by Jamie Hawke
“What’s going on in there?” Twitch shouted, followed by a loud noise coming from the other side of the walls. “There’s some sort of barrier. We can’t get through.”
“Figure it out!” I yelled, up and realizing Plague was coming at me.
I rolled back toward the monster, as the only way Plague and Muerta were letting me be was when I was fighting that thing. I could see they were too amused by the spectacle to join in and assist their ally, the Nihilist. Quite frankly, he didn’t seem to need their help anyway. Traditional fighting just wasn’t working here, and even with my upgrades I was making no headway.
But I had to try something. Anything.
My mind went to Andromida, out there trying to break through the walls, then to her blue skin pressed against me and her lips touching mine. Of course! My new skills!
While scooting back from that monster, I pulled up my screen and reassigned all the points I could to my new powers—the modified paladin track with adjusted skills I’d gained from fucking Andromida—while dodging the monster’s attacks. Some landed, though, sending more pain, cold and electricity through my body.
The figure leaped for me, blue energy welling up from its eyes, mouth, and hands to surround it… and that’s when I used my Heavenly Vengeance.
It’s hard to describe what happened in the next few seconds. It was like one of those old films where everything seems to happen in slow motion, but at the same time the seconds seem to be flying by. Imagine the air essentially becoming many spears of light, originating from behind the figure. He was caught in midair, twitched once, seemed totally baffled, and then collapsed to the ground as the blue light left his body and those spears shot straight into me.
It fucking hurt. Like getting acupuncture from a ten-year-old hopped up on sugar, with needles meant for knitting. But the pain was gone as soon as it hit. When I stood, I felt the enemy’s power. I understood what made him tick, even heard thoughts like music that played a frightened melody.
This thing was now terrified of me!
And, looking down at myself, I could see why. I’d taken on a second skin of sorts… absorbed his power and in a sense, somewhat become him. My body and everything of mine was still there, but a version of his figure floated around me almost like an illusion—and it was mine to control.
There was nothing heavenly about this. It was downright insane… and it was mine. I laughed, turning the creature’s powers on itself. The purple light burst from my hands as I lunged, and then exploded as my fists connected.
Yes, they connected. And this time, its face dented inward, again and again, until everything cracked and splattered. Maybe it would’ve been disgusting, but I was in kickass mode—and anyway, the hood caught most of it.
Turning to Muerta and Plague now, I smiled mockingly and tried to say, “Come and get me,” but no sound came out.
I frowned, perplexed, then felt my legs giving out.
Muerta tilted her head in confusion then looked excited as I fell to my knees, the power leaving me. Shit, that was short-lived. And now that it was going I was crashing fast, like a child after a sugar rush,.
“You have a new power and don’t know how to manage it properly,” Plague laughed, stepping up from behind Muerta and eyeing me with malice. “Shame you’ll never get the chance to learn.”
“Breaker!” Charm shouted from where she was still held in the wall.
It was too late, though. The duo of evil supervillains stood over me, jubilant, darkness and swirling gold light moving around them and slowly working toward me. They were going to kill me, and enjoy every second of it.
“Charm!” Twtich shouted over the comms. “Charm, you’re in there, right? There’s got to be something you can do. Try!”
“I can’t!” Charm shouted, clearly on the verge of tears. She struggled against the metal. Muerta and Plauge totally ignored her. They didn’t need to pay her any attention. They knew she wasn’t a threat.
“Charm…” This time it was another voice. A voice coming from me… but not me. I frowned, confused, and the supervillain ladies did too. Ah! Not me, but… my clothes?
“Lamb?” I questioned tentatively.
“Yes. I’m back—and there’s a whole group of us here at the Citadel, waiting for you. You need to make it back here, to join the fight.”
“What the…?” Plague frowned, glancing at Muerta as if not sure what to do.
But there was a whisper, a floating whisper that moved from me, as if my powers were doing something on their own. I didn’t understand it at all. And then Charm’s face lit up.
