by Jamie Hawke
“Isn’t the revenge thing supposed to die down when you’re not in blue mode?” Shimmer asked.
“Only to a degree. My rage isn’t there, not like it was, but I still know what she is and that she needs to be stopped.” Andromida nodded for the door, using her latching powers to throw it open the rest of the way. “We’ve wasted enough time.”
“It wasn’t a waste,” Twitch said, but stepped aside and motioned. “Revenge-fueled ladies first.”
Andromida laughed and led the way. This side of her was actually kind of nice. Before I was out the door though, Twitch grabbed my arm, indicated her screen, and then swiped it over to me. My mini-map shot up, displaying a room that looked like it was full of monitors, labeled as one of several security rooms.
“Shall we have a look?”
I grinned. “Smart thinking.”
6
Since we weren’t having any luck finding Muerta anyway, and enough time had passed that we were starting to think she was on the run and not worrying about traps or trying to fight us, we made for the security room.
A few guards emerged from the doorway to meet us, but we took care of them with ease. Hell, a good punch sent one down, then Charm got the others with a breath of yellow that knocked them out.
“No jokes about that one,” she said, pointing at us. “My breath is sweet as candy canes.”
“Candy canes?” I asked. “You all have Christmas up here?”
She frowned, confused, and shook her head. “Were they once associated with Christmas?”
I laughed. “It’s a shame, really. A damn shame.”
She looked like she wanted more, but the others were entering the security room. I shrugged, following them in. Even on Earth, Christmas wasn’t what it had once been, but I heard rumors that there were certain Paradise Planets where people were still really into the holiday. Maybe some people celebrated on Earth, for all I knew, but it certainly wasn’t out in the open anymore.
I would’ve loved to experience a real Christmas like the computers said used to happen in the old days, but I would’ve loved to take these ladies to experience it together even more. Maybe I’d figure out how to time travel with a superpower someday and make it so.
The idea of using the security cameras to have a look around made a lot of sense, but we couldn’t have expected what we found. We stared in disbelief at the screens in front of us that showed what appeared to be tourist groups being led through massive hallways of metal and glass. The tourists wore long gowns and fancy suits of bright colors with gold embroidery and jewelry. Peacocks came to mind.
“What is this?” Shimmer asked, leaning in to get a better look.
I’d seen their type many times before, but never in person. Only on massive screens and projections, on all sorts of PSAs telling me that these people were better than my kind, and that we were lucky to serve them. There was only one way for someone like me to even get close to their level, and that was through ascension. Basically, an Earther had to volunteer for Planet Kill, get up enough levels and save enough credits, and hope they lived long enough to ascend to the Paradise Planets.
“The Elites,” I said, my voice betraying my dislike for them.
“Meaning?” Andromida asked, glancing over briefly then continuing her search, looking through the screens for signs of Muerta.
“Just that. They’re the ones in charge, especially these, I’d bet. Maybe not in charge per se, but at the top of the top. They’re our Tier Ones, essentially.”
“What powers do they have?” Charm asked.
“No, not like that. Although, I guess you could say political power.”
“You mean they have friends.” Gale laughed. “That’s a hoot.”
“Friends, militaries, money.”
“All of which can get you more places sometimes than being able to throw fireballs out of your ass.” Twitch smirked. “Just saying.”
A couple of chuckles followed.
“What’s…” Andromida frowned, indicating a screen. “What’s happening here?”
On the screen a man in a tactical police outfit was running, a woman with blue skin and horns on her head at one side of him, another who looked like a crazy clown, in a sense, on the other side. As we watched, he shot someone and then the demon-looking one seemed to vanish into a shadow, reappearing in another screen, where we saw her apparently tear out someone’s glowing heart before opening the door and ushering the other two in.
“I’d say it’s a friend,” Shimmer said.
“Wishful thinking,” Gale argued. “It’s as likely they’ll turn on us as they are to attack the bad guys.”
“But the point remains that there are others down here who could be of help.”
Gale didn’t argue with that. I was watching intently when something on one of the other screens caught my attention. They had a group of men and women in a wider hall with seating on each side like an arena, and lights flashed as more of those hybrid monsters like we’d seen earlier were guided in. What followed was a bloodbath, the men getting torn to shreds as they tried to fight back. The Elites cheered. I took a step back, appalled.
“This is how you Earthers entertain yourselves?” Shimmer asked.
“No,” I said, but shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“It’s fucked up.”
“But these two ladies…” Charm indicated the screen with the cop guy. “I like them. Especially the clown-looking one. Is that a smiley face on her tit?”
Gale laughed, nodding. “Damn straight. Not a bad place for it.”
“The one with horns is more my style,” Andromida said.
Twitch pulled up one of her pink screens and started entering numbers and code. When she saw me staring, she explained, “I think I can adjust the cameras. Maybe you can help direct them with your troubleshooter skill?”
“Damn.” I wished I’d thought of that. One of the best upgrades ever. Well, that and the one that enabled my illusions to become partial reality—as draining as that could be. As she directed the cameras, changing angles, I focused on my skill and thought of Muerta, pulling up what I could recollect of how she looked and trying to channel it through the system.
