Future Mage

by R H Nolan

  Dozens of Neo Angeles guards raced out from the shacks. Each man carried an energy rifle, a larger version of the blasters they had used back in the city. And every single rifle was aimed at Max.

  The guards jogged swiftly out into the open, stopping in a semicircle just behind Oryk. The chief stared at Max one last time, then he and his men stepped backwards, leaving Max to face Governor Saris’s army alone.

  Time stood still as Max took in what he faced—dozens of soldiers, at least those he could see, all of them training those huge blasters on him.

  But they were aiming guns, not glowing arms.

  So at least Saris hadn’t unleashed an army of evolutionarily enhanced soldiers on him.

  He hoped.

  “Surrender!” one of the guards yelled.

  Max tentatively raised his glowing arms…

  …then dropped into a crouch as he activated his skates with a thought, zooming backwards as fast as he could.

  It might not have been as fast as Herk or Trox, but it was still pretty damn fast.

  The soldiers began firing at him, but they’d been aiming at a six-foot-tall target five yards away—not a three-foot-tall target that was rushing away from them at thirty feet per second. Every single shot missed.

  At the same instant Max crouched and zoomed backwards, he also targeted the center group of soldiers with Energy Storm—

  And released everything he had in one incredibly large energy blast.

  He was far enough away that his Accuracy was terrible, but hitting the soldiers wasn’t the point.

  The thundering blast and light show was startling enough that the entire group of fifty soldiers dove to the ground to take cover. A few got hit with bits of energy shrapnel, which didn’t kill them, but definitely freaked out their comrades.

  The main thing was that by the time the soldiers got back around to aiming at him, Max was hundreds of feet away.

  The entire time, he’d trailed his fingers over the sand, disintegrated a little bit as he fled.

  He flipped around 180 degrees and went from skating backwards to frontwards. Now he could speed off even faster across the desert.

  The only problem was, he had no idea where to go.

  He wasn’t about to lead them south toward the Peacewind village, or northeast toward the Qirinian starship and his friends. But he couldn’t just turn his back and race off into the Wastelands.

  Dweller blasters were a lot faster than men on foot and skiffs, and Max didn’t have any cover.

  So he headed around the Heap, straight for the city walls. Maybe he could get to the tunnel that led to the city. Hide, get into the city, something.

  Red shots streaked through the air above and around his head. He kept low and presented as small a target as possible—

  Until a shot slammed into his himirini back piece and nearly knocked him face-first into the sand.

  He stumbled and kicked off faster, then released his remaining energy in a blast at the ground behind him. It kicked up a cloud of sand and dirt, making him harder for the soldiers to see.

  He checked his stats.

  HEALTH: 1335/1400 (95%)

  SOUL POINTS: 210

  ARMOR: 265/300 (88%)

  Chest 100/100 (100%)

  Back 65/100 (65%)

  Helm 100/100 (100%)

  When he saw his Soul Points had jumped up by fifty, he knew he’d killed someone—he just didn’t know who. One of the guards he’d targeted with Energy Storm must have been extraordinarily unlucky.

  At least now he knew how much damage the soldiers could do to his himirini with one shot. Thirty-five points taken from his back piece? Better not to get shot again if he could help it.

  Skirting around the curve of the city’s outer wall, Max dragged his hand along the dark metal and disintegrated as he went, just in case.

  Then he heard a sound overhead that made his stomach knot up in fear: the whir of a skiff’s repulsor engines.

  Sparing a glance behind him, he saw two skiffs racing down the city walls at a breakneck angle.

  The skiffs reached the desert floor about fifty feet behind him and jostled up and down, never touching the sand, then sped along behind him.

  Max released another Energy Storm, but with both him and the skiffs in motion—not to mention the distance between them—it was hard to be accurate.

  Good thing he was lucky.

  He aimed for the front half of the skiffs, but hit their backs instead.

  The crackling blasts sent one soldier tumbling over the edge to roll across the sand.

  His Soul Points bumped up again by another fifty, and he kept moving around the walls.

  Once again, he pressed his palms to the wall and disintegrated as he moved. If he could take out the skiffs, he still had a chance of escaping.

  A few seconds later, he realized what a stupid assumption that was.

  Three more skiffs came roaring around the curve of the city’s wall toward him.

  The first stopped against the wall, and the other two fanned out to keep Max from darting away to the east.

  Max dug in with his skates, spraying dust and sand as he stopped twenty feet away from the first skiff.

  He turned to look behind him—

  The two skiffs that had been following him had stopped and moved slightly apart.

  He was surrounded.

  No matter which way he went, he was going to have to pass within twenty feet of a skiff—

  And every single soldier on them had a rifle aimed at his head. Eleven rifles in all, every single one of them within range.

  But no one was firing.

  A new skiff appeared, moving slower than the others now that Max was hemmed in.

  Governor Saris sat in the passenger seat, the metal side of his head and face glinting in the blazing sun.

  For about two seconds, Max considered targeting the Governor with Energy Storm or a single bolt. But he was far enough away that the Accuracy would be a 25% chance at best.

