by Michael Todd
Stephanie was silent for a moment. “I love you too, more than you know. When the general called and told me what had happened, I didn’t know what to do with myself. He didn’t want me to come out, and there needed to be someone here to protect the base anyway, but I just wanted to be with you. I laid in bed imagining myself next to you. I hope you felt me with you.”
Korbin smiled. “I always feel you with me, although I do wish I could feel you with me, if you know what I mean.”
“I love you too, sweetie. Talk to you soon. Bye,” Stephanie said sometime later, holding the phone with both hands as she hung up.
She paused, keeping her hands on the receiver and her head down. Hearing Korbin’s voice had been almost debilitating. There was a time where being away from each other was fine. They were both okay. But as the war progressed and every job was more dangerous, she wanted to bring him home and keep him at the base. Keep him safe. Even with all the danger, all the deaths, all the wild rides, it had never crossed her mind she might one day lose him—not until she’d gotten that call from the general.
She took her hands off the receiver, and as soon as she stood up, the tears flowed. She had been so strong for so long, but she couldn’t hold it in anymore. She stood in the middle of her office crying.
Coming from the workout room, Eddie whistled as he walked. He tossed his towel over his shoulder and pulled his phone from his pocket. Flipping through the pictures on his fake Facebook account, he laughed to himself, finding the memes even more amusing that day. He passed an open door but didn’t go in. However, as he reached the other side, he heard someone sobbing. He stopped, listening for it again. Sure enough, a second later a small whimper like the squeak of a mouse hit his ears.
Backing up, he looked into Stephanie’s office, finding her standing in the middle of the floor with her face in her hands and her shoulders shaking. He looked awkwardly down the hall and then stepped into the room. “Are you all right?”
Stephanie sniffed and looked at him, her eyes red and tears streaming down her face. She turned and walked straight up to him, wrapping her arms around his body and laying her face on his chest. Eddie put his hands out and kept his eyes open wide. Oh shit, oh shit, what the hell am I supposed to do?
Coco sighed. Seriously? Now, I know you don’t have a ton of experience with girls. Don’t argue, I can hear your thoughts. But at this point, you need to not be a fucking jackass and hug her back.
Eddie twisted his lips, looking down at the top of her head. Slowly he brought his arms in, elbows out, and patted her on the back.
Katie, Pandora, Juntto, and Brock stood inside of the gates of the US army base Korbin had been moved to. Katie and Pandora released their angel armor and folded their wings in. A corporal walked up and smiled at them. “If you will follow me, we have your bunks all made up. I’m sorry we didn’t have the room for all of you to have your own space, so we had to double-bunk you in trailers. You are right down from Korbin, though.”
Pandora snarked, “Oh, boy, roomies again. I bet you are very excited.”
Katie yawned. “Right now, I would bunk with Juntto if it meant a bed and some sleep.”
They were all showed to their bunks and then taken over to the only permanent building on the lot, which was right next to where their rooms were. The corporal talked as he walked. “This base was originally set up during the invasion, and it was a landscape of tents. Then, when no one was pulled out, they started sending builders over and placing trailers on the land for us. Then they got the word that they would be creating a permanent base. This building was the first to be finished. They are working on the barracks now.”
They walked down the hall and waited for Korbin to answer the door. “Hey guys, glad you made it back. Come on in.”
They piled into Korbin’s room and took seats wherever they could. Korbin put his hands in his pockets. “What did you figure out?”
Katie shook her head. “Well, we found them, and they are definitely heading to Romania. The worst of it is, we aren’t sure how to stop them. Pandora thinks she has come up with something that might work, but it’s dangerous.”
Brock chuckled. “When is any of this stuff not dangerous?”
Pandora stood up and tugged her top down, trying to look professional. She put her palms together and began to pace the floor. “So, I have a plan that, much like me, is brilliant and amazing but a bit dangerous.”
Brock looked at Katie and laughed quietly. Katie just smiled and shook her head.
