth in front of the fence. Without the soldiers in Purgatory and with no help from the strikers, her situation seemed hopeless. The guards at the fence weren’t about to let them waltz into the Hudson River tunnel project, and time was running out.

  Bess was the one who came up with the solution. “Why don’t we treat this like the magic act at the Bijou Theatre, Ehrich?”

  Charlie wheeled ahead. “Are we going to make the guards disappear?”

  She shook her head.

  “You want me to perform Metamorphosis?” Ehrich asked.

  Mr. Serenity coughed. “We would need the codex and that is down below.”

  Bess shook her head. “No, I’m talking about what every good illusion needs. Ehrich? You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”

  He broke into a smile. “Misdirection.”

  She snapped her fingers. “Exactly.”

  Several minutes later, Bess and Dash rolled Charlie’s wheelchair along the street toward the gate where the guards were stationed. They began to pick up speed. Bess leaned forward and whispered in Charlie’s ear. “You ready?”

  “I guess.”

  They moved faster. He leaned to the right and let his body weight pull the chair to one side. The chair flipped over, sending Charlie to the ground. Bess shrieked as she fell to her knees and tried to pick up Charlie.

  Dash waved at the guards to help their fallen friend. “Help, help!”

  The guards on the gate turned their attention to the accident and several ran to help right Charlie’s chair while Dash ordered them to be careful. The guards along the fence watched the commotion, unaware of Amina, Ehrich, Mr. Serenity, and Tesla slipping toward the fence.

  Ehrich pressed his back against the wooden fence and eyed the guards above. The lanterns hanging on poles near the fence cast long shadows and gave Ehrich’s team the cover they needed. With Bess and Dash creating a scene and drawing everyone’s attention, Ehrich could work quickly and under the cover of night. With a crowbar, he pried a board loose. Amina worked at the other board, opening a wide enough gap for Mr. Serenity and Tesla to crawl through. She held the board open for Ehrich to squeeze through before joining the gang.

  On the other side of the fence, the group crept toward the pit. None of the guards noticed as they slipped to the ladders that led down to the tunnels. Bess had done her job and now it was up to Ehrich’s team to stop Ba Tian’s men from getting the exoskeletons.

  Staring down at the flickering torches below, Amina realized just how deep the pit went. She gritted her teeth and slid down the ladder. There was no more time to waste.

  They reached the bottom, finally, and grabbed the torches to light up the cavernous pit. Ahead was the entrance into the tunnel proper. About 200 feet in was the airlock used to equalize the pressure of going under the river. The iron door was closed, but there was a crank wheel to open it, just as Ehrich remembered.

  They converged on it. Amina spun the wheel around. She pulled hard on the door, sliding it open. A whoosh of air blasted out. It smelled stale, a mixture of deep earth and the ocean. She winced from the smell, but fought it off and peeked inside. The chamber was empty.

  Ehrich slid inside and felt along the floor with his foot for the seam that he and Charlie had found when they’d first investigated this place. He moved methodically across the floor in front of the opening, moving to one wall and then the next, until finally he felt his toe catch on a notch in the floor. The others entered the chamber behind him as he lifted the trap door that led into the sub-tunnel. Ehrich stuck his torch into the opening and waited for his eyes to adjust. The heat from the flames warmed his face and illuminated the narrow and rough tunnel.

  “This is supposed to take us to the cavern with the exoskeletons,” he said. Ehrich motioned the others to follow. “It’s this way. Come on.”

  Mr. Serenity coughed. “We have to extinguish the torches or else they will see us coming.”

  “How will you be able to see?” Tesla asked.

  “It’s a straight line to the other side,” Ehrich said. We just have to keep our hands on the wall.”

  They doused the torches, plunging the team into darkness. Ehrich led the way, feeling his way along the rough rock. He seemed to be inching forward for what felt like an eternity as his eyes adjusted to the dark. A dim light shone from the end of the tunnel.

