by Davies, Sean
As the army of Alternatives began pouring into Industria City, Gloom weaponry and vehicles went crazy causing chaos and havoc down the metropolis’ roads and streets. Inquisitors and other human defenders pumped the ranks of their material foes with bolts and lances of molten plasma energy, spouting regular fire and blue plasma fire from flamethrowers at their assailants, and torrents of gunfire poured into the Alternatives as they attempted to take the city. Rebel Vampires fired their guns with untold accuracy, each shot hitting its mark, and slashed with swords and melee weapons, leaving a trail of twitching material bodies and limbs behind them. Werewolves scratched and slashed, raked and tore, bit and bashed the Alternatives into ribbons, and Shamans fried their puppet adversaries to dust with surges of lightning from their hands or straight from the skies above. Mages unleashed their unbridled destructive wrath at the invaders; giant fireballs engulfed, ice lanced, froze and shattered, force magic blasted, bolts of electricity crackled and singed, and magical energy of every, shape, size, colour and element imaginable annihilated the Gloom forces. But for every Alternative killed, another five took their place, stronger, faster and better equipped to deal with the tiring Supernatural and human defenders. As Spidertanks and armoured trucks with savage faces entered the fray, all seemed lost for the rebels before it had even begun.
Over the din the sound of old engines, rotors, and jets could faintly be heard in the distance. The rebel forces fought on with a new found strength and hope. Their air support had arrived.
A wave of jet fighters from the end of the Great War zoomed overhead, followed by their slower propeller-driven ancestors from the war’s early days. After they had passed, dozens of attack helicopters and a couple of Inquisition airships began combing through the city. The helicopters fired missiles, miniguns and machineguns at the hordes of Alts, and the airships did the same but with the added edge of their plasma armaments. They also correlated information to the fighters and bombers above to provide accurate targets with the least chance of collateral damage, although the city was already suffering heavy damage from all the other sources of mayhem filled battles.
From the Gloom, Winston opened portals in the sky, and the Alternative pilots in their insanely dangerous bi-planes and dirigible airships entered into the real world. The few black dragons that the Archmage had sent over to Pollutia waited behind. The old beasts would cross with Winston to keep him safe.
Soon the skies were as congealed with violence and destruction as Industria City below. The crazy selection of planes dodged and twisted in between the columns of smog filtering upwards. Even during the chaos, some manufactories and power plants continued to run on their automated settings. Some aircrafts used the thick clouds as cover and others used them to ambush from. Bullets, missiles and plasma beams crossed with sickly green Gloom energy pulses, lightning lances, and blasts. In addition to energy, the Alternative aircraft spat everything and anything from their strange bulky shrapnel guns including nails and screws, knife blades and caltrops, and wires and springs. Both sides suffered heavily in the aerial assault and like just like the battle below, no clear victor could currently be discerned.
- - -
Nearby, the cyberpunk Mage with icy blue hair named Zero and her gang, the Clockwork Angels, drove southwards in their sports cars down the raised super-highway towards the heart of Industria city. Accompanying them were the Desem Patriots on their classic motorcycles, and both gangs rode even faster than they had been after seeing the explosions in the skies and the smoke and fire rising from the metropolis. As they neared the slip road that would take them downwards towards the city, they saw that their path had been blocked. Trucks, lorries, and construction vehicles had been parked deliberately to deny entrance to both exits, even on the other side of the super-highway.
Zero stuck one arm out of her neon blue sports car window, keeping the other firmly planted on the wheel, and aimed her palm towards the blocked exit. A circle of glowing blue runes appeared in the air just inches away from her hand. A film of misty cyan rushed down her shoulder and collected into a ball in the centre of the runes. It charged, growing and glowing more intensely before Zero launched it into the roadblock like a comet.
Other Mages and the spell users amongst the Werewolves and Vampires had done the same. Their combined magic annihilated the roadblock in a brilliant explosion that left little except burning scrap metal. Once again they upped their speed to reach Industria City.
