by Sean Davies
Lucius had dabbled with the idea of sending Lewis into the Gloom to oversee things with the Freaks but decided against it in the end. If the quill didn’t work the two of them could still do several manual trips back and forth to make the night lucrative, although it would be exhausting.
The factory complex was large and comprised of two linked warehouses. One part was used for the manufacturing and packaging, while the other part was used for storage and palletising stock, and handling inbound and outbound deliveries. Around the perimeter was a thick iron bar fence topped with spikes, and woven on top of the old fashioned fence was vicious looking razor wire to discourage theft. There were large gates at the front and back to allow lorries and trucks to enter and exit without clashing schedules.
Gang members patrolled both sides of the fence, and some were on the roof looking through night vision binoculars and sniper rifle scopes. They were allowed entrance and drove inside. The trade was going on in the warehouse as to allow use of the fork trucks during the deal, so they had all parked around the loading bays and entered via the shutters.
Brooke had joined the watchers on the roof after a short debate with Xavier. He had wanted her to stay inside but she argued a good point that she’d be able to protect Winston and Lewis more with her sniping skills on the roof than constricted with the building. Instead of lugging her anti-material rifle and ammo (which was a promotion present from Lucius) up the roof access ladder, she held her arms out to the side and used her shaman magic to invoke a powerful gust of wind to carry her upwards.
Everyone else was standing around Winston for this monumental occasion. He tried to keep the overwhelming pressure from affecting him, but everything was on his shoulders now.
“Ready?” he asked Lucius.
“Go for it,” he replied with a surprising touch of angst in his voice.
He held his book in one hand and quill in the other, and then looked over to Lewis and Veronica who were standing next to each other. They both gave him a thumbs-up at the same time which made him smile.
Using the tip of the quill he started to draw the portal, willing the artefact to create the tear in the fabric of reality. Nothing happened at first but then the quill started glowing, like when Winston had first seen it in the Gloom. The tip was now leaving behind what looked like an orangey-brown burn mark on the air where he held it, like reality was a piece of paper and he was singing it with a soldering iron. He continued until he had made a large oval shape big enough to allow a couple of fork trucks to drive through with ease, and when he met his starting point the space between distorted before flaring up. In a flash he was staring into the Gloom, un-light seeping through the interstice creating rays of twilight in the air around it.
The whole room gasped as they looked into another version of the warehouse, dirty and diminished, with a group of Freaks standing in front of two large Spidercars.
The Freak Mayor sent two of his bludgeon-wielding grunts to walk through first. They did so hesitantly but walked through unharmed, so then the Mayor himself came strolling through with his metal cane in hand.
“Winston my boy, it’s good to see you!” The Mayor gave him a body crushing hug.
“Nice to see you too, Mr Mayor,” he wheezed back.
“And Winston’s blonde friend,” the Mayor continued. “Louie, was it? Good to see you too.”
“It’s Lewis...” he replied dryly while Veronica giggled.
The Mayor released Winston and looked around at the warehouse in shock. He cleaned his broken monocle and put it back over his eye. “Winston, your world is so, so... alive! I can feel the energy and life all around! It feels good and I feel strong!”
His guards were also staring around, black puppet eyes wide with shock, and moving their limbs around to test their new found energy.
Lucius moved forward to introduce himself. “I’m Lucius, leader of the Shadow Circle, and it’s nice to finally meet you in person Mr Mayor. It’s interesting how you speak our language; I was always told that... your kind and ours couldn’t communicate.”
The Mayor gave Lucius’ hand a massive shake. “That’s funny because I was just wondering how you knew our language! We never could get you lot to understand us before Winston here came along, oh no we couldn’t!”
“Maybe our worlds are rubbing off on each other?” Lucius pondered. “Either way, we are happy to be doing business with you. Are you ready to proceed?”
“Oh yes, we certainly are! I can’t wait for more sweet treats!” He motioned for the rest of the Freaks and the big Spidercars to come forward.
