by Riker Kane
Max had no way to help her, distracted by the big man who’d turned his attention to him. Max and Slug circled one another. Slug cracked his knuckles while Max readied his Plasma Cutter.
“I told Venom not to trust you,” Slug said. “But I guess it doesn’t matter. It all ends with you getting your face smashed.”
“Venom doesn’t seem strong enough to hurt Sammy the way he was beaten. I’m guessing you did all of the grunt work.”
“That’s right. Since you care about that junkie so much, I’ll give you a hospital bed right next to him.”
“Not tonight.”
Max raised his blade up and yelled as he charged. Slug moved to meet him. They swung at the same time, Max’s energy blade crashing into Slug’s fist. Their weapons sparked purple and red in a bright clash of energy.
Despite the weight of Slug’s Flame Fists, Max managed to hold his own and avoid getting hit. He ducked underneath a right hook and thrust forward with a stab that Slug parried. Slug sent an uppercut his way but Max quickly backflipped out of the way and continued his attack. Neither man was able to land cleanly but just a glancing blow was enough for Max to feel.
“Stop dancing around and fight me!” Slug yelled.
Slug reared back and threw his fist forward like a giant piston. Max slid out of the way and stabbed his blade into his arm. The big man howled in pain as the energy seared through his armor and flesh all the same.
“You got him!” Proxy yelled.
But the Operator’s celebration was short-lived, as Slug rose up with a backfist that caught Max in the side of the head and sent him stumbling onto his back.
“Ungh… Shit…”
Max’s brain rattled in his head. His vision blurred as he tried to get his senses together.
“Max, he’s coming for you. You gotta get up.”
Proxy’s voice was distant. He looked up at Slug and could barely make him out marching toward him.
“Don’t worry,” Slug said. “You’ll be in the hospital real soon.”
He grabbed Max by the collar and dragged him across the steel grid. Max watched the red proximity of the tower slowly coming into view.
“Max… Max, he’s gonna let the turret take you out.”
Max blinked his eyes to clear the cobwebs and saw Zigzag still trying to cut through clouds of poison Venom was putting up.
“Zigzag!” Max shouted.
The android turned and immediately raced forward. Her legs moved like a blur, quickly closing the distance.
“It’s too late.” Slug put both hands on Max and tossed him into the proximity of the tower just as Zigzag thrust her sword into the big man’s chest. The android gritted her teeth and struggled as she dug her blade into the black armor.
Max looked up at the turret pointing at him and watched the blast fire. He turned his back but there was no way of bracing from the impact. The explosion sent him flying forward, searing his jacket and burning through the back of his armor.
“Shit…” Max muttered as he got back up to his feet. Despite the pain surging through his body, he steadied himself.
Slug struggled to push out the sword Zigzag was trying to stick through him. His hands around the blade, he pushed back against the android.
“Keep going!” Max activated his Plasma Cutter and rushed forward. But he’d only taken a few steps when Venom appeared. She raised her ACE up and more of the green mist appeared from the compartments.
“Don’t even try it!” Venom yelled.
“I can’t… Gotta do this…”
Max shut his eyes. His jaw clenched, he held his breath for as long as he could as he moved forward into the mist. But the green smoke against his face was enough to make him noxious.
“Max! You can’t stay in the cloud!”
He ignored Proxy’s warning, moving closer to Slug until he was right behind him.
“I only need a few seconds…” Max raised his blade up. Slug turned around and yelled right as Max shoved the energy sword up to his face, piercing the enforcer’s open mouth. Max felt some resistance but shoved with all of his strength, pushing the sword through until it extended out the other side of Slug’s head. The energy sword split Slug’s head on both sides, leaking blood in every direction.
The crowd gasped as it sliced through Slug’s helmet entirely.
Slug’s hands fell to his sides, his eyes wide as he choked on Max’s blade. Zigzag finished pushing her blade into the center of his chest to drain the last of life from him.
