Mage Hunters Box Set

by Andrew C Piazza

  He crashed into the wall and I pinned him against it with my weight, throwing an elbow into his face to let him know how much I cared about him. His gun arm was pinned by my body, with his weapon pointed in a safe direction, and I hammered down on his forearm with a fist, looking to knock the pistol out of his hand.

  Didn’t work. He tried to swing his gun arm around to backhand me with the barrel of the pistol. That was a mistake. Oswald had clearly spent a lot of time in the gym lifting weights but never any time learning how to wrestle.

  His movements allowed me to slip around behind him and wrap an arm around his gun arm like a hook. Now I could twist my hand behind his neck into a half-nelson, and if I could do the same to his other arm, that would be his ass.

  Before I could lock the half-nelson in, though, he pointed his left hand at the wall and let loose with another heavy pressor wave. The rebound of that launched us both backwards across the hallway like we’d been shot out of a cannon; since I was behind him, I was the lucky guy who got his spine smashed into the far wall. My head snapped back and slapped against the wall like I’d been rear-ended by a truck. I probably would’ve been knocked out if I hadn’t been wearing a helmet.

  As it was, the impact of being thrown backwards made me lose my grip on Oswald. He twisted around, trying to bring his gun around to point it at me.

  Still, I wasn’t out of the fight. Not remotely. Unlike Oswald, I was used to getting knocked around. I didn’t hide from it. I was accustomed to it. Some people, when they’re hurt, they stare blankly in shock and disbelief, wondering how it could be that something bad had actually happened to them. But you get knocked around enough times, you stop losing yourself in that woe is me bullshit and you start fighting back.

  My helmet and armor had kept me from serious injury and I still had the presence of mind to grab onto his gun hand and keep it away from me. We had a brief tug of war over it, staring in each other’s eyes, each of us glaring hot murder at each other.

  He got his left hand free. I could see him try to prep another pressor wave with it, but my right hand was free now as well, and I gave him a nice fat fist to the face to put an end to any clever ideas he might have had.

  A punch to the mouth tends to scatter your best-laid plans in a hurry.

  He gave up on his pressor wave and tried to get that hand in front of his face to protect it, so now I went low with a cross punch to the belly. My fist was right on target; it slammed into his solar plexus with a meaty thump.

  The solar plexus is the spot directly below the center of your sternum, where it ends in a pointy little projection of bone called the xiphoid process. Right below that, there’s a cluster of nerves called the solar plexus. If you give someone a solid shot to that area, you can fuck their day up in a real hurry.

  Not only does it hurt like crazy, but it can cause your diaphragm… the wide, flat muscle that expands your lungs when you inhale… to go into spasm. So now, not only does it feel like somebody bored a hole through your stomach with a telephone pole, but also, you can’t breathe. It feels extra horrible, I can tell you that from experience.

  The air went out of Oswald with a grunt and he doubled over, almost dropping to his knees. It was all the advantage I needed. Now I was able to use both hands to control his gun, twisting his wrist around and forcing the weapon down towards his face.

  Too late he realized what I was doing and tried to get his other hand up to stop me. That punch to the solar plexus had taken too much out of him, though, and while getting Revived had made his magic a hell of a lot more powerful, it hadn’t done a thing to make his arms stronger.

  I pushed down with everything I had, forcing him to his knees and his back against the nearby wall. We struggled and strained against each other, muscle against muscle, but I had the leverage, and slowly, I was able to shove his pistol down and around until it was pointing right at his head.

  That wasn’t going to be enough, though. Not for Oswald. He deserved something special.

  I gave him a quick knee to the chest, and as his arms buckled, I used that momentary advantage to shove down with everything I had in one explosive move. The barrel of the pistol crashed into Oswald’s mouth, cracking some of his teeth along the way.

  He knew what was going to happen now. Panic began to lend him new strength, but my weight and leverage on top of him made his struggles useless.

  I thought about all of the people he’d shot up at the mall. I thought about all of the lives he’d helped Kel and the Cabal take.