Pandora cleared her throat loudly, staring at her. “As I was saying, brilliance is divine, which is probably why I am an angel. Anyway, not the point. I explained, and it is historically known, that Legion and his army work on compassion. Well, if you are going to send someone in there to face them, you wouldn’t pick someone like Katie, a weepy sack of emotion and love.”
Katie faked a cough. “Send Pandora.”
Pandora shook her head. “I too have compassion. It is one of my many sparkling qualities. So, if you are going to send someone, or multiple people, you need to make sure that they are a bunch of hard-hearted motherfuckers who aren’t going to give him an ounce of compassion. They need to be people Legion cannot control.”
Korbin folded his arms. “Okay, who?”
Pandora smiled, pointing. “Juntto. Not him specifically, because love has made him into a sappy asshole. But frost giants from his planet—a whole bunch of them. Those angry, psycho, uncaring blue sonsabitches that don’t have an ounce of compassion in their bodies. Those are the heroes of our motherfucking stories.”
Korbin furrowed his brow. “And given they are like Juntto used to be, no offense, how exactly do you convince them to come over here and fight for us? They don’t care about us either.”
Juntto stood up, joining Pandora in the middle of the floor. “So, there are multiple layers to this, but first I would need to make it to my dimension. Apparently, Katie and Pandora have seen it before. Then, if I get there, I may be able to offer up Earth to some of my people. If I told them that Legion was the current ruler, they would go out of their way to kill the Leviathan, thinking there would be a big treasure at the end. My people were built to conquer and take what they want. They have been doing it since the first frost giant appeared.”
Pandora wrinkled her nose. “Which came first, the frost giant or the egg?”
Juntto blinked at her with a blank face. “We don’t have eggs.”
“Yeah, I know, it was a…” Pandora waved her hands. “Never mind. Not worth it.”
Brock wasn’t convinced. “How do you know that they will be immune to Legion? His reputation precedes him, and very few people who get near him can withstand his need for more bodies for his army.”
Juntto smiled. “I guess I don’t know for sure. How would I? There has never been a Leviathan like that in my homeland. But I do know that I have all the skills of my people—the cooking, fighting, gathering, and hunting—and his charms don’t seem to work on me. He looked straight at me during the scouting trip, and I felt nothing.
“I personally think that they might have a chance at beating Legion. In fact, the frost giants might be our best chance at beating him before he makes it to Romania to recruit those Damned for his army.”
Korbin glanced at Katie. “What do you think?”
Katie shrugged. “I’m not sure. It sounds like a solid plan, but only because I have seen Juntto at his work. But all in all, I don’t know. Personally, I think we should do it. There is no better way of figuring shit out than trial and error.”
Juntto clapped his hands. “That’s right.”
Korbin shrugged his shoulders. “What do you say, Brock?”
Brock smiled at Katie. “I’m down with whatever she thinks is safe and might work.”
Korbin nodded, putting his hands out. “I guess we give this a shot then, but we need to take it carefully, you understand? Replacing Leviathans with rampaging frost giants is definitely not our goal.”
Katie and Pandora stood side by side with Juntto and Brock behind them, and Pandora waved her arms and opened a portal.
16
Katie, Pandora, Juntto, and Brock stepped out of the portal onto the sidewalk in front of the building where the general worked. Several people around them froze in place, whispering to each other and jumping as the portal slammed closed behind them. Pandora picked some leaves out of her hair. “I don’t know what dimension that was, but I never want to go hiking again.”
Katie snorted. “Like you ever wanted to go hiking in the first place. And let me just say, usually hiking doesn’t require leaping from a huge tree carrying a frost giant and a human and flying straight into a portal because giant sharp-toothed beavers with monkey arms are trying to kill you.”
Juntto shivered. “That was scary.”
Brock chuckled, patting him on the shoulder. “It’s all right, buddy. You’re safe now.”
The four of them stared at each other for a moment, then went into the building. They walked through Security, who knew not to ask for weapons, and headed toward Brushwood’s office. On their way, they managed to run into every assistant that he had, each trying to keep them out of his office. They all knew just how stressed the General was. By the time they got to the waiting area, Pandora was threatening the nutsack of one of the guys, and Juntto was carrying a woman by the back of the shirt.