“You got him!” Proxy said. “No way he can recover from that.”
“Zigzag…” Max barely got the words out, choking on the poison. Zigzag withdrew her weapon and quickly put her arms around him to move him away from the green mist.
As soon as he was clear from it, Max collapsed on the ground and gasped a deep breath.
“Proxy… Where am I at?”
“Energy’s holding steady at 76-percent. HP is at 46-percent. It’s dropping every few seconds though. The poison is still in your bloodstream. The only way to get rid of the effects for sure is to stay out of the poison completely.”
Max looked up and saw Venom continuously spraying the noxious gas, filling the arena.
“You’ve got nowhere to hide!” Venom said. “I’ve got both towers! The poison will get you eventually! Just give up now!”
“Stay back,” Zigzag said. “I can defeat her alone. I will extract from her the revenge you seek—”
“No.” Max put his hand up and stopped her from moving forward. “That’s what she wants. The poison means she’ll fight us one-on-one. But she can’t beat us together, even with the gas. Proxy, how long can I stand in the poison before it drops my HP to zero?”
“I can’t say for sure. Maybe a minute. Any more than that and I wouldn’t wanna take the chance.”
“A minute… What’s her HP at?”
“HP is at 89-percent. Energy is at 112-percent. She’s got all of her resources.”
“I’m sorry I was not able to do much damage,” Zigzag said. “Avoiding the turret fire proved troublesome.”
“That’s all right.” Max straightened up and watched as Venom continued to flood the arena with her poison. “One minute to bring her down to zero. That’s all we need. Let’s go.”
Zigzag nodded and rushed forward with her sword raised.
Max raised his ACE up and launched a volley of Inferno Grenades. Venom rolled away from the explosion but she quickly had to recover to block a quick slice from Zigzag.
Max continued moving forward and another volley distracted Venom long enough to lower her ACE. The fumes from the poison immediately flooded his nostrils and made him gag so bad he wanted to puke.
“Come on… Ignore it…”
He clenched his jaw to stop himself from keeling over and moved through the cloud until he was right next to Venom. He activated his Plasma Cutter then worked in unison with Zigzag to try and cut the blond down.
“HP’s dropping,” Proxy said. “Under 40-percent.”
Venom tumbled and backflipped away from the swipes, giggling as she sprayed more of her fumes into the air.
“It’s over, Rebel. You’re out of time.”
“Not yet. Zigzag!”
The android nodded and jumped into the air. Venom turned her head up, giving Max the opportunity to fire a Colossal Blast. She took the full brunt of it to her chest, knocking her back into one of the towers and putting her in a daze.
Zigzag quickly followed up and sliced her in the midsection before a turret blast sent the android stumbling back. Zigzag quickly got up and moved forward to follow up but Max grabbed her by the shoulder to hold her back.
“That’s all right,” he coughed. “I’ll take it from here.”
“I can withstand another blast from the turret,” Zigzag said. “You should move out of the poison.”
“She’s right,” Proxy said. “Venom’s already bleeding out. Just stay out of the cloud and you win.”
“
No…” Max said. “Can’t just win… Get her away from the tower, Zigzag.”
Zigzag didn’t hesitate. She ran into the turret’s proximity to grab Venom. Another blast caught Zigzag in the back but the android managed to remain standing long enough to drag Venom to Max.
Venom fell to the ground, blood leaking from the wound in her stomach as she crawled forward. Max struggled to stand up straight but dug his heels into the grid to push himself up.
“Looks like you got me,” Venom said. “But at least I took you down with me.”
Max coughed as the poison continued to fill his lungs. “I might go down. But you’re the one getting what they deserve.”
“You’re under 20-percent, Max,” Proxy said. “If you don’t get out of the poison now…”
He ignored her, instead listening to the chants of the crowd.
“Execute! Execute! Execute!”
