by John Corwin
I shuddered. "Eww, are you serious? Have you actually seen that before?"
Elyssa finished peeling her glurk and regarded me with a serious arch of her eyebrow. "Babe, I'm a Templar. I've seen it all."
"I can only imagine." I popped a quinto in my mouth and savored the sour bite. "I've witnessed a lot of awful stuff, but I've rarely seen the seedy underbelly of the Overworld."
"Maybe when this is over I'll give you the grand tour." She winked and took a sip of juice.
"When this is all over," I muttered. "It's never all over. There's always another bad guy climbing out of a toilet to rain poop on our parade."
"Despite the crystoid-induced tsunami, I still enjoyed our time in Thailand," Elyssa said. "Cephus might think he's a badass, but we've been through worse."
"Except it's not just Cephus," I said. "Frankenberg said Serena is involved, and you know how shifty she can be."
"I can be shifty too." Elyssa spooned glurk paste in her mouth. "And you also have that aether pack so you can use your abilities."
"True." I didn't know how much power it held, but it was better than nothing.
Elyssa recalled everyone after lunch for status updates. Nailan reported that his people had finished placing the crucibles and the route to the western crystoid had been scouted.
Elyssa's comment during brunch about the aether pack had given me food for thought, so once everyone finished their status reports, I brought up an idea I expected to get shot down immediately. "We have three aether packs," I said. "That means three of us with magic versus any of their fliers and ground troops who remain behind to guard the crystoid during the diversion. I think we should track down another of their patrols and steal their aether packs. Not only is that fewer soldiers we have to worry about, but more magic for us."
"How large are their patrols?" Elyssa asked.
Nailan responded. "They usually fly in packs of four."
"Justin has aether," Flava said. "He could surely bring a squad of fliers to their knees."
Elyssa tapped a finger to her chin. "Four more with aether on our side would be a big help."
It took a moment for me to realize they were seriously considering my proposal. "My idea is pretty straightforward," I said. "So long as their patrols aren't larger than four or five, we can easily handle them."
Elyssa checked the time. "We have ten hours before mission go. That means seven hours before we need to report back here and move into position."
"Plenty of time for what we need to do." Flava looked at me. "What is your plan?"
"Just walk around until a flier squad finds us," I said.
"We'll need an ambush," Elyssa said. "Nailan, can you show me some good places to do that?"
The seraph nodded. "Of course."
With our simple plan fleshed out, our small group set off to the northeast. Lanaeia wore one of the three aether packs. Flava and I wore the other two.
The scout leader vanished ahead into the empty streets for minutes at a time, reappearing to let us know what lay ahead, and scaring the crap out of me each time he unexpectedly popped from behind a corner. Elyssa seemed to be the only one who knew when he was about to make an appearance, but she enjoyed seeing me flinch too much to let me know in advance.
Deeper into the city, Nailan leapt from the branches of a tree and landed right in front of me. I leapt five feet straight up and nearly hit the branch he'd dropped from. As usual, he remained straight-faced, though I suspected he got a kick out of my reaction.
"Now I know you're doing it on purpose!" I hissed.
"There is a four-man patrol flying south one street over," Nailan said. "I believe this is our best chance."
Elyssa nodded at me. "Get in position."
I slid the rocket stick from its sheath and twisted the handle. The seat unfolded and the fins popped out of the rear section. "I'm going to drop a flier on you," I told Nailan.
He raised an eyebrow as if he had no idea why I would do such a thing. "Just don't damage the aether pack."
Elyssa pecked my cheek. "Be careful."
"Hey, I'm always careful," I said, hopping on the rocket stick. I hit the accelerator too hard and nearly rammed the tree, screeching to a halt just in time. I gave Elyssa a sheepish grin and jetted upward before she could sigh and roll her eyes. Rocket stick nearly vertical, I climbed steadily, the polished surface of a crimson skyscraper flashing past beneath me.
