"Shhh…" he pleaded. "I'll find a way. There has to be a way to fix this. The Power-"
"No…" she answered. "You can't understand the pain, Jake. I'm using my Power just to keep it in check enough not to go crazy, and when I run out…" she sighed. "I won't turn into one of those mindless monsters, out of their gourd with pain. This is a one-way trip for me, baby. You have to let me do this."
"I can't."
"You can, because you're the strongest and best man I've ever met. Do this for me, Jake. Let me go. Be happy. Promise me you'll go on and live a long happy life, have lots of kids, and die of old age." She leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips, cold as ice.
He started to cry. "I can't."
"You can, and you will, because that's my dying wish, you selfish bastard." Her blackened lips cracked into a smile. She took his hand in hers, placed it on the center of her chest, where there was no heartbeat, and he died inside. "Now come on. I deserve to go out with a bang."
Heinrich was waiting for them, his hat down low, covering his eyes. "This way," he said softly.
Faye had jumped a hundred and fifty-two times in the last four minutes, she'd counted, and that damn ninja cow bitch had stayed with her every step of the way.
The two of them appeared at the very tip of the Tokugawa where the three balloons came together. Lightning crashed and rain pounded, as the other battleship loomed right overhead like a big black shadow. A single white biplane screamed past being chased by ten black ones, all shooting, and the white biplane exploded in a ball of fire. The old pirate ship had been shot so many times that most of its gas had leaked out, and it was gradually crashing into the side of the flagship. Her head map told her that men were dying all around her and a strange magic energy was building in the center of the ship, which could only be coming from the big, evil, magic superbomb.
Faye was gasping for breath. She'd lost her shotgun after using it to club a passing officer in the face, not that it mattered, since she'd gone through all her shells by that point. She'd been counting Travels, but she'd lost track of how many people she'd killed, shot, stabbed, maimed, pushed overboard, set on fire, or blown up. She was armed now with a meat cleaver that she'd picked up in the kitchen. It was still dripping blood from where she'd taken off a sailor's hand.
Toshiko had dogged her the whole time. The ninja was panting almost as hard as Faye was. Her magic kanji were burning so hot that the rain hitting her instantly exploded into steam. Faye had shot at her, but she was always one step ahead. She'd pulled the pins out of grenades and dropped them, hoping that Toshiko would Travel right into them, but she'd been too smart for that, and would always Travel outside the blast zone.
The ninja raised her sword in a salute. "You are the finest Traveler I've ever known," Toshiko said simply.
"And you're still a big mean cow," Faye answered, not that she was being honest. Cows were wonderful creatures. Imperium assassins, not so much. "Ugly and mean."
"Surely, you're almost out of magic by now?" Toshiko hissed. "I have direct lines to the Power, granted by the Chairman and his finest wizards. You have none. You cannot possibly outlast me."
Faye checked. She still felt the same as ever. Physically, she was bushed, but magically, she was fine. "I'm just getting warmed up."
"Let's finish this, child, so I can get to killing your friends…" Toshiko had an evil smile. "That gives me an idea. Let's see if you can keep up with me this time?"
NO! Toshiko Traveled. Faye checked her head map. There.
The ninja was in the control room of the pirate ship. She yanked her sword out of the driver's back in a spray of blood. The bald pirate captain was turning as she swung her sword at his face, but Faye crashed into her forearm. "No, you don't!" Faye shouted in her ear. Toshiko grinned savagely as she Traveled out of Faye's grasp.
Faye screamed as her clothing burst into flames. Some pirate woman had just set her on fire! "Not me, stupid!" she shrieked as she Traveled.
She caught Toshiko a short distance above, balancing on the slick top of the flaming pirate ship. The crashing rain dashed out the fire on her clothing. Her feet squished into the balloon fabric, once hard with gas, but now falling apart. They were about to hit the Tokugawa. Toshiko swung her sword, but Faye appeared behind her, trying to put the cleaver into her back. The two danced, steel swinging, both disappearing and reappearing so fast that Faye was only moving on unconscious instinct.
