Floor 21- Dark Angel

by Jason Luthor

  I’m spinning out of control, the ground racing toward me fast, but I fire off my thrusters at the last second. My body goes spiraling down an alleyway, cutting hard to the north and barely avoiding the mob of power armored troops on street level. I’m streaking between buildings, making hard rights and lefts while staying so low to the ground that I’m scared I could plow into someone. Finally, when I think I’ve put some space between me and the crowds chasing me, I switch off my thrusters and hit the ground running. The next second, my armor’s vanishing from my body. In armor, they can track at least a little of my energy signatures, especially with my stealth tech offline. Without my armor on? Good luck finding me. I’m just one more person in a city full of them. I keep cutting between side streets and narrow alleys while I’m on the move, until I’m sure I can’t hear anybody still chasing me.

  It gives me a chance to stop and take a deep breath. Everything’s hurting, and I’ve been taking more hits over the last 12 hours than at literally any other point in my life. Still, I can’t stop for long. I creep up to the corner of the building I’m standing by and take a look onto the street. Somehow, I’ve made it all the way up 1st Avenue, all the way to the northern edge of the East River District. “Only a few miles away,” I whisper, smiling as I do. “That’s just a quick run across midtown. Should be fine.”

  Dodger’s Recording 16

  I’m pretty much on edge when the knocking at my window nearly sends me jumping. Immediately I grab the rifle on the kitchen table before creeping over to the living room. I’m literally just duckwalking my way along when I realize there’s a face in the window.

  “Jackie!” I blurt out as I rush over, undoing the latch and tossing the window up. The second I’ve got the thing open, she comes tumbling inside. The first thing that comes to mind is she’s out of breath. That’s something that just doesn’t happen with her. Plus, she’s not wearing her armor. “Are you alright?”

  “Water,” she says with a pant. “Please?”

  “Of course,” I say as I lead her back into the kitchen. She falls into a chair and slumps over, her head resting in her hands. I turn the faucet tap and pour a glass for her. I’ve barely gotten the drink onto the table before she grabs it. I mean, it’s gone in pretty much one gulp.

  “Thank you,” she mumbles, exhaling as she leans back in the chair. It takes her a long time before she says anything. “The last 12 hours have been one huge nightmare.”

  “Yeah. I know, sadly.”

  Her eyebrow cocks up at a hard angle as she looks over at me. “I’ve just gotten done getting batted around by Creepers, fighting two superpowered humans aboard a giant robot, and escaping an assassination attempt by Yousef. So, I guess this is when you tell me what I’ve missed out on.”

  Thinking about it makes me feel like there’s air trapped in my chest, and I have to breathe hard just to get air in my lungs. “Tommy’s gone missing and nobody’s heard from either the War Council or Advisory Council since the fighting stopped.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know why. Ever since the communications went dead, I’ve gotten in touch with some of the other buildings to do some counts. Block leaders, like Michael Patel. People, medical supplies, weapons, that sort of thing. It’s a plan that Colonel Martin put together before he went missing. And Tommy. I don’t know if Tommy’s alive, or . . .” Thinking about it makes my chest clutch up. “No. No, they’ve got to be keeping Tommy somewhere. He’s not . . .”

  “No,” she tells me, reaching out a hand and her eyes locking with mine. “He’s not. He’s fine. Do you understand?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”

  “They would have taken him alive, as leverage, when they realized I was still alive. Just in case Yousef’s kill order wasn’t successful. Dodger, I’ve spent the last few hours having guns pointed at my face and being chased across rooftops just to get here. Eventually, they’re going to realize I probably came to the apartment, so I don’t think I can stay long.”

  “Jackie, I don’t get what’s going on here.”

  “Yousef used us to get rid of his . . . “ Her head drops down and her hands wrap behind her skull. “His sister. She was leading the raiders.”

  “What.”