I rolled left and straightened out before I reached the top of the building and flew into plain sight of the mutant squad. Gliding serenely over the street, blazing wings spread wide, they noticed me, but seemed to take a moment to register I was an enemy. They wore spiffier outfits than their comrades I'd encountered yesterday—shiny black armor with the white and black of the Void emblazoned on their chests. The leader of their V formation veered my way without a gesture or a shout and the rest of his brainwashed minions followed.
I let them close within firing range then spun and plunged back down a perpendicular street. They dove after me, beams of Murk blasting from their fists. I pulled out of my dive just a few feet off the crystalline street and dodged back and forth like a drunken three-legged dog in a mosh pit as the pursuers did their best to hammer me into mush. Fist-sized balls exploded against the street, leaving divots and spraying shards into the air.
The plan was working brilliantly except for one major thing. The mutants weren't flying low enough, instead maintaining altitude about twenty feet above me, probably because firing from greater height gave them an advantage. Just a couple blocks away, two statues rose on either side of the street where my comrades lay in wait. I had to do something fast. The next building rose to my left. Sparing a bit of juice from the aether pack, I channeled a ramrod and blew a hole through the window.
Devoid of furnishings, the spare interior gave me plenty of room to maneuver. I paused inside a large room stretching from one side of the building to the other and glanced back. The mutants zipped inside, flowing from a V to a straight line without pause, and firing away the second they spotted me.
It worked!
Now I just had to make it outside without dying. The rocket stick proved nimble enough, and the enemy attacks plowed an opening through the opposite windows so I didn't have to use precious aether. I zipped outside and veered hard right to line up with the narrow strait between the statues.
My pursuers maintained low altitude and continued the chase. The statues whooshed past. I continued another thirty yards and spun just as the fliers streaked through. Elyssa and the others waiting on the other side struck.
Silvery darts sprayed from the wrist-mounted lancer Elyssa wore. One struck an enemy in the neck, finding the space between the helmet and the shoulder armor, and the Seraphim went limp. His body bounced along the street and came to a halt. Laneia creamed the last flier with a well-timed blast of Murk. Joss and Otaleon threw shimmering nets and caught one more, but the lead flier climbed upward toward escape.
"He'll warn the others!" Elyssa shouted. "Get him, Justin!"
"Already on it," I called, urging the rocket stick to full speed.
The soldier flung crystal shards of Murk at me, too many to dodge, so I used more aether and threw up a shield. His wings began to shimmer and his momentum faltered. Either he was running out of aether, or tiring from the chase. I flung a dense sphere of Murk and nailed him in the back of the head. The armor clunked with impact and the flier slammed into the building in front of him.
He hung suspended for a moment and then his wings flickered away. I caught him around the waist before he fell. The rocket stick's engine whirred loudly as it struggled to keep both of us aloft. I eased back the throttle and descended as gently as I could. Elyssa and the others held up their arms and I dropped the unconscious mutant the remaining ten feet so they could catch him.
We did it. I prayed these aether packs gave us the edge we desperately needed.
Chapter 6
Breathing a sigh of relief, I landed and
folded the rocket fins and seat of the rocket stick back into compact form and shoved it in its sheath. The odor of overheated electronics stung my nostrils and I hoped I hadn't burned it out. Shelton had assured me it could carry two hundred pounds, albeit slowly. I wished Elyssa's hadn't been destroyed, because it would've come in handy.
Flava and the others began stripping the armor from the fliers. Flava shuddered when she revealed the mutilated face of the first soldier.
"What this stuff made of?" Elyssa asked, knocking her knuckles against one of the helmets.
Flava pressed her fingers to it and closed her eyes. "Highly concentrated Murk threaded with Brilliance."
"It's so concentrated that it's black?" I asked.
She opened her eyes and nodded. "Something so dense could not be channeled without the assistance of powerful gems."
"Cephus and his ministry are fully capable of such feats," Nailan said.
"They made a mistake by not padding the helmet." Elyssa showed everyone the inside of it. "When Justin conked that last soldier, his head ricocheted."
