by Alana Melos
Knowing his kidnappers couldn’t have left, I scanned for any other minds in the building and came up blank. This confirmed my second theory and I sat there, thinking. I’d been depending on my telepathy to remain unseen until I chose to reveal myself. I could sneak around without it, but not nearly as well. Oh well. I still had surprise on my side. I planned to pry open an upstairs window in the front, find Gerard, and get him out. Combat wasn't a priority here. This was just a snatch and run. I’d fight only if I had to.
Just as I began to fly towards the building, something grabbed my foot and yanked me down. I drew my sword out of instinct and slashed. The Nacht Sirene blocked it with her forearm, wincing at the strength of the blow, but protected against the cut due to her enchanted armor clothing. I bared my teeth at her and put my o-wakizashi away.
“You are supposed to be resting,” I snarled.
“No, I’m here to get my father,” she replied. She hadn’t put her mask or goggles on yet, so I easily read the determination in her eyes and in the way her jaw was set.
“You’re injured,” I said, trying to reason with her.
She looked to the stump, then back to me. “I’m ambidextrous,” she said. “And I don’t need a whole hand to fight anyway.”
That was true enough, considering how fast she’d gone through the zombies. “We don’t know what’s in there,” I said. “I can’t guarantee your safety… nor will I risk mine.”
Her face screwed up in anger and she narrowed her eyes. “I won’t hold you back, if that’s what you mean,” she said, the words hissed through clenched teeth. “I know what I’m doing.”
“I’m just saying.” I shrugged. “I was planning on going through an upper window in the front. It looks like they came in through the back, so I’m gambling on that’s the area they stayed in.”
Rebekah’s face relaxed and she peered at the old, decrepit building. “You can’t read them?” When I shook my head, she groaned. “Jeez, I was counting on that! We can still get the drop on them though.”
“Wait, who put you in charge?” I asked, scowling at her.
“You did, last night,” she said with a cocky grin. “Now fly us over there. Alistair did his magic thing to let me run on top on the snow, but I think it wore off.”
I hmphed, but did as she asked lifting us both high into the air to land on the roof above where I wanted to break in. Even if they had put sensors or tripwires up here, they were long since buried in the avalanche of snow which was still coming down like no tomorrow. We had to be up over two or three feet by now. It did, as Alistair promised, show signs of slowing down but not stopping.
Looking over the edge at the boards, they appeared old and weather worn. An experimental push with my teke showed me they’d come off easy. I removed the top one and had Rebekah peer through the window with her goggles. “Clear,” she said, her teeth chattering in the cold.
One by one I tore off the boards while trying not to make any excessive sound. The window didn’t want to open. When I forced it telekinetically, it screeched and I froze in place. Rebekah peeked over the edge again through the window, then shook her head. Either the storm had swallowed the sounds or they hadn’t been close enough to hear.
I refused to believe they had gone already. They couldn’t have. We weren’t that late.
With the window open, I moved myself over the edge and squeezed it. It was a tight fit with the kevlar on, but I made it without making any more noise than that screeching window had. Rebekah lowered herself and slipped in without any troubles at all. I closed the window but didn’t latch it, just in case we needed a quick exit which we knew wasn’t blocked. It always paid to know all the exits out of a place.
As my eyes adjusted, I saw we were in an empty office. Debris and dirt lay scattered on the plain wooden floor. A few planks were missing here and there, lending weight to my theory about the first floor. The door out had been one of those frosted glass deals, which must have looked expensive and professional back in the day. Now, the glass had been broken out and the large windowed door opened the way to a rickety old walkway. Beyond the walkway lay darkness, with large grey shapes sitting in a bizarre configuration. Towards the back of the place a few electric lamps had been lit. I saw two silhouettes--too far away to make out any details--dressed mostly in dark colors. One stood, leaning on the wall it looked like. The other circled around a sitting figure, which I figured must have been Gerard. Although I could heard voices echo through the large room, they were too soft and I couldn’t make out any words.
