Mage Hunters Box Set

by Andrew C Piazza

  “I know what you’re saying. This is different. This ends tonight. One way or another, we have to put an end to it all tonight.”

  There it was. This was a one way trip. Everything was on the table. Kel was in her fortress, pushing like a freight train toward her end game. The entire city… or at least, a good sized chunk of it… was spiraling down into chaos and destruction. The six of us were all that was standing in her way.

  I had to fight down the urge to linger in the armory, paralyzed with indecision as to whether we’d forgotten anything we might need. We had to get moving. Besides, we’d practically cleared the entire place out.

  As we were loading the last of our gear into the vehicle, the elevator chimed and a few FBI agents came out. They walked casually, coming to a sudden halt when they spotted us, clearly not expecting to find anyone in the secure area of the parking garage, especially not three anyones who had just very publicly been put under arrest by the boss.

  “Uh-oh,” Cass said. “Time to go… in the vehicle, quick!”

  “What?” Shifty said, when a gunshot rang out, the sound bouncing off of the walls of the garage. “Christ, they’re shooting at us!”

  Cass dragged him into the vehicle. “Of course they are! Get us moving, Dread!”

  I followed them closely, pulling the rear hatch shut behind us. Pistol rounds dinged and plunked against the heavy armor skin of the vehicle. The impacts were loud and a little unnerving, but I knew from experience that they were doing nothing but throwing spitballs at us. No way those light rounds could make it through our armor.

  “What do you mean, of course they are?” Shifty said. “We’re the good guys.”

  “We’re fugitives at large who are stealing a bunch of military grade equipment from the FBI,” I said, settling behind the controls in the driver’s seat.

  Shifty shook his head. “What are you guys getting me into?”

  I found the starter button for the engine and hit it. “Well, you could wait here for whatever Kel’s got planned after she uses the Intron Code and becomes some sort of death magic demigod.”

  “So, it’s either go to prison for, like, ever, or become a ghoul eternally enslaved to Kel’s will,” Shifty said. “Decisions, decisions.”

  “We need to get moving, Dread,” Cass said.

  “I know.”

  I was still looking over the controls, trying to wipe away about ten years’ worth of cobwebs since that last time I drove one of these things. Some of the knobs and levers and buttons that covered the inside of the vehicle looked familiar, but it was like trying to remember how to drive stick after using nothing but an automatic transmission for a decade.

  “You know how to drive this thing, right?” Shifty said.

  “Of course he does,” Cass said, then leaned in close to me and asked quietly, “You know how to drive this thing, right?”

  “Your confidence in me is inspiring.”

  I closed the small hatch above the driver’s seat, to buy time as much as anything. There were a few controls that looked completely out of place, and finally, once I saw the handset attached to them, I realized that a PA system had been installed and linked to a loudspeaker mounted on the exterior of the vehicle.

  “You guys might want to back up,” I said over the loudspeaker to the handful of FBI agents moving up on us. “It’s been a while since I drove one of these things and I’d hate to crush you.”

  Through my narrow viewing port, I could see them look at each other. Discretion must’ve decided to take the better part of valor, because with the first lurching movement of the LAV under my controls, they scattered and ran back to the safety of the elevator like scared rabbits.

  It was a good thing they did. Like I said, I got that big metal beast moving, but it was going in reverse, not forward, and before I could correct its movement, we crushed into and partially over a sedan parked behind us.

  As heavy as the LAV was, we didn’t really jolt around too much from the impact, but the three of us could hear the shrieking and crunching of metal even inside our armored shell. It was kind of like fingernails down a chalkboard.

  “Oops,” I said.

  “Dread?” Cass asked.

  “I got it, I got it.”

  “You sure?”

  “Just… get ready to hop out and open the garage’s gate with Michael’s card.”

  “You’re not going to run me over, right?”

  “I will if you keep talking shit. Now let me… here we go.”

  The LAV lurched forward, stopped, lurched forward again, then finally began rolling forward smoothly across the parking garage toward the exit. Cass and Shifty both breathed out audibly and relaxed back into their chairs.

