by Jamie Hawke
“Judging by the silence, it’s taken care of,” she said, turning to scan the far side of the fortress, where they would’ve likely been. “But… I’m not so sure.”
“Why? What are you seeing?”
She shook her head. “It’s not clear. It’s like they’re distorted.”
“No better way to find out than by going and finding out,” Sacrada said, and took to the sky.
Navani shrugged, then turned and led the way to find the others.
23
The opposite side of the fortress hadn’t been infested with Nihilists or the others, to our relief. That didn’t stop Navani from feeling very creeped out as she took the lead, gesturing to stay back.
“Something’s not right,” she said, holding up a hand. We paused at a large entryway, where there were a number of glowing blue screens with runes running along them.
“Where is she?” Sacrada asked.
“Thing is… this has only happened to me once before.” Navani took a deep breath. “Before, when Andromida was on the prison ship. Something they’d done to the ship was stopping me from finding her.”
“’They’ the guards, or ‘they’ the Nihilists?” I asked.
“Why the Nihilists?” Sakurai asked, and even Navani’s expression showed she hadn’t considered this.
“I mean, Ranger was incoming right, and they’d already freed everyone and released their powers. Plus, they wouldn’t want others to be able to track anyone, and had to have known that there were supers like you out there, right?” She nodded, so I continued. “Considering all that, I have to wonder if they knew you’d be after her, or at least someone on the ship. Or maybe it was totally unrelated but… doesn’t seem like it.”
“You might be on to something,” Navani said. “Meaning they had somebody onboard who was able to block sight powers like yours, and they have someone here, too.”
“Maybe,” Sakurai interjected. “But I’d guess it’s someone weaker, since you were able to track up to now.”
“So more supers, or another ability of the Nihilists, or their friends.” Navani motioned us forward, and to a set of stairs that spiraled down.
“Is there a reason we don’t just call them supervillains?” I asked. “From what I’ve seen, their powers follow a pattern like the supers, and we have this theory about their background.”
“Even if they are, or were,” Navani said, “we’re not putting them under our justice code. To label them supers would do just that. This? This is a war, and they are the enemy.”
“Agreed,” Sacrada said. “Assuming they had free will to become what they are, if they were once supers like us, they deserve what’s coming.”
“And if not?”
“Then they’re already gone anyway.”
We descended the stairs, walls dark gray and black brick, only able to see by the glow of Navani’s eyes and the occasional pulse from Sacrada.
“Anything?” her sister asked.
Sacrada shook her head. “Whatever they’re doing down there, it’s blocking me, too.”
“And Threed?” I asked. “Andromida?”
The look on Navani’s face was enough to push me faster. Losing another member of the team would be unthinkable, and to lose Threed would be unimaginable. Call me old-fashioned, but I wasn’t the type to sleep with a woman and then be fine with them wandering off to get killed. Now I was regretting letting her go earlier, and I was suddenly reminded how stupid I was to let Navani come along.
“Maybe…” I grabbed Navani by the upper arm and she turned, eyes wild for a moment. “Maybe you should wait here, or go back?”
She frowned, scoffed, and then pulled free. “Not a chance.”
“Navani,” I said, glancing back at the other ladies, who seemed very confused. “This is bigger than the two of us.” My eyes went to her belly, then back to hers. “We have to think about the mission.”
“We have that now,” she said, gesturing to the pyramid tied in my Nihilist robe. “I’m not sure the mission is even the same anymore.”
I blinked, taken aback. She was always the one so insistent on the mission, or the prophesy. To hear her doubt it was a low blow.
“What’s happening?” Sakurai asked. “Because if I didn’t know better, I’d say… No…”
Navani bit her lip, then shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“You thought you might be pregnant?” Sacrada said.
“We have an enemy to kill,” Navani said, turning to keep on, but Sacrada stepped up, quickly blocking her path. “How do you know you’re not?”
“Get out of my way.”