That’s when the first of the Anarchy’s Ascendants pounced from the side of the road. Werewolf Brutebeasts and Vampire Ironfangs and Nightclaws had been clinging to the sides of the raised road waiting for their moment to strike. They threw themselves onto the bikers, slashed tires, and landed on sports cars to pull the drivers out through the windscreen.
The Supernaturals from the Desem Patriots and Clockwork Angels quickly regrouped. They left their vehicles aside and retaliated with all their might. The Werewolves transformed, the Mages cast their spells and the Vampires put their speed and strength to the test. Clouds of bats and swarms of animals ravaged each other as Vampire Nightclaws and Werewolf Shamans used their transformation abilities to the extreme.
Sniper fire downed several of Zero’s people, and she had to cancel a spell just to get a barrier up in time to save her skin. She looked around for an exit but all she could see were the Clockwork Angels and Desem Patriots falling around her. If they weren’t shot to pieces by sniper fire, they were slain by their foes on the super-highway.
“Oh, well, if it isn’t Zero herself!” Kitaria Catawowski, otherwise known as Kitty Cat or Kat, said loudly and annoyingly.
Zero scowled. The leader of the Anarchy’s Ascendants was walking up the super-highway where the roadblock was, with a massive crowd of Alternatives and Supernaturals. Kat was dressed in the normal dark grey and black ‘uniform’ that her gang wore. She was a pretty Mage with slightly tanned skinned, long auburn hair in a tight ponytail and attractive slanted eyes. But her expression was always stuck in a foul hate-filled expression.
“What the fuck are you doing, you little skank?” Zero said frantically. “Have you gone fucking insane?!”
With a gesture, Kat’s people dispersed and began killing mercilessly. Any foe they had trouble with met their end with a precise shot to the head or heart from the tactically placed snipers on the city’s outlying buildings.
“Haven’t you heard what we’re doing?” Kat shouted. “We’re going to change the world, and we’ll rule it like gods.”
Zero dusted her black and blue bodysuit off and straightened herself up. “You mean the Archmage will rule like a God,” she said back bravely.
Kat angrily sent a fireball towards Zero, who deflected it towards where she hoped the snipers were hiding.
Some of Kitty Cat’s guards went to attack Zero but she held them back. “This bitch is mine,” Kat spat angrily. “No one bad-mouths the Archmage and gets away with it. He’s going to be the saviour of our kind.”
“You really are an insane little dim-witted witch,” Zero said coldly, before sending a torrent of cyan energy at Kat from both hands.
Kat quickly retaliated with her own beam of intense orangey red fire, and their spells met in the middle and sent a shockwave outwards that threw most of the other combatants to the floor. The two mages struggled to get the upper hand over the other. The blue energy surged forwards and was then pushed back by the orange and red one. The process repeated over and over, and the beams grew stronger and stronger. They were both beginning to tire but neither one of the female Mages would yield to the other. They fought on for their very lives. Kat suddenly dropped one of her arms, maintaining her beam with just one hand, and in a quick motion she grabbed a pistol from her waist and unloaded it in the direction of Zero. Only a few of the bullets hit their target, but it was enough. Zero gargled blood, her arms dropped, and so did she. Kat’s bright beam of fiery energy tore straight through her and detonated most of the super-highway behind.
&
nbsp; “Finish up here boys and girls,” Kat said to her people, reloading her pistol and slotting it back in her belt. “We’ve got plenty more killing to do yet.”
- - -
The time had come for Winston to make his move. He opened a portal above for the dragons to fly through and then made a smaller one for himself. “See you soon!” he shouted up to the Foreman before he left.
He walked out into the Industria City plaza and looked around at the destruction; he’d have to act quickly to save the industrial metropolis from more destruction. Looking up at the World GOVT building he could see that it was crawling with Autons, and using his new powers he could also sense something bad within the tower. The rebels must have had a little time to prepare.
