Infinities' Edge

by Andrew Dobell

  ‘I do believe he would be dead now if it hadn’t been for this,’ Shaun said, looking at the device.

  ‘He’s bought us some time, so, do you know where he is?

  ‘Everything I have is conjecture based on what I know of Angel’s operation. It’s well known that she and her Coven run the Nephilim Industries Company and have a building in Milan as their base. The Arcadians have known this for a long time, but, there are a lot of civilians in that building twenty-four hours a day and they’re used as a human shield in case of attack, as well as working for the company. It is believed that Angel and her Coven live in that building, but probably have holdings elsewhere as well. I would say it’s very likely that Matt is in that building somewhere, probably in the top few floors where the Coven primarily resides. Are you going in there?’

  ‘You know I am,’ Amanda answered.

  ‘Is that wise?’ Shaun asked.

  ‘What else can I do? I need to find him and bring him home. He pointed us to the memory device for a reason, so we need to keep it safe for the moment while we try other options.’

  ‘You think you can do this?’

  ‘Of course…’

  ‘Okay, good luck then,’ he said.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said and concentrated for a moment, sending her senses about a quarter of the way around the globe to Milan and quickly found a suitable rooftop close to the Nephilim building. Working her Magic again, a bright white light filled her vision for a moment, accompanying the brief feeling of dislocation before she found herself stood on top of a building in the middle of the night in Milan. A short distance away, still lit up by the lights inside, sat Angels building and Sepulchre.

  Amanda immediately concentrated and dampened down her Magical signature, hiding as best she could from any Magical detection. With that accomplished, she relaxed for a moment and looked over at the tower. With her Magical sight, she could see that the whole building seemed to hum with energy. Various Aegises protected it, with most of the Essentia concentrated around the top few floors. The reports she’d read about this place seemed right, and even without them, if she had to guess where Angel and her Coven would be based on what she saw here, she would guess that they would be on the top few floors.

  Mainly the protections in place were the usual Aegises, Magical barriers that stopped Essentia and Magic from passing through them. There were other components at work here though, with some force shields and things in place to stop fires and such from taking hold.

  Protecting a location from invasion was always tough, and there was no full proof method to keep some people out while letting others in, and things like Aegises were just deterrents and alarm systems really.

  An Aegis could be overloaded and destroyed by throwing Magic at it, and it could also have holes picked in it that allowed you to pass through. But, there was another method of bypassing such defences, and that was to dispel all your own Magic. Getting rid of your Aegises and stored Essentia and any Magical items basically turned you into a Mortal as far as an Aegis was concerned and an Aegis did not stop mundane items or people from passing through them.

  Ultimately, people need to get into these places, so all you can really do is make if difficult or risky for the Magus.

  Amanda sent her senses as close as she could and using her Magic to zoom in, scanned the rooftop looking for anything she could find that would help her infiltrate the building.

  The roof had multiple security cameras, motion sensors and laser trip wires scattered all over it, as well as the Aegis bubble around the building itself.

  Feeling as sure as she could be about what she was about to do, she released all her Magic, ridding herself from any Magical effect that she had cast upon her. No more Aegis, no more stored Essentia, nothing.

  She still remained super strong and fast with enhanced senses as they were changes that, although they had been made with Magic, were not actually magic in and of themselves. Finally, she concentrated and Ported herself into the air above the building, just outside of the Aegis. She appeared about thirty feet up in the air above the roof and just outside the Aegis, where she promptly dropped towards the roof.

  With no Magic on her at all, she passed harmlessly through the Aegis and dropped quickly towards the concrete rooftop, calling on her Magic at the last second to slow her fall and alight gracefully onto the roof.

  Landing in a crouch, Amanda quickly used her Magic now that she was inside the Aegis to bend the light around her, making herself invisible to people and cameras and making the laser tripwires useless. The rooftop appeared quiet, with only a Helicopter on the Helipad, a few air conditioning units and the doorway that led down into the building itself.

  Rising from her crouch, she walked carefully and steadily over the roof towards the doorway, reaching it without any trouble at all. As she moved she continued to rebuild her Aegises and other Shields as well as draw in more Essentia to store within her. She wanted to be ready for anything.

  Another working of Magic and she could see the internal structure of the door, the locking mechanism and the alarms that were attached to it. Opening that doorway would be tricky, so instead, with a quick working of Magic, Amanda Ported to the other side of the doorway finding herself at the top of a flight of stairs leading down into the building itself.

  Amanda moved slowly and descended the stairs to the top floor of the tower and looked out into the service corridor at the bottom. This also appeared to be empty, so she stepped out again, remaining invisible for the time being, and walked down the corridor.

  Voices could be heard from a nearby room making idle chat, and as she passed the side room she spotted several people in there wearing what could only be security guard uniforms talking amongst themselves. Stopping by the doorway, she cast her senses into the room and scanned over the security camera feeds, seeing corridors and people going about their business, and nothing to suggest where Edge and Angel might be.

