by Ryan Attard
"Beta Team, sweep the first floor and stand by," crackled my sister's voice through my earpiece.
"You're up," I told Abi. "Remember our plan." She nodded and left with another team of ninjas. Abi carried her own weapon, this time in the shape of a golden baton, and was the only person in history to wear a bulletproof vest and make it look sexy.
"Erik, do what you have to do." Gil had stopped trying to argue with my plan when I found out that Luke the Pyromancer was inside that apartment building. That bastard was mine.
I nodded at three soldiers and they moved into action. Two of them followed me as we entered the second floor through the fire escape and all the way up to the third floor, while ninja number three ran out through a window and descended into an alleyway at the back of the building.
As we got up I could hear the chorus of doors being smashed in on the first floor, and the yells of "on your knees" and "stand down." From the second floor I heard Luke cursing and the familiar roar of fire.
"He's burning through the ceiling," Abi yelled in my earpiece.
"Got it." I kicked an apartment door and saw the floor glow red and orange, before literally melting away. Luke flew through, landed on the ground and tumbled.
I loomed over him. "S'up?"
His eyes widened and fire formed in his hands. But I had a mightier weapon. Foam exploded from the nozzle of the fire extinguisher I carried. He yelped like a kicked dog and tried shielding his eyes as I covered him in flame-retardant foam.
Luke rolled to one side and I saw steam rising from him.
"Boys," I called out.
Ninja number one and two came in, carrying a fire hose and opened fire—I mean, water—on the Pyromancer. You have no idea how satisfying it was to watch Luke yelling and trashing on the floor as high pressure water soaked him to the bone.
"You fucking-” he began.
I stepped in just as the water stopped and swung the fire extinguisher around, smacking him in the head. The blow sent him crashing against a wall.
"Mind your language," I said.
"Ow," he moaned pathetically.
"Boys," I called out again.
Immediately, the ninjas unleashed the fire hose on him and another jet of water splashed into his face.
"Enough with the goddamn water!" he yelled.
"But I even didn't get to use my big one yet," I replied, pointing out the window. Ninja number three was on the crow's nest of a fire truck, with an industrial-sized fire hose resting on the window and aimed squarely at Luke.
The Pyromancer dropped his gaze and put his hands up. "I surrender," he spat.
"Great," I said beaming. " ‘Cos actually I just wanted to ask you a few questions."
"You want a truce?"
"Yep."
"Ever heard of just calling a truce?" he asked.
"Ever heard of overkill?" I shot back.
"Fuck you, man."
"Uh uh," I said waving a warning finger in front of him. "Do you want my boys to use their big hoses on you again?”
He stared at me.
"I mean the fire hoses," I added.
He rolled his eyes and coughed up more water. "Fine, truce, whatever."
"Awesome." I dropped the fire extinguisher and grabbed the fire hose from the two ninjas. They immediately retreated and closed what was left of the door behind them. Ninja number three in the fire truck reached in and closed the window, but stayed behind it so that he could just break the glass and use his big hose—and again, I mean the fire hose.
"Feeling confident enough holding that thing?" Luke sneered.
I pulled the valve and water shot right into his open mouth, causing him to gag and retch.
"Now I do," I replied with a grin. "Okay, Fireboy. First question."
"I can't wait."
"Want some more?" I threatened. "Maybe help clear your head."
"No, no, officer," he mocked. Luke had his arms wrapped around him and he was turning into a worrying shade of blue. "I'll cooperate."
"Who are you, guys?" I asked. "And don't give me that crap about being a gang of magical freaks. I'm talking about the Black Ring Society. Who are you really?"
"'Magical freaks'," he mocked. "Which movie did you get that from?"
"Dude, you see this thing?" I asked exasperatedly, jiggling the fire hose in my hands. "Unless you want a prison-style colonoscopy with this thing I suggest you cut the crap." I moved in closer. "I saved you from that creepy wind demon, remember? He's downstairs, dude. Would you like me to call him and have him take over?"
