“I told her what she needed to know,” Tobias retorted coldly. “If it bothers you, take it up with Simon.”
She growled and resumed looking out the windscreen. “Keep your trap shut, Matrim.”
“Make me, Clarisol. Besides, she’ll learn about it eventually. I’d rather she learnt it from me than you.”
I hung onto the door for dear life as a sudden strong wind buffeted the Humvee, sending it into a heart stopping skid for several seconds.
In the driver’s seat, Felicia grunted out a complaint. “Shit! The winds are picking up. Yeah, I felt it too. Oh, you mean that effect-field for heavy weather driving? Which one was it…third switch…third switch…got it.”
The buffeting eased up, but from the frantic movement of Felicia’s shoulders it was apparent she was continuing to fight the elements trying to push us off the road.
“Maybe the little Princess was right,” Clarisol murmured. “Damn that woman….”
I was staring out the window with eyes wide and a white-knuckle grip on the door’s armrest, while watching the island’s rocky scenery flash by and listening to Felicia complain under her breath about wanting her summer break back, wondering if my debut would come to a premature end due to Mother Nature’s meddling. Hoping to distract myself from the efforts of my subconscious to terrorize me by having me imagine various bad endings on the road, I tried not to sound panicked when I asked Tobias, “You said you were here before. Has it changed much since then?”
“I think it’s a bit hard to tell. You have noticed the storm bearing down on the island.”
“The storm. Right. Of course it would be hard to tell.” I laughed nervously. “Silly me.”
“Silly you?” Tobias was quiet for a long while, then sighed loudly. “It looked different in the day, and the fog didn’t surround everything. They put that in afterwards.”
“Afterwards?” I glanced at him.
Tobias nodded shallowly. “The fog is artificial and blankets the island, covering an area of around a thousand square kilometers. We make it look like a permanent atmospheric phenomenon. There’s a camouflage field too, hiding the island from satellite surveillance.”
“What if someone comes by to investigate?”
“Well, there’s a sign stating this is the property of the Telos Corporation, and thereby private land. Trespassing is prohibited.”
“You people have thought of everything,” I remarked drily.
He was silent for a short while before shaking his head slowly. “No, not everything. Our rivals are a step ahead of us, but maybe with Mirai we can turn things around.”
I sensed his apprehension as he spoke her name.
Despite hearing about Mirai numerous times, and being told that she was of importance to House Elsis Novis, I was no closer to learning who or what Mirai was. What did Ghost mean when he referred to her as a Simulacrum like no other? And how was I supposed to use her? Ghost had mentioned a mind transference, so perhaps my consciousness would be transferred into her and then back again when the fighting was over, though it mentioned the risk of compounded data corruption each time my mind travelled between bodies.
Pondering why the damn thing had grown quiet inside my head, I whispered, “Are you there?” then gasped loudly in fright when the Humvee sharply rounded a bend on the road that tested the limits of my seat restraints.
Felicia complained out the corners of her mouth. “I’m not driving fast. You’re just falling behind. Arggh—this weather sucks. Why are we doing this with a hurricane knocking on our door? This was not in the training program!”
“Feli, dear.”
“Mistress—I’m sorry. It’s just—”
“Calm down, Feli. You’ve trained for this. You’ll be fine.”
“Yes, Mistress. I’m sorry, Mistress.”
I suppressed a shiver of panic by sheer force of will.
“Cass?” Tobias called out to me.
“Wh—wh—what?”
“Are you scared?”
“No—I’m not scared. I’m totally not scared.”
“Okay, then try not to break the door handle.”
Tearing my attention away from the view out the window, I looked down to see that he was right – I was close to ripping the handle free of the door. “Oh, sorry—”
The tires squealed as the Humvee slid to an unexpected stop and I blasted out a very girlish scream.
“Angie, stop!” Felicia snapped. “We have a problem. Yeah. A rockslide. No, I don’t know what to do. Maybe we can follow another road?” She banged on the steering wheel. “Frek! This is not my day.”