  Cancelling her Magical senses she made it to the end of the corridor and the door that stood closed there. Looking through the small glass window into the modern and clean looking corridor beyond and seeing nothing unusual, Amanda worked her Magic and Ported to the other side of the door, doing her best to keep the disruptions of Essentia to a minimum. The hallway went in either direction and had doors and other passageways leading off from it. Amanda picked a direction at random and started to walk.

  She needed to know where in the building Edge might be, so she either needed a lucky break, or she needed to find someone who would know where they were.

  Still invisible, Amanda walked quietly and discretely through the building, looking through doorways, along corridors and trying to find anything that might help her.

  There wasn’t much activity up here and most of the corridors were basically empty. Of the few people she did see walking around, maybe half of them were security carrying guns and wearing armour. The rest were fairly typical office workers judging by their appearance. It occurred to her that many of these were likely Initiated and might work directly for the Coven. It would certainly make sense.

  She scanned the surface thoughts of those she could, as discreetly as she could, but never found anything that related to the kidnapping of the man she knew only as Edge.

  When the Essentia strike hit her in the back as she walked along another corridor, knocking her to the floor, it came as a complete surprise. She managed to roll with the hit and came to her feet, looking back the way the attack had come, dropping her Invisibility effect at the same time seeing as how it seemed to be useless against this new foe.

  Cherub stood a distance along the corridor having just exited a side room and no doubt spotting her Magic when she looked down the corridor.

  ‘You again,’ Amanda muttered to herself.

  ‘I could say the same thing,’ Cherub answered.

  She’d already dealt with this child like Magus today, and she felt confident that she could subdue her once again. So she started
to walk back the way she had just come, towards Cherub, noticing the child's attempts at boosting her Aegis and preparing for the fight.

  Suddenly from side corridors between her and the Nomad, several armed security ran into the main corridor and pointed their weapons at Amanda and started to shout at her to freeze and get down.

  Grunting in consternation, Amanda ran forward at the security who quickly opened fire at her. The bullets slammed into her shield, bouncing off it harmlessly as she closed the gap. Upon reaching the first guard, she grabbed his rifle, spinning it out of his grip before hitting him across the face with it.

  Chaos erupted as the other five guards either continued to fire at her or tried to engage her in hand to hand combat.

  She swung the rifle in her hand again and caught another guard across his face, dropping him to the floor while another saw the opening in her defences and fired, unloading a clip into her. A few of his bullets ricocheted off of her Aegis and hit the second man she had attacked, dropping him to the floor.

  Angered by the death, she spin-kicked the guard who fired, burying her foot in the man’s jaw, breaking it and dislodging a few teeth in the process.

  As she landed, the man next to her held his rifle high and inverted. He jabbed the stock of the gun into her face, hitting her cheek, but the blow was cushioned by her Force Shield.

  Amanda jabbed him in the stomach a couple of times before his friend behind her kicked her in the back of the knee, dropping her down.

  On her knees, the man behind her stuck the end of his rifle into her back.

  ‘Stay there and don’t move, or I will fire,’ he said.

  To her right, the other security guard did the same with his gun while the guard before her tried to catch his breath from her attack.

  She didn’t have time for this, so she concentrated and pulled on the local Essentia again, only to have a second Magical effect from nearby sweep in and dissipate Amanda’s kinetic pulse.

  Cherub must still be watching and ready to dispel her Magic, which was good news for her because she could use Cherub to find Matt.

  Amanda span on the spot getting one foot on the ground while going for a gut punch on the man behind her. Her strike connected and she knocked his gun sideways towards the other unharmed guard.

  With the fifth and final guard trying to dodge a weapon that had been flung at him, Amanda came up in front of the doubled over man she had just hit in the stomach and kneed him in the head, before jumping, spinning and kicking the man behind her who had just recovered from her previous attack.

  Both men dropped to the floor as she turned to face the final man who raised his gun to point at her head after recovering from being hit by a flying rifle.

  Amanda reacted quickly and knocked the gun up to point at the ceiling with a sweep of her arm before bringing her other fist in, to punch the man once, hard in the face. He dropped to his ass with a bloody nose to sit on the floor and looked up in time to see Amanda’s foot as she kicked him in the head, knocking him out.

  Looking up, a flare of Magic started up around Cherub, but Amanda wasn’t going to let her get away so easily and pulled the Essentia that fuelled Cherub’s effect away from her, foiling her attempt to Port from the scene.

  ‘Shit,’ the little girl said to herself.

  ‘You’re not going anywhere,’ Amanda threatened.

  She stalked down the corridor towards the young girl who looked back at Amanda with eyes of a much older person. The appearance of this Magus might be childlike, but Amanda suspected she was much older than she looked.

  ‘I don’t need too,’ the girl said.

  Amanda knew what she meant, she just needed to keep her occupied long enough for Angel to escape. She felt incredibly angry at this Nomad and as she walked towards her, she balled her fists and wanted only to hurt her and cause her pain, while also knowing she needed to get inside that mind to find Edge.

  With a pull on the local magical energy, Amanda hit Cherub with a powerful Kinetic hit, sweeping her sideways and into the wall. Cherubs Aegis flashed and sparked as she stumbled before she raised her hand and hit back with Magic of her own.