“Fucking bingo,” I exclaimed, ignoring the confused looks from the ladies.
Andromida gasped at my side, then leaned in with her finger on the screen where I was now focused. There stood Muerta with metal and darkness shooting past her. “What is this?”
“A train,” Twitch said. “Not really, but… close enough.”
It certainly wasn’t a train—more like the elevators but with a magnetic transportation tube system of what looked like glass. But sure, ‘train.’
“How romantic,” Charm said with a playful grin. “I’ve always wanted to go for a train ride in pursuit of a deadly superhero with my man and his other lovers.”
I laughed, and the ladies were a mixture of blushes and chuckles. Then I realized something—I was able to show more information on the display than otherwise would’ve been there. It started showing me where the train was headed, syncing with my mini-map to show us where to go.
“We’ve got our destination.” I changed one of the displays to the end point.
The sight there caused my voice to catch. Not that I was scared of seeing one of the points where the land opened up and a warden emerged, floating on a sort of hover device and moving toward a spot where several men and women were beating on a group of others. It was that I’d seen this type of violence on shows in snippets, never really wanting to, and always hating the idea of what those people must be going through. Always terrified of the frame of mind that would allow people to end up in a place like this, let alone survive past the first day. And many didn’t!
Yet, we were about to stroll right out there and not only confront this world, if necessary, but take down a criminal way worse than any of them, presumably.
“Why does Breaker look like he’s seen a ghost?” Shimmer asked Charm. I realized the
two of them were staring at me.
“That’s a Warden.” I indicated the man we’d just seen. Not a man, exactly. “An advanced A.I. being, one of several sent here to keep things from getting out of hand.” Blood splattered and someone was screaming as the Warden considered them, circling about. “Well… relatively out of hand.”
“And that freaks you out?” Charm asked.
“This whole situation freaks me out,” I replied. “So yeah, let’s get it over with and get back to your galaxy. At least there all the scary shit didn’t traumatize me growing up.”
She laughed, and Shimmer took my arm. “Come on, my paladin in shining armor. I’ll protect you.”
“That’s not how the saying goes,” I replied, frowning, but when she leaned in and kissed my cheek, I had to admit I felt better already. Charm took my other arm, and we led the way via the mini-map to where we’d find the train to the surface. What I had to wonder though, as we walked, was how this involved Plague.
If they’d thrown her onto Abaddon to be part of the spectacle, I could kind of understand Muerta’s rage. I hated the idea of being able to relate to her at all.
7
Shimmer had a great idea, which was simply to use an illusion to make us look like other employees—if that was the right word—and just walk right onto one of the trains following Muerta. It turned out there was a whole network of these things connecting the various parts of this planet, and much more went on in here than we’d originally realized. It wasn’t only the Abaddon I knew from the show, or the strange experiments for the Elites we’d seen in the security room screens, but weapons design, a hub for space mining operations, and other sorts of experiments, it seemed.
If not for our mission, I would’ve loved to have stayed there for days or weeks exploring this place: finding so many answers, I imagined, I wouldn’t know what to do with them all. Instead, we got on the train and went on our way.
Alarms were sounding throughout this place, people running about, but when the train took off, it all merged into a blur. We passed large open areas, depths of the planet that contained spinoff passages and incomplete sections, along with sections like boxes of glass that in the blur we couldn’t quite see, but seemed to hold people. Another type of prison, perhaps.
We finally surfaced, and instantly knew where we were headed. Gunfire sounded and plumes of black smoke rose into the air. A Warden hovered above it all, frowning but not intervening. The area was a chaos zone of large boulders with caves, an old sheet-metal fortress in disarray, and several dead trees with holes in them from the acid rain. The ground, too, had been eroded away in sections, causing it to be sharp in areas and completely traction-less in others.
I was leading the group, my leveled-up speed making me almost as fast as Charm. Andromida could move damn quick when metal was involved, but this planet was a bit of a handicap for her. She was taking it slow, using scrap metal as weapons, but not going all-out yet. Gale threw gusts of wind, creating sandstorms to block out the view of would-be shooters, as we made for the chaos we were certain Muerta had caused.
The people on Abaddon were tough, though. We hadn’t gone more than a hundred yards and already a group of three in gas masks came charging in, screaming about death and disembowelment. They carried curved blades and rifles. One had a… was that a plasma sword? It was hard to tell in all the sand and chaos. A bullet hit my shield and caused it to lose a good twenty percent, but my recharge would fix that before anyone else would get a chance at me. I braced myself and threw lightning at them, a chain that hit all but the last, as he apparently had a shield too. When it bounced back and he came at me with that crazy glowing sword, a screen appeared next to him with bids. People were actually trying to bid against me! It was this whole system with viewers from around the galaxy, and how they could tell him to do stupid shit that, if successful, he would receive extra credits for and, in theory, a chance to get off this shit-stain of a planet.
