That Which is Unexpected

by A. L. Bridges

  “I thought I was able to seal my wounds so how would I pass out from blood loss?” I inquire, interrupting again.

  “You can seal wounds after they are sustained, not while you are sustaining them. For example, a rapier through your stomach, if left there, would cause you to bleed; however, a bullet will not and the same thing goes for arrows so long as you take out the shaft. Granted, it would take a long while for you to bleed out. Shorn Ones usually have up to a liter more blood than an average man. Where they put it, I don’t know. In addition to that, you also recover blood much more quickly. You reacted in the same way a normal man reacts if they were to lose less than half of the blood that you did, so you might’ve regenerated some blood in the time we spent fighting,” Tia explains.

  “Anyway, as I’m charging him, Cole grabs his left forearm. I go in for the jab and he rips his right hand across his left arm, pulling out that blade, which he then used to get into the position you saw us in,” Tia finishes.

  “He solidified his blood?” Sara incredulously asks.

  “I was getting fed bits of information from my Drive and even it didn’t seem to know exactly how it was making the blade, but I have a theory. Tia, am I right in assuming that gods have very dense bones?” I question.

  “Yeah. We have normal skin, but we heal almost instantaneously and our bones are really strong. They are supposed to be impossible to cut and impossible to crush without some sort of incredibly large boulder dropped from a really high place,” Tia nods and replies.

  “Yet I cut into it with this blade, right?” I ask.

  “Yes, but only a very slight amount that would barely constitute a scratch,” Tia confirms.

  “I think that I am taking silicon atoms and carbon atoms from my blood, along with some iron atoms, and combining them to make silicon carbide. It’s a black, diamond-esque, crystal substance that they use to make ceramic tank armor out of. Iron impurities in silicon carbide give it a black hue, which explains the black in between the crimson center and clear edge of the blade. It’s the only artificial substance I can think of that would be hard enough,” I explain.

  “Sara, you know that we can’t tell anyone about this, right?” Tia proclaims.

  “What is the big deal? I only created a short sword,” I reply.

  “Cole, you shouldn’t be able to do this. Manipulating blood that is outside of their bodies isn’t something Shorn Ones could do. Only one warrior ever could and I didn’t tell you about him because I didn’t think it applied, but now it seems necessary. When the Spaniards came with guns, we found out that the Shorn Ones weren’t a match. In response, Huitzilopochtli took the remaining blood that had stored up over the years, about the equivalent of 50,000 people or 2,500 blood warriors, and compressed it down into a single warrior. With the new warrior, we won the next several battles because this warrior could manipulate his blood regardless of its location, in addition to being faster and stronger than the other Shorn Ones. He was also much more difficult to kill because he healed at a much faster rate than the others, and he could even mend broken bones and organs when in battle. We thought we had found the answer to the Conquistadors, but the only disadvantage was the massive amounts of sacrifices it took to create even one of these warriors. So we demanded a few extra sacrifices at the next festival. The Aztecs would often sacrifice prisoners so that they didn’t have to sacrifice our subjects, which was a practice that worked well up until that day. It turned out that our ultimate warrior had fallen in love with a missionary prisoner. He would go visit her every night and he grew attached. When she was about to be sacrificed on the alter at Tenochtitlan, he rushed in and killed the priest. Huitzilopochtli saw this, so he sent three gods down to stop our warrior. Tonatiuh, a sun god; Tlaloc, a thunder and water god; and Metzli, a Moon Goddess; flew down and shouted the override commands. It stopped him, but it didn’t incapacitate him like it should have so they ran him through with three spears: one through each side of his torso at an angle and one through the center. Then the warrior died in a massive explosion, killing the three gods and the hundreds of thousands of Aztecs in attendance. The only one who wasn’t killed was the missionary, who had somehow been saved from the blast. The majority of the Aztec force was decimated, and Hernan Cortes was able to take the capital with ease,” Tia says, finishing the story.

  “Looking at you, I believe the missionary could have been pregnant and that you are his descendant,” Tia speculates.