“Navani.” Sacrada took a step in, closer to her. “If you’re actually pregnant, this could be huge for all of us. If he was able to make it happen, well…” The way she looked at me then made me feel like a tool—one someone isn’t quite sure will work, but definitely wants if it does.
“Holy shit,” Sakurai was repeating, over and over, hands above her head. The last time anyone was pregnant that I know about was—”
“Ladies,” Navani interrupted. “I really don’t think I am. Before, I was feeling nauseous, bloated… but not now. It’s tough to say without the powers of this guy’s mother.”
“And if we had that power?” Sakurai asked.
“Huh?” Navani turned to her, frowning.
“Just a theory I’ve been contemplating. If the Tier One supers are gone, but we also found out the enemy has a way of stealing powers… doesn’t it seem logical that the two could be connected?”
Navani nodded, considering this with great interest. “Meaning, we might be able to find the powers and even use them.”
“Or get them back to their owner, yes,” she replied with a chuckle.
“Assuming we can find her,” I interjected, annoyed that they were talking about my biological mother, a woman I didn’t even know. The worst thing I could do right now is get my hopes up.
“He’s right,” Navani said. “It’s a nice dream and all, but we might just have to find out the old-fashioned way for the foreseeable future. And for now, focus on the situation at hand.”
We paused at a raised hand from Navani as she scanned, and suddenly she turned, eyes flaring and said, “Get back!”
But there was nowhere to go, and she seemed to realize that the second the words left her mouth, because next she cursed and began throwing up shields in front of us. A bust of heat hit and then came the flames exploding through the tunnel. Her shields vanished one after the other as we tried to get back, but finally Sacrada leaped forward and pushed us down as she let her wings out, spinning to fold them over us as a protective barrier. The flames went past, leaving stale air that was hard to breathe for a moment.
Sacrada didn’t waste any time. She leaped down the stairs, not with enough room for her wings to fully extend, but enough to let her swoop. The rest of us followed as fast as we could, and we emerged to find her already in fight mode with a supervillain who’d been waiting.
Her wings clipped him, cutting his throat, and he fell.
Behind him, we saw a strange sight indeed. There was no fortress here, only an open field with glowing lines of blue and red, as if we were looking at another world entirely. Andromida went flying by, blue cloth rippling, tunnels and metal spikes attacking as one of the Dexetilaitite vacillated between attacking and retreating. Threed was there too, but when I shouted for her, there was no reaction.
“You’ve done this, I suppose,” Caldoran said, stepping out from the shadows to our right.
We braced ourselves and I held my hand on my blaster. “Done what, exactly?”
“Created the rift,” he replied. “Your friends, their enemy… they’re not exactly here, not exactly there. The genius of it all is that they can’t help you anymore. They’re gone—and if they ever do find a way back, you’ll be long dead.”
“Or we could just bring them back,” Sakurai said, and I turned to see that her eyes had flashed over to the item tied a
round me.
Caldoran sneered. “Not once it’s mine,” he said, and then lunged.
He was faster than I’d expected, and I wondered if it was super speed or related to some teleportation power. Either way, he was on me before I could process it, a blade emerging from his suit on his right arm and cutting away the Nihilist robe and pyramid. Sacrada lunged, but he was back, stepping into the strange rift. We froze in our assault, not sure what would happen if he stepped through with that thing.
“This is too easy,” he said with a laugh. “Taking the Per-Neter from them might have just tilted the direction of this war, but not in the way you would like. When Ranger gets ahold of it, well, let’s just say you’ll be glad to be in a world as far away as you can be… though it won’t likely do you any good.”
“Per-Neter,” Navani said, and her eyes lit up. “House of the Soul?”
“House of the Soul, or maybe God… some say the House of Physical Projection.” He glanced down at it, so proud and hungry. “They created three of these to travel the universe, each coming at a great price. Now, one is ours.”