“Lamb… Professor…?” She smiled as she turned her head toward me. “Lamb’s telling me there’s more to my powers, that I need to look inside. I don’t… I don’t remember, but there’s something there, something at the back of my mind, pushing out. Memories of mountains, a fountain, something else… Telling me I’m capable of so much more.”
“Just kill him already,” Muerta said, and her hand twitched, about to do it.
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Charm shouted, and then looked like she’d just had an epiphany. Instead of blowing out with her charms, she inhaled deeply.
I don’t know if it was curiosity or something else that caused my would-be killers to turn, but they did. And as my Heavenly Light had brought outside powers into me, something similar happened with Charm as we watched—the air around her took on a multitude of colors and streamed into her, like she was eating a swirling rainbow. As stupid as it was, I was totally reminded of one of those twisting lollipops I got at a carnival when I was young—one of the few excursions for pleasure I could actually remember.
When she looked back at me, her hands emerged from the metal, glowing white at the ends, bubbles of various colors floating off of her forearms and hands.
“What the fuck are you supposed to be?” Plague asked. “Please, tell me you’ll fart rainbows next, because that would be—”
BAM! The hit that came wasn’t from Charm, though, it was me. My energy had started to return. It had just needed a cool-down. While it certainly wasn’t at full strength, I wasn’t about to let this serial killer bitch talk shit to my Charm.
“The fuck?” Charm’s eyes darted left and then I saw it too—a nearby figure had appeared but was disappearing into the wall again. Charm leaped for it. The figure was halfway through the wall when Charm caught hold, her hands glowing and moving at double her normal speed, which was already very fast.
She pulled the figure out while I squared off against Muerta, each of us assessing the other while trying to keep an eye on what was happening with Charm.
“You…?” Charm staggered back. The figure almost escaped, but then a hole opened up. Twitch appeared, then Letha with Darnell, Ezra and his team, all of them stuck between working their way in and fighting some force behind them.
“Reina, keep them out!” Muerta hissed, turning to see what was happening. I took advantage of her distraction and charged, knowing the Heavenly Light wasn’t replenished yet because I had my screens up to see my options, and it showed a partial bar of energy.
My first strike landed as Ezra’s team subdued the one apparently called Reina. She was starting to phase through the floor when Tink hit her with some sort of pixy-dust power, causing this new supervillain to scream in agony, writhing and lashing out in every direction.
It was enough to distract me momentarily, so that Muerta nearly hit me with one of her blasts of darkness, a golden thread of light moving through it as it exploded near my head. But I’d seen her throw it and realized it wasn’t just power, but something tangible that she’d actually thrown. Which meant that if I could stop her from accessing her supply, she’d be close to being crippled.
Plague was recovering now, but I’d flung myself at Muerta’s legs to bring her down before Plague could hit me with anything. As Muerta struggled and writhed around on the ground, I searched the dark clothes she was wearing and found what seemed to be simply threads and small objec
ts for throwing. But as soon as my hand touched them I pulled back in shock from the sudden pain. A glance down showed gilded threads curling around my hand and forearm, like tiny snakes.
They seemed alive. I grunted as they began to eat at my flesh, burning it at the same time. My subconscious warned me Plague was about to attack. When I saw her move, I decided a drastic step was necessary.
Heavenly Vengeance had taken over for Redemption, but I could certainly do with a health boost at the moment. Pushing through the pain I focused the skill in her direction, hoping it would do something to turn my predicament around.
Nothing happened.
She grinned and thrust out her hands. A dark spirit flew out and toward me, looking like the Grim Reaper and freaking me the fuck out. But that’s when my Redemption kicked in. A flood of green lights streaked through the spirit, turning it to light and pulling it into my body. Specifically, the forearm that had been under attack. The golden snakes exploded away from me, the damage they caused immediately being offset by the healing effect.