  And then there were those eleven rifles aimed at him.

  “Discharge your energy harmlessly,” Saris called out, “or I swear to you, I’ll hunt down your mother and anyone else you hold dear and feed them to Sandwalkers while you watch.”

  Max frowned.

  How the hell did Saris know about his mother?

  And why hadn’t he said ‘your parents’?

  Had it just been a lucky guess?

  “DO IT!” Saris roared.

  Max gritted his teeth. He could shoot off an energy blast into the air… or use Lightwave to disperse all the—

  Lightwave! That was it!

  He could blind all the soldiers, then skate past them as they fumbled to recover!

  “Okay,” Max called out, trying to sound hesitant and fearful to fake them all out.

  Max raised his hand slowly toward the skies.

  But just as he was about to discharge Lightwave, Saris frowned and raised one hand into the air.

  The air around Saris’s hand suddenly warped and distorted, and the worst sound Max had ever heard filled his ears.

  A screeching, grating shriek blasted through his skull, and he was lifted off his feet and slammed into the city wall.

  A second later he was lying on the ground, gasping for breath, looking up at the blue sky above him. His entire body felt like it had been hit repeatedly with a sledgehammer.

  Despite the pain, though, only one thought filled his mind:

  Saris has powers?!

  Had the Governor experimented on himself, as well as the Sandwalkers and the Peacewinds?!

  Max called up his stats.

  HEALTH: 1195/1400 (85%)

  ARMOR: 265/300 (88%)

  Chest 100/100 (100%)

  Back 65/100 (65%)

  Helm 100/100 (100%)

  Whatever Saris had just done, it hadn’t affected his armor—but it had still managed to wipe out a couple hundred Health points in one blast.

  “Max?” Zryk’s voice spoke in
side his head. “What is happening?”

  But Max couldn’t answer. Not only did he not know, but his lips couldn’t move, and his brain seemed to be disconnected from the rest of his body.

  Max heard the scritch of boots on sand, and he lolled his head over like a ragdoll to see Saris stepping off the skiff and onto the ground. The man approached slowly, one hand held out menacingly, a smirk on his half-metal face.

  “You haven’t quite got the hang of hiding your intent yet,” Saris sneered. “I can see the gears in your head turning every time you’re about to use your powers. Now… discharge your energy harmlessly, or what I just did to you will feel like a love tap.”

  Max tried to think.

  Saris was still sixty, maybe seventy feet away. At that range, Max’s Accuracy with an energy blast was fifty-fifty at best.

  But he was hurting and disoriented. Surely that would make it harder—

  Saris’s face contorted in anger, and another shriek pierced the air.

  Sand blasted in a cloud beside Max’s head. No matter how stunned he felt, he somehow had the strength to scramble a few feet away before his arms and legs gave out.

  “I won’t ask again!” Saris shouted.

  Max knew, though, that if he discharged his energy, he was powerless. So he just lay there and watched Saris, hoping that the man wouldn’t follow through on his promise.

  Saris didn’t.

  At least, not at first.

  The Governor smiled as he slowly crept forward, hand extended.

  “I had hoped that so many years living amongst the savages would make you as feebleminded as the rest of them,” the man said, his hinged metal jaw flashing as it moved. “But like father, like son. Smart and yet oh so stubborn. Of course, you’re not being very intelligent now.”

  Max’s eyes widened.

  Saris had known his father?!

  “And your mother is going to pay the price for your stupidity,” Saris said with a malevolent grin.

  Fury raced through Max’s veins.

  Saris was fifty feet away now, give or take.

  Max was just clear-headed enough to take the shot—he hoped.

  He tried to fire—

  But the air around Saris’s hand distorted, and then that same high-pitched, agonizing noise enveloped him, filling his entire world with agony.

  Then there was nothing at all.

  26

  Max woke unable to feel anything but the headache pounding behind his temples.

  At least his Health wasn’t severely affected. He could see the dim numbers of his stats:

  HEALTH: 1322/1400 (94%)

  Apparently he had more or less recovered during the time he was unconscious.

  Bright light hurt his eyes, which was odd, because he knew they were closed. Despite the pain, he forced them open anyway.

  At first he didn’t know what he was looking at.

  Then he realized he was suspended midair, with at least six feet of open space between him and a steel floor. Like he’d been tossed from some height and woken up before hitting the ground.

  He shouted in surprise—or tried to—but only a low, scratchy moan escaped his throat.

  He tried to move and found out he couldn’t.

  Trying to calm his rapid breathing, he finally turned his head just enough to see a field of blue, wavering energy all around him. There was nothing binding his wrists or legs, nothing physically restraining him. Only energy surrounded him, keeping him suspended in the air here like some specimen about to be examined.

  That thought hit just a little too close to home, and Max started to panic all over again.

  He tried to fire off an Energy Blast, but he could feel his power was depleted. A single glance at his stats confirmed it:

  Energy Reserves: 0/4000

  Not only that, he didn’t have any tangible matter to disintegrate. His powers were useless.

  He looked around, hoping to find something that might help him.