He flipped Venom over with his foot and looked down on her. Blood leaked from her stomach and poured from her mouth. Her HP slowly draining, she still furrowed her brow at Max in defiance.
“All this because of a junkie,” Venom muttered.
Max pointed his ACE down at her. “Because of a junkie.”
The impact of the Colossal Blast against her face was enough to send him and Zigzag flying back. He tumbled against the steel grid and barely had the sense to crawl out of the mist of poison. But even though he’d escaped the toxic cloud, it still burned within his lungs.
As the last of his HP drained from him, Max looked up at Zigzag standing above him. They smiled at one another as he drifted off to the chants of the crowd.
“Rebel! Rebel! Rebel!”
Chapter 26
Max heard the glass pounding in his head. It got loud enough for him to realize he wasn’t dreaming it. He blinked his eyes open and looked through the fluid surrounding him.
On the other side of the glass tube he floated in, Proxy continued tapping upon it. The grin on her face brought back memories of what happened shortly before his HP had drained completely.
Zigzag stood behind her. A demure smile on her face, Zigzag held her head up proudly.
Sabrina was also there, smiling just the same.
Hudson stood with his hands in his pockets. He didn’t appear in as good of a mood as the others but Max knew he was satisfied.
“We’re heading to the hospital to tell Sammy the good news!” Proxy said. “After that, we’re gonna go celebrate.”
Max chuckled softly through the mask over his face and closed his eyes. His objective in Santa Fe accomplished, he closed his eyes and drifted back to the peace his exhausted body forced him to.
~ ~ ~
“…The Rose Garden nightclub has announced an upcoming remodeling. In efforts to compete with the surrounding hot spots, the owners of one of the oldest clubs in Santa Fe have started renovations to appeal to a younger crowd. New displays, a variety of vapors and liquors and personal robot concierges are just a few of the changes being made. The bar will be closed for construction indefinitely…”
Max sat quietly and ignored the news report, staring out the window while Hudson explained the full details of the last battle.
“Stabbed him in the mouth, huh? Sheesh…” Sammy grimaced at Hudson’s explicit descriptions. “I can’t imagine what that feels like. Just thinking about it makes me shudder.”
“After what they did to you, they deserve it.” Hudson slapped his friend on the arm. “Assholes always get it worse in the end. And it’s not like they’re dead. Bastards are floating in the regenerators right now. Max gave it to ‘em real bad. Taught ‘em a lesson.”
Sammy munched on his roast beef sandwich and turned to Max, who was sitting quietly at the side of the hospital room.
“Thanks,” Sammy said. “I never would’ve imagined somebody would go through all of that for me. I guess I owe you one.”
Max shook his head. “A friend of Hudson’s is a friend of mine. You don’t owe me anything. It was the right thing to do.”
“I’m not so sure…” Sammy sighed and put his sandwich down. “I did take their loot. I couldn’t help myself. Just thinking about it right now, I’m getting kinda anxious.”
“I told you I got it taken care of,” Hudson said. “We’ll give those punks their money for the loot and then we’re even. We’ll get out of this shithole of a city. We’ll get your system flushed out in New Austin. That’s how it should’ve been in the first place.”
“A whole new start… I won’t know what to do with myself…”
“You can do anything. There’s nothing stopping you from it.”
“Right now, all I wanna do is eat this sandwich. Hospital food is never any good. All they give you is something supplemented but there’s no accounting for flavor.”
“Once you’re out and about, we’ll head out to a real restaurant. After Max’s last win, I’ve got enough credits to eat at the fanciest place in Santa Fe.”
“Don’t need anything fancy. As long as the beef is real, that’s all I want.”
“Looks like you ate it pretty fast.” Max got up from his seat. “Why don’t I head out and get you another bite?”
“That’s all right,” Hudson said. “I can do it—”
“No.” Max put his hand up. “After everything I just went through, this isn’t much trouble. Figure you two have a lot to catch up on anyway.”
Hudson patted him on the arm and nodded.