Clarisol was slapping her ears while shooting daggers at me with her eyes. “Would you not scream so loudly,” she demanded, then reached out to the center console, flicked a switch that summoned a pair of targeting reticules on the windscreen HUD, then depressed a button beside the switch.
Felicia sounded perplexed. “Mistress, what are you—?”
“Clearing the road.”
A couple of dull thumps emanated from the front of the Humvee, followed by a whooshing sound, and then the road some fifty feet ahead of us vanished in a double fireball that was quickly extinguished by the wind and rain. However, the blast shockwave rocked the Humvee on its wheels and overwhelmed the night-vision system for several seconds. When it recovered, I looked through the windscreen to see the rockslide had been cleared away by the destructive force of the explosion.
“I always wanted to do that,” said Clarisol with a childish giggle that she soon hid behind a stately cough. “Felicia, dear. Let’s not dally any longer.”
“Huh? Oh. Right. Yes, Mistress,” Felicia slapped the gearshift lever back into drive. “I guess we’re on the road again….”
Whatever had taken care of the boulders on the road had also cratered it, so it was a jarring ride as the heavy-duty wheels and rugged suspension negotiated the damaged surface of the road.
“Yeah, Angie, it’s clear,” Felicia reported. “It’s less bumpy on the right side.” Her head turned as she regarded the hillside to our right. “I hope we don’t run into any more of those…I forgot about the mini-missiles…no, I’m not telling you which button—I don’t want you blowing me off the road by accident, that’s why.”
Though I could only hear one side of the bickering taking place, it served to distract me from my fears.
“Hey, Cass. Are you sure you’re okay?” Tobias asked sounding somewhere between amused and concerned.
“I’m perfectly fine. Thank you. Why are you asking?”
“Because you ripped the handle from your door.”
I looked down at my right hand and realized that once again he spoke the truth. Holding onto the handle, I folded my arms across my chest and sulked as I glared out the window.
Tobias lowered his voice. “Have you heard of the suspension bridge effect?” he asked me.
“Yes, I have, and I swear I’m not aroused,” I declared firmly with my attention glued to the view out the window.
Tobias chuckled under his breath. “…you’re too cute….”
Balling my left hand into a fist, I punched his arm.
I can assure men can scream too if you hit them hard enough.
- VI -
Driving the Humvee to a stop, Felicia pushed the gear lever into the Park setting, then slumped languidly over the steering wheel.
“Dear gods, I thought we’d never make it here. Taking the scenic road around the island was a mistake.” Felicia’s arms slid off the steering wheel and hung limply from her shoulders. “We deserve a bonus.”
I sat still in the backseat behind her, looking at the immense structure visible through the windscreen.
“This is…the school…isn’t it…?” I swallowed before asking, “This is Telos Academy from The Game, am I right?”
The Humvee had driven over some rough terrain then onto a short road that became the cul-de-sac before the entrance to the school. Off to the right I could see the administratio
n building jutting out between the open ends of the school building that was shaped like a broken circle. A few hundred feet to the left, the cul-de-sac became the road that led onto the bridge that would span the distance to the harbor. Except there was no harbor, and the bridge was shorn off as I remembered seeing it in The Game, as was the elevated mag-lev rail line passing through the station standing to the north. The school grounds were illuminated by light coming from the building windows and numerous light poles, indicating that power was being supplied to this area.
Clarisol lay back in her seat and stared through the windscreen at the school buildings. “Yes, it is. So glad that you recognized it. And now we can finally raise the curtain on the next act by bringing this one to a close.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked her, but Clarisol ignored me and patted Felicia’s shoulder.
“Feli, get the gear. Tell Angela to do the same. The show’s just getting started. You can rest when it’s over.”
“Yes, Mistress…Angela, did you hear all that? Get the bags from the boot.”
“Hey,” I snapped at Clarisol. “Why are you calling all this a show?”
She opened her door and stepped out into the wind and rain without giving me an answer.