That little moment of distraction was all we needed. What he hadn’t noticed was that little furry creature of Sakurai’s had escaped her body and was sneaking around behind him. With a quick motion, Sakurai had lunged forward just as her familiar leaped and snatched the Per-Neter from Caldoran. I lunged too, seeing Caldoran bringing his knife up to meet Sakurai, and Navani and Sacrada came in close behind, all ready to kick his ass.
What happened instead was that I ended up pulling the strike away, but all of us charging like that sent us back, tumbling right into this rift.
The other side was dark, no sign of the fortress we’d come through. The sounds of fighting surrounded us. I spun at a movement and saw Threed barreling past us, holding tight to one of the edges of the Dexetilaitite’s cloak, and she whooped and waved with her free hand. Another Threed came charging over from the other side, shooting with a pistol in one hand, while she stood poised ready to dispense her green poison mist with the other. Something gave me the feeling that wasn’t going to work on this being.
My first thought was to charge in and join the fight, but two blasts caught my shield and my stats bar popped up, showing it at twenty-five percent. I’d nearly forgotten that Caldoran had come through with us, but he was up, and about to fire again. Instead of waiting for a hit or trying to quick draw, I dove, rolled and came in for his legs. Sure, he was in armor, but I was a badass with my upgrades.
A blast from Sacrada nearly hit him and she hissed at me to stay out of the way, but now this was my fight. My armored hands plowed into him, as I’d caught him by surprise, and my strikes landed in a combo that brought a few extra-powered punches in, including three good stun shots that left him limp—the final cracked his helmet off, the fourth was an elbow to his chest that dented in the armor.
The others had turned their attention to the Dexetilaitite, which was fine by me, except that they still weren’t enough. It was coming right for me, so that I had to leap away from Caldoran. It was only then that I saw this dex-creature was translucent, as I was able to see my ladies through its cloaks. Strange, I thought, until it hit me that maybe it wasn’t quite here—similar to that spirit travel idea we’d discussed. Not only was it transparent, but it seemed to be fading as each hit from the ladies made contact.
It became clearer when Caldoran managed to stand and leap for the being. The fading Dexetilaitite turned to face him, arms spread, and they merged. I stumbled back, cursing under my breath, and watched as the merged Caldoran turned back to us as his features and outfit distorted. Where before he had been a man in full Marine armor, now the armor seemed to become one with his face, red eyes glaring at us as a hood formed over his helmet and black cloaks streamed out from behind him. He grew to twice his old size, and when he thrust out his hands, not only did blasters shoot out at us, but bursts of shadow that seemed to be reaching with hands.
Navani opened fire immediately, and Threed and I followed suit. Sacrada unleashed her sun bursts, Sakurai her dragon light, but this monstrosity was too much. Attacks seemed to go right through, or barely affect it. When it swiped at us or shot bursts from its arm cannon, we only narrowly escaped each time, and more than once were saved only by our personal body shields.
Threed sent her replicas in as she charged, but the enemy cut them both down in swipes too fast for me to process, and would’ve had her too if Sacrada hadn’t swept in and nearly blinded him with one of her blasts.
At least the blinding light kind of worked. “Keep that up!” I shouted, aiming for the eyes in hopes of those being a sensitive area—they being the windows to one’s soul, after all. A couple of shots hit close and he turned to me in outrage, then came darting over, sword held out to the side and ready.
I put all of my strength into my legs as I ran and jumped, landing on my ass on the other side of the ridge. The Caldoran monster went past, intercepted by Andromida. If we could get it to stay still, we might have a chance. Only, it was too fast and my stun attacks weren’t doing much.
The thought hit me that I had at least one skill point, and my options for skill trees had been between a skill called Blood Bath that would tear through an enemy’s flesh (not so useful on this guy, I imagined), Spiked Shield that was an offensive add-on to my shield, or Stun Pulse. That last one might come in handy here.
