by J Moon
The archangel knelt down to his haunches as he surveyed the floor, picking out his enemies peppered through the crowd. No matter how much warfare and weaponry had changed across the millennia, some things about battle tactics remained the same.
Higher ground was always a leverage in battle. One must know the battlefield to control it. Inside the matrix he saw multiple means to attack and eliminate his targets from his position up above.
The rooms were patrolled by a contingent of armed grunts. To defeat the grunts without getting any of the patrons of Afterlife hurt would require him to take out eACH grunt before they knew of his presence.
His eyes narrowed on the League striker that held a Katana blade at Tommy’s neck. Its armor looked like the rest of the grunts but lighter, sleeker with long sharper angles, and fashioned in a sporty yellow color. Strikers were the best at hand-to-hand combat in the League.
Gabe had faced one a decade ago in Peru and nearly lost his life. The archangel reasoned that he would have to be crafty, and swift to defeat the striker before it could harm Tommy.
Gabe smiled as the angelic wings tattooed on his back sizzled. “Shall we begin then? Countdown.” Brilliantly, he spread his wings wide, and the shadows they cast against the wall erupted into golden lights that matched the strobe lights. The dance floor was in semidarkness, but strobe lights danced from the ceiling and gunfire hung in the air.
From his vantage point he watched three grunts enter the bathrooms with the nozzles of their assault rifles raised. Gunshots erupted and a string of what looked like fairies ran out. He could tell they were Fae with their pointed ears and shimmering skin that reflected like a disco ball in the dancing lights.
Gabe leapt into the air. In a clap of smoke, he soared across the room.
He came down hard near the bathroom, where he tucked, rolled and scaled along the adjacent wall. Hinging on a lone breath, Gabe peaked around the corner. Red lights dominated the restroom, which was merely three stalls, and a mess of a sink littered with paper towels. All three grunts stood before a stall.
“Bathroom A cleared.” One grunt spoke into his wrist.
Gabe became one with the shadows as he moved into the restroom, brought his eagle-eye pistol up, and sank a round into the skull of a grunt. The one closest to him dropped like a brick, and the grunt in the middle whirled around. It caught one glance of the archangel and too fell limp as a round rippled through its skull.
Gabe shot at the third but it evaded the archangel’s line of fire. The grunt brought up its rifle to fire, but a brutal blow between its shoulder blades was enough to stop the attack. It fought the archangel off with the butt of the rifle. Gabe took the blows in his sternum; they came hard and swift, that he dropped the pistol
Quickly he grabbed the back of the grunt’s head and slammed it into the sink. The porcelain edge shattered and broke off into pieces. In a flash, Gabe pulled sweet Lucy from the cover of his waist, and stabbed the grunt through its center. Gabe looked all around him as the cyborgs thrashed and disintegrated.
“What was that?” a voice echoed from around the corner.
Gabe peered over to the bathroom exit. He could hear a grunt push its way through the crowd.
He lunged toward the far right wall for cover. In a few steps the grunt stepped in Gabe’s tracks. All of the other grunts had disintegrated, and that was one thing the archangel appreciated about the League, no messy clean up.
Gabe studied the grunt as he crept closer to the wall, counting every second in his head before making his move. As its heavy boots crept closer, Gabe tightened his grip on sweet Lucy, which burned bright to SMITE in the name of the Creator. He held the sword so tight that the metal quivered in his grasp.
When the grunt finally aligned in Gabe’s line of fire behind the wall, Gabe ran his sword through the partition and into the chest of the grunt.
The dance music was silent now, nothing but the noise of panic filled the Afterlife. Gabe heard footsteps closing in on him. He crept around the corner. Crouching, he touched the floor and propelled himself back in the air to get a better look of the dance floor.
From a vantage point of fifty feet, he watched as four grunts tried to make sense of the damage done to the wall. He had less than six seconds to take them out before they would alert the others. Without further hesitation he swooped down on them, his fiery sword ablaze.