Luke glared at me and exposed his arm, showing me a tattoo of a black ring on his forearm. "Hold on a second," he said.
His face contorted in effort as his arm began to smoke. There was an audible hiss and his face twisted in pain. The tattoo, as well as the skin on his arm, began burning. It wasn't the magic inside the ink that was doing this. Luke was actually burning off his own skin, together with the tattoo.
He yelped in pain as the last of the black tattoo was gone and held up his injured arm. "Mind using that thing for good at least once?" he asked.
I released a quick jet of water and tossed him a small first aid kit I found nearby on the wall.
"Thanks," he said. "No one knows about that little loophole. And no one is insane enough to burn their own arm." He sighed and inhaled a deep breath. "Now we can talk freely."
He began applying chemicals to his burn and seemed to know what he was doing. Something told me this wasn't his first time treating a burn wound.
"Our little gang, as you called it, is something akin to a secret government," Luke said as he worked a bandage around his arm. "We have people in every major facet of the planet. Media, schools, politics, you name it. None of them do much, to be honest. We just sit there and watch."
"Why?"
"I was getting to that." He sighed again. "We just watch and report back. There's a checklist they gotta follow and if an event fits the bill we report back to HQ."
"And that would be?" I asked.
He reached inside his jeans and pulled out a soggy business card. I flipped it over and read the words RYLEH CORP. in big black letters on one side.
"Who the hell are these guys?" I asked, pocketing the card to hand my sister later.
"Not really sure," Luke replied. "They have fingers in all pies, from chemical engineering and pharmaceutics, to information technology."
"Who's their leader?"
"I don't know."
"Don't bullshit me," I snapped.
"I'm serious, man," he yelled back. "I don't know this guy, never met him. He relays orders via email or a couple dummy accounts on the Verdant Moon chat room."
"Okay, let's say I believe you," I said. "Why did you steal the Etherium Key?"
He shook his head. "A couple months ago we got a bunch of orders to follow some plan they gave us. Our tech guys started building the video game as a way to recruit more numbers. Then we were told to ambush a convoy headed north. I didn't know why. I just follow orders."
"How cute."
"Hey, with all those zeroes I have on my check, I’ve learnt not to ask questions," Luke shot back. "Those were the orders. Build a video game to get more people and steal a teleportation device from some rich bitch. That's all there is to it."
"No, there's more," I said calmly. "And if you don't wanna talk to me, I'll hand you to said rich bitch and her demon butler. So talk. Why do you want to cross dimensions?"
Luke's face contorted into a glare but seemed to give up halfway through. He had nothing to lose now—he had already talked.
"We don't want to cross anywhere," he said. "But there is something we want to bring over. A demon. One so powerful it once ruled the world or something. But there was something wrong with it. That's all I know, man, I swear."
I filed that information away for later. Anytime someone used the words 'summon' and 'demon' in the same sentence, there was trouble ahead.
But one bridge at a time.
&n
bsp; "The video game," I said. "Is it offline?"
"You destroyed our servers," Luke replied. "Even with our backups it'll take us a while before we can get it back online."
He sighed again. "There is a hard drive downstairs marked with Ryleh's logo. That's the backup, or one of them at least. Take it," he said with disgust. "I never liked the idea of mind-controlling people through a fucking video game anyway."
"Huh. So even you have some shred of honor in you," I commented.
"Don't judge me, man. You don't know me," he said.
"Oh, yeah I do. I know you through your actions and you're a class A douche," I shot back.
I waited for him to respond to that but Luke was busy shivering and rubbing his chest.
"Okay, the million-dollar question," I continued. "What's your connection to the Seven Deadly Sins?"
He shrugged. "No idea what that is. I heard the boss mention them once or twice. I think he's got some interest in them but he doesn't share that sort of information with us."
I frowned. "I thought you never talked to your boss."
Luke grinned. "Whoops."
I pulled the valve on the hose but no water came out. Instead it just sprayed from a tear at the side of the hose.