The bulky steam-spurting Spidercars were haphazardly packed with shabby looking wooden crates. They plodded through the portal on their heavy legs and the accompanying Freaks began offloading them.
Lucius then gave the go-ahead for the fork truck drivers to begin loading the real world treats into the Gloom. They slowly crossed over and back again until all the pallets were loaded. The drivers looked completely exhausted after a few minutes and Lewis fetched them some spare chocolate to pick them back up a bit.
Lucius’ phone began to ring. He answered it and it was Brooke.
“Are you expecting a truck delivery tonight?” she asked quickly,
“No, why?” Lucius was clearly worried.
“Then we’ve got company incoming.”
Lucius shouted orders for his people to be on guard and get into their positions. The Spidercars and the labourer Freaks went back to the Gloom, and the Mayor and four guards stayed behind to watch the commotion.
Brooke was looking down the scope of her anti-material rifle watching the truck turn onto the road leading to the front gate. As soon as it had got its cargo container rear end around the bend it began picking up speed.
There were two people sitting in the front cab, a driver and passenger, and for a split second she toyed with the idea of shooting them both in the head but quickly decided against it. Instead she turned her attention to the engine, slipped in a special round, and squeezed the trigger. The combined effects of the explosive, armour-piercing, and incendiary .50 calibre ammunition thumped right through the front grill and detonated inside the engine. The front cab went up in a blaze of fire, bits of metal and shards of glass hurled in all directions, and the driver and passenger were burnt to a crisp. The flaming wreck had still built up enough momentum to continue travelling forward even with the front destroyed, and the cargo container at the back slid down the road almost pushing the burning cab along.
Before the container could come to a stop, Supernaturals burst out from it. Werewolf Brutebeasts and Vampire Ironfangs tore and slammed straight through the metal sides, and Mages disintegrated and blasted their way out. The calm peaceful night was now filled with the sound of shouts, howls, and gunfire.
More Supernaturals, who were members of the Triumvir of Sorrow and perhaps some unaligned allies, converged onto the factory from all sides. The Shadow Circle Werewolves transformed and threw themselves into the fray, Mages dropped their guns and started firing off some heavy spells, and Vampires darted here and there shooting and slashing. The iron bar fence was completely trashed in several areas and there was complete chaos all around.
“This is insane,” Lucius said, distraught. “What the fuck are they thinking? This is way too overt!”
“Oh my, your world is very entertaining!” the Mayor said cheerfully. “Very entertaining indeed!”
Xavier, Alexander, and Veronica stayed close to Winston. Lynette and Kavarne had transformed and were looking around snarling, preparing for the warehouse to be breached. Gang members were shooting bullets and magic out of the top windows, when three Werewolf Brutebeasts smashed through, sending them flying off the walkways and slamming into the ground. One of the beasts ripped a Mage’s head clean off on the way down. Mages, Vampire Ironfangs, and Bloodmages blasted through one of the shutters and charged in from that direction. Werewolf Shamans, Swiftpaws, and Vampire Nightclaws ju
mped and bounded through any open space to join the carnage. Bullets, magic, blades and more were deflected, dodged, dispelled, parried, and countered.
Veronica popped someone with a Blood Boil spell sending gore raining down everywhere, and others started vomiting blood, staggering dizzily, or attacking their Triumvir comrades as they became victims to her blood magic spells.
Kavarne was causing havoc with his battle axe, and every Supernatural that he missed with his savage swings was ravaged and ripped by a lightning fast Lynette before she darted off again.
Xavier was on full form, jumping left and right unleashing barrages of bullets from his pistols before finishing his foes with elegant blade assaults. He called down commands to others and organised their reprisals.
Alexander had swigged a few potions and become stony skinned and heavyset with muscular strength. He was hurling lances of ice, bolts of pure magical energy, and surges of lightning. Anyone who got too close to the Book Wielders got a smack from his rock solid fists and went flying.