Flames shot past me, too close for comfort, and I shouted for them to be careful as I quickly pulled up my stats, scrolled to the knife skills and found Stun Pulse, and selected it. When I was up again, I felt ready to take on the world.
My ladies had him surrounded, pounding him with attacks and narrowly avoiding his blows, so I took my chance and charged forward. Leaping into the sky I landed on one knee and slammed my fist into the ground, just as the image on my screen had shown.
The effect was an energy blast that shot through the ground sending rocks in every direction and bursting out through the ground to almost get him—except that he had seen me coming and moved just in time. Andromida, however, hadn’t. The blast took her, freezing her as she swept up with one of her tunnels, and then the bastard struck. His hit cut through metal, only stopping short of taking her life because the stun unfroze and she fell out of his blade’s path. If he’d gone straight for her instead of the fancy strike he’d tried, he might have ended her.
But the others hadn’t given up, and one of Threed’s replicas threw the other up so that it landed on Caldoran’s back, pounding at his head as the real Threed ran out in front of him and started shooting at his eyes—apparently, she’d caught on.
He stumbled back in rage, then came down swinging with the sword. She jumped out of the way and steel cleaved rock. Sakuarai caught him then with her dragon of light striking for the face, and again he stumbled back.
“Do it again!” Sacrada shouted to me, and I had to assume she meant the stun. “On my mark!”
I prepared, watching as the monster closed in on me, hoping I wouldn’t piss my pants or put any of my team at risk again. It was almost on me by the time I realized Sacrada was shouting for me. I went to one knee and slammed my fist into the ground.
A shock wave shot forward, breaking rock and splitting the ground, and then exploded out at Caldoran. He was thrown back and yet captured in place, so that when the barrage of attacks came he was fully exposed. Fire, shots, spiked metal—it all hit him, and when it was done he collapsed, the Dexetilaitite fading until it was just Caldoran, battered and bloody, gasping for air.
“Who the fuck are you?” Caldoran asked, turning to glare at me in his state of near death.
“He’s the one,” Navani said, stepping in and cracking him one more time across the face for good measure. “One of the brothers, the one who will bring about your end.”
“You… you’re the son of Apollo?” Caldoran laughed, eyed me, and then laughed again. “This is too rich. Go… go deeper, because he’s there, waiting for you.”
&n
bsp; “What do you mean, waiting?” I asked. A glance around showed that Navani and the others were just as confused.
The man sneered, lifted his blaster, and shot. Not any of us, but at himself. It seemed I wouldn’t have my answer. At least, not until I found my father.
I was still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that, not only did we have confirmation he was alive, but we had a direction—not one that made much sense in my mind, aside from that we needed to continue pursuing the Nihilists and searching out Lamb, as the two things seemed to be tied together.
“The mission stands,” I said when I’d noticed the others were staring at me.
“Of course it does,” Navani replied, looking around. “But first we have to get out of here.”
She held the Per-Neter, assessing it, and her eyes lit up. Suddenly she was unfolding it like a puzzle, and when it was open she held it out at shoulder length, grinning as it floated off of her hand and created a three-dimensional star map around us.
“What…?” I started, but didn’t even know where to begin.
“Back at the Citadel, I’ve seen a description of something like this. And if I’m right…” She moved to a section of the map, placed her hand there, and then swiped it back toward the base of the pyramid. It moved, but stopped at one of the open triangles. “That—that must be the destination, the base as our starting point. If we did more… that might be how they jump, but we’ll have to research it more at the Citadel. They might not have all the answers, but they’ll have more than we can get here.”
With that, and before we could ask any more questions, she closed the pyramid and we were whisked away. So much for our plan of returning via the ship.
We reappeared again, and were on the deck next to the Dias, back at the Citadel.
24
The fact that we had gone all that way only to have to come back to the Citadel was maddening. Once we’d gathered had a chance to find rooms and rest, we discussed the plan for Navani to look up all the information she could find on the Per-Neter and then gathered around Andromida to see what she had in mind.