Luke got to his feet, holding up one finger. "Pinpoint heat beam," he said. "And this is payback." A stream of fire shot from his hands towards me.
"Son of a bitch," I said as I threw myself to one side. At the same time the two ninjas outside burst in.
"Get him," I yelled but it was too late.
Luke had fired off a jet of fire at the window, catching the guy on the fire truck and throwing him off. Luke dove through the window and used his fire jets to fly off. I poked my head out the window just in time to see him give me the finger before disappearing behind a tall office building.
I looked down to see ninja number three being carried off by some more ninjas. I hope Gil has good medical insurance.
"Find anything?" my sister asked when we gathered downstairs.
I relayed my findings to her and gave her the card.
"Ryleh," she read. "Where have I heard that name before?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. But we gotta keep an eye out for these guys."
"Already on it," she said. Then she gestured at the prisoners her people had bound and settled inside one of the black vans. "None of them are practitioners. Just idiots tampering with things they shouldn't."
"I'll handle it," I said, pulling out my phone. It rang twice and my friend at the Police Department back in my hometown picked up.
"Yo, Roland. How you doing?"
"That's your I-need-a-favor voice, Erik," said Detective Roland March.
"You know me so well," I replied. "Hey listen, you remember all those disappearing cases related to that video game?" Roland hummed a yes. "Well I got a bunch of tech guys over here who crossed my mean sister in a very bad way. You got any friends down in Denver who owe you a favor?"
"Jesus Christ, Erik. You going national now?" he blurted exasperatedly.
"Would you believe me if I told you I spent the last few days in a different universe?"
"I really don't wanna know what you're talking about," he said with a huge sigh. "I can make a few phone calls and have someone pick up your guys. Just do me a favor and don't be there when they show up? I already get enough crap here for hanging out with you."
"Done and done, Detective," I replied cheerfully. "I owe you a beer when I get home."
"Make it two. You still haven't repaid that favor I did you during that werewolf case."
"Still remember that, huh?"
"Who the fuck can forget a giant werewolf?" he yelled hoarsely, as if trying to keep his voice confined within the space of his cubicle.
"Okay, okay, I get it," I said. "Beer’s on me. Thanks man."
"I'll hold you up to that," he replied. "And remember, don't be there when Denver PD shows up."
"Have a little faith, will you?" I said. The last thing I heard was him snorting through the phone before the call went dead.
Chapter 39
It was a few days later and I had made the grave mistake of trying to educate the cat in the ways of man. The shopping trip was a much-needed break from the confusion going on at home. Abi had gone on one of her maniac sprees, cleaning the entire place from top to bottom and trying to cook all my favorite stuff. I shouldn't complain, but I don't do well with the attention. It's almost like she thinks I'm about to disappear into a different world again. I'm grateful for the love but it freaked me out big time.
Hence my offering to do the shopping.
I have no idea what madness made the words 'Do you wanna come with?' come out of my mouth and towards the cat. Amaymon is like social TNT. He's worse than those kids who throw tantrums in the middle of an aisle, and don't even get me started on the cashier-flirting. It's a wonder that I haven't been banned from most stores.
Once we were done picking our stuff we found ourselves standing in line behind a small tribe of people at the cashier's checkpoint, eyeing the ten-items-or-less line with envy.
"So why can't we just go there?" Amaymon said for the fifth time in two seconds.
"That's ten items or less. We have about twenty items," I replied patiently.
"Okay. Tell me again why we aren't just walking out of here with our shit?" he asked. Scary thing was, that was a real question, not a joke or sarcasm. Amaymon really wanted to know why it wasn't okay for us just to take what we want.
"Because it's wrong," I replied. "If you steal things there are consequences. And besides, the first rule of magic is equivalent exchange. Think of it as karma. You do bad shit and it'll come to bite you in the ass later."
Amaymon smirked. "You must've been one bad motherfucker in a past life then," he said, "for all the luck you're having now."