  “I think the whole plan was to get her out of the way and anyone else that could have given him a fight. He used something. I don’t know what. Maybe some kind of poison? It killed her and almost killed me.”

  When she says it, I can actually feel the moment my heart comes to a complete stop. “Was his sister . . . Was she infected with the Creep.”

  “Yeah. How did you know?” She asks, and I can feel myself hyperventilating as I think about it, my breath coming faster and faster until Jackie leans over to me. “Hey. What’s wrong?”

  “I did it,” I gasp. “I helped Doctor Watson make that virus. It has to be the same one, the one we were working on in the lab.”

  Jackie shakes her head as she leans back. “That’s . . . He tricked you. He lied to you.”

  “Jackie, I got a girl killed because I created some bioterrorism weapon and delivered it right into Yousef’s lap.”

  “And I let him use me deliver it to that girl, but we’re not the ones who did this. Okay? Yousef planned all this. Yousef. Do you understand?”

  It takes a second before I really get my composure back. “Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We can’t focus on that.”

  “Exactly. So, tell me what the situation is here in Central.”

  I look down at the floor and just shake my head. “They’ve got soldiers on the streets and in the air. The militia got back into city but . . . there were a lot of losses, not just because of the fight with the raiders but because of the Creep.”

  “Yeah. It hit, hard. It was a total mess out there.”

  “Well, with the militia out of it and no leadership, things’ve been quiet. It’s like we’re all just waiting to find out what happens next. The truth’s that we all think . . .” I swallow hard. “That Yousef probably killed the councils. Jackie, what are we going to do? It feels like . . .”

  “Dodger.” I see her take in a deep breath as she gets to her feet. For a second, she looks at the ceiling, her eyes closed as she takes a few more breaths. Her armor starts to form around her in a wave of blue light, slowly forming around her before she looks back at me. “You’re in charge here now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We’ve spent the last few months talking about how one day you might have to get back into the fight. This is it. You’re in charge here in Central while I’m gone. If we don’t have any leadership then you’re going to have to step up. I don’t know who else to trust the city with.”

  “In charge? I can’t be in charge of anything.”

  “You already are, Dodger.” She steps over to me and puts her hand on my shoulder. “While Tommy’s been handling the politics, you’re the one who’s been here in the community. Your old troops still respect you and people all around the city knows the work you’ve been doing to try and make their lives better.”

  “So, what am I supposed to do?”

  “Keep doing the counts. People, supplies, weapons, just like you said. Follow that plan Martin put together. Get talking with block leaders around the city and work through them, because we’re going to have to fight back at some point.”

  “We can’t though, Jackie. Yeah, we’ve got guns here in the buildings, but the firepower on the street’s too heavy to go against if we don’t have some real support.”

  “You will have support. I’ve already got a plan. I’m going to make Fort Silence split its forces into two, and I know the local militia will side with their friends and family once the fighting breaks out. Like we’ve been saying forever, we have the numbers advantage in Central. We just need to get everyone organized and get Yousef to split his troops. So, start organizing, and then just wait. You’ll know the time’s come to fight back when you start seeing the troops leaving Central for Fort Silence.”


  “Jackie, not even you can hold off an entire army.”

  “I’m not going to be in this fight by myself,” she says as she looks toward the window. “I made a mistake a long time ago of thinking every raider was the same. They’re not. From the way Ishara talked, from what I saw at Fort Delaware, I think a lot of them just want what anyone else wants. They just want to make a decent life in this world. The Tank was a symbol, an idea of what the future could be like for them. A future where they were unified and successful. Now they don’t have her, but that doesn’t mean that the symbol is dead. Ideas live longer than people, so I think if we get the raiders to help us, we’ll be able to take the fight to Fort Silence. We’ re not going to do it with just the militia.”

  It’s all almost too much for me to process. “It’s still . . . it’s still going to be hard to win here. What if we can’t pull it off?”