The general opened his door and raised an eyebrow. “I see you’ve met my assistants. Juntto, drop her.”
Juntto sighed and obeyed, patting the aide on the top of the head. They all filed into the general’s digs, Pandora sneering at the one assistant who was now fearful that all of his children would be born with dicks as fingers. She leaned into Katie. “They think I am a witch, not an angel.”
Katie leaned back. “You are.”
Brushwood sat down behind his desk. “To what do I owe this unexpected visit?”
Katie stepped forward. “We think we have an idea for how to defeat Legion.”
Pandora and Katie launched into the plan, explaining all the details. The general kept a straight face through the whole thing and waited to speak until the end. He rubbed his chin and leaned back, taking a deep breath. “I’ll be honest: I really don’t like it. I was planning on outfitting the gang with all the latest gear and going in and taking that sonofabitch out. I feel like we would be inviting a whole new problem in here—no offense, Juntto.”
The frost giant waved his hand. “None taken. Now, I know why you would say that, but just be aware that my people display no emotions. They will not rage out on people like I did when I was here at first. I am a special breed of frosty. They do, however, prize honor and respect, and I think if we can work mutually on something like that, they will not have any problems with the humans.”
The general shifted his gaze to each of them. “And how are you going to be able to explain being gone from your dimension for so long?”
Juntto smiled nervously. “Well, that’s kind of where you are going to have to trust me. I most likely will have to claim that I conquered Earth with sword, spear, and shield. Then I will tell them about the threat—Legion—and invite them back.”
Pandora giggled. “What about taking your big Juntto guns?”
Juntto shook his head adamantly. “No guns. No guns. They do not understand them, and I do not want it to be a huge accident waiting to happen. No guns.”
Katie wrinkled her forehead. “Umm, I don’t know how I feel about you telling them you conquered Earth. Wouldn’t that be a bit hard to believe? Not to mention the fact that as soon as they get here, they will know it was bullshit?”
Pandora had to agree. “You are only one frost giant, and although fearsome—”
Juntto nodded. “Thank you.”
Pandora continued, “Thinking you could take down every major player in the world seems a bit unrealistic.”
Juntto shook his head. “Not really, because they have no idea how Earth works. If there was a powerful enough frost giant, he would be able to single-handedly take over my world. They don’t realize the massiveness of Earth. The thing is, I have to go back with a credible story, something that will really catch their attention. I am sure that Juntto the warrior is nothing but a tale and a song by this point.”
Pandora scoffed. “I want a song written for me, maybe Ode to the Big Titties, or Girl, Shake that Master Rump, or Everybody Wants a Piece of that Pus…”
Katie put up her hand. “So you want to tell them something that will garner their admiration and respect. I mean, I guess I can understand that. We do the same here on Earth; it just doesn’t take conquering an entire planet to get it. At this point, I think we should go with it. Legion is a force to be reckoned with, and like Brock said the other day, he can turn you with just a few words.”
The rest of the crew agreed, and they waited for the general’s response. He sighed and waved his hand. “Fine. But if this goes wrong, you better clean it up fast.”
Juntto clapped his hands. “Home, sweet home.”
Brock sat down in the chair. “I’m going to hang back. Someone needs to stay behind, and I am not an angel or a frost giant. I don’t want to get stuck in a world I can’t survive in.”
The portal sparked and shimmered open, and Katie, Pandora, and Juntto ducked through. Pandora swiped her hand to the side, closing the portal behind them, the sound of squawking monkeys fading. They all sat there, hands on knees, breathing heavily. Pandora glanced up at Juntto, who had tears in his eyes. “Sorry, buddy. I didn’t mean to take us back to the weird jungle. I swear.”
They all stood up and looked around, finding themselves back in the crystal tree dimension. It was absolutely gorgeous, with sparkling renditions of Earth’s flora all over the place. Pandora walked forward and ran her hand down the trunk of one of the trees, watching the flickering rainbows flashing from the prism effect of the planet’s sun.