  His eyes bulged wide in terror as I crammed the pistol further into his mouth. I made sure to angle it upwards so that the barrel was pointed at the base of his skull, right where the brain stem is.

  “A promise is a promise,” I said down into those bulging eyes, and pulled the trigger.

  Some days, this job really satisfies.

  ***

  “Oh, my gosh!”

  Cass froze. “What is it, Mickey?”

  “Look,” Mickey said, waving at the three of them. “Girl Squad!”

  Cass rolled her eyes and let her shoulders relax. They were crouching quietly in a hallway, having crawled through enough hot and dirty ventilation ducts to finally emerge near the room where Kel and the device waited for them.

  “Mickey.”

  “No, come on, Cass, look! We’ve got the ninja, the gunslinger, and the Mentalist. Girl Squad!”

  “I’m not a ninja,” Lysette said.

  “You have a sword on your back. You are so a ninja.”

  “Mickey,” Cass said, “it’s Game Face Time, okay?”

  “Okay, okay, I’m just saying.”

  “How do you want to play this, Cass?” Lysette asked.

  Cass took a second to take stock. “Well, we had to leave our body armor and spare ammo behind. All we’ve got are our P90s. That, and the sword that Lys somehow managed to maneuver through all those ducts.”

  “She can’t use the Death Trick on us,” Mickey said. “Because of those charms we each have.”

  “What about your Tricks?” Cass asked. “Can you knock her out, or paralyze her?”

  Mickey shrugged. “I don’t know if any of that will work on her. Definitely not if she’s using that stupid all-around bubble shield she always seems to have around her.”

  “That will keep out bullets and blades, too,” Lysette said.

  “We have to draw her out from behind that shield,” Cass said. “She can’t fight back as long as she’s hiding in it.”

  “Maybe we could threaten the device somehow,” Lysette said. “Use that to draw her out.”

  “Or, she could come after us,” Mickey said. “I mean, not us, us. Imaginary us. Illusions us.”

  “What does that mean?” Lysette asked.

  “It means, I show Kel illusions of the three of us running in there and shooting like crazy, and then she’ll come out from her shield and go after them.”

  “Then, we make entry and shoot her while she’s distracted by the illusions,” Cass said. “Pretty good, Mickey. Make sure that whatever illusions you show to Kel, that Lys and I can see them, too. That way we know what you’re doing.”

  “Yeah, I can do that, broadcast the illusions to you two as well,” Mickey said. “No problem.”

  “All right, make it happen.”

  Cass’s eyes squinted and felt suddenly strained, as if something had moved too quickly for her to focus on. It lasted only an instant, and once it was over, there were three other people standing in the hallway with them.

  It was almost like looking into a mirror. The three of them, perfect copies, illusions, standing exactly as they stood, looking exactly how they looked.

  “What the…” Lysette said, taking an involuntary step away from her illusory copy.

  “Messes with your head, doesn’t it?” Cass said.

  “Shh. I’m concentrating,” Mickey said.

  The three illusions moved down the hallway, submachineguns shouldered, imaginary Cass in front. The rea
l versions followed closely behind, stopping in front of the doors leading to the large, wide room holding the Intron Code machine.

  “The illusions can’t open the door,” Mickey whispered.

  “Right. Stack up behind me,” Cass said.

  She could see that the doors had wide push bars instead of handles or knobs, and so she knelt down next to them and reached a hand out as far as she could. Giving Mickey a nod, she pushed the close door open, keeping her body behind the wall and only a bit of her arm exposed as the illusions charged into the room with guns at the ready.

  Cass peeked around the corner of the door. Kel was inside, standing near a large machine lined against the right wall. She could see the sphere, spinning silently in its housing on top of the machine. Computer monitors were arrayed all along the equipment. Against the far wall, a clear plexiglass booth stood with its door open. A pair of small lights, one red, one green, were above the booth, the red one glowing brightly.