The ninja had been trained how to fight with a sword, and Faye hadn't, and the steel drove through her calf. She screamed as she toppled, sliding down the edge of the balloon. Hydrogen fire was licking up to meet her. She had to outwit Toshiko somehow, something crazy. She Traveled as she entered the flames.
Faye hit the metal engine housing on all fours. The giant propeller was screaming only inches away, a huge black blur that would destroy her instantly. Maybe Toshiko's head map wouldn't be as accurate and-
The ninja appeared on the next engine over and waved. "Damn it!" Faye screamed in frustration. Toshiko mouthed something, but she couldn't be heard over the roar of the propeller, but she just knew that she was going to go kill some of her friends. The Shadow Guard disappeared, but Faye was right behind her.
Lance was on the deck, hunkered down behind one corner, rainwater pouring off the edges of his big hat as he fired his Winchester at the approaching Imperium troops. Francis was off to the other side, smoothly working the bolt of his Enfield. "Look out!"Faye screamed.
But where was-and then she gasped as the sword hit her square in the small of the back. Faye rolled forward through the water. Toshiko stood over her, blade gleaming overhead, and the ninja was triumphant, knowing that she'd just struck a lethal blow.
"Faye!" Lance shouted, but Faye was already Traveling. She folded space and fell through, landing on her face in a puddle of water on top of the Tempest, only a few feet from where she'd taken her oath. Toshiko appeared, gloating. "You can't run when you can't feel your legs. I felt my wakizashi bite the bone… Pity. I have no doubt that if you were with us, you'd be the First amongst the Shadow Guard."
Faye was coughing, lying on her back. She reached around behind her and found the little Iver Johnson.32, her faithful little companion that she'd bought in Merced for ten dollars, the same amount of money that Grandpa had bought her for. The mighty sword blow had nearly cut it in half. Once again, her life had been saved by ten bucks. "Oh, that wasn't my spine, but you really messed up my gun."
Toshiko finally lost it. She screamed in fury as Faye Traveled.
Faye appeared, falling in midair, right in front of the astonished Lance. "Shoot me!" Faye screamed.
To his credit, Lance Talon didn't hesitate. He lifted the.351 Winchester and pulled the trigger.
Toshiko appeared behind her, still screaming, but according to the ninja's map, the area had been clear, safe, and a tenth of a second before, it had been. Time seemed to slow to nothing as Faye's head map recorded everything in the universe. The bullet traveled from the barrel, straight and true, and Faye only needed to fold space a tiny bit to get out of the way, and it was almost as if she could watch the bullet rotating as it passed through the air she'd inhabited, past Toshiko's descending blade, and right into the Shadow Guard's chest.
The bullet cleaved through her sternum, breaking and turning as it pulverized her heart, severed her spine, and flew out her back. The blood droplets and bone fragments seemed to hang suspended, intermingled between the raindrops, and then Faye reappeared off to the side. Time restarted. The ninja was looking at her, as if to say, how the hell had that happened, but then the lights went out. Lance hit Toshiko twice more as she fell, even though she was already dead.
"Told you so, cow…" Faye went to her knees, swooning from blood loss. She felt Francis' strong hands on her, and the next thing she knew, she was in his arms, and he was carrying her away from the gunfire.
Chapter 25
I must tell you, Kermit, of these three particularly remarkable Heavies a
mongst the volunteers. They come from brave stock, as their father had been with me during the advance on Kettle Hill. Though all three are exceedingly similar physical specimens, these Sullivan brothers could not be of more disparate temperaments. One is a simpleton, with the gentle soul of a child, yet a more diligent soldier you could not ask for. One is a killer of men, a force of calculated belligerence, I fear he is only obedient to his officers because a discharge would jeopardize his opportunity to murder more Huns. The last is a thoughtful young man, the quietest of the three. He shows great promise as a leader. Never before, in all my years of campaigning, have I come across such stalwart troops. I tell you, son, the three are a terror to behold in battle, and if I had a thousand more Sullivans, this war would already be won.