She flicked the base, and it emitted a high-pitched tone just like when you tapped a crystal glass. She turned with a grin that slowly faded, realizing Katie and Juntto were staring right at her. “What? It’s fucking pretty, assholes.”
Juntto ran his finger over a crystal flower. “Sure, it’s beautiful, and Angie would die if I took her back one, but there is no time. What are we doing here, anyway? There is not a single living creature in sight, unless they are all hard and shiny and none of them interact.”
Pandora stared at the beautiful crystal rose at her feet and started giggling. “Sounds like one hell of a time to me. Hard, shiny, and doesn’t want to talk. Most perfect damn date ever.”
Katie turned right and left. “No. There has to be something alive, or what the heck is the point of this place?” She summoned her angel armor. Unfolding her wings, she groaned. They needed to be stretched, and she hadn’t done so in a long time. Still, she focused on the task at hand. Using her angel powers, she closed her eyes and scanned the entire surface of the planet, searching for any signs of life.
When she opened her eyes again, she was perplexed. “I don’t sense anything. This must be an empty planet. Weird.”
Pandora shrugged. “I like it. Sparkly, and no one to bother you? It’s like a dream come true. Except, no hot cabana boy—that’s a letdown. Suppose I could bring my own.”
Katie grabbed Pandora and brought her back over, latching onto her hand. “We have to focus and find the right dimension. We don’t have time to be hopping dimensions today. There is a psychopathic practically immortal Leviathan on the loose, remember?”
Pandora frowned. “Yes. Okay. Focusing.”
They stood there for a moment before both of them reached out and opened a portal.
Brock sat in the chair in front of the general’s desk and they both went silent, their minds on what was about to happen. Brock had a feeling Brushwood was just as uneasy about the plan as he was. They both looked up and started
to talk at the same time. Brock chuckled. “Sorry, go ahead.”
The general lifted an eyebrow, opening his bottom drawer and pulling two rocks glasses out. As he poured them both some scotch, he spoke. “I have a feeling we are both going to want to talk about the same thing here: an army of old-school Junttos with no clue how to behave on Earth and the idea that Juntto is the conqueror of the whole planet. Sounds like something from a novel.”
Brock took the glass with a smile. “At the same time, everything these days sounds like it comes out of a novel. But yeah, the picture in my head is probably a lot less kind and exciting than the one in Juntto’s mind. From what I remember, Juntto the frost giant warrior who arose from the ice was a ruthless murderer and rapist. Somehow, with his change, everyone seems to have forgotten that.”
The general grunted. “They hear ‘Juntto’ and think cooking shows now.”
Brock glanced up from his glass. “You watch?”
He shrugged. “On occasion. Those damn cookies are so good.”
Brock agreed. “Here is where the plan gets a little fuzzy. We are hoping, not certain, that they can take out Legion. So, going with the best case scenario, let’s say that they do. They kill the Leviathan and save the Earth from destruction by Legion’s army. Then what?”
The general nodded. “Right. Then we have a dead Leviathan and a whole lot of frost giants hanging around with nothing constructive to do. Best case scenario, they deplete the Buffalo population and conquer Wisconsin. Worst case is a battle of epic proportions that leaves the world ravaged by an enemy we brought here.”
Brock shook his head. “I just… I want to trust Katie’s judgment. And that is ultimately what I am doing here, but history says we had a hell of a time with Juntto in the past, ultimately locking him away in a chunk of ice and somehow forgetting where we put him. The Earth is a lot different now, and a lot more crowded.”
The general took a sip of his scotch and snorted. “And thanks to global warming, there is a lot less ice to bury frost giants in. I think, Brock, the moral of this story is, if it goes wrong, we are replacing one dangerous Leviathan with an entire army of invincible warriors, and no way to really do anything but fight with all our might and hope we don’t end up as a society eating mutton stew again, dancing around fires and having celebrations where we battle to the death.”