  “Cole, what’s important about this story is that it showed every god that they could be killed by blood warriors. This scared them so they have been hunting down people like you ever since, especially Loki’s son, Jormungandr. Jormungandr and his children have been hunting those like you for your blood and we also suspect that they are the ones that killed your mother,” Sara explains.

  “Who are his children?” I ask.

  “Vampires, Cole,” Tia seriously replies.

  Oh come on! I plan on tracking down my mother’s killers, but if at any time those bastards start sparkling… I will probably just kill myself because there is no way that my world is that ridiculous. I mean, really! What do you think Peter Parker would have done if he caught up to that mugger that killed his Uncle and that fucker started sparkling!? Not that I’m comparing myself to Spiderman, but it’s the whole revenge thing!

  I’m too tired to deal with this shit so I sigh heavily and say, “I’m going to bed.”

  I stand unsteadily to my feet and walk up the basement steps, down the hallway, and into my room. After stripping down to my underwear, I flop down onto my stomach. I focus when I hear whispers coming from the vents. I can feel Cheza’s heartbeat in her room by the time I can hear the whispers clearly.

  “We have to handle this carefully, Tia. If Kira or any of the other gods get wind of this, they’re most likely going to kill Cole on the spot,” Sara says.

  “Yeah I know! I would feel threatened by him if I ignored the fact that he has been like a little brother to me. Even so, he still scares me a little… I mean, what do those silver eyes mean? The Drives change eye color when active, but none of them are silver, and the override commands didn’t work Sara! The gods no longer have an ace in the hole with which they can stop him! If they find out about this, forget most likely, he will have every pantheon gunning for him! Harry might even tell me to do it! I don’t want to kill Cole, Sara!” Tia exclaims, followed by the sound of a smack.

  “I KNOW TIA! I know… from what Cheza said earlier, it sounds like Cole’s eyes turned silver when he used his Protector Drive too. This is just a hypothesis, but it could mean that Cole only has one Drive that assumes all the functions of the other three, and it might even have some new features that we don’t know about… Anyway, send me all of your reports before you send them to Kira. I’ll read them to make sure that they’re believable so she doesn’t have any cause to come down and see for herself. In the meantime, I’ll ask my mother some things to see if I can come up with a contingency plan in case the other gods do find out,” Sara says.

  “How are you going to ask your mom? Saraswati will know immediately if you’re lying! She’s the Goddess of wisdom!” Tia exclaims.

  “By not asking her directly of course,” Sara replies.

  That does not sound too good.

  ****

  Chapter 17: Mistress of Schadenfreude

  Jason and I were sitting in chemistry class the day after the whole ‘fake rape’ fiasco, while our chemistry teacher, Mr. Barker, prattled on about military something-or-other.

  “Silicon Carbide is this amazing diamond-like substance that has many commercial uses, but it is also used as composite armor on armored vehicles and tanks. Actually, the best body armor in the world is made by overlapping two inch discs of silicon carbide that are only a quarter of an inch thick! This provides for excellent maneuverability and lighter weights while providing the same level of protection as the Kevlar and steel plate body armor that I used in the army. Silicon carbide is rare
ly produced without iron impurities, which is why silicon carbide has that blackish hue to it…”

  I was only half listening as I debated the ethics of the whole situation from two nights ago.

  “It’s just kind of messed up! I mean, that was a huge overreaction right? Faking a rape because I flirted with one of her friends a little while you bone the same friend on our couch, and you get a ‘Thanks for your help last night Jason!’” I said to him.

  “You really don’t get it do you? You poor, dumb bastard…” Jason sighed.

  “It’s obviously because I’m prettier than you!” Jason said with a beaming smile as the picture fades out.

  ****

  [May 4th]

  Tia bursts into my room, her face expressionless as she jumps onto my bed and straddles me. She pulls a knife from behind her back and raises it above her head. Wow, that was fast! The gods sure do catch on quick! The knife starts to plunge down toward my chest, but Tia stops it with an inch to spare.