In a motion more swift than a flicker of a flame, he beheaded two of the grunts and ripped the chest armor of the other with his sword.
“Eight grunt soldiers eliminated. Six grunts remaining and one League striker,” the voice of the SMITE matrix declared.
He was halfway there. Gabe had to move closer to the bar. He tapped his smart watch and aimed it to the floor. A cone of light created an opening below his feet that was big enough to hold him, and quickly he dropped down inside. Two grunts walked over his head. Gabe waited until they were just past the far side of the floor so he could pop up behind them.
“Do you think he can already be on the dance floor?” One grunt asked the other.
“The archangel is very sneaky. We have to annihilate him on sight,” it said as it strolled over to the left. Gabe saw his chance. He tapped his smart watch and a blue cone of light created an exit. The archangel hopped out of the floor and ripped the helmet of the grunt to his immediate left. When the other one turned around, he kicked him in the chest before knocking him out on the ground.
“Assess,” Gabe commanded
“Three grunts remaining. One League striker. One minute five seconds elapsed.”
Gabe had to move. He was determined to clear the room in less than three minutes. 1926 was where he needed to be, and the League taking over Afterlife was just a distraction that Evelyn probably would’ve told him to ignore. Gabe wasn’t like most of the archangels, he wasn’t one to sit on his hands while there were lives at stake. He had never failed a mission, and he didn’t plan on failing this one either. His purpose as an agent of SMITE, is to be the hammer for the Creator, and to smite his enemies.
Gabe made his way to the bar by creeping low to camouflage himself amongst the crowd. Two grunts had their guns pointed to a group of Fae bartenders whose wings flapped quicker due to their freight.
It stirred anger within the archangel to see such beautiful creatures afraid. They were both tall females, large doe pink eyes, perfectly tanned skin, elongated ears, and wild free flowing multi-colored hair. They clung to each other, trembling
With three stealthy steps, Gabe came behind the two enemies and took one down with a head smash. The other rose its gun at the archangel’s direction and he dropped Lucy to the floor. Gabe’s hand clamped down on the cold steel of the gun as soon as it pointed his way.
Gabe snatched the muzzle, driving the gun straight up, so a misfire wouldn't land in his chest. Taking advantage of the momentary exposure of the grunt’s midsection, he shoved a knee at his enemy.
When the grunt stumbled back, Gabe reached for Lucy, she leapt into his hands, and he inserted the blade right through the abdomen. It slumped to the ground once Gabe pulled Lucy back down to his side.
The League striker was the only cyborg left standing, and the archangel’s eyes focused on the quivering blade being held at Tommy’s neck, it was merely inches away from piercing his throat.
Gabe knew he had to distract the striker. Immediately he thought of his Halo. From the top of his head he reached and his Halo materialized in a blue light of spinning metal. Carefully he aimed his weapon near the League striker, he pulled back and tossed the Halo. As it whirled through the air, it made a slight humming noise.
“League Report,” The striker asked to which he received no response.
Gabe waited in the shadows.
“Report!” The striker called again.
Gabe readied himself to attack.
“What’s that noise?” The League striker asks before whirling over his shoulder.
At the moment the League striker looks over to s
ee the Halo, Gabe attacked with a wide arching strike with Lucy.
With cat like reflexes the striker dodged each of the swipes from the archangel’s blade. In the heat of battle, the striker ran up the bar, flipped, and delivered a flurry of kicks to Gabe’s chest.
Now that Gabe was in a position of vulnerability, backed against the wall, the striker aimed his foot for Gabe’s head. He rolled out of the way, and the impact of the attack smashed through wood.
Gabe elbowed the striker, then it caught Gabe’s arm and used its legs to pull Gabe on to the floor. Quickly Gabe rolled with the cyborg until his arm was free.
Once Gabe was back on his feet, the striker flipped on top of the bar in favor of higher ground. Gabe swiped at the striker’s knees and it hopped to counter the attack. Quick as lightening, Gabe flipped on top of the bar and was welcomed by a whirlwind of kicks to the head and chest.