The Archmage’s dragons began blasting the sides of the building with their red-hot purple and black flame breath. The agile type Autons fired back with their wrist lasers but the dragons deftly dodged any incoming blasts. Autons from within the tall glass windowed building joined their mechanical comrades in shooting at the dragons. Their rifles were bigger and deadly, and they even managed to land a few hits. Dusty old scales detached in puffs of ash as the plasma shots collided with the old beasts, but they still continued their assault unfazed. Their job was to protect Winston, no matter the cost.
Winston was dressed very smartly in a black pinstripe Shadow Circle suit for the momentous occasion. He tightened his grip on his book and quill; he wouldn’t need anything else. Blasts of plasma came flying towards him from the World GOVT building. The Autons had found their primary target, but the bolts of energy phased out of existence just inches away from the Book Wielder.
After he had accidently created a picture of the gang on his honeymoon, Winston had experimented with the manipulation magic that he had previously been struggling so badly with (in between his fun with Veronica). He remembered back to the night when he had proposed to her. A Trinity sniper had shot him in the head twice, and the first shot had been deflected by his ring of protection, but the second shot had stopped and simply vanished not far from his face. When he connected the dots, he realised that he didn’t need to get his head around all of the intricacies that his book was displaying – although, he did have the sneaky feeling that he’d have to be an Archmage to decipher it fully. All he had to do was wield his book and golden quill, and ‘will’ the results strongly enough for them to happen. It was incredibly draining and the bigger the reality manipulation, the greater the cost in his strength and stamina. Winston wondered how the Archmage pulled his off so effortlessly, but then realised that Demons seemed to have a knack for changing the appearances of things when they wanted to. He guessed the quill’s effects were set in stone, whereas Demon magic ended if and when they did.
Winston opened his arms and prepared to start the process. Every blast of plasma that hurtled into him was another chunk of his energy lost, and as the mechanical defenders had lost all interest in the dragons, there was an ever increasing barrage of bolts to nullify. He would have to get this done and fast. Winston closed his eyes and felt his feet leave the floor. He peeked beneath him and saw that he was steadily rising. His plan had worked.
Flying was another little trick he’d learnt, although like all the high-end magic he was now studying it was highly fatiguing. Winston upped his speed until the broken floor-to-ceiling windows and relentless Autons were passing by in a blur. He came to a stop at the top of the building and rested for a moment on the concrete roof, and the red-eyed dragons landed either side of him. He could feel what the rebels had left for him below. He knew he didn’t have long, so he reached into his suit jacket’s inner pocket, picked out two of many potent energy potions, and downed them both at the same time. Discarding the little glass vials onto the roof where they shattered into a million pieces, he briefly thought back to the first merger.
It had been a struggle. The Inquisition had thrown a great many airships and troopers into retaking the Capital, and the Trinity of Old had sent its Supernaturals to aid them in their efforts. But the forces of the Shadow Circle and their strange allies from the Gloom had prevailed in fending them off. It hadn’t stopped Xavier from dying though. His sacrifice had allowed Veronica, Lewis and himself to live, and he could never forget that.
Standing on the tall roof of the Industrian World GOVT building, trying not to choke on the city’s disgustingly polluted air, Winston could truly take in the level of destruction that his ambition had imposed upon the city. Fights, fires, screams, gunshots, moans, explosions, smoke; everywhere he looked there was pain, suffering and death. Sometimes he would have doubts, and they would claw through his chest, until he imagined what the Archmage might say. Something along the lines of ‘every great deed requires great sacrifice’ or ‘is their short lived suffering worth more than restoring the entire world?’. Winston thought of it the same way as making an omelette. To get the results needed, you had to break some eggs somewhere down the line, but the faster he got the mergers out of the way, the less eggs would have to be broken in the process.
Shaking his head to try to shake away his doubts, Winston spoke to the dragons. “Protect me up in the air, and make sure you don’t come near this tower.”
The dragons growled tiredly in acknowledgement, beat their dark grey wings heavily and launched themselves into the air once again.
Winston heard the sound of clattering. Agile type Autons were clambering up the sides of the building for him, and he imagined that the regular and heavy types would be marching up the stairs behind them. He smiled. It was going just has he’d planned it.