  “Why aren’t you defending yourself?” Tia asks, perplexed.

  “Well it’s not like you have a choice, right? Since I’m going to die no matter what, I’d rather not hurt you in the process,” I tell her. Tia hangs her head in response, hiding her face with her hair. I feel two drops of water hit my chest and my mind goes blank.

  Was Tia actually crying? Tia, the one that was able to emotionlessly punch a small child in the face and then comfort the same child without changing her expression? Tia, the one who practically tokened the phrase schadenfreude with the amount of sadistic pleasure she gets at seeing other people’s misfortune, especially mine?

  “You idiot… You heard us last night didn’t you?” Tia asks, her voice barely above a whisper as a few more tears fall onto my chest. “I’m not going to kill you… I can’t.”

  Cheza suddenly runs into my room and screams, “TIA NO!” while diving at Tia.

  My perception speeds up and Cheza slows to a crawl as Tia goes from straddling me to flipping backwards off the foot of my bed. Everything goes back to real-time and Cheza flies on top of me, kneeing my testicles in the process. My eyes squeeze shut while I yelp at a pitch that only dogs could respond to as Cheza bounces to the other side of my bed.

  “Cole, are you alright?” Cheza asks. I roll away from her and onto the floor while grabbing my crotch.

  “Cole?” Cheza asks again as I crawl to my trashcan and puke into it.

  “Yeah, I’m just peachy Cheza,” I finally say after opening my eyes and sitting up. Tia’s knife flies past my arm, cutting it before sticking into the wall.

  “TIA!” Cheza screams before moving between Tia and me.

  “Good, Cole,” Tia says while pointing to my arm, which hadn’t bled at all. “I’ve been trying to surprise you to see if you were doing that subconsciously now, but Cheza hasn’t been letting me near you. I suppose throwing a knife at you works just as well.”

  “It’s alright, Cheza. I trust Tia so don’t worry. I’m going to take a shower. Meet you in the armory?” I ask Tia, who nods in response.

  I shower quickly and then meet Tia. Since we can’t work on Drive control now that Tia doesn’t have a way to snap me out of it when things get dangerous for her, we work on controlling my blood to speed me up instead. Tia and I duel with her using some type of short sword while I use my Sic blade (silicon carbide is abbreviated SiC). Tia keeps the cuts to a minimum this time to avoid my Drive, and slows down to account for my skill level. I find that, when out of my Drive, I can only reinforce all my muscles, which doesn’t improve my strength, agility, or speed by all that much. However, I’m able to narrow it down to upper or lower body and then right or left side as we spar. Tia tells me that I will get more precise with practice.

  We discover something interesting when Tia starts thinking about how the Aztecs’ ultimate warrior had to cut open his body to utilize his special skill because his body wouldn’t instantly seal any self-inflicted wounds. During our break, Tia takes my Sic blade and tries to cut my arm. When the blade makes contact with my skin, it melts into a gelatinous substance and slithers down my arm like a snake before reforming as the Sic blade in my hand. Tia tells me to try cutting my hand open with it, but nothing happens. Tia goes into the armory, comes back out, and tosses me a spring-loaded switchblade until we find something else that’ll work. I flip it out and cut my hand with it to make sure that I can. My hand bleeds, but I find that I can still will the bleeding to stop.

  That night, I remember my dream from last night so I research silicon carbide using my laptop that sits on the desk below the window at the back of my room. I’m able to find the armor that Mr. Barker had mentioned two years ago. Dragon Skin, created by Pinnacle Armor, utilizes .25” thick, 2” discs, just as I remember in my dream. There’s even an x-ray of the armor showing how the plates overlap. I continue reading and find that the armor had stood up to a .308 sniper rifle bullet, thirty rounds from an MP5 submachine gun from five feet away, various assault rifle fire, and even the point-blank detonation of a frag grenade in testing. The vest was destroyed after the grenade, but it still didn’t let anything through. I take out my switch blade, slit my wrist, and try to create five of the discs. It takes a great deal of concentration at first, but by the fifth one, my blood seems to have figured out what I want and forms to the shape rather easily.

