by Davies, Sean
Now that they had arrived there was a surprising lack of activity at the site. Crates of weapons and ammo were stacked neatly beside one of the jeeps, and only two rebels in black, grey and red war uniforms were standing beside them. Drivers were sitting in the vehicles, but they were extremely still. The whole scene was very wrong considering that it was supposed to be a quick covert looting of an old half-forgotten cache.
“I think they’re all dead!” Brooke gasped.
“This feels like a trap,” Alexander murmured quietly.
“I’m not sensing anyone else. Let’s have a quick look and then get the hell out of here,” Brooke said.
Alexander nodded, and they left the tree line and approached the two rebels by the crates. One was a man and the other was a women, both looking to be in their late forties or fifties. They appeared to have been dead for few hours and propped up to make it less apparent. Brooke quickly checked on the drivers and found them in a similar state.
“They’re all dead,” Brooke confirmed. “We should get out of here ASAP.”
Alexander had removed the dog tags of the two rebels and was studying them closely. “Reynolds...”
“What’s up?” Brooke asked, moving towards him.
“Winston’s last name is Reynolds – you don’t think these are his parents, do you? He said they were war veterans.”
“Fuck...” Brooke didn’t know what to say.
At that moment, humanoids in white and silver armour burst into the clearing. They opened fire with bolts of blue plasma energy and charged towards the couple with shimmering blue blades.
Alexander shielded them both with magic and sent a barrage of fiery flares into the Autons charging at them. Some were torn to shreds and set ablaze, but others deftly leapt or dodged out of the way and continued firing with the lasers built into their gauntlets.
Brooke used her Werewolf Shaman magic to rapidly grow vines and thorns that whipped, lashed, tangled and tore the assailing machines. With a massive degree of effort she managed to call down some lightning strikes too, but the Autons kept coming.
Suddenly, Alexander and Brooke’s powers were gone, and no matter how hard they struggled they were unable to use their spells. Brooke tried to shape-change into a jaguar, then a wildcat, and then a wolf, but to no avail. She quickly switched to her assault rifle and tried aiming for possible weak spots and Alexander did the same, but his pistol was relatively ineffective against the robots’ armour.
One of the more agile Autons got behind them and slammed its iron fists into the back of their heads, knocking them to the floor.
Lewis sat on a branch and watched the machines close in on the downed couple. Some human Inquisitors also walked onto the scene in their thick white power armour, so Lewis decided to make a move. He leapt gracefully to the floor below and re-joined the pack of Alts he’d brought along with him.
“That’s two off the list,” he said, slapping his puppet comrades on the back. “Right, let’s hurry mates or we might miss the pre-wedding party!”
- - -
Winston checked himself out in his big bedroom mirror. He was dressed smartly in his white and red wedding suit, and he’d gotten his typical haircut of short back and sides. Winston practised sweeping his brown hair in a perfectly straight comb over style, getting close to the mirror to check his complexion. His average features were clear of any blemishes or spots, but his face looked quite cool with the black-ringed white irises.
Lewis and some others had chosen to accept the Archmage Omniosis’ invitation to live in his tower at the centre of the Capital, but Winston was still in his room in the Hotel Noir. The Archmage’s magic had made the ‘U’ shaped building even classier than it was before. Winston’s room had been merged into another, making it enormous and allowing Veronica to move in without making much of an impact.
A lot had changed in the three weeks that followed the merger. After the massive city-wide celebration that had spread from the late Xavier’s send off, the true realisation of what had happened sunk in with the population. Many humans locked themselves in their houses or apartments to avoid the Alternatives, the other denizens of the Gloom, and the Supernaturals who now lived brazenly out in the open.