  She looks at me one last time. “It’s all going to be over in one day. That’s the only way this can go. The night the fighting starts, wait for me. By the morning, I’ll be here. I promise.”

  “Okay. Okay. I trust you.”

  Her eyes go wide as her head shoots to the window, her eyes cutting through to the street. “Get down!”

  “What?” The words are barely out of my mouth before she leaps at me, her body covering mine as we slam to the floor. A second later, bullets are flying through the walls and tearing through the room. Jackie’s teeth are locked tight as she growls.

  “He’s going to get everyone killed if I don’t do something,” she screams as the bullets stop for a second. “You know what you have to do, Dodger.”

  I barely nod as she turns around and leaps out of the window, the entire frame of it shattering apart as she goes flying out and toward the Vertwing hovering outside the building. Its minigun is starting to warm up as she flies toward it, but those clawed gauntlets of hers latch into the sides of the gun and rip it clear from the aircraft. A second later she’s slamming to the street below, the minigun scattering along the ground as the Vertwing limps off into the air. When I look along the road, I get a sick feeling in my stomach. There are soldiers everywhere down the block in both directions, but that’s not what’s making me sick. There in the middle of the street, not far from an armored transport, is Yousef.

  The two of them stare at each other for a long second before the general shouts at her. “Dark Angel. How good to see you. I’ve decided to be merciful even after everything you’ve done. I’ll give you a painless execution if you surrender without a fight.”

  “You know that’s not the way this is going to go.”

  “Oh, I know. But, in the interest of our friendship, and of course our moments of brief romance,” he says in a moment that sends Jackie’s eyes flashing red, “I thought I would give you the opportunity. After all, it’s clear this war has been won.”

  “I went easy on you before, Yousef. I’m not going to do that a second time.”

  His hands work the button of his dress uniform until he’s stripped his jacket off, leaving him bare chested in the night air. He’s gigantic, like he’s been on growth hormones and his muscles were chiseled from marble. “I don’t know when I ever gave you the impression that I was going all out with you.”

  “If you want to end our dance, then I’ll end it, you maniac.”

  “It does end tonight, you freak,” he barks back at her. “But not in the way you expect.” Without another second of waiting, he launches at her with so much speed that he crosses the distance between them in a second. Cybernetic implants in the legs, I think to myself as he slides away from one of Jackie’s punches, his golden hand returning at her with an uppercut that hits her square under the jaw. When he angles his back toward me, I see some device implanted between his shoulder blades that’s glowing golden light, and I have to think it’s where he’s getting his power from. He practically folds in half as he leans back away from Jackie’s swing, and a second later he’s back up, his fist crossing at her and slamming her across the helmet.

  Pieces of it shatter underneath his hit, and Jackie goes stumbling to the side. Yousef’s barking at her the whole time he walks up to where she’s standing. “Do you see now?” he shouts to her. “We don’t need your kind to protect humanity. The human spirit, our intellect, our innovation, can preserve our species. We can enhance ourselves without corrupting what we are.” Jackie tosses a flurry of punches, a few jabs that miss followed by a cross and an uppercut that Yousef slides away from. He brings up a single hard punch that just rocks her in the stomach and sends her staggering backward, blood shooting from her mouth and splashing across street. That’s when I realize she’s not healing. “We don’t need half breeds like you. Corporations who didn’t care for the divinity of the human soul, the purity of our nature, ruined this world to make monsters. Monsters like you are, Jackie Coleman.”

  She punches upward at him, but he turns aside, his leg kicking at her and cracking against her knee. Jackie screams as she hits the ground, and Yousef grabs her by the back of the head, his fist bashing her in the face over and over until the front of her helmet breaks off entirely. I almost can’t believe what I’m seeing as she’s kneeling there, his fist cocked back and ready to drive down into her. “Of course, we can’t forget your friend, Michael Chapman. Just another example of the corruption of our species.”