"Like a marble in a, uh, bucket," I finished lamely, unable to conjure a suitable analogy.
"Yeah," Elyssa said with a roll of her eyes. "A bucket."
Flava removed the helmet from the flier I'd knocked out and gasped. "It's Tryphiss!"
I grimaced as I looked upon the face of a youthful looking sera, head shaved and marred by the scar across her temple, a white gem gleaming dully from the right eye socket.
"Now we know what happened to her," Nailan said grimly. "She's been turned into one of these creatures."
"Creatures or not, they are our people," Flava said. "They were citizens we swore to protect."
"We've failed them," Philas said in a miserable voice.
"You're a gifted healer, Flava." I put a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe we can take Tryphiss with us and see if she can be fixed."
"Bring them all," Nailan said. "Otherwise they may return to their new master."
Elyssa looked at the unconscious Seraphim doubtfully. "Do you have a holding facility?"
Nailan nodded. "We can contrive something. I don't want to leave them at the tender mercy of Cephus." He spat the name. "There must be something we can do."
"Quickly, then," Elyssa said. She shot lancer darts into the still forms that didn't already have one. "Those will keep them asleep."
Joss and the others fitted the stolen aether packs to their backs, eyes widening as they felt the power coursing through them. Hefting the stricken Seraphim, we headed south.
When we reached the cave base, Nailan secured all the prisoners but Tryphiss. Flava laid her on a table and placed her hands on the sera's temples. After a long moment of concentration, she grimaced and pulled away.
"These white gems are similar to the prisms you gave us for channeling Brilliance," she said.
"They must not work as well," I told her. "Otherwise I think the mutants would have used destruction to fight me."
"I agree." She ran a finger across the pink scar on the sera's head. "Cephus implanted something here. I believe it's what grants him control."
Just thinking about it gave me the heebie-jeebies. "I thought Seraphim were all about magic and not wetware."
The last word didn't translate well into Cyrinthian, leaving a puzzled look on Flava's face. "I cannot fathom what he might have used. The Ministry of Research was often the focus of controversial projects."
"I've seen them firsthand." Nightliss's bruised and battered body sprang to mind before I could stop myself from flashing back to her rescue from the ministry. "Is it possible to reopen the wound?"
"That is not something I dare start now, only hours before the attack," Flava replied. "I need to do a deeper scan and that will take hours."
"We don't want your attention split now," Elyssa said. "Whatever Cephus did can hopefully be reversed."
"You were right about not waiting for another legion to arrive," Flava said to Elyssa. "Even if we win, there will be hundreds of citizens affected by Cephus's monstrous violations."
The gut full of guilt I'd carried around since the crystoid incident grew even heavier. "I should have stopped him right after I rescued Nightliss. I had the entire legion with me."
"You needed me to heal Elyssa," Flava said. "It was imperative we reach her immediately."
"I could have sent you ahead and remained behind with Ketiss." I pounded the flat of a fist against the wall. "If only I'd done it right then. We could have saved thousands of lives."
Elyssa crossed her arms. "To quote the great Harry Shelton, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all be farting fairies."
"Isn't it 'fat as pigs'?" I said.
"Not according to Shelton." She looked at the stricken sera on the table. "You did what you thought was right at the time, Justin. As much as you wish you were a military genius or all-powerful, you're not. I understand that and Nightliss did too."
Flava looked down. "I am sorry for blaming you for everything, Justin." Her gaze wandered up to meet mine. "The only fault lies with Cephus. I am weighing you with guilt that is not yours."
Her words and Elyssa's lightened the load a little. Nightliss was gone and Tarissa all but destroyed, but nothing I did now could change the past—only the future. I would do everything in my power to ensure a beautiful future for Seraphina, or die trying.
Night arrived and it was time to leave. Since the only reliable way to measure time in the no-magic zone was with mine and Elyssa's arcphones, I hesitantly gave Nookli over to Philas so he'd know the precise time to start his attacks.