“Over there,” I whispered. “You see him?” When Rebekah nodded, I continued. “Stay up here as long as possible. I don’t know how intact the walkway is here so be careful. I’ll float to the other side. At the signal, we’ll hit them hard.” I looked again where the light was, and shook my head. “I don’t think they’re going to leave him alone to sneak him out.”
She turned her eyes to where I indicated. Her cupid’s bow mouth turned down as she frowned in thought. “I think you’re right,” she said. “Will you be able to lift us all to get us out, if he is in bad shape?”
“For a while at least,” I replied. “I’m not worried about that. I am worried about them. We don’t know who they are or who they work for. Could be anyone… anything. Could be a metahuman, could be a tech-head, could be a mage… who knows?”
“Hit hard, fast, and grab Regulus,” she said. I blinked at her. It was the first time I’d heard her use her father’s handle, but I was glad for it. It meant she was being a professional, through and through.
“You got that right, Sirene,” I said with a tight smile. “If they seem to be pushovers, maybe… just maybe… we might try to get some information from them.”
“Better to be safe than sorry,” she said as she adjusted her goggles. “I am ready.”
When I nodded, she shadowstepped. I still didn’t know if she became insubstantial or if it was just a cloak, but I saw nothing disturbed as she moved away from me. Flying just over the walkway, I moved closer to the light. As I did, a voices came to me. The closer I got, the more I heard.
“...talk,” said a male, the one leaning against the wall.
“...ll eventually,” said a female. She circled around Gerard, her eyes locked on him. As I got closer, I saw they wore similar suits, almost looking like the so-called “men in black”. Black, I’ve learned, was the color everyone wanted to use, white and black hats alike.
“Hasn’t yet, has he?” the male said. He pushed off the wall and approached Gerard. As I got into place almost right above them, I watched him grab a handful of Ger’s blond hair and yank his head up. “Just look at him. What else can we do?”
Without meaning to, I sucked in my breath, making a soft hissing noise. Gerard had been beat to hell and back. His entire face was one big bruise. Handcuffed to a chair, he had been forced to sit there and endure whatever they wanted to do, and it had been a lot. One of his eyes had swollen shut and his nose bent at a weird angle so he breathed through his mouth instead. They hadn’t stripped him, but they had opened his shirt and cut him, over and over. One of his hands was mangled, the fingers bent at unnatural angles. The other? Bits of wood had been shoved underneath the nails. My pulse raced at seeing it, my reaction to carnage always the same: excitement. Yet this was Gerard and my anger grabbed hold of me. He was mine to torture, dammit!
“The next window is in twelve hours,” she said. “We just have to wait.”
“This damn storm,” the man swore as he let go of Ger’s head and backhanded him lazily. “It’s making me restless.”
“Calm down,” she said with an air of superiority. I figured her for the one in charge. “If it lifts, we still have a chance to fulfill the mission parameters. If not, we have a wonderful consolation prize for the board.”
“You won’t leave me alive,” Gerard croaked, not moving his head as he spoke. I blinked in surprise as I hadn’t seen he was awake. I didn’t see how he could be. “You should kill m
e now. If you leave me alive you’ll regret it. Trust me on that.”
The man’s lip curled up a bit and he made as if to hit Ger again, but the woman put a hand on his arm, stopping him. “He’s trying to manipulate us,” she said, her voice tired. “We’ll leave him for the home office.” She turned to Ger and gave him a wide, toothy, lovely smile which made her plain face almost beautiful. “They’ll be so happy to tinker with you. We’ve needed a new psychic geneplate for a while, and I know at least one member of the board will be ever so happy to see you, Regulus.”
Geneplate? I frowned. Their suits, their haircuts, their appearance… everything about them looked completely normal. Who were they? Where were they from? They seemed to know him, though not personally. Maybe I wasn’t too far off with the guess of an old enemy, one I didn’t know of.
“Just slice my throat now, and get it over with,” he whispered, his mouth practically untouched. They’d made sure he could still talk. They just hadn’t been able to make him. “I won’t tell you shit, and you know it.”
The man growled, more hot-headed than the woman. She laughed. “Don’t worry. Just twelve more hours.”