To help put a positive spin on things for the terrified humans, Winston and Lucius had called on the help of Albert Tiberius and his organisation named the Concealed Council, who were mainly comprised of former members of the government throughout recent history. Once they had arrived from Industria they set to work controlling the media of the Capital and Imperia as a whole, and along with the Governor and his chirpy new attitude, they made a start on generating lots of pro-Archmage and Pro-Supernatural propaganda. They also created a lot of anti-Inquisition news for good measure too. It was especially useful as the Military Peace Keepers in Tropica and Industria, who had no real allegiance to the Governor of Imperia, were torn between fighting for either the Inquisition and the good of humanity, or the Supernaturals and a lot of wealth and power.
During the ongoing PR campaign, Winston had been reluctantly dragged into the limelight. They had chosen to make him the human face of the Omni because a regular human wouldn’t be able to see his power-imbued white Book Wielder eyes, but would merely view him as one of them, living side-by-side in harmony with the Supernaturals, the Archmage, and the forces of the Gloom. It also worked well that he was getting married to Veronica. The human-Vampire relationship was played on a lot and their wedding was going to be a massive televised event. Veronica was happy to have a short engagement, but slightly resentful about having Omniosis conduct the ceremony.
The campaign had been relatively successful, with most of the human population now living normally within the Capital and MPK support rising slightly on the other two continents. Some had kicked up a fuss, but after seeing what the Archmage had done to the Trinity’s last attempt to enter the city through a Catacomb portal, any dissenting forces had been scared into submission. ‘Obey or end up skinned alive and fed to murderous puppets’ sent a clear message. Although the PR team had expected to work twice as hard to undo that damage, the people took the display surprisingly well. Winston had noticed a subtle difference in both the humans and the Alts recently. The humans seemed to be slightly moodier and more aggressive, whereas the Alts were becoming increasingly more polite and well spoken. He assumed the merger was affecting both species’ mind sets, and hoped that everything would balance out when he brought the magic back to the world.
Patience was definitely not one of the Archmage’s strongest virtues. Either by nature or from being so close to his goals, he was determined to take Industria City and Tropica City as soon as possible, regardless of the situation on the continent of Rura. Although the rebels had given up the futile attacks on the Capital they were continually pestering the other towns and cities, raiding military depots, vandalising equipment and causing disruptions where possible. Regardless of their loose hold on the continent, Omniosis was adamant that all that mattered was getting as much manpower over to the Industrian front lines, where Kaine’s Dogs of War and Kat’s Anarchy’s Ascendants were battling over territory with the rebels and rival gangs who had joined them. His order to send more Shadow Circle forces, including Lynette and Kavarne, had not been well received by Lucius, but Omniosis had tried to make amends by offering to perform the wedding ceremony.
The pre-wedding party was being held in the outside dining section of the Hotel Noir. Winston and Veronica had chosen to do a joint party rather than separate ones, because Veronica had claimed she ‘didn’t want to miss out on the strippers’. Most of the attendees would be members of the Shadow Circle, but the Governor and some MPK Officers, along with the Mayor, DVAF, Mortissa, and several other Alternatives, would also be there. Omniosis had been invited, but he had declined as he wished to monitor the situation on Industria before the wedding ceremony in the morning.
Winston was still thinking of ways to get into Tropica, seeing as the Omni had little presence t
here. If Industria was merged soon then they would still struggle to get a foothold on the tropical and jungle covered continent. He checked the time, saw that he was running late, and pushed the thoughts of tactics out of his mind. He began changing into some smart casual clothing, delicately folding his wedding suit for the morning. The night would be about enjoyment, unwinding, relaxing and having a wild time, just like he had done with Veronica before the Archmage had summoned him.
- - -
It was a pleasant evening in the Capital of Imperia, although it was hard to tell what time of the day it was with the plate of dark purple and black clouds curdling above the city and its outskirts. The eerily hazy white column of light that emanated from the top of Omniosis’ stone and glass tower at the heart of the city gave some illumination, but even with that it always seemed like the middle of the night. It was only from the horizon that the true weather and time of day could been seen, but within the city’s vast white and grey stone walls, marked consistently with Omniosis’ banner of a plain white masquerade mask on a plain black rectangle, it was difficult to see the normal sky over them. Light purple clouds spread from the plate in strange vein patterns and reached all across Imperia.
