by Jamie Hawke
The fight was on.
27
Charm was like the spirit of the wolf, a true kitsune of the fourth degree, light trailing as she first tore into the men nearest to her, then turned back on Amand and lifted him to slam him into the glass. Cracks formed like spider’s webs, and she did it again, the second time so hard that his back shattered and he screamed piteously in pain, glass chipping. The third time splattered the back of his head. She dropped his lifeless body and broke through the remaining glass, claws of light cutting through Olena’s chains.
Other guards surged around her, but her tails were whipping about with a life of their own, light flowing, sending her attackers flying across the room.
Watching her, I had to think I never wanted to get on her bad side. As she saved this woman who was apparently Lamb’s niece, I busted out skills, deciding to go into full support mode. If I had this illusion power, I might as well have fun with it! I made my armor take on a fox form, complete with swaying tail. Shimmer saw it, grinned with anticipation, and did the same. The guards were watching the chaos Charm had created. Then, upon seeing what they thought were two more fox-like fighters with the rest of our badass group, they turned tail and fled while new guards arrived on the scene. Meanwhile, the prisoners locked in the cells were shouting, begging us to set them free. My team was already doing so for some of them, as Laurel tested their minds. A line of guards leveled their rifles on us, but Twitch used her adapted blue shields to block the shots, while Harp covered another passage of incoming fighters, sending them to their knees with her voice.
I called Andromida and Aegriss through our comms, letting them know we would be on our way shortly.
“Wait,” Charm said, at my side with the woman she had liberated. “What about Prancer? The Per-Neter?”
“You think he was telling the truth?”
“Only one way to find out.”
I glanced around, scanning, and located him, though it was distant, meaning he was behind a few walls. My scanner showed something else—guards phasing through walls. That wasn’t it, though. The one who had jammed my scan earlier faced me and transformed, standing twice as tall and face contorting with eight eyes and forming into a hybrid-spider.
“Tarantula,” Charm said, voice actually sounding worried. But then she stood tall, handing Lamb’s niece to Twitch before turning back to face her enemy. “I got this. Go, find Prancer.”
“Charm…” I started, but realized I had no doubts in her. The rest of the team formed barriers, keeping newcomers out, aside from those who were phasing, but Twitch studied them, took some of their powers, and used a combination of shields and going through walls to keep them guessing while Gale and the others took them out, one by one.
I took off, barely registering as Charm called out, “And by the way, I like the look on you!”
My laugh echoed through the halls and I turned, taking out one of the guards right as he phased into my path, and then I was taking out a whole group with my tempest blast and war-hammer.
Bodies started lining the path, but soon I had found our target, the super named Prancer. He was sitting in a box-like cell, his eyes darting my way when I broke open the window with my hammer and pulled him free.
“Tell us everything you know, and tell us quick.”
“Who…?” He started, but then Laurel and Harp came up behind us, and Laurel’s antennae were glowing bright. Prancer’s eyes went green as he said, “It was all a setup, they knew you were coming, but… it’s true. They are over there, on the other side, with Charm’s sister.”
“And how do we get there?”
A hesitation, the glow intensifying from Laurel, and then the man fell to his knees, groaning. “Simple—you need a beacon. Basically, someone set up like a lighthouse to direct the devices off of it.”
I frowned. “You’re not making sense.”
“They’ve altered me, changed me into a sort of lighthouse, so that I can be used from Per-Neters on the other side, and vice-versa.”
“On it,” Twitch said, stepping up beside me and pulling up screens. Using my skills to see what she was doing, I realized that she had just applied code to herself that made her this beacon for the Per-Neters.
“Twitch…” I shook my head. “Are you sure that’s the best idea? For all we know, they can use you now to come through, to—”
“Won’t matter,” she interrupted. “Because we’re going over soon, and then it’s do or die, am I right? We’ll be leaving with their Per-Neters, all of them, or we’ll die trying. Worst case scenario…” She made an adjustment, smiling. “I turn it off until we’re ready.”