As the striker overwhelmed the archangel with his attacks, Gabe remembered that the striker’s armor is made to be nimble to aid in hand to hand combat, and was severely weak to brute strength. So he grabbed the heel of the striker and tossed him into the far column on his right above a table of vampires.
The impact of such a hit made the armor around the striker’s chest plate and shoulder shatter.
Before the cyborg could get back to its feet. Gabe knocked it back down with an overhead kick before finally serving Lucy deep into its gut.
Gabe looked down at the crumbled cyborg then back to Tommy. “Are you good?”
It was obvious by looking at the bartender that he was stunned. “Good looks on the save Gabe.”
“Anytime,” He said with his breath showing no trace of exertion. The archangels were created to never grow weary and to be relentless in battle.
Tommy reached under the bar and grabbed his jacket. “I’m out of here.”
“Stay safe,” Gabe said as he placed Lucy back on his side
Mei Ling came rushing around the corner with Nia beside her. “Take the girl and get out of here. He’s coming.”
“Who?” Gabe asked.
“Legion!” Mei Ling shouted.
Gabe set Lucy free. “Let him come. I’m ready for him.”
“No! No!” Mei Ling protested. “He needs both the girl and the staff. She is the key. You have the girl, now use The Ark to retrieve the staff. You’ll find it June 06 1926 in Harlem.”
“Okay but you have to get all of these people out of here before he comes.”
Mei Ling sighed. “Fuck…..I’ll do what I can.” Then she closed her eyes for a bit and sensed the demon coming closer. “Go!” She commanded while shooing them away.
Gabe grabbed Nia’s hand and together they dashed to the side exit.
“Back to The Ark, quick!” He shouted as they raced out of the bar. In the corner to the right of Mei Ling’s office was another elevator that leads back to the street.
They dashed inside and pressed the top button to ascend back up. Gabe took one last glance at Mei Ling as the doors closed to the elevator, the sorrow and dread in her eyes was enough to fill him with a gut wrenching sadness.
The doors closed, and the elevator lifted them up. Gabe looked over to Nia as the neon lights scanned them down as they ascended. Even in the faint glow of the neon lights, Nia was bewitched by the archangel’s beauty. The way his deep arching brow was raised as he looked at her, to the fullness of his lips. He was a real man yet he looked like a collection of the sweetest dreams.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” he responded. Then he put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m going to keep you safe but you have to trust me. These cyborgs are dangerous and there is no telling what they want with you. But I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Nia took a deep breath as the elevator leveled out. “I trust you.”
“Let’s go,” he said as he pulled her along.
Hand in hand, they opened the door to the back alley to see three silhouettes etched out in the moonlit glow. Guns at their side. The archangel paused in his tracks.
“Get back,” Gabe whispered as he watched the grunts huddle. The cyborgs were blocking their escape.
Gabe glanced over to Nia and the look in his eyes told her to stay put. She nodded as she held her breath to subside the rising panic in her chest.
Gabe tightened his muscles and crept forward foot by foot, moving carefully as he withdrew his sword. He measured the distance from the wall to the first grunt, planned each stride- the trajectory of his fiery blade, one swift slice between the neck and shoulder blade, right to the middle of the chest.
Strike!
He ran alongside the wall and struck the grunt from behind. Gabe forced the cyborg to the ground, and drove his sword into its throat and held it until the bot ceased struggle. With the back of his elbow, he pummeled the one on the right, and just before the grunt on his left could react he ran his blade straight up its skull, grabbed its assault rifle and terminated the one on the ground.
Nia crept over to him. “Sweet Jesus man you're like a killing machine,” she gasped.
“Target outside!” a stoic voice called as white light cracked behind them.
“Come on let’s go!” Gabe commanded as they jetted towards The Ark.
Within a few yards dash they reached The Ark and peeled open the doors. They jumped inside as bullets of light blasted against The Ark. Almost all at once, Gabe started the engine, shifted the gear, and stone footed the gas pedal. The floor juddered underneath them.