  …

  [May 5th]

  The next day, I tell Tia about the armor and inform her that I want to test the five discs that I already made.

  “Sure! We needed to start you on small firearms training soon anyway!” Tia replies.

  We proceed down into the armory and around the Plexiglas window on the back wall, entering the gun range. Tia hops over the cement wall/ shooting bench that divides the firing platform from the range, sets up the five discs on a metal stand thirty feet away, and then hops back over.

  “Wait here,” Tia says and goes into the armory. She comes back out with the Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm that I used the other day, and another handgun.

  “This is a Glock G34 9mm pistol. It holds seventeen rounds and fires with a velocity of around 1200 ft/s,” Tia informs me as she hands me the G34 and gestures for me to shoot the discs. I take the gun in both hands and fire three rounds at one of the discs, missing with all three. I speed up my perceptions and try again, firing the remaining fourteen rounds without a single hit.

  “Damn, you suck!” Tia exclaims.

  “I’m confused… it was so easy two days ago,” I reply.

  “Here, try again,” Tia tells me while handing me the M&P.

  I instinctively reach for it with my left hand despite being right handed. Something clicks into place in my mind. I turn and fire five rounds, one at each disc, and all of them hit.

  “Now I’m really confused,” I tell her.

  “The Adroit Drive embeds the user with extensive knowledge of any weapon that they pick up. The only downfall is that it will only count for that weapon specifically. That’s why you’re an expert shot with the M&P and a novice with the G34 despite them being the same caliber of gun. In other words, we need to work on your marksmanship… but first, let’s check those discs,” Tia explains.

  Tia hops over the shooting bench and checks the discs before running into the armory and coming back with an arm load of guns. She goes quickly through them: M16, AK-47, MP5, and M24 sniper rifle.

  “Cole, go grab the disc that is farthest to the right,” Tia tells me and I comply, hopping over the shooting bench and jogging to the metal stand.

  “Now lick the back of it, stick it to your palm, hold out your hand, and hold still. Don’t forget the last part!” Tia shouts.

  I do as she says, knowing that she has a good reason for it. Tia uses the Heckler & Kosch MP5A2 and shoots me in the hand. The disc stops the bullet and I can barely feel it.

  “So what was that for?” I ask.

  “What?” Tia responds.

  “What were you trying to discover?” I reiterate.

  �
�Oh… nothing. I just felt like shooting you in return for the three you hit me with the other day,” Tia answers and I stare back incredulously.

  “Come on! Don’t look at me like that! I knew the disc would stop the bullet… probably. I mean, I did pick the gun with the lowest stopping power!” Tia exclaims.

  “Well, at least it wasn’t for nothing,” I say while walking towards her. “I couldn’t even feel that bullet hit.”

  “Let me see,” Tia says.

  I’m holding my hand out about three feet away from her when she snaps the MP5 up and fires.

  “What the hell, Tia!?” I yell. That one I did feel, but it was more surprise than pain.

  “I see. You know how we found that your Sic blade couldn’t cut you? Well, the discs work in the same fashion. The edges, and presumably the back, of the disc turned into a gel-like substance at the moment of impact to cushion the blow. It should technically work with melee weapons too… Cole, show me that dragon armor you were talking about,” Tia says. I’m glad she has godly vision because I wasn’t able to notice any of that.

  I take her up to my room and show her the page on my laptop. After looking at it for a moment, Tia calls out to Sara to come to my room. Sara sits down and looks at the page, the x-ray scan of the Dragon Skin armor, and then at the five discs.

  “I think I can stitch this into a jacket. Stitching it into some jeans would be good too, just in case. With the amount of fighting that may be coming up, having some clothing that will stand up to small arms fire could prove invaluable,” Sara tells me.

  “Could you stitch it into the leather jacket?” Cheza asks from behind me, poking her head around my bedroom door.