It was hard not to be impressed with her powers.
A loud thud sounded from behind and then we heard breaking glass. We turned to see a metal wall tear open, revealing Andromida with eyes glowing purple now—a new and quite sexy look on her—and she turned our way.
“We taking him?” she asked, pointing a purple finger at Prancer.
“Just in case,” I replied, and reached for him. A flurry of colors spun by, and when it stopped, his head hit the floor, separated from his body. Apparently, we weren’t taking him after all.
The colors kept going, and I realized it was this Tarantula guy and Charm, with Charm screaming bloody murder. As strong as she was, how had she not taken this guy out yet? The other question on my mind was which of them had decapitated this beacon guy.
Gale appeared, throwing what she could at Tarantula, but he was shooting thick, gray webbing all about—webbing that hardened into metal, and even his body seemed to be covered in a layer of it.
“Andromida!” I shouted, nodding their way.
When metal was involved, she was the woman to count on. She flew forward, pulling metal up and around her, only, it actually attacked her this time! She yelped in confusion, only saved by me fast traveling to get her out of there. We came back up beside Twitch, who was setting boosts to Charm, as well as using blue shields to defend us.
“That… wasn’t right,” Andromida said in a dazed voice.
“On it,” Shimmer said, eyes going silvery-white and hands up as if manipulating reality. In a way, that’s what she was doing, but Tarantula, for some reason, didn’t seem affected by it.
“Whatever he’s got on him, that layer of metal, it’s powerful,” Twitch said, analyzing him with one of her screens.
“Let’s just get out of here,” Aegriss said through the comms. “The ship is ready and waiting.”
“Not a fucking chance!” Charm roared, and she actually seemed to increase in size as she darted about in quick, teleporting attacks. She was like a burst of light, only held off by Tarantula’s eight legs and the way most of her attacks bounced off his protective layer.
Realizing she wasn’t about to leave with this guy alive, I charged in, holy war-hammer at the ready. I tried to go for the knee first, hoping to start by making him immobile, but one of his legs caught me with a hit that sent me staggering back.
I fell to one knee, rethinking my strategy, when I noticed a glint of light on black—the black, beady eyes of Amand! He was lying on the ground, watching, somehow still kind of alive. Then it hit me—the blackness of his eyes, when hit with the light, had a similar feel to the protective layer on Tarantula.
Not for long, I told myself as I fast traveled over to him, coming out of the ground with my war-hammer swinging, connecting with his face. The strike caught him off guard, but he noticed a split-second before I made contact, and was apparently able to redirect his protective powers back to himself.
And in that instant, Charm attacked Tarantula alongside Shimmer and Gale. Harp had gone to Andromida’s side and had Lamb’s niece with her, while Laurel had turned my way, seeing what happened.
While my strike had caused enough damage to leave him with a bloody nose, his protective power had kept him alive. He tried to push himself up while my team managed to cut off three of Tarantula’s legs, bind him with ice, and fill his mind with visions
of terror.
I went for Amand again, but now the guy had this protective layer around him. He grinned. My strike didn’t do a damn thing, and in fact the pain he should have felt was sent back my way, crippling me as if my sternum had cracked.
“It’s mental,” Laurel said, a hand on my shoulder, clearing the pain. “Attack him when I say go. Got it?”
“Yes,” I grunted, pushing myself back up.
Her antennae glowed, but there was something more than that, too. A spark of something broke free from her hand, then a ball of light flittered across the floor, darting about, out of Amand’s line of vision as we moved the other way.
“You come in here with all your fancy powers and think you can tear us down?” Amand said. “Us? We were raiding planets before you were born, you little shit!”
A grunt came from Charm, and I turned to see her with Tarantula, holding him to a wall with strike after strike, but the protective layer was back and his metal webbing was slowing her down. Each time he threw it out there, she knocked it away. The others were doing their best, too, and mostly had him, but not quite—not with Amand’s protection.