  He began to quicken the pace as the light grew closer. He stopped at the mouth of the tunnel. The source of the light was coming from below. He waited until the others caught up before he cautiously leaned out of the tunnel to peer below.

  Arrayed in rows and columns were Ba Tian’s exoskeleton machines. Artificial light from rocks around the perimeter provided enough illumination for Ehrich to see the weaponry that the warlord had used to destroy worlds. Amina joined him and gasped, covering her mouth.

  Something, however, didn’t look right. The arrangement of the exoskeletons was perfect, but a section of the cavern had a large number of exoskeletons missing. Everything else was so uniform, it struck her as odd that the one section would be bare. The slow realization dawned on her. Many of the machines had already been taken out of the tunnel.

  Betrayal

  Amina led the group down into the cavern to the exoskeletons. She wrestled with the notion that Ba Tian would side with the humans in this dimension, which gave her hope that he had not amassed his soldiers in this world yet. She fretted, however, that even a handful of soldiers equipped with the exoskeletons could lay waste to New York. She had to find a way to even the odds, and the remaining machines were her only option.

  Behind her, Tesla marvelled at the rows and rows of iron behemoths. The exoskeletons towered over him, standing at least twice as high as the lanky scientist. A clear bubble cockpit sat in the chest of the human-shaped machine. Its arms were loaded with weapons to fire razor-sharp discs. Its metal legs powered the heavy machine forward and backward. The back of the machine was loaded with gears and rods that seemed to link to the exoskeleton’s extremities.

  Tesla chirped, “Imagine the technology that went into constructing such devices. The precision that was required. What powers these, Mr. Serenity?”

  At the rear of the group, the rotund man answered, “I think they are powered by servos in the back of the unit. I can’t be sure, but I think they are powered by some kind of mechanical engine. Perhaps steam powered. I’d have to take a closer look to
be sure.”

  “Imagine if I could convert these to my Tesla generators. They would be unstoppable.”

  “Would you have time to do this, Mr. Tesla?” Amina asked.

  “If I had a month, perhaps, but we’re dealing with days and hours. I suspect we’ll need all the time we have to learn how to operate the equipment.”

  She nodded then headed to the nearest exoskeleton machine and popped open the hatch on the underside of the bubble cockpit. She climbed up and surveyed the series of pedals and levers within the cockpit right across from the harness seat at the back of the cockpit. She took note of the controls, assessing how hard it would be to operate the exoskeleton. She didn’t have time to figure out the nuances. She just needed to know how to make it walk and shoot.

  Tesla strolled toward the open area where several work-stations with various pieces of equipment were set up. He moved close enough to one table to take note of the weaponry. He picked up a razor-sharp tael, a flat round disk that could fit into the palm of his hand. The disk had a square hole in the centre, which Tesla guessed was for mounting in the weapon. He flicked the disk at the wooden table and it imbedded itself in the heavy wood with ease.

  Amina climbed down and gathered the others around her. Tesla sized up the machine next to him and spoke first. “How will we move these out of the tunnel?”

  “I’m sure there has to be some way to the river,” Amina said. “These units must be amphibious.”

  Ehrich nodded. “I’ll search the cavern for the entrance to the river. Might be easier to get people down here to drive these things out.”

  “We have to convince them to come down here first,” Amina said.

  “I’m sure Charlie will be able to convince them. He’s got a way with people.”

  “I hope you’re right. With just the four of us, that’s not enough to face off against Ba Tian and his men.”

  Mr. Serenity climbed into the cockpit of a nearby machine.

  “Oh, good,” Amina said. “It looks like Mr. Serenity is going to show us how to work these things.”

  The hatch clanged shut and the machine whirred to life, spinning its torso around to face the group. Amina was impressed that her mentor was able to take control so quickly. Maybe it wasn’t going to take that long to figure out how to operate these things. She gave her mentor a thumbs-up. “How did you figure it out so quickly?” she asked.