As the first synthetic soldiers leapt up and onto the roof, Winston looked at them, sensed their magical animation, and then cancelled it with his negation ability. The robots didn’t exactly turn off but there was an obvious change in their behaviour. Walking and shooting seemed extremely challenging for them without the magical boost. Some fell backwards off the building, and others needed a little ‘push’ from Winston and his spells before they toppled over and down towards their end.
Winston could feel the rising heat and energy from below. He had to go. Abandoning his robot shooting gallery, he took to the air once more and flew high above it. There in the skies, he watched as the most random assortment of aerial vehicles engaged in their deadly dogfights. The two dragons circled him and blasted or tore open any stupid enough to come their way.
Looking below, Winston wondered if the rebels thought that the tower was an important part of the Archmage’s and his plan. It wasn’t, of course. It was just a good geometric location to instigate the merger as the World GOVT buildings were at the heart of the three continents’ major cities. The building below, and all of the Autons in and around it, were annihilated in a blast of fire and plasma that levelled the entire plaza and showered it with orange and blue flames. The shockwave was so strong that Winston could almost see it in slow motion shattering all the windows in the surrounding blocks.
He smiled. “Nice try, rebels, nice try.” Then he focused on the hard part.
The last merger in Imperia City had taken longer than he had guessed, and drained him to the point of collapsing throughout, so he hoped that this time it would be quicker and easier. With the slight increase in his abilities and the double dose of energy potion, he couldn’t see why it wouldn’t.
Winston’s book and quill began to glow in a golden hue as he brought the required knowledge to the forefront of his mind. He thrust the golden quill towards the sky far above the burning plaza and a surge of white and black beams thrust violently into the thick clouds of smog above. A wave of darker, sicklier coloured clouds moved outwards. They were part Industrian smog, part Pollutian smog, and part black and dark purple Gloom clouds, and they spread until most of the city was covered by the disc. The surviving Gloom airships and aircraft joined with the dragons in shielding Winston. The rebel’s air support was dwindling and they made kamikaze style attacks on the Book Wielder’s location to no avail.
Tiring quickly
from both the merger and levitating, Winston pushed on with all of his might. The first merger had been a shock to his system but he was prepared for it this time. Unlocking his vast potential, he sent the final surge of power upwards. The black and white beams intensified and ended suddenly. A shockwave of magic resonated throughout the city below. The fires were blown out, the chaotic fight stopped briefly, Pollutian buildings merged with the Industrian ones in a crazy mix of human and ramshackle Alternative technology and architectural styles, sickly green Gloom power crackled with sparks and bursts of exposed electricity and there were even more plumes of deadly smoke pouring into the sky than ever before.
Below him, in the now extinguished plaza, stood the Foreman’s superstructure in all its terrifying glory. He was basked in a column of persistent faint white light that continued all the way up into the sickening sky above. The dragons and Gloom aircraft continued their assault on the dwindling rebel planes, and Winston sank downwards to rest upon the Foreman’s head.
All around the newly merged city, the rebel forces retreated, heading for the outskirts of the city or a Catacomb entrance, whatever they could get to first. The Sheriff and his posse, and all the other Alternatives that had just crossed over, tried hunting them down as they ran. The rebels stuck in the frontlines outside of the city didn’t know where to go; in front of them were the Supernaturals and Military Peace Keepers from the Omni, and behind them in the city was certain death.
“Carnage, mayhem, destruction, fun, fun, fun!” the Foreman boomed, making Winston’s ears ring.
The Foreman’s impressive array of armaments went wild in unleashing hell upon the rebel aircrafts which were torn apart in mere seconds by the barrages of bullets, lasers, cannons and missiles. Winston plugged his fingers into his ears as the huge shoulder mortars blasted simultaneously. Just as he had planned, the rebels outside the city had been driven to exactly where he needed them to be. Two defining bright green explosions flared into existence on the horizon, quickly followed by two greenish grey mushroom clouds that drifted calmly upwards before dispersing.