  Kel turned toward the doors as they opened. The illusions rushed in, firing their imaginary submachineguns at Kel as they spread into the room. Kel’s shield went up, and Cass could see that Mickey was even creating illusory blue splotches of energy where the bullets would have hit her shield.

  The illusions each stopped firing, pretending to run out of ammo, looking down at their weapons and working the actions with worried looks on their faces. Kel’s shield dropped and she smiled savagely as she charged the three illusions with a dagger glinting in her right hand.

  “Now,” Cass said, and pushed into the room.

  She slid in through the open door and stepped right, making room for the others coming in behind her. Kel didn’t have time to react; Cass gave her a quick burst from her weapon that caught Kel low across the side of the pelvis, bringing her to a halt.

  The death mage spun towards them as another burst hit her, this one from Lysette, and then all three of them opened up with bursts that stitched bullets across Kel’s legs and pelvis and torso. She reeled backward under the assault, dropping her dagger, and finally twisted and fell face down onto the floor.

  Cass blew out a slow breath to slow her racing heart rate. Mickey’s illusions were gone now, leaving only Kel lying in a slowly spreading pool of blood on the floor.

  “Is that it?” Mickey said. “That was easy! Go Girl Squad!”

  Cass frowned. Kel was down, full of holes, but something wasn’t right, she could feel it.

  It never hurts to be sure, she thought, and lined up her sights on Kel’s head. She pulled the trigger on a quick burst to seal the deal.

  Blue splotches of energy appeared in the air as the bullets struck uselessly against a shield.

  “Get your guard up!” Cass said, firing again.

  She knew it wouldn’t be of any use, but she did it anyway, more to show the others that the shield was there than out of any hope of hitting Kel. Lysette and Mickey shouldered their weapons, holding them on Kel as the three of them watched the death mage stir and then begin to rise behind her shield.

  Wisps of blue energy floated like thick mist through the air, reaching out from the sphere where it spun silently in its housing to flow into Kel’s body.

  The death mage continued to rise, first to her hands and knees, then up to her feet. The energy from the sphere continued to flow into her, and Cass swore she could actually see the bullet holes in Kel’s body shrinking and disappearing.

  “Um, do we have a Plan B?” Mickey said, her voice shaking.

  “Hold your fire!” Cass said after Lysette fired a burst at Kel that did nothing but impact the death mage’s shield. “Her shield is up, there’s no way you’re going to get through it with that.”

  Kel stood up straight, staring at the three of them, scattered holes in her clothing now the only signs that she’d ever been shot. “The dog. The dog, and her fleas. Just the three of you? Where are the others? Dead?”

  “Cass? Cass, what do we do?” Mickey asked.

  That’s a pretty good question, actually, Cass thought, but kept her voice calm.

  “Just stay cool,” she said.

  “Yes, stay cool, little kitten,” Kel said, sneering at Mickey. “Don’t panic. It’s only your mortal life that is about to end. There will be another life, with me. I promise you that.”

  “Cass,” Mickey said.

  Kel continued before Cass could say anything. “It’s only agonizing pain that you are destined to suffer, once I Revive your material and tear you apart, over and over again, for eternity, to repay you for what you did to me.”

  “Why don’t you step out from behind that shield and have a little rematch with me?” Lysette said.

  “Meaningless posturing,” Kel said to her. “It’s beneath you. What a disappointment you turned out to be. I would have liked to see what you could have become. Still, you will make an excellent thrall.”

  “Don’t listen to her,” Cass said. “She’s stalling. Trying to buy time for the Code to be ready.”

  “I don’t need to stall,” Kel said. “The time is already at hand.”

  Cass nodded toward the red light over the booth. “That says otherwise.”

  “That. I need only wait a few more moments before the sphere reaches critical mass. And what will you do, dog, to stop me in those moments? How exactly will you get past my defenses?”

  Cass hit the switch on the side of her submachinegun to activate her laser sight. Normally, she wasn’t much of a fan of laser sights; she felt like they gave away her position with a bright and shiny arrow pointed right back at her head.

