by Amanda Churi
“Not the point!” Pinion growled. “They were our only chance at figuring out some super sly way to creep back in. Without them, we have to rely on our strength and stealth, neither of which will likely get us far now. So, as much as I hate to say this, I have no choice…” She took a deep breath so as to not shoot herself. “Anyone have any suggestions?”
A silence worthy of crickets followed her inquiry. Unknowing eyes tumbled to the ground out of shame, avoiding Pinion at all costs; the humans might as well have tucked their tails in between their legs and scurried off. I didn’t know much about this world, but I decided that making an effort to answer her question was much better than what her supposedly valiant army had to offer. “Not to say that it would be easy, but traveling through Hell is an option.”
The queen’s skeptical eyes searched me inside and out. “And how would we get there in the first place?”
Was she seriously asking that question? “A little bear told me there was a way.”
Her blue eyes flashed in recognition. “So that’s how you escaped.”
I nodded. “We could use the portal to return to Hell and appear elsewhere along the divide—somewhere less expecting, perhaps.”
She sighed. “One: we are trying to get in the walls, dipshit, and that’s where the bear is. Two: there is no portal left to take. My bear is destroyed.”
Did I hear that correctly? “What? It’s impossible to destroy a portal. Only Satan can do it.”
Korbu coughed beside me. “He did, Eero, once He realized how you got back.”
I stared at him in shock. That didn’t take long.
“Are there no other portals nearby?” Pinion questioned harshly. “It’s not an optimal plan, but it is the safest—”
“No,” Korbu interrupted. “Satan did away with all others to protect what’s left of Hell from being exploited by the Proxez. Until He did that, they were using them to enter and raid Hell.”
Pinion groaned, rubbing her head. “And I suppose getting down there by hand is too risky—”
“Definitely,” Mabel agreed. “And way too slow.”
“And if you’re not a supernatural, without the proper attire, you won’t survive Hell’s climate,” Korbu added.
Talk about blow after blow. Pinion’s face was so tense that it wouldn’t have surprised me if her head exploded. “Well, then I suppose we have to put a new plan on the table.”
“We could let the demons march in and take the shots,” Flye snorted. “They could probably get pretty far before getting made into confetti. That would buy us a bit of time.”
Korbu distastefully cleared his windpipe. “I would like to make it clear that we have no intention of sacrificing ourselves for your cause. Satan instructed us with a mission, and that is the only reason we are aiding you mortals.”
“I frankly don’t give a fuck why you’re here so long as you help,” Pinion admitted with a scowl, “but in light of your honesty, please elaborate.”
Korbu nodded. “I am aware that none of you have seen it with your own two eyes, but Hell and its capital, Nortora, are in complete and utter chaos. With no boundary between Earth and Hell, it has been open season down there, and we’re losing both demons and damned left and right, whether it be to Proxez or simple escapees. To be brief, Satan cannot stand being used, let alone being made a prisoner in His own empire. He sent us up to Earth with the mission of tracking down Gannon so that our Lord could finish him off once and for all.”
“Your Lord?” Flye emphasized, raising a brow. “You mean to tell me that you plan to release the most evil thing in all of history?”
Korbu shook his head. “No, no.” He snapped his finger into a right angle to take aim at me. “That’s his job.”
An avalanche of shivers crushed Seek in place, her already dull presence shrinking even further. “W-what? Eero… Why? How? Did you not use the souls that I—?”
“Look,” I butt in before they tried to soften me. “I’m not happy about it either, but the pompous little ass will not risk abandoning His kingdom, and without portals, He can’t just come to Earth.”
“So, with the Witches’ Mark, you’re the portal,” Pinion reasoned. “He needs to use your body to get His revenge…” She scoffed with a twisted smile. “Well, unfortunately, I don’t think you’ll last long enough to get to the palace, let alone Gannon, and in the event you do, I’ll be the one to slit his throat first, so don’t get too wrapped up in your mission, capiche?”