“I think it’s time the Citadel was done with you,” I said, hammer held high, tempest ball of energy and lightning forming at my other hand. “As an Elder of the Citadel,” I added, watching as a light from Laurel hit Amand and she nodded, “I hereby end you and all of the evil you stand for.”
With that, I sent lightning—but not at him, at Tarantula—while striking Amand at the exact moment Laurel’s light flooded him, entering through the ear. His eyes lost their darkness, glowing white, and then my blow destroyed his head, leaving it as mush on the far wall.
His body collapsed, and a glance back showed Charm standing over various pieces of a body that had once been Tarantula.
We had done it.
In that moment, I paused to appreciate the fact that Charm now had four tails and new power we hadn’t yet fully explored, Laurel had the light familiar, and I had a screen showing me that I’d gone up to level thirty-six. With my new mental ability, I noticed mental shield upgrade, and quickly selected it along with assigning points to my speed and regular shield. Could always use more of those.
“Looks like it’s time to go meet these assholes on their turf,” Twitch said. “Cross over, right?”
“It’s too risky,” Laurel said. “We can’t just go over.”
“We have no choice,” Charm countered. “This is our duty.”
“No, she’s right.” I shook my head, turning to see the walls contorting as Andromida formed her tunnel of metal back to the ship. “We have to check back in with Hadrian, return Lamb’s niece to her, and then… then we go. We’re with the Citadel now, and Hadrian might have some advice for us. At a minimum, we have to let him know.”
She considered, then nodded. “Fine, but… no wasting time. Yeah? We check in, we check out.”
For a moment, we all stood there, but Laurel’s head turned left, then right.
“We have incoming,” she said. “A lot of them.”
“Coming, Aegriss,” I said into my comms, and ran over to Harp to help with Olena. “Can you walk?”
The girl looked at me and nodded, but I noticed that she looked very weak.
“I got you, don’t worry.” I took her in my arms and followed Andromida through her tunnel as we ran and Twitch set up a blue shield wall to keep our pursuers off our asses. It was time to leave this strange station in ruins.
28
Lamb was ecstatic to see her niece, and the two of them said they owed us, that somehow, they would find a way to make it up. Navani was with her, again, and welcomed us back.
“Keep up the good fight,” I said.
“If there’s anything we can do for you, let us know,” Navani added.
Glancing at her belly, I said, “I think you’re doing enough for all of us.”
Navani laughed, holding her belly. “Maybe if it’s a boy…”
“Chad?” I laughed, waving my hand. “No, thank you though. And certainly not Breaker.”
“But if it’s a girl, Charm sounds lovely,” Charm said, perking up.
“We’ll… think about it,” Navani said with an uneasy laugh.
Lamb smiled, then gestured to have a moment alone with her niece, alone, and we were in a hurry.
When we found Hadrian, I recounted all that had happened, then added, “We have to go over.”
“You can’t,” Hadrian replied. “I’ve been there, it’s too dangerous. Too much, even for me.”
“And yet, what choice do we have? They’ve recovered the Per-Neter. How much longer until they’re able to stage another attack?”
“He’s right,” Sam said. “We can’t let that happen.”
“And you’d go with them?” Hadrian asked.
She looked at me, then my group. “As fun as that would be, I could do more damage with my own team. A new Shadow Corps, with different objectives.”
“Being?” I asked, confused by this new change in direction.
“Divide and conquer. Your team is good at going balls to the wall, charging in and blowing everything up. Me? I prefer to work in the shadows.”
“Balls to the…?” Andromida asked.
“Sorry, a saying from Earth.” Sam was actually blushing! “What I mean is—”
“Yeah, we got it.” I turned back to Hadrian. “There we go. My mom and brother stay here with you to protect the Citadel and hunt down the enemies on our side, or whatever it is you do. Be ready in case they do find ways to attack again. Meanwhile, Sam and her team go assassinate fools while we hunt down the Per-Neters.”
