by Jamie Hawke
Then a man landed a kick to my stomach, and was clearly about to go for one to my face. I stopped dancing, sent him flying with a bolt of electricity, and got back to the fight.
But sections of the area were being closed off, I noticed. Those walls were rising, trying to block us from reaching Muerta. We flew, flung each other over those walls, and used the wind or, when she could, holes in the walls created by Twitch’s programming skills.
I had just gone through one hole when a barrage of darkness came at me, looking like a massive swarm of bees. Locusts, I realized, and they were glowing gold. Shit, they were going to explode!
Shimmer came charging forward with her massive rifle, preparing to fire. It only hit me later that the rifle might have been covered with an illusion to look even bigger and more intimidating than it really was. But what really did it was when Muerta was about to close off another wall, and suddenly there were at least a hundred Shimmers, all running around firing at the woman. The locusts got confused, spreading out in all directions and exploding. One hit me and I was knocked back, but my shield still held. Recovering, I watched the insanity. I had no idea which were the real bullets, nor which version of Shimmer was real, and couldn’t imagine Muerta did either.
Plague started throwing out surges of darkness that met empty air, but Gale was with us then, too, starting to blast them with ice spears and flurries of wind strong enough to blow them away.
Muerta flung out her hands and rocks shot out in all directions, glowing gold and about to explode. That meant her attention was divided, so I took my shot and slammed a fist into the ground, transporting through it and coming up at the villain’s side with my tempest ball at the ready. A point-blank blast of lightning sent her flying into her glowing rocks. They fell, none of them exploding except for a few farther off that did no damage.
Recovering and turning toward Muerta, I shook my head. “Whatever you do, it won’t save you.”
“Who said I needed saving?” she replied, and this time there was a rumbling in the ground, followed by an explosion and then more rumbling, but ten times as loud. The whole planet was shaking in what felt like a massive earthquake, but we’d seen the inside of this place and knew that couldn’t be it. Twitch was checking her screens, and I had a look.
“Am I seeing this right?” I asked, nervously glancing over at the forms of Plague and Muerta, who had both stopped running.
“The planet’s Quencher is down,” Twitch confirmed, nodding. “Shit’s falling apart.”
“Fucking right it is,” Muerta agreed, then took a step back from her partner.
Plague, still soaked through with blood, started laughing, rising into the sky. Shimmer was already shooting at her with that massive rifle, the rest of us catching on and starting to open fire and throw attacks her way, but a glimmer of gold flashed and then it was like the sun had been shut off as darkness took hold.
“We’re not going to like this part,” Twitch warned, taking a step back, pink screens glowing as she pulled one up for each of us. “Everyone on me!”
Converging on Twitch, Shimmer tried to create illusions of light and I even called on my Heavenly Light power to try and counter this darkness, but the most either of us got was a dim glow. Distant laughter echoed over the planet, and then a rushing sound, roaring like a river.
Something loomed over the horizon, even darker than the rest… but then showing hints of red as our dim lights reflected off of it.
“What the…” Charm started.
“On me!” Twitch shouted again as she finished punching in whatever she was doing to her screens. She crouched, all of us following suit, knowing better than to argue. All of us, that is, except Gale. She stood at the front, pushing her hands out.
“It’s a tidal wave, somehow… I got this!” Gale lifted into the air, hair shooting out behind her, electricity sparking as she attempted to control the elements.
“Gale, it’s not water!” Twitch shouted.
“Down, now!” I jumped up and ran and, with a boost from Charm, leaped into the sky, grabbing Gale by the ankle and pulling her to us. As the wave was about to hit, we could smell the raunchy, thick irony scent of blood. Splashes of it hit us, and then we were down among the rest of our group, Twitch throwing a wall of protection around us. The wave of blood was splattering all around this invisible barrier, all of us gritting our teeth or shouting, furious that the enemy would have us in this spot. Faces stared lifelessly as they flew by in the torrent, flesh eaten away.
And then we weren’t there at all. It wasn’t a protective bubble, but something else. Our surroundings faded until we were in empty space, on the surface of a large space-construction zone. A construction ship much like a large mech paused as it carried metal beams to be put in place, turning to us… and then we were gone again, back where we’d come from but moments later with the blood now nothing more than stains in the sand, the light back, and a very confused-looking Plague stepping toward us in spite of Muerta’s shouts to stay put.
One thing was certain—if Orion Corp was still allowing this to be broadcast, there was no way Earthers wouldn’t be seeing what was happening. For the last half hour or so they would’ve been terrified, watching in horror as people used insane powers that would be capable of taking down their defenses, their military. Since we were about to do just that with Orion Corp, their fear was justified.
But what that would mean for the bigger picture, I was very anxious to find out. Knowing humanity, they’d demand answers. Maybe war, if they had the ability to travel to us, which I imagined they did. They had sent the colonizers originally, although for that they’d had Hadrian’s help. Since he was gone, he couldn’t have shut down the gateways. Or could he?
So many questions, but this was neither the time nor the place.
The energy field around us vanished and we appeared directly in front of Plague, each of us immediately launching into counterattacks. My tempest bolts hit her hard: bullets and spears of ice and more, rocking her back, threatening to rip her to shreds.