Choosing to remain inside the Humvee, and thus sheltered from the storm, I stared at the familiar entrance to the school and thought of what I’d abandoned at the academy’s library while wondering what the Fates had in store for me next, and cursing Clarisol for being secretive.
“Mat, do you know what she’s planning?”
“No, I don’t. And I don’t like it, so be on your toes.”
Without warning, my door was yanked open and Clarisol appeared beside me.
“What are you waiting for?” she questioned harshly. “Get your ass out here, Princess.”
“Why the Hell should I?” I yelled at her. “Tell me what the Hell is going on. Why are we here?”
“Because this is where you’re going to make your debut.”
Reaching into the cabin, she hit the release button on my safety restraints, then began pulling me out of the vehicle. I may have been smaller than her, but my Simulacrum body was stronger than she was, so I was able to fend her off until Clarisol pulled out a shock-wand from the depths of her duster.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Princess.” She waved the wand the size of a military baton at me, then plunged the tapered end into my right shoulder. “The easy way.”
Pain lanced through my arm and half my chest. Weakened by it, I barely struggled as Clarisol pulled me out of the Humvee and dropped me onto the wet permacrete ground like a sack of cement. Pushing myself up onto my elbows, I shook my head, clearing the water from my eyes, and glared up at Clarisol who stood over me, holding the shock-wand almost gingerly by its base.
Tobias clambered out of the Humvee. “What the Hell are you doing?”
“Matrim, shut up and stay inside the vehicle.” Clarisol aimed the shock-wand at him. “I’m not playing games anymore. This is serious and dangerous.”
“If it’s so damn serious, then why bring us here?” he demanded from her.
“Because the little Princess won’t behave unless you’re around. That means I have no choice but to bring you along.” Clarisol slashed the air with the wand. “If this bitch wasn’t so obdurate then I could have done things differently.”
“Treating her the way you have, what did you expect?” he yelled at her.
Gathering my legs under me, I shook my head again to clear the rain from my eyes, then lunged to my feet and used the superior strength of my Simulacrum body to leap the distance toward her. “Stop calling me little!”
Surprise distended her face as she turned back to me.
With my right fist drawn back, I would have landed a solid blow to her jaw but for the whip that snaked around my forearm and yanked me around.
“Ronin—stop!” Angela cried out as she dug in her heels and pulled on the whip with a strength that exceeded mine.
“Angela—damn you!”
Blinding pain exploded through my torso, and part of my awareness concluded that turning my back on Clarisol was a mistake as I dropped to my knees.
“When will you learn to behave?” she asked me from behind. “Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused? Your very existence is a mistake.”
On my knees, with the whip still wrapped around my right forearm, I twisted my aching body to look back at the woman I hated the most in my life, and glimpsed Tobias pinned against the Humvee by Felicia.
“If I’m a mistake, then you’re a catastrophe,” I spat the words at her.
“To think she would force our hand,” Clarisol glared hotly at me. “To think she would deny me what I so rightly deserve. To think she would choose you to be Mirai.”
My eyebrows jerked upwards. “What are you talking about?”
The shock-wand in her hand trembled and I realized it was because she had switched the device to its maximum setting…and because of the anger she was radiating.
“All of this, just to wake you up,” she growled at me.
“…what…?”
Clarisol raised the hand holding the shock-wand, and fury overcame her features as she brought it down upon me like a baton.
Held back by Felicia, Tobias cried out, “Clarisol! Don’t—!”
I found myself unable to look away as her arm descended, unable to blink away the rain, and unable to close my eyes.
Then everything around me slowed down to a crawl as my awareness accelerated.
“Princess, hold still. Do not move.”
What? Ghost?
Inches above me, the shock-wand disintegrated in Clarisol’s hand.
That’s how it looked to me at first, but later I would realize that it actually broke in two when something moving at incredible speed collided with it. Knocked out of Clarisol’s hand, the two halves spun away through the air, and the impact threw her arm wide. Moving in slow motion, she yelled out in pain and then grabbed her hand.