Crazy. I stood, rejuvenated and feeling like I could take on the world. So, one of my new powers basically gave me my enemy’s power, at least temporarily before crippling me, while the other transfers their power into a healing effect. Interesting.
I didn’t waste time thinking about it or even looking to see what Muerta was up to. I heard fighting and shouting, and trusted my team was working her over.
Instead, I went all in, balls to the wall, doubling down on these new powers. Hell, I was feeling a high from having just been through all that pain and then going the extreme opposite with the Redemption skill. Now I pulled up the last of the big three upgrades, the ones that had cost me some valuable skills I’d come to rely on. How would I know if they worked if I didn’t at least try the awesome-sounding ones? So naturally, Heavenly Blast was the first one I chose.
As I lunged for Plague, she was already backing up, concerned by what I’d done to her dark spirit power. I activated Heavenly Blast and thrust out with my hand, fingers spread.
Yeah, as I’d always hoped and imagined, a burst-effect of beams of light shot out of my hand, right for her. She moved her hand in a circle, clearly trying to come up with a power to block it, but even as she managed a wall of dark purple, the blasts were too many, and one went right through and into her chest, where it vanished.
The shield faded, her form distorting into that of the Egyptian look she’d shown once before, and then she collapsed.
An explosion went off behind me. Muerta shouted, “Nooo!” and ran, leaping and catching her lover before the woman could hit the floor. Staring into her eyes, Muerta let out one long sob, distraught, then a shout of anguish as her gold eyes rose to meet mine.
“You…” She stood, letting the corpse that had been her lover fall to the floor. “You motherfucker!”
She threw out an attack of darkness and decay, causing the metal around me to instantly rust and crumble apart. Then she threw more of those bursts of darkness with the gold snakes. Only, this time I was ready for the attacks, using Redemption and finding I could divert the healing energy into my friends on a group scale when the power was strong enough.
Coming from her in this emotional state, the power was very strong. The healing light settled over all of us. In that moment I finally had the chance to see that Charm was kneeling, holding an unconscious, no longer screaming lady. The rest were moving in to help me, but paused as they experienced this in a state of awe.
“You’re from Earth, no?” Muerta glared, knowing the answer. “When I’m done with you, you’ll wish you had died here this day. I’m going to see that everyone you ever loved on Earth is destroyed, but only after immense suffering. Fuck that… not only everyone you loved, but everyone you knew or even merely interacted with over the years. Some waitress gave you coffee? Her eyes will burn out of her skull as she shrieks in agony. A man used to cut your hair? Those same scissors will remove his skin, his—”
“Fuck you,” I interrupted. “You don’t scare me.”
She arched an eyebrow, taking a step back and toward the wall. “Then you’re even stupider than I thought.”
With that final insult, she thrust her gold snakes behind her. There was a blast, and she vanished into it, even before it had finished. I led the charge in pursuit, but she was nowhere to be seen.
Andromida burst past me, shouting and corrupting metal as she led the chase. Then Charm yelped—Reina, the phasing lady, was gone. Only two seconds later, Andromida was cursing again, louder, shouting about how we let Muerta escape.
“How the fuck!” She came storming back in, metal bursting out of her way, looking for an enemy to strike down in her fury.
“They’re still here,” Shimmer spoke cautiously, her hands up. Everyone knew not to piss off Andromida when she was in this state. “Tear it up, if you have to.”
Andromida actually looked my way. I nodded. “Stay away from the outer walls. The last thing we need is to go floating off into space.”
She nodded, as if she needed my permission, and then took off. A tunnel of hot metal formed in her wake, leaving the room hot and smelling like a car shop.
“The rest of us?” Ezra asked.
With Andromida, I imagined the sex had given her some loyalty angle. Hence the questioning look my way. But why Ezra and the others were all looking at me as the leader was confusing. I hadn’t done anything to earn that, had I? With a glance at Plague’s corpse, then thinking back to the message on Abaddon and every step since, I guess I had.