“This damn storm!” the man swore again. He walked away from the two of them as he began to pace. I moved over just a little bit. He was obviously an enforcer type, so I planned to take him out first. Gesturing to the darkness across from me, I hoped the Nacht Sirene got the message. I would take him out. She would get the woman. I held up my hand with three fingers up, then lowered one… then another… then the last….
When I flew down, I held my sword in front of me, almost like a lance. I stabbed the suited man in the back. It went straight through. The tip ripped out of his chest and he gurgled as his lungs began to fill with blood. The Siren had leapt as well, but a black blur intercepted her, knocking her to the side. I couldn’t see what it was in the poorly lit space, but it looked big.
The woman turned to me, her lips parted in surprise. Then, she smiled. “Oh my goodness! What great fortune we have!” Her eyes slid to her partner as I shoved him forward and off my sword. “John, I dare say, we have our target,” she said.
“Ggaaa… stabbed…” was all he could manage. He held his front as his blood turned his crisp white shirt crimson.
“We’ll get you fixed up, right as rain,” she said as she looked back to me. “Capricious Whim I think you prefer to be called? How lovely to meet you.” She ran a hand through her short brown hair, looking triumphant. “Now, drop your weapon.”
I laughed, moving towards her. “In your dreams, lady.”
Unconcerned, as I lifted my o-wakizashi to behead her, she drew a pistol in a blink. Some sort of energy came out of it and I dodged narrowly out of the way. The second shot came on the heels of the first, aimed perfectly for where I ended up after the dodge. Electricity surged through me and I grunted, dropping to my knees. My thoughts and vision swum out of focus. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, trying to clear them. What in the fuck was that?
From my right, I heard the sounds of a struggle and the Nacht Sirene came into the light, holding her arms in front of her defensively. A large man clad in a tight black streamlined suit chased with silver highlights followed her. He must have been at least as tall as my father, about six and a half feet tall, and muscled heavily. The suit left nothing to the imagination. Silver raced about it in a pseudo-electric pattern, with a heavy circle around each arm and leg. The helmet he wore was smooth like glass, though darkened to match the rest of the suit. The back of it was dull, though still very smooth and it encased his entire head to meld with the suit smoothly. As he approached the Siren, silver numbers and symbols ran across the front of the mask, like a computer screen.
Rebekah darted in and punched. The blow hit home, but he didn’t register the blow. He struck back and she wasn't able to move fast enough to get out of the way. She took a glancing blow to her shoulder. When she kicked in response, he took it. The Siren launched a flurry of attacks, short, savage jabs. He moved back, using his arms to block. The second she stopped, he raised both fists. A glow erupted from them, black light absorbing the light from the room, but ringed with silver on the outside, showing a perfect circle around his hands. He brought them down swiftly. She bounced out of the way, shadowstepping as she did but when his fists hit the air she had been, a small shockwave released. I heard a muffled cry of pain. The shock wave rolled over me where I knelt, but distance robbed its effectiveness.
I took all of that in in a few seconds as my heart pounded. When I tried to access my teke, I couldn’t focus on it. The control I had slipped through my mental fingers. My realtime fingers tightened around my sword. This was why I used a weapon. There were always ways to shut off powers, or to deny people access to them… or hell, I’d just run out of juice eventually. A blade would never run out of batteries.
“Do you like it?” the woman taunted. “Neural disrupter. Rids you of those pesky powers.”
I jabbed up with my sword, intent on slicing her open. She stepped back and shot me again with the disrupter. Groaning with pain but gritting my teeth, I fought through it and got to my knees. “Not going to stop me from killing you,” I said, my breath coming hot and heavy behind the black mask.
“How… very resilient of you,” she remarked as she holstered the gun. Behind her, the Siren and the man in the black suit traded blows. Rebekah stayed away from him, concentrating more on defense than offense. His fists continued to glow in that strange silver-lined black. The one time I saw him hit her, she grunted and her hand went to the spot, rubbing her chest vigorously.