Still lying on my elbows, I listened to the ghost in my ears.
“Princess, I apologize for being away. However, I have been busy. You see, authorization to bring Mirai’s Sarcophagus fully online has been granted.”
My mouth moved slowly and the words emerged drawn out. “…what…Mirai…now…?”
The whip wrapped around my right forearm grew slack and ever so slowly fell away.
Ghost sounded overjoyed. “The preparations for her emergence and awakening are in their final phase.”
“…what…does…that…mean…?”
“It means that it is time for you to Awaken, my Princess.”
A heartbeat later, time resumed moving normally inside my head, and behind me someone screamed.
Propped up on my elbows, I looked over a shoulder and saw a blonde girl, her hair in a ponytail, sail a dozen or more feet through the air. She landed on the cul-de-sac, and then roll along the ground a handful of times before lying still on her chest.
“…Angela…?”
From the direction of the Humvee, I heard Felicia’s voice call out to her in despair and disbelief.
“Angela!”
Felicia sprinted over the wet ground, running past me in a heartbeat, and arriving in seconds beside Angela who lay motionless on the ground. She dropped to one knee and rocked the girl.
“Angela!”
That’s when I saw it, a tall figure as transparent as glass, visible only because of the rain striking its body, standing behind Felicia.
A thermoptic camouflage field.
“Feli,” I screamed, “behind you!”
“Huh?” Felicia looked back at me in confusion, then noticed the figure standing behind her. She moved quickly, unsheathing her knife in a heartbeat. However, the camouflaged individual grabbed her knife arm, jerking Felicia bodily into the air. With her feet dangling a foot off the wet cul-de-sac, Felicia dropped the knife and caught it with her other hand, then s
tabbed downward toward the figure’s head.
“Heh?”
Before the knife could strike home, Felicia’s body was flipped in mid-air, catching her by surprise.
“Heeeeh?”
The translucent assailant hiding beneath the thermoptic field tossed Felicia to the ground, and the girl landed hard on her back.
“Gaaaah!”
The impact would have knocked a grown man unconscious, but Felicia’s Simulacrum body was more robust. It took the blow and moments later she was struggling to her feet only to be struck under the jaw by a swift kick from her nearly invisible opponent. I watched her head snap back and her eyes roll in their sockets as the blow lifted Felicia off her feet and sent her flying a few meters through the air. She was clearly unconscious before she landed, and the knife that slipped free of her hand clattered harmlessly to the ground beside her still body.
“Feli! Angela!” Clarisol yelled out in anger. “What are you doing? What the Hell are you doing?”
The veil of near invisibility lifted from the translucent figure, revealing a tall girl that I recognized from a dream best described as a nightmare. She wore thigh high dark boots, dark stockings, a short skirt, white blouse, and a purplish sweater tied around her waist. Her most striking features were her silvery white hair, cat ears, and cat eyes. Slung diagonally across her back, she carried an enormous rifle – the kind that could snipe a tank at two thousand meters. Holstered to her right thigh was a large handgun easily mistaken for a sawn-off shotgun. It was that weapon that she now unholstered and aimed at me.
I froze on the ground and held my breath.
The girl grinned, then aimed the gun at Clarisol behind me.
“Wh—what are you doing?” Clarisol demanded weakly in confusion. “This wasn’t what we agreed upon.”
The girl shrugged a shoulder as she walked toward us. “Change in plans. You think too small, Clarisol.”
“After everything I’ve done to him—you’re saying it’s not enough?”
“You need to think big. You’re just too low budget.”
The girl fired and instantly I heard Clarisol scream. When I looked at her, I saw Clarisol had been knocked against the Humvee, and blue-white snakes of electricity writhed over her body for a second. When they vanished, she slumped to the ground, yet stubbornly held onto her consciousness. “Why…?”
Gun Princess Royale: Awakening the Princess, Book One Page 39