– General Theodore Roosevelt, personal correspondence posted before second battle of the Somme, 1918 Imperium flagship Tokugawa Madi was waiting at the end of the twenty-foot-wide catwalk. He had been joined by two other Iron Guard: the wretched Lazarus, Hiroyasu, and the stalwart Nobunaga, a Brute who was also the Chairman's champion sumo wrestler. Sumo was another weird Jap obsession that Madi had never gotten into. He found the whole thing kind of queer, with men pushing and slapping on each other in loincloths, but Nobunaga had been a tough guy before he'd picked up half a dozen kanji to increase his already formidable strength and vitality. Behind the three Iron Guards was the engineering section's Torch and twenty of the strongest Marines on board.
Of course, it was his brother that appeared at the far end of the catwalk first. Jake looked a little scary in the red light, the foreign invader surrounded by the giant heaving bags of gas, and for just a moment, it was like the bags were lungs and the Tokugawa was a great living creature. Jake was the disease infecting it and he was the cure.
"Maybe I should start writing poetry," Madi said.
"Huh?" Nobunaga grunted.
"Nothing…" Beneath the catwalk, was a two-hundred-foot drop to the armored section that separated the two top hulls from the bottom one. There were a few ladders that went all the way down, but he had a feeling that anybody who went over this rail in the next few minutes wouldn't be taking a ladder. "Hiroyasu, fall back and animate the marines as they die. Marines, stay behind cover and use your rifles. Choose your shots carefully. Do not let anyone through. Protect the Torch. We don't want a fire in here. Nobunaga, on me."
Jake just stood there in the center of the doorway a hundred yards away, watching.
"Come and get me, Jake…" Madi whispered. The Geo-Tel had already been activated, and the Power was gathering, but his brother would be dead long before it fired, and he'd make sure this time.
A short, balding, pudgy, bespectacled man joined his brother in the doorway. The man scowled, as if sizing up the engineering section's defenses. Madi recognized him. In fact, he'd even shot him recently. Damn Grimnoir vermin, they were harder to get rid of than cockroaches. The man cracked his knuckles. He'd been a little woozy from all the hits he'd taken at Mar Pacifica… What had that lump's Power been?
And then he remembered. "Marines, cover your ears!" he shouted, but it was already too late. The Mouth had started talking. It wasn't a voice, it was a Voice. It was too big to come from a man, it came from a god. It didn't sound in his ears, it was like an ice pick driven through his skull and twisted around inside his brain. Madi ground his teeth together so hard that some of them broke. He had to steady himself against the railing to keep from falling.
His accent was off, the pronunciation was terrible, but apparently Japanese wasn't this god's first language. "Omaetachi wa kotei o shitsubou saseta. Watashi no meiyo wa hijyou ni kizutsuite. Watashi ga dekiru koto wa, mohaya jiketsu shika nai." Madi could feel his own will surging against the command, but behind him, he could hear the bayonets clearing their scabbards and a scream as the Torch turned his fire inward and burned himself to a crisp. You have failed your emperor. I am deeply ashamed. The only honorable solution is immediate suicide.
"No! Stop! It's a trick," but the blades flashed and his men died, gurgling and choking. The terrible Influence waned and his head cleared. Madi let go of the railing, having bent the pipe with his fingers. Only the Iron Guards had been strong enough to resist. Nobunaga had drawn his Nambu pistol, but Madi clamped down on his wrist. "No guns."
The other Iron Guard's eyes widened in understanding. With their Torch dead, they couldn't risk shooting in here. Madi turned back to his brother. Jake was still standing there in a big black coat. The Mouth was at his side. A blond man in grey appeared to Jake's left, and then he was joined by a female zombie to his right. The four walked forward together, side by side, ready to fight.
He could still beat all of them by himself without making so much as a spark, plus he still had an extremely powerful Brute, and already Hiroyasu was using his Power to raise the disemboweled marines. Jake and his Grimnoir were still dead, they'd just have to do it the hard way. He started walking. They'd meet in the middle. "Come on."
That had been one of the most impressive displays of raw Power that Sullivan had ever seen. Daniel Garrett hadn't just been fueled by his magic, but also by desperation, hate, and the burning desire to save the woman he loved. Dan was grey and shaking, sweat pouring down his face, and he looked like he might fall over.
"I didn't know you spoke Japanese," Heinrich said as he joined them.