Lucius, Winston, and Lewis also aided where possible with pistols and spells, though most of their efforts were purely defensive; they were definitely the desired targets of the Triumvir attack.
Brooke and the others on the roof continued to harass the assailants below with their rifle shots, and several of the rival gang members met their end with a nasty headshot from an anti-personnel .50 calibre round or coordinated sniper fire from the others. If a Triumvir attempted to get on the roof, Brooke summoned a gale of wind to knock them back down.
A swift sandy coloured Swiftpaw managed to slip past Kavarne and Lynette. It charged straight at Lucius and the Book Wielders, and they focused their fire on it but it deftly moved out of the way. Xavier kicked his current opponent in the chest and jumped into the air towards the Werewolf, landing on the beast and brining his sword down with both hands through its head.
While they were distracted, an enemy Nightclaw had stealthy made her way around the back of the portal. She leapt over it, gun in hand, and aimed a shot right at Winston’s head. The Mayor stepped in the way of the bullet and caught it in between his golden teeth, spitting it back at the Vampire. It thudded harmlessly into her half-dead stomach, but the Mayor followed up with a surge of greenish-white witchfire from his staff that was so intense it incinerated the unguarded Nightclaw in mid-air.
“Oh no, we can’t have this!” the Mayor boomed angrily. “No one tries to harm Winston, the great bringer of deliciousness, on my watch! Boys, get in there!”
The Freak guards joined the attack, strangely empowered by the energy of the real world. Their bludgeoning attacks were as devastating as any melee Supernatural and their speed easily rivalled the agility of a Nightclaw or Swiftpaw.
Over the commotion a strange humming sound could be heard, and as it grew in intensity a voice spoke through some sort of loudspeaker. “This is the Inquisition! Criminals, disarm and stand down immediately, you are under arrest!”
The two gangs were momentarily distracted but continued fighting. Search lights swept through the warehouse windows; they belonged to an Inquisition airship. A hatch opened on its underbelly and heavily armoured shock troopers dropped down on cables, most swinging into the warehouse through its smashed windows.
Brooke and the snipers opened fire on the airship. The regular sniper rounds just pinged off the silvery under-armour and Brooke’s armour piercing rounds only dented it most of the time, though when one did penetrate it nothing happened.
The airship’s downwards facing guns swept an arch of blue energy across the roof, vaporising the snipers in a blaze of fiery blue plasma. Brooke narrowly managed to escape and hid behind a big ventilation shaft, panting in shock. The airship switched to heavy machinegun and cannon fire and began picking off Supernaturals around the exterior of the building.
Inside, the shock troops had opened fire. Their black rifles shot out lances of blue energy like that of the airships but smaller, and several Shadow Circle and Triumvir members and two Freaks were incinerated in an instant by the blitzkrieg attack. They instantly switched to rifle and shotgun rounds as the lasers were only one shot or required a recharge. Either way the Supernaturals were on guard now, and a three-way battle broke out between the factions.
“Enough!” the Mayor roared above conflict. “If you want something done right you have to do it yourself!”
He lifted off his dusty hat and held it out in front of him, and a seemingly endless swarm of Blightmoths poured forth and mobbed the Shadow Circle Supernaturals. The usually peaceful insects sliced and diced with their wings and stripped flesh from their prey like a pack of piranhas. The Mayor slapped his hat back on his head and jumped and cart wheeled over to the nearest Inquisitor, smiling with his shiny gold teeth as he grabbed the trooper by the shoulders and his power armour began to rust and seize up. The trooper fired several rounds into the Mayor’s well stuffed stomach but the Freak didn’t even flinch as the shots tore through his material body. Soon after the trooper had been grabbed, his armour was so old and worn that he couldn’t even grip his weapon. The Mayor’s body had healed itself, for his strange attack had leeched the energy from the trooper’s armour, and he tossed the motionless man towards the opening to the Gloom. The Mayor continued the same routine until another four troopers lay in a pile by the portal. The Shadow Circle took care of the rest. One trooper was slumped on his knees leaking blood from the gaps in his armour where Veronica had boiled his blood, and Kavarne had decapitated another. Alexander fried one with electricity shot from his finger tips and the Mayor tossed it towards the portal to add to his pile.