Veronica was waiting by the bar in the hotel’s gardens, casually sipping a glass of blood and vodka. She had chosen to curl her jet black hair slightly so that it dropped in alluring waves down to her bare shoulders, and she had used red glossy lipstick and heavy mascara which contrasted with her pale snow white skin. For the party she had chosen to wear a tiny strapless dark red dress that was tight enough to leave nothing to the imagination, and she was wearing nothing underneath except for a black G-string that looked non-existent against her big shapely ass. Her giant breasts, that were almost the size of her face, were more than firm enough to support themselves. Her large nipples poked through the thin red dress shamelessly. Her intentions were to knock Winston senseless and leave him dying for the wedding night, because their love life had suffered quite badly with all of his distractions as of late. Even her Blood Magic arousal spells were rendered ineffective, as he seemed to be subconsciously blocking them.
The gardens had been done up with fancy lights and colourful ribbons, and speakers had been set up in discrete corners with classy, calming music emanating from them. Veronica hoped that it would get a bit more exciting as the night progressed. She couldn’t imagine the hot girls stripping off to classical music.
Guys and girls alike gave her the eye as they walked by, and she winked back playfully as she waited for her fiancé to arrive. Others congratulated her kindly and tried their best not to gawp, so she tried even harder to emphasise her beauty and break their composure. Veronica liked being admired, loved flirtation, and thoroughly enjoyed fucking other guys and girls, but only when Winston was there with her. He’d briefly started sleeping with another girl, and it had upset and enraged her more than she had imagined it would. Things like that had never bothered her before, but then again, she had never been in love before. Now they strictly kept to sharing lovers, although it had been a while since they’d had a good group session, or a good session full stop.
She sighed and took another sip of her drink. Her strange Bloodmage senses told her that Winston was taking the right course of action, but she had a terrible feeling about the Archmage; his words were kind but his actions were cold and calculated. Omniosis also had Lewis acting like a trained dog and she didn’t want Winston to become like him. The blonde haired Book Wielder was getting stranger and stranger, and Brooke could sense it too.
Holding that thought, Veronica wondered where Brooke and Alexander were. She didn’t want the couple to miss the party or the ceremony – it was bad enough that the sexy little minx Lynette and the hunky beast of a man Kavarne couldn’t make it.
Winston finally arrived, looking smart and sexy in a dark blue polo-shirt and light denim jeans. He thought of himself as average looking but he was actually rather handsome. Veronica knew that he attributed his success with Veronica, and life in general, with his unique abilities as a Book Wielder and the fact that he was able to utilise the quill artefact. However, the reality was that he would have done well in life whatever he chose to do with it, and Veronica would have been attracted to him either way. The potential was always within him, but it was being plunged into the Supernatural world that gave him the confidence to unlock it.
“Hey...” Winston began to say as he gawped at his fiancée. His eyes eventually settled level with her impressive chest and looked like they were going to pop out of his head.
Veronica giggled. She had done what she’d set out to do. “Hey sweetie!” She put her arms around him and kissed him passionately, making sure that her ‘assets’ were pushing into his chest as much as possible. “Ready for some fun, hun? I hope the girls arrive soon!”
“Definitely,” Winston replied with a cheeky grin. “You’ve got a surprise coming your way too.”
“Not before our wedding night mister,” she said, grabbing his hard cock through his jeans.
“I didn’t mean that,” Winston laughed.
“Oh, then what is it?” she asked enthusiastically. It felt like old times already.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, would it now?” Winston said with a wink.
“I suppose not,” she laughed. “Let’s go and put a dent in the bar then.” Veronica pulled him towards the bar.
A Military Peace Keeper officer in a smart black and red uniform was sitting at the outside bar with a few other MPK men and women standing around him. He raised a glass in the couple’s direction and the rest of the group did the same. “Mr Reynolds and Mrs Reynolds to be, congratulations in advance.”