  “Don’t ever drive for Uber,” Shifty said.

  “You can drink a tall glass of Shut The Fuck Up,” I said. “Unless you’d like to try to drive.”

  Now that the FBI agents had backed off, I could pop my hatch open again and stick my head out. Looking through the viewing port of one of those vehicles is like trying to drive your car while peering between your fingers. You can’t see shit.

  But with my head poking out, I could actually see around me decently, and as we rolled along, the feel of operating one of those big old war machines began to come back to me. By the time we reached the exit, I was able to bring us to a smooth stop.

  “Just like riding a bike,” I said.

  “Whatever,” Cass said, popping open the hatch in the gunner’s turret so she could climb out. “Just don’t squish me.”

  I have to admit, much like getting back into my tactical gear and arming myself, it felt good to be behind the controls of a light armored vehicle. It was a long way from the khaki prison uniform and bleak, cramped cell I’d had to suffer in prison. I felt like I was myself again. I felt like I was ready to take on whatever Kel had to throw at us.

  At least, I thought I was. As soon as the metal security shutter gate lifted and we could drive out of the garage, we got a good look at what Kel’s endgame meant for the city.

  It was chaos, simply put. Car alarms blared here and there; scattered shouts and screams floated through the air from distant, unseen sources. Occasional gunshots rang out to add to the noise.

  The lights were out. Everywhere. It’s eerie to be in the middle of a city in total darkness; the buildings loom over you like some sort of ancient monoliths, feeling like they might topple over and crush you at any moment.

  “Where are we going, Cass?” I asked.

  “Lysette said earlier that she was taking Mickey to Jolly’s place. Let’s hope they’re still there.”

  I hit all the lights on the exterior of the vehicle. Images ran into and through the light as we made our way across the city; sometimes civilians feeling for their lives, sometimes ghouls, sometimes hell hounds or bouda or other conjurations that I didn’t recognize.

  We couldn’t exactly drive in a straight line to Jolly’s apartment. Cars were piled up in traffic jams or massive car accidents all over the place; we kept having to re-route and work around all of those snarls. Cass got up on the turret machinegun so that she could drive off any conjurations or ghouls that tried to charge the vehicle, but all the nasties seemed more interested in chasing after easier prey than an armored vehicle.

  “What about all these civilians, Cass?” Shifty said. “We just leave them?”

  “We have to,” Cass said. “We get bogged down trying to help them, we’ll never get to Kel. We cut off the head of the snake, and this all ends.”

  We finally arrived at Jolly’s apartment building. Like the rest of the buildings in this part of the city, the power was out and it was totally dark, so we switched on the flashlights mounted on our weapons and headed in.

  There was a dead ghoul in the hallway right in front of Jolly’s apartment. Damn thing’s head was completely caved in. Cass and I traded a look and we prepared ourselves for the worst.

  I rapped twice on Jolly’s door with my boot. “Jolly!”
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br />   A door down the hall opened up and a flashlight and head poked out. “Dread?”

  “Jolly?”

  “Yeah.”

  I looked at the door I’d kicked. “Isn’t this one your apartment?”

  “We had to hole up in… just come over here.”

  The three of us walked into the apartment that Jolly was peeking out of and… let’s just say there was a lot to take in. One of the front windows was broken in and had been barricaded with a dining room table. There were long snake-like tentacles that had been chopped off something that must’ve been large and disgusting, and the floor was littered with the broken bodies of what looked to be giant bugs.

  Then there was Jolly, covered in books and magazines that he’d duct-taped all over his body. It was too much for us to take.

  “Did Halloween come early?” Cass said, looking him over.

  “Very funny. It’s body armor.”

  “If you say so.”

  She moved into the apartment, looking around for Mickey and Lysette. Shifty and I managed to resist for all of two seconds before bursting out into laughter.

  “Looking good, my man,” Shifty said.

  “Kiss my ass,” Jolly said.