Max left the hospital room and looked down the hallway. He hadn’t even moved a single step when he saw Detective Pitt approaching.
“What the hell…”
Max didn’t bother holding back his surprise as the detective walked right up to him
“Are you still following me?” Max said.
“You’re still a person of interest, Shaw. And this is one of the locations you seem to be frequenting quite often.”
“Well, unless you plan on following me to New Austin, I won’t be frequenting anywhere else in Santa Fe. I’m done.”
Pitt put his hands behind his back. “You blew your cover. You got closer to the GODs than anybody ever had and you blew it.”
Max shook his head. “Venom knew who I was all along.”
“It didn’t matter if she knew who you were. If you kept playing along, she would’ve been willing to let you in. You would’ve gotten everybody’s identity. You could’ve put an end to the Disciples for good.”
“I’m just one man, Pitt. It’s not my fault everybody in your department has got their hands greased. If the DA wants to take down the GODs and the Disciples, press charges with the evidence you got on the three you’re already monitoring. Maybe one of them will squeal and you can find this ghost you’re chasing.”
“I don’t need advice from you on how to conduct an investigation.”
“But apparently you need me to do your work for you.” Max leaned in closer and looked Pitt right in the eye. Without anything else weighing down on his shoulders, Max was free to say whatever he wanted to the detective.
“I came to Santa Fe to bring some known criminals to justice. Why don’t you do your job and lock ‘em up?”
Max brushed by him, bumping into his arm as he did.
“Hey!”
Max took a few steps when Pitt called out to him.
“I was at the battle. I saw what you did. Went for the Execution when you didn’t have to.” Pitt slowly walked up to Max. “I know why you did it.”
“I did it because that’s what I came here to do.”
“You came here to do what’s right…” Pitt sighed softly through his nose. “It’s only fair I do the same… I’ll give the DA a recommendation to bring Vick, Banks and Cole in. I know enough honest guys in the department who’ll bring in some other Disciples, too. You didn’t intend on it but we’ll finish what you started.”
Max stared at him for a moment then nodded. He was already free from the weight on his shoulders but seeing the approval in the detective’s eyes gave him a
strange sense of accomplishment.
A vibration in Max’s pocket made him pull out his AllDevice. He held it up to his ear as he headed down the hall.
“Proxy.”
“How’s Hudson doing?”
“Never better. Sammy’s enjoying the good news.”
“That’s great. I’ve got even better news.”
“I can’t think of what would be better than that…”
“It’s our last night in Santa Fe. I was talking with Sabrina and Zigzag. We figured we might as well make it a night to remember.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “And how would we do that?”
“You’ll see tonight.”
“You called me just to tell me nothing?”
“It’s more fun when it’s a surprise.”
“Whatever.” Max sighed as the girl on the other end of the line giggled. Considering his biggest problem now was figuring out what she was up to, all he could do was laugh.
Chapter 27
The sparks showered down from the ceiling in a cascade of lights over the dance floor. Men and women in their slick latex and leather outfits moved to the beat of the bass pumping through the speakers. The glowing red and blue neon lights next to the bar were a giant sign to all the patrons who needed a refill. Robotic arms prepared organic and synthetic alcohol alike, adding to the chaos of the scene.
Max scrunched his face in confusion, unsure of where to focus his eyes.
“What do you think?” Proxy shouted into his ear.
“I don’t know whether to focus on everybody dancing or getting drunk or how loud the music is or how bright the lights are or whatever else I’m missing.”
“It’s a celebration. Our last night in Santa Fe. Sabrina said we might as well go out with a bang before we head back to New Austin.”
“We go out with a bang and we might not make it back.”
“C’mon!”
Proxy enthusiastically grabbed Max’s hand and led him through the throngs rubbing their bodies together on the dance floor. Hundreds had gathered in the spacious nightclub, so even though Max was dressed in a singed leather jacket, he wasn’t able to stand out.