But her body rippled, a hint of an old self showing through—a woman in ancient Egyptian style, with her face painted with gold and heavy eyeliner, before starting to decay and then regenerate—and I wanted to know more about who the fuck this woman had been. There was no time for that now, however, as she smiled, about to launch another assault.
That didn’t work? Fine, we’d bring something harder.
“Keep Muerta occupied,” I shouted to Gale and Shimmer, grabbing hold of Charm and hitting the ground. We shot forward through the bloody stone and sand, coming up behind Plague. She was good at ranged combat, but could she handle hand-to-hand? We were about to find out. The two of us launched into a barrage of strikes. Claws, punches, blades, anything we could use—and the answer was no, she couldn’t hold her own in this regard.
I’d always been taught not to hit a woman, but Gale and the others had stripped me of the notion that anyone capable of such evil and murder as Plague could fall into that category. Anyone trying to hurt or kill my ladies was no more than a force of darkness, one we needed to shed some light on in the form of our fists and whatever else we could muster.
As we continued, Twitch was boosting our stats and providing shields from Muerta’s attacks, while Gale and Shimmer provided cover fire in their own way.
Finally Plague collapsed, reaching for Muerta with a pained groan. I stood over her, Charm at my side with claws ready, as she looked up at us with dread. Her blood-smeared face looked so innocent, her eyes wide and full of terror.
In a flash of darkness, Muerta was at her side. This horrible supervillain looked up at me with pleading eyes, whispering, “No, no, no,” as she gripped Plague close, backing away.
For a moment I didn’t know what to do. I stared at them, feeling pity. Watching… what? Love?
“Now!” Muerta shouted, which didn’t make sense initially. But then there was that Warden from earlier, suddenly up again and grabbing Muerta—wh
o held onto Plague—and swept them up as the ground gave out. I had to throw myself back to avoid falling into the opening. By the time I recovered there was a large space cruiser emerging, a port opening, and the Warden and two deadly female supervillains entering it.
They were escaping!
8
Shouting sounded all around me as my team caught up, throwing what they could at the ship, but it had its own defenses. We could see the Warden at the window as shields lit up in defense. With a deafening roar, the vessel was off, leaving us to stare after it in shock.
“Twitch!” I shouted, working my own screens but unable to get through to the ship.
“She has some sort of hack already in place,” Twitch replied, fingers dancing across her screens. “Nothing’s working.”
“Well… fuck.” I swallowed, realizing how incredibly parched I was as the ship escaped. A glance around showed the ladies there, all staring up except for Andromida, who was glaring at me instead.
It couldn’t end this way. I ran after Muerta in that massive fucking ship, a ship they should’ve never gotten access to. If only I’d managed to take down Plague, none of this would be happening.
With that in mind, I charged forward, putting everything I had into that jump, and focused on my ability to create reality around illusions. It wouldn’t last forever, and wouldn’t be complete reality, but maybe just enough to make the difference?
As I took to the air, dragon wings shot out from my back, my skin becoming scaled, and claws growing from my fingertips. Instead of a shout, a roar emerged from my mouth as I pushed up, flapping my wings in pursuit.
It hit me that I was a fucking dragon—but as badass as that was, the ship was escaping. That, and my powers were still limited. I roared again, trying to breathe fire—but that was apparently harder to produce as part of this so-called illusion, and as I exerted myself I was back to being me. Regular skin, no claws… and no wings.
The ship was escaping, and I was falling.
As the dark clouds swept past me, I had to wonder what the fuck had made me think that turning into a dragon and trying to chase after a spaceship was a good idea. My mind raced with questions, trying to figure out how I was going to get out of this mess, but the ground was coming up fast and I panicked, my mind blanking.
If not for my team, I would’ve quickly become yet another bloodstain on the surface of Abaddon. Metal clanked, glimmering as Shimmer created illusions of bright light to block out the enemy as they sent a barrage of attacks our way. Gale had a strong wind pushing against me and Twitch tried to make me float, but in the end it was Andromida who appeared in her metal, a blue bubble of light moving about her. She pulled me to safety inside that circle, then released me onto the ground as she let the blue light fade.
I lay there for a moment, gasping for breath, and then laughed.
“You bonk your head or something?” Andromida asked, scowling. “We let them get away.”
“We failed,” I said, nodding. “But we failed gloriously.”
“Shut the fuck up with that nonsense.” She stood, considered me thoughtfully, then waved the others over as they regained their composure.
“Holy ball-licking awesomeness, that was insane!” Charm knelt and pulled me up into a hug. She kissed me, then laughed. “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to kiss a dragon.”
“What? Really?” I cocked my head.
“No, but… well, maybe if by always I mean since I first believed they could exist, and that was when I saw you do it—so in that sense, always. It was indeed all it was cracked up to be.”
I laughed, but noticed Andromida still glaring up at the sky. “We’ll get them.”
“How?” she asked.
“The ships,” Twitch replied. “The others, the fighters we saw on the screens. We lead the chase, have them join along the way. We’ll find others to join in the fight, too… and we will win in the end.”