“She’s hunting them down. The rest of you, we’re going to shut this place down from the network side. I want to see that it’s never operational again, and that any senior leadership, or others who fully drank the special sauce, are put down.”
“Special…?” he asked, then laughed. “Never mind, I get it. Just… odd choice of words.”
“An Earth thing,” Trunk explained, then turned to me. “Main point is we get to rampage through this place, destroying shit and killing bad guys, right?”
“Yes.”
“And then we get a fuck break?”
One of the women with him chuckled.
I nodded. “When you get back to the ships, of course.”
“Sure, sure.” He started to strip.
“What’re you doing?”
“I’m not about to go into war wearing this fucking getup, am I?” In a couple of seconds he was in his famous loincloth, bulge showing way more than it should’ve been. Apparently, he got turned on by this whole warfare thing. Coming from PK, I should’ve figured.
“You’ve got your orders,” I said, embracing the leadership angle. “And Ezra, or Cheri, I understand your powers will help us determine who’s on the enemy’s side and who’s not?”
Cheri shrugged, but Ezra nodded.
“That’ll do well enough.” Turning to the rest of them, I indicated Ezra. “Follow him. He’ll be your guide. My team’s going to try and help Andromida in the hunt, as best we can. Aegriss, I’m sorry, but they’ll need directions in here and you have the map in you, right?”
The android turned to me with an appraising glare, then nodded. “I’ll go with them, but don’t you dare try to ditch me. Not after everything we’ve been through.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what she meant by that, but nodded. “When you find the top brass, let us know.”
“Roger that,” Ezra acknowledged, standing at attention. The wannabe soldier was admirable, in his own way.
“Move out.” I suited actions to words, and motioned my team to follow. A cheer rose from the others, and then the sound of them running in the other direction, following Aegriss. I felt bad, but it was that or leave them with Twitch, but she’d saved my ass enough times that I didn’t feel comfortable in a place like this without her.
As we ran, following the mini-map and the tunnels left behind by Andromida, I turned to Charm, then Twitch.
“Are we going to talk about what’s going o
n with my powers?”
“Looked fucking hot,” Charm replied. “You’re getting more and more badass.”
“Thanks. But I meant the way using what I got from that Nihilist monster left me drained, and how long it took me to recover—”
“They did the job,” Twitch interjected.
“What I’d be more curious to know,” Gale’s voice came from behind us, where she and Shimmer were watching our backs, “is what’s the deal with Lamb? Who else is waiting for us at the Citadel? Is she still with us, in voice?”
An explosion ahead rocked the walls. We continued on, Charm calling out to Lamb but getting no response. We stopped at a point where the tunnels met halls, everything to our left dripping with fresh, molten metal.
Then the walls to the right were gone, a flash of blue ahead.
“She’s almost on them.” Twitch had a screen up at her side, and I saw what she was seeing, too. The phaser was taking Muerta through the walls damn fast and creating some sort of barrier in spots, it seemed, because Andromida now needed to move up and down and find other paths of pursuit.
“She’s not…” Twitch stopped.
“What are you doing?” I asked. The others took up defensive spots, the sounds of fighting not far.
Twitch looked up at me, flipping her screen so I could see. The tunnels were going all over, then in circles… no sign of Muerta, it’d seem. “Not going to catch her. Muerta’s gone.”
“How?”
“Oh, shit,” Aegriss spoke up over comms, “are you all at a window?”
“I don’t see how we would be,” I said, more frustration dripping through than I’d meant.
“If you can see through me and the system still…”
I frowned, having forgotten I had that ability, then tapped into her and the ship, trying to see what she was referring to, and then froze with a loud, “Fuck!” Taking the image, I applied it to my screen so the others could see. “She must’ve phased into that ship.” The screen showed a ship just taking off.
“Dropping through five fucking levels?” Twitch replied, analyzing it but not arguing.