  “No, seriously,” Shifty said, patting Jolly on the shoulder. “It’s a good look for you. I’ll bet Lysette was really impressed. Seeing you in this outfit should definitely seal the deal with her.”

  “Both of you, kiss my entire ass.”

  “Oh, don’t be like that, King Arthur,” I said. “We’ve got some proper gear for you in the vehicle. Unless, of course, you want to keep on stylin’ in that get-up?”

  Jolly shook his head slowly. “I hate you guys so much.”

  I spotted Mickey toweling her hair off in the kitchen and asked, “Is Mickey okay? Why is her hair wet?”

  “She’s fine. Look,” Jolly said. “A whole lot of stuff happened, but… everyone’s fine.”

  “You rallied all these civilians in here?” Cass asked, nodding hello to the rag tag group of civilians standing around the living room in the same ridiculous get-up as Jolly.

  “Agent Jolly?” one of them asked. “Are these people with the FBI too?”

  “Agent Jolly?” I asked. This was getting better by the minute.

  “I… yes, Lydia, they are with the FBI,” he said. “They may know what’s going on. Do you? Know what’s going on?”

  Cass nodded. “We’ll fill you in on the details in the vehicle. The short version is, Kel took Adjani to Revival Tech, did all this to the city to create chaos and power up the sphere, and she’s just about ready to turn herself into a death magic god.”

  “Well that sounds… awful,” Jolly said. “I take it we’re going?”

  “You bet we’re going,” Cass said, turning to address the civilians. “Sorry, folks, but Agent Jolly needs to go to work. You’ll have to hold the fort without him. Seems pretty quiet around here, though. You should be fine.”

  “Are you sure you’re up to this?” I asked Jolly. “After helping all those people at the mall and then… taping a library to your chest?”

  He ignored my clever remarks. “Sure, sure, I’m good. I got a couple of hours of sleep, and, uh… do you have any Red Bulls?”

  “Did you say that you have a vehicle?” Mickey said, joining us. She was still drying her hair with a towel. I kept thinking, did she wash her hair in the middle of all this? I was really going to have to ask her about that when this was over.

  “Yeah,” I said. “We have a vehicle.”

  “Well that’s good,” she said, looking at Lysette, “because somebody bashed up my new car on the way over here.”

  “Newish,” Lysette said. I couldn’t help but notice that for some reason, she had an actual medieval sword hanging off her belt, scabbard and all.

  “Okay, I’m just going to say it,” Shifty said. “I’m super curious to know what happened here.”

  “They can tell us on the way,” Cass said. “Let’s go.”

  Once we were outside, Jolly wandered around the LAV in awe, looking over the giant, squat vehicle lighting up the street in all directions with its external lights. Like I said, it’s hard not to be impressed.

  “Whoa,” he said. “We have a tank?”

  “Light armored vehicle,” I corrected.

  “We have a light armored vehicle?”

  “There’s weapons and gear inside,” I said, adding to Lysette, “although nothing as high-tech as, say, a broadsword.”

  “Hysterically funny, Beef,” she said, rummaging around in the equipment bags stowed in the back of the vehicle.

  “Uh hunh. I notice you’re taking some body armor. Actually following my advice this time?”

  “You might get excited and have an accidental discharge,” she said, pulling on a tactical vest. “Don’t want to get shot in the back, Fumble Fingers.”

  “Okay, comedians,” Cass said. “Let’s continue the conversation inside the vehicle and button it up. Safety first. Dread, while they’re gearing up, I want you to run me through the weapons systems on the turret. I’ve never used this sort of equipment before.”

  “You know how to drive one of these things, Beef?” Lysette asked as we all climbed into the vehicle.

  “No, he does not,” Shifty said.

  “Shut it, Shifty,” I said. “And you bet your bony ass I can drive it, Lys.”

  “Guys, enough!” Cass said. “City in chaos! Master level death mage, about to reach the endgame of her evil plans! Let’s focus!”

  “Gosh, quit yelling, Mom,” Mickey said, and everybody snickered at that.