"Why couldn't you give him your phone?" I asked Elyssa after he left with his group.
"I have the battle plans on mine." She smiled reassuringly as she double-checked her Nightingale armor for any damage. "I'm sure you'll get Nookli back."
We joined the others. Flava wore Tryphiss's armor but without the helmet since she said it hindered her vision. A group of Nailan's people had already left for the east to stage diversions. Nailan came with us, his people carrying the two crucibles I'd filled with Stasis in black webbing.
I took all the aether packs with me on a rocket stick ride and flicked on my incubus vision. Sure enough, once I achieved line of sight with the ultraviolet pimple in the city center, thin aether beams speared into them, and hopefully charging them to full. Since Cephus's evil minions hadn't thought to put a battery gauge on the side, I tested each by touching the crystal prongs and sensing the energy bursting across my senses.
Man, this aether beam works fast.
Back on the ground again, I rejoined the others and handed out the packs. Flava's eyes glowed purple when she affixed one to her back. "Now we have a chance," she murmured.
"We always had a chance," I countered. "This just gives us more opportunity to hand out some ass-whoopings."
"I thought we agreed to harm the fliers as little as possible," Nailan said.
I shrugged. "Just a figure of speech. Hopefully, Cephus will call most of them to guard the other crystoid."
We reached the staging area, a building shaped like a nightmare-sized tornado. I didn't see how it remained standing with such a narrow base and wide top. We were less than a block from the western buildings flattened by the crystoid, and about ten blocks from the crystoid itself, though measuring in blocks seemed pointless since only rubble remained ahead.
Nailan conferred with his scouts, concern etched in his forehead. Not the word "concern", but the facial expression.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"We expected more patrols," he said. "We avoided only four ground and three air patrols."
I hadn't seen any ground patrols since the scouts expertly led us safely past them, but I had seen the fliers. "We zigzagged a lot. Maybe we just got lucky."
He didn't look convinced. "It's likely they've concentrated most of their troops at the crystoid." Nailan whispered commands to two seraphs and they melted away into the night.
Elyssa che
cked the time. "Fifteen minutes," she whispered.
Those fifteen minutes stretched into eternity. Seconds after the clock hit three A.M., my super hearing picked up the low rumble of explosions echoing across the city. The others exchanged tense glances. I switched to incubus vision and found the crystoid's aether beam. It seemed massive this close to it—far larger, in fact, than the ones I'd neutralized in Eden.
"There they go," Elyssa whispered excitedly and pointed to ultraviolet wings streaking across the sky and to the east.
"I count at least forty," Nailan said.
I tried to count, but even with my enhanced vision, they were too far away and moving too fast for me to clearly pick out each flier.
Nailan noticed me squinting. "Approximating the number of enemies is a talent every scout must cultivate."
"I'm glad we have you," I admitted.
Nailan's scouts flowed from the darkness several minutes later. "Thirty Void soldiers and ten Void fliers remain," one reported.
"Now the odds are in our favor," Flava said.
Elyssa gazed at the twinkling lights vanishing into the horizon. "The fliers need another few minutes to get far enough away."
I turned to Nailan. "Is stealth an option for taking down any of the remaining guards?"
One of the scouts answered. "They are too tightly spaced around the impact crater and there are no lone patrols."
"Why is it always like that?" I muttered. In the movies, there were tons of stupid bad guys who patrolled all by themselves, only to be taken down one by one. "Just one time, I'd like to take out the guy at the back of a patrol and jerk him out of sight so fast, the others don't even realize he's gone."
Elyssa patted my shoulder. "Justin, you're an incubus, not a ninja."
"One day, Ninjette," I replied, using the nickname her brother Michael preferred for her. "One day."
She checked the sky, and the time on her phone. "It's time. Justin, get ready."
I unsheathed the rocket stick and flicked out the seat and fins. Nailan tied the webbing holding the crucibles to the bottom.
"Remember to hurl the crucibles as hard as you can," he said. "They look fragile, but they require sufficient velocity to break on impact."