We made our way towards the ships, Twitch and I doing our things with the screens to take them over, ensuring the enemy couldn’t use them. In a way, we were programming them to have an A.I. that transcended anything Orion Corp had equipped them with, one that could tell the nature of their riders. Which side were they on? The ship would figure it out, and therefore either work or not.
We boarded the largest ship and Gale powered it on while I moved to the screen and said, “Allow me,” before pulling up a message and hitting record.
“Survivors of Abaddon. I am called Breaker, though I am originally an Earther named Chad. We are in pursuit of Muerta and mean to take her and the entire Orion Corp down, followed by all others who stand on the side of evil. If you are listening, that means you were victorious this day, and I hope you are on the side of justice. Join me, if you will—rise up! We’ve taken the liberty of fixing the spacecraft there so that you might fly out to join us in our assault. When it’s over, I have much to tell you about your world and another, and about a place called the Citadel where you will be welcome. I look forward to that day, but first… off to war. We’ll see you there.”
“Really?” Gale asked when I’d finished and hit send. “That’s your message?”
“We’re ignoring the idea of them all being completely psycho?” Shimmer asked.
Charm frowned. “Nothing wrong with a bit of out-of-the-box thinking.”
“Sure…” Shimmer glanced my way for help.
“Don’t look at me,” I said. “I’m the one who just left the message asking if the psychos will be our friends in this war. Way I see it, mentally unstable people on our side is better than mentally unstable people on the enemy’s side.”
Nobody argued with that, although Charm frowned when I smiled her way. “I’m not unstable, just to be clear,” she said.
I laughed while watching Twitch prepare for takeoff. “Aren’t we all? Considering the fact that we’re chasing around after some super named Muerta, and hoping to take on a group that might have orchestrated all of this killing and whatever those genetically engineered monsters were, I mean, you’d have to be a tad crazy, right?”
“To say nothing of everything else we’ve done,” Twitch called out over the rumbling of the engines. “I mean, you were basically a dungeon core, by Oram. That’s insane.”
“And hey, the sex,” Gale added with a boisterous laugh. “Can’t say I’ve ever had crazier than with you lot.”
I laughed, the others joining in, even Charm.
“Fine, mentally unstable,” she said, gripping her armrests as we started to take off. “But only a bit.”
My nod of acceptance was likely missed as we launched and I was pushed back in my seat, head barely able to move, but I saw her smile from the corner of my eyes. It felt like we were off to take on the universe, and I fucking loved it.
9
The time had come to take our pursuit to space, and now we were well on our way. The display showed other ships already following, though they wouldn’t be in range for communications anytime soon. When they were, we’d hail them, find out who we’d recruited for this fight, and get them in on the plan.
It was a simple plan—one that was easy to understand, though not so easy to execute. Our little force was going to stop Muerta and Plague, while also putting an end to Orion Corp. As it stood, Muerta had escaped us and gotten too much of a lead for us to catch up. But we knew she was going after Orion Corp, and once Twitch IDed her ship were able to put a tracer on it just in case.
As we were in flight mode and I figured I needed my powers recharged anyway, I turned to Charm and gave her my best seductive look. “What were you saying about wanting to kiss a dragon? And, is there anything else you wanted to do with a dragon?”
She put a finger to her mouth, nodding toward Andromida—who certainly didn’t seem to be in the mood for any of this—then indicated the door behind us. Ever since saying we loved each other, it was like there was no need for caution or inhibitions, though there really hadn’t been much before that, either.
But now it was taking it to the next level, and both of us seemed to know it. The others were all for it, too, but in moments like this they were probably too focused on the fight to come. Charm and I, though, both seemed to thrive on bedroom action.
As soon as we were in the hall, she turned to me, licked her lips, and said, “Make it a dragon cock.”
“What, really?” I considered this, pulling at my pants and glancing down to see if I could.
She reached in, grabbing it and giggling. “No, silly, I love it how it is. But since you’re the one who wanted to try role playing,” she started massaging it, stroking it, “I want you to look like a dragon, but not fully. Just… once. Get the eyes going, some of the scales, some horns on your head…”
“Wings?” I asked.
She nodded excitedly. “Of course.”
I was actually starting to get excited about this, too. “You realize you’re a bit of a freak?”
She laughed. “You’re the one who was about to try to make your dick—hey!”
As she’d stroked it, I figured I’d actually give it a try. Not a dragon dick, but bigger, harder, and sure enough, my cock suddenly looked and felt like it belonged on a giant—certainly no man. She couldn’t even fit her hand around it, though it wasn’t like she was trying. She’d pulled her hand back right away, now putting both hands on her hips and scrunching up her face.
“What did I just say?” She pointed at it, then waved bye-bye. “Give me back the one I fell in love with, not this monstrosity.”
“You’re sure?” I asked. “I mean…” Swaying it from side to side, I started to feel dizzy. It didn’t make sense, considering it was made from my illusion powers, but still it was apparently somehow using all that extra blood.
“Breaker…” She made her hands into fists, then pretended to shadow-box my dick. “That thing there’s a heavy bag, not a cock, and certainly not your cock. Now change it back before I hit it for real.”