  You might think that Cass would get annoyed with that, but as she and I got into the turret, she was grinning, too. This was exactly what she wanted to see. The team gelling together, trading jabs, getting into the groove for the fight that was coming.

  We both took a moment to smile and listen to the others talk amongst themselves. Over the last few months, we’d brought Mickey and Jolly up to speed on some of the equipment we used on the Squads, but there were still some items they were unfamiliar with. Thankfully, Shifty was there to walk them through it… more or less.

  “What are these things?” Mickey asked. “Headphones?”

  “Sort of,” Shifty said. “They dampen extreme noises like gunfire, so you don’t go deaf, but they intensify normal noises like conversation so you can hear them.”

  “Oh, that’s so cool! Look, Jolly, they’ve got microphones! Roger, Roger! Can you hear me?”

  Jolly had found a set of his own to play with. “Rodger, Dodger! Do you hear me?”

  “Rodger, Niner, Tango, Xray! These are awesome! Can we keep them?”

  “Children,” I said to Cass. “We’re working with working with children.”

  “Pretty much,” she said, and pointed to the controls at the gunner’s station. “Show me how to work this cannon, Big Guy.”

  “Sounds vaguely sexual.”

  She shook her head at me. “Damn, Dread, you’re in quite a mood.”

  “Can’t help it. It feels like… like we got the band back together.”

  “It does, doesn’t it?” she said with a smile. “It’s not Squad Four, but it feels like it’s getting there.”

  My own smile faded. “And now we have to take them back into that house of horrors.”

  “It’s not going to be like Polonius, Dread. We’re not losing anybody. Not this time.”

  “You don’t know that. You can’t promise that.”

  “I have to believe it. Otherwise… I’ll never be able to lead them in there.”

  “Well. Let’s not go down that rabbit hole. You need to learn how to work my big cannon, after all.”

  “Pervert,” she said.

  ***

  “Ghouls up ahead,” Cass said.

  “I see them,” Dread said. “They’re all over the road, though. If I go around, we’re going to lose a lot of time.”

  “I’ll get on the turret machinegun,” she said.

/>   “Don’t. Save the ammo.”

  Dread set his jaw and pressed down on the accelerator. There were over a dozen ghouls caught in the headlights in front of them. Before, he’d made it a point to avoid getting tangled up in engaging any of them, but now, so close to their objective, he decided he might as well give up on subtlety.

  He gripped the vehicle controls tightly, steeling himself before the first impact. There was a loud, dull thump, and the vehicle wobbled slightly as the ghoul went under the wheels.

  “What was that?” Mickey said. “Did we just squish a ghoul with our car?”

  “Light armored vehicle,” Dread said. “And get used to it, because there’s more.”

  “Oh, gross,” Mickey said, putting her hands over her headphones, as if that would block out the impacts they felt through the vehicle as they crushed their way over several more ghouls. “This one time, I hit a squirrel…”

  “Skip it, Mickey,” Cass said. “We need to go over our game plan now, before we go charging into the building.”

  “Good idea,” Mickey said, wincing a little as the vehicle thumped its way over another ghoul.

  “The first problem is entry,” Cass said. “We don’t know what Kel has waiting for us in the parking lot outside the building.”

  “Not to mention, the massive army of ghouls and creatures running around the city,” Shifty said. “They could all come charging in after us once we’re inside. You know, follow us into the building?”

  “That’s a good point,” Cass said.

  “Not to mention,” Shifty continued, “we have no idea what we’re going to run into once we’re inside. The last time, it was like a bad LSD trip came to life. An entire floor flooded out and filled with conjurations, not to mention…”

  “It’s not going to be like last time,” Cass said. “Polonius was a Maestro, and a Revived one at that. His capabilities were far beyond Kel’s.”

  “So you’re saying it’s going to be easier?”

  “No. Just different. Polonius was far more powerful, but he was also completely batshit loony. His defenses were the product of a crazed mind. Lethal, yes, but he didn’t have a master plan like Kel.”