The irony behind her logic was astounding—and much too irresistible for me to pass up on the opportunity. “Forgive me—you’re completely right. I somehow overlooked your eight hundred year losing streak! I will definitely watch myself.”
She was triggered in a snap, her hair surging into the air and spinning like a cyclone; her deep blue eyes skipped the median, immediately turning into green, bubbling acid. “You know… We don’t actually need you, and I’ve taken care of many demons. You’ll be no different.”
A cone of damned purple light burst open next to me, dousing all within striking distance. By the time I looked over at my old friend, he had already balled his fist and shattered his rib cage. His deprived chest moaned and howled until Korbu had unsheathed the katana completed, whipping it down beside his rotting, lanky figure. His wise, malevolent orbs burned an invisible hole into Pinion with their fiery glare. “I forgot to mention, Pinion: him being the portal, it is mine and Mabel’s duty to get him to Gannon safely. You put a finger on him, and I will have no choice but to strike you down in the process.”
Internally, I smiled. A bodyguard… Ha! While it was not a necessity, it was definitely a nice buffer—and even nicer that it meant he was prepared to take a blow for me.
My sight veered toward Mabel. Appointed protector or not, she was not on level with Korbu; if it meant killing me to save her boyfriend or whatever he was, regardless the consequence, I was sure that she would do just that.
Pinion had no reply to Korbu’s threat, glaring at him without a trace of fear. The silence lingered, neither party moving; I couldn’t break into the queen’s head by any means, but there was something there brewing, for her focus did not remain solely on Korbu; it occasionally drifted to me, settling directly on the hideous symbol Satan branded into my skin.
Her eyes did make my stomach clamp up, and for one very obvious reason. Forget Mabel—Pinion would have to be the one to watch. She had the same eyes as me, and that meant that she didn’t care about anyone or anything who got in the way of her end goal.
“QUEEN PINION!”
They were already in sight once I heard them. Trudging up the slope, heaving and panting for air, they approached. Nothing in particular about their appearance made them stand out: just another battered, injured warrior clinging to the revolution with his last breath, but what hung on him was something to be noted.
Peace inhaled every air molecule in the room, jumping to her feet and bolting over to the Encryptor. “Stealth! Where did you—?!”
His exhausted grunt cut her question off. The soldier shouldered his way past the medic and over to his leader instead, ready to collapse from the weight he bore.
A woman of scuffed silver and titanium was carried via piggyback, her eyes sealed and body stiff as a rock. Scratches, dents, and filth covered what I thought was a creation so fine that she should have been polished daily and put on display; the sheer abuse was so drastic that my jaw hurt hanging so far from my mouth.
“E-Embry!” Seek exclaimed. She stood to help aid Stealth in lowering her body. I rose with the others, crowding around to get a good look. “Where did you find her?!”
“She must have slipped and fallen into the rift during all of the chaos,” Stealth explained, Peace plowing past him and dropping to her knees to begin the examination. “She was lying on a thin ledge a good hundred feet down or so; luckily, we saw her when her body reflected one of the tracker’s headlights.”
“Lucky indeed…” Peace agreed. She shook her h
ead while stroking the robot’s grimy face. “But this was no mere fall.”
“What?” Seek demanded.
“She was built far too well to be so banged up after a fall, even if it had been one thousand feet down. She was attacked prior, and intensely so.”
Pinion kneeled next to her silver warrior who lay back-first on the ground, examining her as well. Even as injured as Embry was, she was still an extravagant creation and certainly an example of impeccable work. Being a case of metal, there was no heart or life necessarily to save, but I could feel something in the air… Hear a frequency so light that I’m not sure a rabbit could have picked it up. “Let me see her.”
The Encryptors turned to look at my towering figure, baffled beyond the point of speaking. Pinion kept her resting bitch face.
The situation was so pressing that books should have recorded what happened next. “Please,” I said.