“To 1926?” Nia asked as she glanced behind them.
Gabe nodded along. “1926. We have to get that staff back. Hold on Ms. Carter, we’re about to take the long route to Harlem.”
Gabe pressed strange buttons that appeared on the panel of The Ark. The engines of The Ark roared an unearthly churning sound as the light core started up. At the end of the road there was an opening forming. All around them the wind picked up as trash lifted from cans, newspaper swirled through the air, and nearby cars rocked side to side. Soon The Ark was lifting and moving forward at an unnatural speed.
“And away we go!” Gabe roared.
Violent, swirling inter-dimensional winds tugged at The Ark, pulling the car into a maelstrom as the vortex widened. The Ark began to shake and rumble tremendously. Nia clenched her hands tightly onto whatever she could put them on. Everything juddered all around them. Nia spotted two more grunts dash to the middle of the street, firing their weapons at them.
“Gabe you might want to hurry it up!” Nia shouted as she dug her nails into the leather seats.
“Don’t worry Nia. Just hold on.”
As The Ark lifted higher and higher into the air, suddenly all the vibration stopped. Nia breathed easy for a moment, then without notice The Ark jerked back and zoomed through the vortex, and disappeared off the street.
Chapter Five
Violent winds swirled all around them, as the Ark materialized at the far corner of the street, in front of the bright lights of the Apollo sign. Nia braced herself against the dashboard as she watched a shaggy brown mutt leap out of the way.
“Watch out!” she shouted.
They were driving in the wrong lane, and a stream of cars raced towards them. A classic tuxedo colored car swirled past them, and another honked as Gabe struggled to regain control. Quickly he spun the car around.
“Hello, Harlem…. we’re here!” Gabriel boasted as he slowed down.
Nia felt a huge wave of excitement as the engines of The Ark quieted down, and the car rumbled along. She watched the shaggy brown mutt saunter by a group of small elementary school kids kicking a ball as they ran down the street.
A young couple walked right past them holding hands. One kid kicked the ball up too high, and it vaulted over a fire escape near the adjacent building. An angry lady popped out and threw the ball back down.
Gabe parked in a back alley. He turned off the headlights, took out the keys to the ignition, then looked over to Nia. “How w
as the ride?”
“Effing amazing,” she spurted before erupting into laughter. “Can we look around?”
“After you,” Gabe said as he opened his door.
Nia threw open the door of The Ark, and walked down the alley to the front of the Apollo Theatre. As a girl she had been to the Apollo many times for school trips and passed by it a million more, but she had never seen the theatre look so beautiful and magnificent. “Wow I don’t think I’ve ever seen this sign shine so bright. I swear to God I’ve been here a million times.”
Gabe rolled his shoulders. “It’s a beauty ain’t it?”
“It sure is.”
Nia stood by the Apollo, completely stunned. We really time traveled back to 1926, Nia thought, her brain struggling to process the idea. It seemed they had arrived right in the middle of Harlem on an electric Friday night. She could feel the energy in the air and hear it too. Somebody in the distance was practicing their trumpet on the street.
Suddenly two cars drove by. They were filled with people drinking champagne, spilling off the edges of their seats with the tops downs and music glaring.
“Isn’t Alcohol supposed to be banned?”
“Welcome to the roaring twenty’s,” Gabe said with a chuckle.
After she filled herself with the beauty from the theatre with another savoring glance, she explored further down the street. Men wearing vintage tailored suits did double takes along the sidewalk, looking at the two time travelers. A crowd of women in elaborate skirts, luxurious coats, and fancy hats crowded around them. Nia stared back at them. This was way too trippy, she thought.
Gabe placed a hand on her shoulder. “Come on, we have to get off the street and get with the times.”
Nia trembled at the archangel’s touch. She looked over, and met his gaze. The light from the sign was hitting his eyes at just the right angle, and the sight alone made her want to fall out on the pavement. She smiled with the excitement of a school girl with a crush. “Where are we heading?”