  The Essentia smashed into Amanda’s Aegis, making her pause in her advance for a moment allowing Cherub to stand after her fall.

  Amanda hit her again with a kinetic slam, driving her into the floor with further sparks from her Aegis and then again, throwing her in the other direction and into another wall.

  ‘Don’t worry, this won’t take long,’ Amanda scowled.

  Cherub yelped and grunted as she stood back up, apparently not ready to give up yet.

  ‘You can’t win, Arcadian, never!’

  ‘You just keep believing that,’ Amanda mocked.

  Gunfire sounded behind Amanda suddenly, the bullets hitting her shields and bouncing away. With a second set of senses, she followed the direction of the attack and saw another team of security guards down another corridor all aiming at her.

  In a split second reaction, she called on her Magic and created a powerful gravity well in the middle of the Security Team, causing the people in the group and the structure of the building around them to crunch together.

  Meanwhile, in front of her, Cherub reached behind her and with a quick and subtle working of Magic, pulled out a knife that glowed in Amanda’s Magical sight.

  Amanda readied herself as Cherub launched at her with a scream. But she never reached her target as Amanda hit her with a telekinetic hit and sent her flying backwards and slamming into the far wall again, where she held her two feet off the ground as she sent in Essentia Strike after Essentia Strike to break down Cherub’s shield.

  To her right Amanda heard more footsteps and saw more guards advancing on her position. In something of a rage, Amanda sent out a wave of Kinetic energy at them sending the whole team flying backwards, hitting each other and the walls as they flew twenty or thirty feet back down the corridor.

  Screaming in frustration Cherub did her best to retaliate, throwing Essentia Strikes of her own at Amanda which flowed over her Aegis, doing way less damage to it than she needed to.

  Several seconds later, Cherubs Aegis cracked and fell, allowing Amanda’s magical grip on her to actually grab Cherub’s neck and squeeze.

  ‘Where is he!’ she shouted at the Nomad in her grasp.

  But Cherub, although struggling with the painful grip Amanda had of her, remained tight-lipped.

  ‘Where is he dammit!’ she roared.

  Cherub spat at her. It landed on her cheek and made Amanda flinch. Wiping the saliva away, and feeling even less charitable than before, Amanda summoned her Magic once again and delved into the Nomads mind and went hunting for the knowledge she needed. A simple search quickly found the details, including a good idea of where the room was in the building, meaning she could Port there.

  Pulling back from the vile child’s mind, she slammed Cherub’s head against the rear wall and knocked her out cold. Amanda dropped the Nomad to the floor and pulled on her Magic again, Porting to a room not too far away. She’d experienced Cherub’s memory of Angel being in here stood next to Edge who had been sat in a chair that now lay on its side on the floor before her.

  The room was quiet and empty, with no sign of Angel or Edge.

  ‘Feck it,’ Amanda cursed and went to sit in a nearby chair. She’d been careless and alerted Angel to her presence here, letting them escape. She slammed her fist down on the table next to her and swore once more.

  Angel might have escaped, but she would still want the information that Amanda had in her possession, which meant that Angel would have to come to her at some point.

  Amanda took a moment and did her best to calm herself down. She needed to be rational and do this properly.

  So she summoned her Magic once more and Ported back out to where she had just fought Cherub. Sure enough, she still lay on the floor where she’d left her.

  Looking down at the girl now, and knowing that she had been the one to beat up this
person, that she had perhaps nearly killed her, was a sobering thought. She knew this Nomad was actually a lot older than she looked, but for a moment, Amanda only saw a child, a little girl, and she found herself questioning what she was doing in attacking her. She supposed this was exactly what Cherub wanted in having this appearance, and even with the express knowledge that Cherub was likely decades older than she looked, it still affected her.

  Amanda shook her head and knelt down next to Cherub and used her Magic to plant a powerful suggestion in the Nomads mind, which basically would direct Cherub to tell Angel that she needed to call Amanda on a phone number that she implanted as well.

  Amanda stood up and looked around her. Bodies, some of them dead, lay scattered about the place. Others moved and groaned, nursing wounds and broken limbs from Amanda’s attacks.

  ‘Help me,’ called one of the ones who had been caught in her gravity well and had somehow managed to crawl out of the rubble with both legs mangled beyond all recognition.

  She looked again at the devastation she had created and the lives she had just ended or ruined, and just stood there staring at the mess, a feeling of unbelief about what she had done passing over her. Some of these guards would know the kind of people they worked for here at Nephilim, but many of them wouldn’t. To many of them, this was probably just a job, a nice easy job most of the time just walking the corridors of this building.

  She crouched down next to the man with the ruined legs. ‘Hey, it’s okay,’ she said, and with a working of Magic, blocked the pain receptors in his brain and gently sent him to sleep. She looked down at his legs and felt sick at the sight of the mess they were in.

  Deformed, bloodied and bent at odd angles with bones jutting out of the raw flesh and muscle with an entire foot just missing. She couldn’t leave him like that, so she worked her magic again and healed his legs, re-growing his entire missing foot in just a few seconds.

  Brushing her long red hair from her face, she looked around again at the bodies of the security guards she had fought.