I slid into my fighting stance. Sending a test slice her direction, I noted the ease of which she moved, getting just out of my range. She turned her body so she was sideways and raised her hands showing me the side of her open hands. Definitely a martial artist. I was excellent with a blade, but I was used to fighting armed opponents. I slashed. She stepped inside and brought the side of her palm down hard on my shoulder. She’d aimed for my neck, but had missed. I turned my blade and cut to the side, catching her suit but not drawing blood as she spun away.
Without missing a beat, she spun kicked, going straight for my head. I ducked and thrust at her midsection. Grunting as I nicked her, my opponent sent the heel of her hand at the side of my head, clipping my temple. While her blows could potentially kill me, that she kept going for my head indicated she wanted to knock me unconscious. I hoped so. It would be easier if she was trying not to hurt me too bad.
Her hand came down on my blade, knocking it down and to the side to open my guard. Too bad my sword was only bladed on the one side in the Japanese style, else she would have hurt herself rather badly. Her knee snapped up in the same motion. I blocked with my free hand, wincing at the force of the blow but keeping it away from anything vital. I pushed into her space and headbutted. That she hadn't been expecting and the force if it pushed her head back. She swung with the other arm, a short jab to the side. I took the hit and twisted my sword, aiming down. She moved with lightning speed and I only snagged her trousers as she moved out of the way. Her other hand grabbed the collar of my coat and she rolled back. In a smooth motion my opponent dropped and put her foot on my midsection. A second later I was flying through the air as she threw me… and landed straight on Rebekah, bowling her over. We crashed into a decrepit crate which burst apart at the impact.
“Switch?” I panted.
“I can’t hurt him,” she said, her accent thickened in the heat of battle. “My fists, they do nothing!” I had to stifle a crazy laugh thinking of Sergeant Schultz in Hogan’s Heroes as I rolled to the side and up to my feet. The Siren moved as well, rolling to the other side and kip upping from her back to her combat ready stance. The metahuman in black raised up his fists and brought them thundering down on where we had been a second earlier. This time I felt the backlash and stumbled under the impact.
“Come on, Reece,” Gerard said, his voice clear and sharp. I knew he had to be faking being tired
. “Hurry up. Kill it and we win.”
Easier said than done. I thrust at him, or it as Ger called it. It didn’t bother to dodge and my sword slid off of the black outfit as it strode to me, determined to wipe me out. I backed up and ran into a leftover machine from whatever kind of factory this had been. When it punched, I ducked and rabbit punched him in the side. It crushed the metal behind me with a loud screech. It turned with me as I moved around it, tracking me. My sword slashes bounced off. It might not have been invulnerable, but it showed high resistance to my attacks.
It thundered forward like a juggernaut. Dodging and weaving as it swung at me, I racked my mind for an idea and I only had one which might work. I split off part of my consciousness to examine my head. The woman had said the gun was a neutral disrupter, which meant it disrupted the part of my brain which accessed my powers. If I used a different path to get there, I should be able to access them. That was the theory anyway and I literally had resources blocked off in my head.
As I slashed and parried, keeping the slick black suited meta at bay, my mental self looked at the wall which represented the block in my head. “I just need to go through it,” I said to myself. “I don’t have to break it, I just have to go through it.” Easier said than done.
My mental hands slid along the slick surface of the red wall, feeling the bumps and imperfections in it. I kept fighting, giving it my all as I probed the back of my mind, looking for a weakness. My cuts and parries grew slower as the seconds ticked by. The meta I fought didn’t slow in the slightest, like a machine. My inner self concentrated, searching out any cracks or breaks. I didn’t find a crack, but I did find a point where the wall felt thinner. That would be the point to try and burrow through the block.
I tested my access to my teke once more and still found nothing. It was as if it didn’t exist. A loud grunt from the side alerted me to the Nacht Sirene and her opponent. The Siren kept her distance, then went in for an attack. Her speed gave her an advantage which was negated by the woman’s superior knowledge and experience. The Siren’s punches fell short of hitting her, but when our enemy went to return the favor, the Siren’s enchanted clothing protected her from any real blows. They were at a standstill. It was a matter of who would tire first, and as I recognized some of the woman’s moves as aikido, I was betting on the Siren. Her youthful energy, strength, and speed were being used against her, making her work twice as hard for nothing at all.