Veronica smiled and Winston thanked them.
“If you have a spare moment,” the officer continued, “we’ve increased the efficiency of our patrols throughout the city and also beyond the walls. Security here is better than ever, but I’d like to go over a few things regarding the other parts of Imperia...”
Veronica cut him off with an evil hiss that made the whole group of MPK’s flinch backwards, one almost fell over. “No work stuff,” she warned violently, “not tonight and not tomorrow!”
“Sorry ma’am, my apologies!” the officer said, and with a salute he and his group quickly found somewhere else to loiter.
Veronica composed herself and smiled at Winston. “Ready to get smashed?”
Winston nodded. “I’m assuming that you’re taking charge of my consumption tonight?”
“I certainly am.” She slapped her hand on the bar. “Barman, I’ll have a bottle of vodka for myself, a bottle of whiskey for my man, two Dreamleaf joints, and... two shots of Artravenia.”
Winston’s eyes went wide at the sound of that order. Veronica knew that he would be wary about trying the last intoxicant on the list, for Artravenia was a nasty little mix of several Gloom-based chemicals, all of which were highly potent. Made a slightly different way and the mix would create a powerful potion that would drastically increase magical spells and powers. However, the only thing Artravenia was good for was completely destroying your senses for the night.
The bartender gave them their bottles of alcohol, rolled them fresh joints from a container of crushed blue Dreamleaf that he got from behind the bar, and then pulled out a small glass flask of pinkish fluid with glowing blue swirls. He carefully filled a shot glass for the two of them and put the flask back. The bartender nodded politely and went to serve some other guests waiting nearby.
Veronica grabbed her shot glass and downed the contents before Winston could even blink. She forced herself to stay composed as the ice cold tingly fluid slithered down her throat, and almost immediately her vision was flooded with colourful swirls and distortions. Her body felt weightless and her mind pulsed with random thoughts. Everything was suddenly funny and incredibly interesting. Winston hesitated for a few moments and then drank his down too.
She watched as his white eyes went wide and darted around
, taking in the hallucinogenic scenery, and giggled at him as he fought to act normal. “Good stuff, huh?”
“Yeah...” Winston replied slowly.
Veronica put an arm around his waist and picked up her Dreamleaf joint, putting it in Winston’s mouth for him. “Light us up, sweetie.”
Winston fumbled around in his jean pockets until he came across his trusty lighter, and after a few tries he managed to light their Dreamleaf ‘cigarettes’. The Dreamleaf added an additional backdrop of pulsing colours and the feeling of total relaxation, but compared to what the Artravenia was doing to them it was barely noticeable. The couple laughed, kissed, and fondled each other playfully as they drank their spirits straight from the bottle.
Shortly after, although it was hard to judge how much time had passed, Lucius stood up on one of the tables and started tapping a fork against a champagne glass. The guests broke off their conversations and soon the outside of the Hotel Noir was silent.
The Vampire Lucius, Winston’s partner in running the Shadow Circle, was smartly dressed in a vermillion shirt and black suit jacket and trousers, and as always his long black hair was neatly tied back with a red ribbon. The symbol of the Shadow Circle, a circle containing three smaller ones touching but not overlapping within it, was stitched in silver upon the front pocket of his suit jacket. He had a joyous expression on his pale angular face, but Veronica could see the stress and doubt behind his crimson eyes.
“Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone and everything else in between,” he began merrily. “Welcome to the pre-wedding celebration for my partner-in-crime Winston, and my long-time colleague Veronica. Both are dear friends and very close to my heart, and I couldn’t be happier for them. So I propose a toast; to Winston and Veronica, and to the future!”
The human guests raised their alcoholic beverages and the Alternatives raised their glasses of sugar filled fizzy soft drinks (which to them had an intoxicating effect) towards Winston and Veronica, who smiled and waved. The pair of them did their best to ignore the weird and wacky sparkles and fairies that were dancing across their vision.