I ignored his annoying, but somewhat true, comment and stacked my stuff in front of a really pretty cashier. She smiled and I tried chatting her up. Before I could get the first word out Amaymon tapped me on the shoulder.
"Hey did you get the hemorrhoid cream for your, um… situation?"
There was no situation. The asshole was being a major cockblocker. And he succeeded, since the girl wouldn't meet my eyes.
Amaymon laughed out loud in my face the moment we stepped outside.
"Why would you do that?" I asked, not really surprised by what he had done.
"Better question would be, why wouldn't I do that?" he replied with a shrug.
I sighed and settled the bags down in front of my car as I fumbled for the keys. My sister had been kind enough to repair it and now the beautiful red Mustang sat majestically at the parking lot.
I was working the keys into the trunk of the car when a shadow cast over me and suddenly my field of vision was engulfed in light. It receded as quickly as it had come and a moment later Jehudiel stood by my vehicle in full angelic robes and armor, his wings pressed close to his side.
"Erik Ashendale," he said formally. I was too stunned to say anything and the angel seemed to be in a hurry. "You must come with me. There is something you should see."
I regained enough of my senses to ask, "Where?"
He pointed upwards and offered a cryptic smile. "Come," he instead, grabbing my arm.
I felt a slight burning sensation at his touch, followed by sheer weightlessness. I dropped the one basket I was holding and involuntarily struggled.
But as I looked down I saw that I had no hands—heck, I had no body. I was just a ball of light cradled in the archangel's arms, and we both began ascending rapidly towards the sky.
Amaymon splayed his hands in mock exasperation. "How the hell am I supposed to get home with all this crap?"
I saw my keys fall from my grip and land a few inches at his feet. He twirled them playfully and reached in one of the baskets for a candy bar.
"Oh. Okay," he yelled upwards, as he nonchalantly picked up the bags and threw them in the back seat. Then he waved his hand mischievousl
y. "Have a nice trip."
If I had eyes I would have rolled them. My savior, I thought sarcastically as I watched the demon drive off in my newly repaired car.
***
"The hell is this thing?"
We were either in Heaven or the inside of a flashlight. I couldn't tell the difference. Everywhere was white and bright, almost like a bizarre toothpaste commercial. Worst of all, I was dressed for the occasion. My black leather coat had become pristine white and I had matching sunglasses on my face.
Jehudiel gave me a reproachful look. "I would advise you to watch your language. I had to pull a lot of strings to get you up here." He nodded at my attire. "That is my influence on you, so that you may withstand being here. Think of it as a Visitor's Pass. The last human to show up here was over a thousand years ago."
I couldn't help it. "Let me guess, Jewish guy with a beard?"
This time the archangel visibly rolled his eyes. "Must you mock every faith?"
"Only the really easy ones," I replied. But knowing that I was on literal sacred ground—can't get any more sacred than Heaven itself—I decided to drop the comedian act and try being humble.
"Thank you, I guess," I said, picking at my white leather coat.
Jehudiel smiled. "I know a guy."
I let out a laugh. Hey, at least this one was trying to be funny. You have to give points for effort. Before I could ask why I was brought up here, Jehudiel nudged me forwards.
"It's about to start," he said.
He led me inside a building that looked like the Coliseum, a wide tall ring of white stone and nothing else.
Oh, and it was suspended in mid-air.
As we entered I felt a shift in magic and a million theories went through my head. This was a different dimension than Earth. Imagine the things that could be done here. Simply taking a step meant crossing over space and time. Just a breath was enough to bend the laws of physics. Suddenly there were so many questions I wanted to ask, but all were instantly forgotten when we stepped inside the hovering building.
There were angels everywhere I looked, pressed together like sardines. Jehudiel and I made our way through the crowd and the other angels immediately parted for him to pass. I was also pelted with a mixture of looks, ranging from curious to disgusted. I expected those. What I did not expect to see, however, was the fear and concern that some of them glanced at me with.