“And then?” he asked.
“We either kill ‘em all, or return with the Per-Neters, closing off any future chance of them attacking.”
He sighed, considering us, then turned to Lamb. “Is this possible?”
She scrunched her face in thought, then nodded. “They’ve grown damn powerful. And, actually, the route we created by going through before—thanks to the sacrifice of Xin and others—might still be open.”
“You don’t think any more sacrifices would be needed?”
“I do not.”
Hadrian considered her words while eyeing me, then nodded. “Speak with your brother about his experience in their territory, and we’ll debrief you before sending you through. Sam, you too, after you form your team. It’s going to be risky, but… as you said, Breaker, necessary. Maybe.”
“I won’t sit around and wait for them to attack again,” I said. “Big risk, big reward.”
He chuckled, then nodded. “Right, on the topic of reward… I thought this would be a nice touch upon your arrival, as a welcome home, when I thought you’d be staying longer. Since you aren’t, let’s consider it a going away present.”
“What?” I asked, but he was already leading us to the far door.
We shared confused glances, then followed him. Outside the rear door, he led us between buildings and then to a part of the Citadel we hadn’t explored before. Tall gates of steel shone in a glowing light that emanated from the ground around it, with vines growing up and over the metal.
He motioned us in, and when we passed under the gate, my legs nearly gave out from under me. I was caught off guard, staring at what I saw before me—a beautiful garden. But it wasn’t the fact that they were growing produce here, it was the decorations. Chairs were lined up facing a stage at the end with white cloths draped along the sides and lights strung around the sides of buildings nearby. The entire effect was that of a secluded garden in the midst of a city, ready for… a wedding?
“If you all are ready,” Hadrian said, moving to the platform. “I can perform the ceremony.”
Charm was actually trembling, eyes wide, ears slightly twitching. She gripped my hand with both of hers and laughed. “I don’t even… I mean, all I have is the red dress.”
“Go get it,” Shimmer said. “We’ll wait.”
“Is this for the rest of us?
” Gale asked.
“I’ll tell you what,” Hadrian replied. “Whoever you all decide upon, have stand up there. We can make it happen.”
He headed for the platform, while Charm ran off to get her dress and the others started discussing.
“Shouldn’t Breaker have a say in this?” Aegriss spoke up. “I mean, he’s the one marrying us.”
They all turned to me, and Andromida said, “Well, Breaker?”
“I would marry any and all of you in a second,” I replied. “But… What makes sense here? What’s beyond the level of my excitement and getting caught up in the moment?”
“Maybe… Harp and I wait,” Laurel said. “Right?”
“If you want,” I said. “But honestly, there’s not a one of you on the team that I could see me regretting for a moment. My worry isn’t that. It’s… does it make it less special to any of you if there are more than one?”
“Not at all,” Gale said, and the others nodded along.
“We’re all in this war together,” Shimmer added. “Life and death, together.”
“I’d be honored to be your wife alongside the rest of the team,” Aegriss said. “New and old.”
“Who you calling old?” Twitch said but winked.
“Then, if you’ll all have me.” I went to one knee, partially out of tradition, partly because I felt dizzy at the thought. These women were the most stunning I’d ever seen, and here they were, all wanting to marry me. I hadn’t known any of them for as long as many on Earth felt necessary but knew all of them enough to know this felt right. “Will you all marry me?”
They all said yes or shook their heads, and pulled me up with kisses and hugs.
Charm returned in her red dress, looking every bit as stunning as the first time I’d seen her in it. The other ladies didn’t have similar dresses, but that was fine. While they were all pretty much equal, there seemed to be this unspoken agreement that Charm was sort of the head honcho. Not in terms of battle strategy or being their leader or anything like that, but in terms of the group dynamic as it related to me. I wasn’t about to play favorites, but also couldn’t deny the dynamic.