After the Inquisition Shock troopers had been finished off, Alexander ran outside to deal with the airship. Several others had tried to take it out but their attacks hadn’t had much of an impact and were usually followed up by a life-ending retaliation from the futuristic aircraft. He raised his hands towards the craft and focused his energy into two orbs of orange fiery energy. His trench-buster orbs grew in intensity until his energy was completely drained, and then he released them towards the underside of the airship. The magical shells detonated in two blinding orangey-white explosions that knocked the airship back. Some of the guns were demolished and a few armour plates came loose, but the craft was far from destroyed. It regained its stability, traced the recent attack to a worn out and defenceless Alexander, and quickly focused its weapons in his direction.
Brooke stepped out of hiding and quickly called upon all her power. The wind howled and picked up to a powerful gust, and the night sky above now curdled with clouds and boomed with thunder. Before the airship could open fire on Alexander, she unleashed a storm of lightning bolts from above. They struck the top of the airship violently, jolting into the delta shaped craft’s lightly armoured topside. A couple of bolts hit its circular hover-rota and the device began to short out. It struggled to maintain its altitude with its inconsistent and mostly broken hover-rota, and began to slowly fall. Brooke used the last of her power to blow the falling adversary into the wreck of the truck near the front gate. It went up in a blinding white flash, the wreckage of both the airship and truck remains hurtling in all directions. A light blue mushroom cloud rose gently into the air, and blue molten plasma dissolved and disintegrated all but the rear end of the truck’s cargo container.
Inside, the Mayor had ordered the Freaks to drag the bodies of any still intact victims into the Gloom. Winston’s mind flashed with an idea that could salvage some of the night before more Inquisitors arrived. “We should escape into the Gloom, Lucius.”
Lucius was shouting for Mages to quickly dispose of the remains of friend and foe alike, and he didn’t quite catch what Winston had said. “Sorry, what?”
“If we escape into the portal, I can close it behind us and then open another one from the Gloom version of the Hotel Noir directly into ours. If any more Inquisitors arrive we’ll be long gone and there will be nothing to expose our world.”
That�
�s brilliant!” Lucius said astounded. “Good thinking, Winston!” He shouted the plan to everyone and they began assembling at the portal entrance.
“I can’t wait to show you my lovely city!” the Mayor said merrily to the gathering Supernaturals, “and I have a big treat for you all, a big treat indeed!”
Winston noticed the human fork truck drivers hiding in between some boxes. “You guys won’t last long in the Gloom. Get the vans we came in loaded with this stuff – it doesn’t have to be neat, just has to go in. When you’re done, drive it to the Hotel Noir as quick as possible. Lewis, you go with them, and if anything goes wrong use your book to get in the Gloom. Save yourself first and then as many reagents as you can carry. Don’t forget, the others will die if they’re left in there too long.”
“Okay, sounds like a plan,” Lewis said, and began helping coordinate the loading.
Some other strong Supernaturals came and helped to quickly shove the Gloom crates in between fork truck journeys. When they were done Lewis and the humans sped away from the destruction, and the others stepped through the portal into the Gloom.
Winston and the Shadow Circle entered the Gloom, and after the last of them had entered he closed the portal behind them. It was the first time in history that a Supernatural had set foot in the dark mystical realm, and they suddenly went from battle-worn and exhausted to energetic and full of life. The Gloom appeared to affect the Supernaturals the same way the real world affected the Freaks.
The big Spidercars that were loaded with candy were waiting patiently in the dust and rust covered Gloom warehouse, and they now also had the creaking, twitching, moaning bodies of the Inquisition shock troopers laid on top of the boxes. The Mayor waved them along as he walked briskly out of the half demolished building and into Gloom City.