I knew the magic of that dreaded word, but even I was surprised at how well it worked. The crowding party backed off without further protest to give me ample space; Pinion continued to be the problematic one, remaining anchored by her knees, but so long as she stayed out of the way with both her body and mouth, I didn’t care.
I got to work, taking the perfect creation into my own hands, unable to keep a wistful sigh locked inside. Her hair braided into a crown had so much detail… Her crafted dress had every little ruffle and shadow that one of fabric would have, and the fingers, joints… She could not move them on her own in her current state, but with a little force, her hinges unlocked and moved as though they were submerged in oil.
There was nothing on the front other than the work of a master, so I took her into my arms and put her on her chest, observing the other side.
A violin of enhanced glass was strapped to her back, surprisingly having withstood the fall. Beneath it lay a well-disguised panel, granting access to the secrets she held.
“Gotcha.” I removed the violin in preparation to dive in when I stopped, noticing a piece that did not fit the rest of her body; I couldn’t even tell what purpose it served.
A flat square—a collapsed metallic box suctioned to her back.
I was intrigued, grabbing the odd contraption with fascination. Still, with the source of the cry louder than before, I prioritized the girl, putting aside the knickknack and proceeding to unscrew her back with my acute claw.
I didn’t even know what I was looking at when I removed the panel. Several millennia of slumber put me well out of the loop in terms of modern creations, but this… It looked advanced even for this generation. There were wires and switches, a few pinhole-sized buttons, I think… Only a handful of gears, but perhaps some sort of reaction chamber…? Good Satan, I was so lost.
“Can I see?”
I looked back, surprised to see Sage standing there and offering their aid; normally, I would have told them to take a hike or whatever they did in their free time, but given the current situation…
I huffed under my breath, scooting aside to give them a bit of room.
Sage squealed gratefully, falling to their plush knees and wasting no time in getting to work. I watched them like a hawk, my brain trying to pick up on the reasoning behind each action, but they did it so fast that I just couldn’t keep up. In under a minute, prompted with the final flick of a switch, a small vial-like chamber filled with a gentle white glow, bringing a million recently deceased sounds to life.
“Y-you got it, Sage!” Mabel exclaimed.
“Who would have thought,” Korbu added.
Sage chuckled, strings of red creeping over their cheeks. “Hehe, it was nooothing! After all, I told you! I like to fix things!”
The sudden rise of overworking beeps and whirs trickled away to a calm series of rhythmic ticks as her reboot was completed. The moment she was capable of functioning, her torso snapped up, and Embry got to her feet as quickly as her cold, banged up body could manage. She spun in one direction and then the other as she tried to recapture a sense of where she was.
“Embry!” Seek squealed, breaking through the crowd and tottering forward into her solid chest. Embry hardly caught the child, but the moment she did, she grabbed Seek’s shoulders and stared her down, nearly making their faces morph.
“Prysm, where is Justus?!”
The name change caught me by surprise, and the same could certainly be said for Seek. “Huh? What are you—?”
“DO NOT MAKE QUESTIONS, ONLY FILL THEM!” Embry pushed the child away, frantically looking about the cavern that was only filled with wide, empty eyes. “Where is he?!”
“Embry,” Peace began softly, hoping to calm her down. “It’s alright. Justus is missing, but we will probably find—”
“MISSING?! No… No, no, no!” Her hands smashed down on top of her head, and her wobbly knees buckled, bringing her to the earth. “That is incorrect! False to the nth degree! He is not displaced!”
Confused, I hung back, along with the rest of my fellow mutants. Mabel was the only one who dared tread forth to join with her army, continuing to display her unrelenting loyalty. She took a knee, resting her palm on Embry’s dented leg. Embry’s purple eyes spun at their core when they recognized the lost ally, but Mabel did not give her the chance to ask questions. “Embry, slow down. You’re not being yourself. What do you mean that Justus isn’t missing? Peace took the official count, and his body wasn’t found, so he’s not necessarily dead, but—”
“Of course not! Gannon would never let him die now!”