  This definitely wasn’t one of the labs—or at least not any of those he’d seen in the city’s sub-levels. The room was much smaller, with a plain metal desk against the far wall and metal shelves that were covered in a confusing array of old-Earth technology.

  Most of it Max didn’t recognize at all—but he did see the energy blaster at the edge of the desk, sitting right next to his black himirini helm.

  He glanced down at his chest, relieved to see the chest piece was still there. It felt like the back piece was, too. Then he wondered why only his helm had been removed.

  The door beside the metal desk opened, and in came Governor Saris.

  The man shot Max a twisted grin from the only side of his mouth that could still express any emotion at all. “Now that you’re awake, we can begin.”

  “What do you—”

  Saris raised his hand, and Max’s words were cut off by that same debilitating screech shooting through his head.

  If he screamed, he couldn’t hear himself doing it.

  Thankfully the noise didn’t last long enough to make him pass out again.

  “I’ll be asking the questions, not you.” Saris stepped closer, leaving a few feet between them. “I want to know about the Bug.”

  Max gritted his teeth and glared at the man. He wouldn’t tell Saris anything, even if it was his last act of defiance.

  “How did you find the ship?” Saris asked.

  When Max didn’t answer, another burst of that awful noise seared through his skull.

  When it stopped, Max was panting. He would have hung his head if the energy field hadn’t kept it in place.

  “This is mild compared to what I could do to you,” the governor said with a smirk. “It will only get worse the longer you stall.”

  “Why would I tell you anything?” Max snarled. “You already—”

  Saris lifted a hand, and Max’s brain erupted into that same excruciating pain.

  He thought his ears would start bleeding—and then he wasn’t thinking anything at all until the awful sound disappeared again.

  “You’ll tell me,” Saris said, “because if you don’t, everyone you care about will die in the most excruciating ways possible.”

  “Even if I told you everything, you’d probably kill them anyway,” Max hissed.

  A cruel smile flitted over Saris’s face. “I suppose giving you my word wouldn’t help convince you, would it?”

  “After you tried to kill Ayla? No. It wouldn’t.”

  “Then you’ll answer my questions because eventually, after long enough, you’ll do anything to avoid this.”

  Saris’s hand came up again, and the sound returned.

  Max’s body started seizing, but he couldn’t feel it. All he could concentrate on was the agony in his own head.

  Then it stopped.

  “So,” Saris started again, “at least one Bug survived the war, because you couldn’t have gotten these powers all by yourself. Are there more? Why are they still here? What’s keeping them from unearthing their ship and leaving? They had you break into the city to steal the energy rod—what else are they looking for?”

  Even if he wanted to answer Saris’s last question, he couldn’t. Max had no idea what else Zryk needed to get his ship fully functional.

  Apparently, he took too long to answer. Another wave of unbearable, splitting noise stabbed deep into his brain.

  It lasted a few seconds longer this time, but that was enough to make Max see spots in his vision—when it finally returned.

  He saw a string of glistening wetness stretching in front of him, and realized it was his own spit falling from his mouth to the floor.

  He took in a gasping breath, then another, and fought hard not to let consciousness slip away.

  Saris walked right up to Max’s face and stared at him, almost nose to nose. The red orb of his mechanical eye stared unblinkingly.

  Then Saris stepped to the right and walked around Max’s suspended body.

  Max waited for another wave o
f excruciating pain that never came. Instead, he felt something at his feet—a few tugs and a lightening pressure—

  Max shouted in anger and tried to jerk against the energy field, but it was completely impossible.

  Then Saris stepped into Max’s vision again and lifted both hands, his fingers clenched tightly around the straps of the repulsor skates.

  Max almost choked on his rage. “Those don’t belong to you.”

  “You’re quite fond of these, aren’t you? Just like the man who created them for you.” Saris smiled with mock sadness. “You remind me so much of your father, Max. He was a fool, too.”

  The memory of Saris taunting him outside the walls suddenly came flooding back.

  Like father, like son. Smart and yet oh so stubborn. Of course, you’re not being very intelligent now… and your mother is going to pay the price for your stupidity.

  Max wanted more than anything to learn how Saris knew his father—but he refused to ask.

  It didn’t matter. The Governor told him anyway.

  “I never understood why he preferred making you toys over putting his invaluable knowledge to use for the greater good.” Saris walked slowly across Max’s field of vision. “Scientifically, the man was brilliant. But he refused to perform the experiments necessary to understand how we might use the radiation for our benefit.”

  Max felt horror growing in the pit of his stomach.

  Saris smirked. “Your father should have thanked me, Max, for exiling the lot of you when I did. Honestly, I wanted to kill him for refusing to do what was necessary. I should have. But the desert did that for me anyway, didn’t it?”

  Max’s horror turned to rage.

  Saris continued. “I was too soft on him. I was weak back then. Since then, I’ve learned the true cost of survival. If I had it all to do over again, I would slit his throat without a second thought. Then I’d slit your mother’s… then yours. Instead, I let you live. And here you are, proving once again that no good deed goes unpunished.”

  “I think everything you did down in the labs more than made up for your one ‘good deed,’” Max snarled.