"Just that one… been practicing." Dan grimaced. It physically hurt to channel that much Power at once. "I can't make people do something they wouldn't normally do, but these Imperium elites are so honor-bound, I figured it was worth a shot."
Delilah stepped up next. She was weaving as badly as Dan, but for an entirely different reason. "The Lazarus who… made me. He's inside. I can feel him. He's going to wake the dead."
The UBF Normals were hanging back. This fight was way beyond them. In fact, now that they were down to just Iron Guards immune to his magic and unable to use his guns, their Mouth was out of his league too. "Dan, why don't you take the others and go look for your girl."
"The Geo-Tel comes first," he stated with firm determination. "Jane would hate me if she found out I let a million people die to save her first."
"Come on," Sullivan said. The device had been activated. He could feel it within, like its dreadful magic was beating against his own inside his rib cage. They started walking.
Madi was dressed in some sort of red and black samurai robe, the traditional look thrown off only by the big revolver hanging in his shoulder holster. Next to him was a similarly attired, short, yet incredibly broad man with a round face and a top knot. "Look, they got a fat one," Heinrich said.
"That's not fat," Dan answered. "That's a sumo."
"Sumo-schmoo-mo," Delilah said. "I'm about to whoop his ass."
The others didn't realize it yet but he knew that his brother was too powerful to defeat, especially in a limited amount of time. "No matter what happens, get to that device." He dared not share his plan because he was worried that Madi could already hear them. Sullivan looked at Delilah out the corner of his eye. "I'll always love you."
"Just remember your promise," she whispered, and then she pushed her Power so hard that she seemed to grow. He'd never seen her do anything like that before. She was holding nothing back, running so much magic through her tissues that she was sure to destroy them when the magic wore off. There was no reason to hold back anything now.
Both sides charged.
Sullivan let loose with his magic the same time Madi did. Two conflicting gravitational fields collided between them. The air rippled like water. Delilah charged through the distortion, screaming. The sumo bellowed in return and hurled himself at her. He dwarfed her and kanji could be seen glowing through the open neck of his robe. At the last second Delilah dodged to the side, extended her arm like a clothesline, and hit the Iron Guard in the throat. His head snapped back, momentum still carrying him forward, and his feet flew out from under him. The landing was hard enough to shake the entire catwalk.
&nb
sp; Madi extended one hand and Delilah fell into the air. Heinrich leapt over the downed sumo and went at Madi swinging. Madi threw one mighty fist clean through Heinrich's chest as the German went grey. Heinrich came out the other side and slugged Madi in the back of the head. Madi didn't seem to notice it, but gravity changed again and Heinrich was slammed to the metal floor. He cried out under the crushing force.
"Fade out!" Sullivan shouted. Heinrich fell through the floor and Sullivan slammed his Power against Madi's field. The extra gravities were forced away from Heinrich, leaving the German hanging by his hands under the catwalk. The sumo was sitting up, despite Dan futilely punching him in the face. Sullivan roared and headed straight at Madi as Delilah rebounded off the railing behind him.
Sullivan slammed a big fist into Madi's jaw, then the other, then threw out a boot and kicked Madi in the stomach. The Iron Guard didn't even seem to feel it and one hand shot out and grabbed Sullivan around the throat. He dragged Sullivan in close, crushing off his air. "I'm the strongest there is. You understand me? The strongest! You'll never make it past me! NEVER!"
Sullivan used his Power, increasing his density, protecting his throat. "I know." The railing creaked around them. He Spiked hard, slamming as much force onto them that he could muster. Madi threw it back, just as he had in Mar Pacifica, but his eyes widened as he realized that Sullivan wasn't trying to crush him, but what was underneath.
"Jake!" Delilah screamed as a perfect circle of catwalk sheared away and the two of them fell.
They dropped like a pair of stones. Jake kept striking Madi in the face and Madi hit him back with bone-jarring force, but both of them were running as dense as iron. The armor-plate floor barely slowed their descent, and they ripped clean through the steel, crashing through beams and supports, tearing wires, and then ripping through the bottom hydrogen hull. They fell through the gas, in an empty, totally lightless space, kicking, punching, throwing knees and elbows, in a freefall brawl to the death. Sullivan held his breath.
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