  However, they did provide a psychological advantage. Once the enemy saw the laser on their chest, they knew for a fact that your aim was true. Something about that red spot dancing around on their body rammed it home in their heads in a visceral way that their death was nothing but a twitch of the finger away.

  She didn’t put the laser on Kel, but instead pointed it at the Intron Code device. The dot played over the housing where the sphere sat spinning silently, joined by dots from first Lysette’s and then Mickey’s laser sights as well.

  “I don’t have to get past your defenses,” Cass said. “We can shoot the living shit out of that machine of yours before you get a chance to push the button.”

  Kel’s snide smile disappeared. “You’re bluffing. That would be suicide for you. The sphere is locked in; disrupting its alignment now would cause a catastrophic overload that would destroy this entire building. Perhaps worse.”

  “If that’s the way it’s got to be,” Cass said. “You’ve made it clear that we’ve got nothing to look forward to but endless torment if you succeed. Makes us all willing to die to make sure you don’t get your way.”

  Kel looked in Cass’s eyes, and the way her face fell into a scowl, Cass could see that the death mage didn’t like what she saw. Her eyes went from Cass, to Lysette, to Mickey, then to the three laser sights playing over the machine she’d fought and bled and suffered for all these long years.

  “Sucks to have your threats turned around on you, doesn’t it?” Cass said. “Not such a chess master after all.”

  Cass could see that last bit bite into Kel. She might not have the kind of magical abilities that Kel did, but she knew people. She knew how they ticked. She knew how to push their buttons.

  Logic wasn’t always enough; sometimes, you had to hit a person’s emotions to get them to act. She’d already given Kel the logical reason to come out from behind her shield and fight them… to protect the machine… but now, the attack on Kel’s ego was pushing all the emotional buttons to send her over the edge.

  “Have it your way, dog,” Kel said. “It looks like I will have to get my hands bloody after all. So much the better. I have scores to settle with each of you.”

  Her shoulders hunched forward as her eyes turned jet black. Long, black talons extended out from her fingertips where the nails used to be, and she bared a mouth full of sharp fangs.

  This is starting to look like less of a good plan,
Cass thought, and then Kel disappeared.

  There was the popping sound of air displacing, and too late, Cass realized that Kel had teleported rather than charge them. She had only started to open her mouth to shout a warning when a second pop of air was accompanied by Kel appearing next to Mickey.

  The little Mentalist screamed and threw her arms up reflexively to protect her face. Kel’s downward swing of her talons hit Mickey’s submachinegun, knocking the weapon out of Mickey’s hands and sending it flying.

  Cass shouldered her weapon and leveled it at Kel, but she and Mickey were right on top of each other, and Lysette was directly past them. Cass couldn’t risk taking a shot. There was too great of a chance of hitting one of her friends by accident.

  Kel tried to follow up her attack with her free hand, but Mickey was no longer standing in front of her. Lysette grabbed the little Mentalist by the back of the belt and yanked her out of the way before Kel’s strike could land.

  “Lys! Move!” Cass said.

  The words were barely out of her mouth before Lysette sprang backward with her enhanced speed, still pulling Mickey by the belt along with her. Now, Cass’s background was clear and there was nothing other than Kel in front of her, so she lined up her sights and cut loose with a long burst.

  Nothing. There was nothing for her bullets to hit, as Kel disappeared in pop of displacing air.

  Another pop, behind her, but Cass didn’t bother to look. She knew Kel had teleported right behind her, knew there wasn’t enough time to turn and fight, and so instead she immediately dove to her right into a roll, narrowly avoiding the talons that Kel swung at her back.

  She heard gunfire as she moved. Once she came out of her roll and was able to swing around toward the threat, she saw Kel was now facing away from her, bullets from Lysette’s weapon impacting uselessly on the shield in front of her.

  There were a pair of fresh bullet holes in Kel’s shoulder and arm, but as Cass watched, blue wisps of energy flowed out of the sphere and into Kel as she stood invulnerable behind her shield. The wounds began to close, and then Kel disappeared again.