Sorry, big guy. He hadn’t made it even close enough to get a swing in when Charm plowed through him, ripping his guts out right then and there, slamming his face into the ground so hard his head split. Damn, she was strong!
Only, apparently it had been a diversion, because another group reared up from the other side, riding some old-style hover bikes with nets, spears, and harpoons, and what looked like a cannon.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Andromida growled and threw herself at them. Their bikes burst apart as she created her tunnels that cut through our new attackers. Even the red hands I’d started to think were gone returned, dragging a couple of them into the ground.
“Save some of the action for me!” Shimmer called, creating multiples of herself at the outskirts of our group as targets for any new arrivals or lurkers.
Sure enough, an explosion went off where one of them was standing, and she and Gale went running off to deal with it. A barrage of shots rang out from Shimmer’s newly-acquired rifle. Gale leaped into the air and let the wind take her to get a view from which to hurl down attacks.
When they came back, Shimmer was grinning from ear to ear. “Got me some extra ammo.” Sure enough, she had several magazine pouches and two new rifles slung over her shoulder, one of them looking even more badass than the one she’d acquired earlier. The ammo had to work for at least one of those, hopefully.
Charging on, there were only a couple more attackers, who were taken out easily enough. Then we stumbled upon a wild orgy in progress, seemingly one group celebrating victory over another group, judging by the heads on spikes.
Sick.
We kept on, not even bothering to stop and take them out. Maybe we should’ve, as it would’ve likely made the world a better place. But who was I to judge—the ladies I was with had been on a prison ship for the worst of the worst, supposedly, and they’d certainly proven they hadn’t exactly belonged there. Not in my book, anyway.
The Warden appeared then, flying past us on his hoverboard, clearly unsure what to think of our presence. Hey, at least he hadn’t attacked yet.
“Didn’t you hear?” I shouted. “Your planet is under attack, they need you!”
He sneered at me, then shook his head. “I’m fully aware of the situation, boy. And yet, this is far more interesting.”
I considered this being, unsure what to think about him.
“Here’s the real question,” Andromida said. “Are you going to stand in our way?”
He turned to her, held her gaze, and said, “You want to join her, right? To take down Orion Corp. Well, that’s not something I have a problem with. You see, with them gone, that would mean full autonomy for me and mine.”
“Fucking A.I.,” Shimmer muttered, and at a look from me added, “Sorry, bad experience back home.”
“I will be resuming audio of our area soon,” the Warden advised. “Carry on.”
We moved past him with cautious glances back. I wasn’t exactly sure what he was capable of, but had always heard stories as I was growing up about how badass these wardens were, considering they could call upon all manner of resources on these planets. Now, knowing what lay beneath the planet’s surface, this made more sense.
He didn’t interfere. At the next crest more attackers rose out of the ground, charging us and shooting a barrage of bullets, flying buzz-saws, and more our way. We pushed forward, throwing up shields and using illusions to make ourselves appear elsewhere. Here, there was no doubt we were being televised: no doubt that if we did something crazy, all of the Earthers who had access to the Abaddon black-market channel would know. But we’d gotten to the point of saying “fuck it,” or well past that.
In fact, I was kind of getting sick of this shit. I could see the appeal of the sexy side of the televised PK shit this planet represented, but all this blood? Disgusting. So I did what I did best, zapping them where they stood while my team took care of them in their own way.
Pushing past that bullshit, we finally found Muerta. She was dragging a wounded woman behind h
erself toward a spot near the rocks, out of harm’s way.
“There’s nowhere left to run,” Andromida said. “Turn and fight.”
Muerta spun on us, eyes fierce… but also holding a glint of tears. She pulled the woman close, whispered something in her ear, and then grinned.
“Why fight you… when Abaddon can do it for me?”
She had some sort of switch. When she activated it, the Warden lit up like a Christmas tree, then went dark, collapsing to the ground. At the same time, areas of sky around us fell, revealing themselves to be projected displays on metal walls. Suddenly, we weren’t as alone as we’d thought. All around, various sections of Abaddon I’d seen in brief glimpses in my past were within sight, and people were standing there, looking around in confusion. What they’d probably thought were safe havens, bases from which they could operate while in reality being herded about and led where their overseers saw fit, were now gone. Weapons caches rose out of the ground, many of the fighters shouting “Loot!” as they surged towards the stockpiles. Others, already heavily-armored and seeing the situation for what it was, started to open fire.
We would’ve been royally fucked if not for the fact that we were badass supers. I sighed, laughing as Shimmer hefted one of the rifles that looked way too big for her, and we charged forward. To my surprise, as I traveled through the ground and came up to punch someone so hard their jaw bone went flying, I saw a screen pop up to tell me I’d just reached level thirty. Holy fuck, I wanted to do a little dance right there. In fact, I did.
As I shook my booty and pumped my fist—I’d never been one for dancing, I should point out—my team kept fighting around me. It was a great feeling knowing I was surrounded by ladies who would kill all the baddies while I took the time to dance, and an equally great feeling to know I had actually reached level thirty. It felt like a milestone achieved. Like I’d proven myself to the universe.