Speaking that name brought an uncomfortable hush over the entire room, but furthermore, it inclined me to listen carefully. Finally, I would get some information about this bastard.
“Gannon…?” Seek whimpered. “What are you talking about?”
“Your brother fell to his demons,” she quickly explained. “My master… He malfunctioned before me, the machine… And…” She trailed off, deeply troubled. “And I don’t know what happened. He shut me down, but it was apparent no good thoughts were brewing within him when he issued me my orders.”
Seek sighed and frowned with defeat. “Embry… Did he cut himself?”
The robot veered her vision to the floor. “I cannot say with certainty, no, but it is highly probable—”
“So that punk was responsible for this?!” Flye bellowed. “The fucking wimp summoned Typo and initiated the attack?! Is that what you’re telling us?!”
“I cannot give confirmation! I have no recollection of what occurred after his command!”
Pinion snarled so loudly that I nearly mistook her for a dog. She was the very definition of livid; the air around her began to fold and fluctuate, the green from her eyes spreading through the air around her, causing the infected areas to sometimes flicker and then resume—almost like a wrinkle in time. “Bastard… What a fucking backstabber. He escapes, I graciously take him in, and then he goes running back? Why?!”
Seek and Embry dipped their heads. Neither had an answer.
“Wait…” Mabel said, slowly piecing things together. “Seek, Justus is your brother? And Gannon is your—?”
“Yes,” she responded dully.
“Then why isn’t he—?” Mabel stuttered.
“What, like me?” Seek finished. “Because I’m the success. He’s the failure.”
“Why don’t you give those who don’t know a synopsis later?” Pinion roughly suggested, still leaning over the edge of insanity. “Right now, we have to think about what to do, especially with this revelatory information. Justus literally has access to all of our secrets. He is going to be the nail in our coffin if we do not act soon.”
Heads bobbed in agreement, but Embry did not submit to this reality. Suspicious, she looked back at me and then down at what rested beside my leg. Her galaxy-like eyes spiraled in surprise, and without asking, she snatched up the compressed square and held it softly in her palms like a baby bird kicked out of its nest.
“What is that?” Pinion ordered.
Embry answered th
rough actions instead, pushing a small square button that blended in flawlessly with the surface. The contraption sprung into a fully functioning cube, but that was it. Not even I could see anything else that separated it from a fancy building block.
The robot frowned, placing it down in front of her as she folded her legs, reaching for the violin that I had removed. She placed it between her cheek and shoulder, holding the bow slightly above the strings while looking Seek in the eye, who was on the verge of bursting into tears.
And then she began playing—a tune I had never heard, but it was so slow, soft, smooth… A masterpiece even to my decrepit ears, but it was just… Depressing, heartbreaking, reflecting someone who had lost it all.
It was such a dark, longing tune that the box couldn’t help but cry either, suddenly projecting its tears into the air to reveal a complex, semi-complete, interactive map. It covered dozens of floors, marking staircases, hallways, and other peculiarities in different colors, but that was all.
“The Proxez Palace?” Seek breathed.
“How can you be so sure?” Mabel asked.
“How could I not be? I grew up in that nightmare.”
“I agree that it is a map of the palace, but there has to be something else to it…” Pinion paused. “Embry, do you know anything about this?”
She lowered her majestic weapon, engrossed by the image. “I am unaware. He had been designing it for days, but I was not granted access to the directory.”
“This is just plain fishy,” Virgil snarled, arms crossed and stance wide. “I don’t trust him, no matter how you put a spin on it. If he left this for you, then he planned on betraying us for a while now.”
“Same,” Flye growled. “Fuck him and his maps.”
In truth, I didn’t even know the guy, and I agreed. It sure sounded like a sleazy trick worthy of a demon.
“I comprehend your suspicions,” Embry assured them, “but if he should hold such sinister intents, why would he trust in me this—?”
“Think about it later,” Pinion dismissed. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s as big of a traitor as they come.” Her deceptive eyes first found me and then Sage. “Say, Embry… Do you have access to the rest of the database?”