  Jackie growls as she’s sitting there on her knees and screams, “Don’t you say anything about Mike!” And right in that second, her armor vanishes from around her and she’s pushing off the ground, her arms wrapping around Yousef and lifting him into the air. For a long second she’s got him elevated before she turns, the two of them slamming into the ground. Except now her body’s shifting, her jaw distending from her mouth as three massive claws shoot out from her forearm. Of course, Tommy told me about it, but . . . it’s something else to see her completely pass the Alexander Limit. The two of them struggle there on the ground, rolling over each other until she’s got him pinned to the street.

  Jackie deflects Yousef’s arm just as his palm is starting to glow, then drives those claws of hers down into his shoulder. He screams when they punch right through him and into the pavement at his back, blood flying through the air as she rips her fist back, but he doesn’t waste another second. He slides his legs into his chest before kicking upward into Jackie’s stomach. It sends her stumbling back, and that’s all the opening he needs to leap forward onto his feet.

  Jackie’s rushing him at blinding speed, but that golden light from his back erupts and, almost faster than I can follow, he speeds back at her. Somehow, he slips underneath her outstretched claws and hits her with enough force from his golden fist that she just bowls over, blood flying from her mouth again as Yousef holds her on her feet with his palm pressed into her stomach. All I see’s that golden light forming in his hand before he shouts, “Wild animals need to be put down!”

  And then the back of Jackie’s body explodes apart as a beam of energy blows through her, evaporating her armor and sending pieces of her disintegrating into the air. The second it happens, she screams with so much force that I can feel it rattling in my bones, her body immediately shifting back to human as her armor reforms around her. Maybe it’s an emergency system to keep her alive. I don’t know. All I know is she collapses, falling onto her hands and knees in the street where she just struggles to keep herself up, her hands shifting through a pool of her own blood as Yousef walks up to her.

  “I told you at Fort Silence that you had one opportunity to finish me, or you would never be able to strike me again. Well, it seems I forgot you feral animals have an extra form you can take,” he says as he walks up to her, the yellow glow in his hand charging up again as he holds his hand just a few inches from her face. “I’d offer you last words, but that’s a grace we reserve for humans.”

  And maybe I’m blowing any chance I have of ever leading any kind of revolution, but I put my rifle to the window, flip it to fully automatic, and start emptying
out every bullet I can into the street. The second I start firing, Yousef looks my way. It’s for all of half a second, but in just that one moment, Jackie’s thrusters erupt at her back and send her rocketing straight up into the air. I don’t give them a chance to start firing at her. I slap another magazine into my rifle and start spraying the road, sending people dodging for cover for just long enough that I can disappear back into the apartment. I’m immediately reaching for the gloves me and the doc worked on at his lab before vanishing into the hall.

  Outside, everyone’s out of their apartments and watching as I’m rushing away. That includes Cynthia and Mandy, who just nod at me as I’m running by them. At the far end, Yazzie’s there, looking terrified. She yells at me as I’m coming up on her. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Getting out of here,” I tell her as I slip my gloves on. “The energy signature on these gloves is too low for them to track. I’ll disappear into the city for a while. Lay low. You take care of things here and we stay in communication on our private channel.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, okay,” she says, her voice sounding panicked as I get the gloves on, the tractor pads mounted on the top of them glowing with blue energy. “Are those things really going to work?”

  “Doctor Watson helped me make them. When’s the last time he made anything that didn’t work?”

  “Point taken. Be careful.”

  “You too,” I tell her before I give her a brief hug. Then I’m leaning outside into the darkness of the alley, my eyes following it down to the next street. Without waiting any more than a few seconds, the tractor pad on my glove fires down off and latches onto the surface of a building. I suck in a breath as I squeeze my fist, the tactile programming in the glove responding to my gesture and the cable retracting. Suddenly I’m launching through the air, my body flying through the alley and into the dark between the buildings. The whole time I’m zipping away, all I can wonder is, how the hell are we going to ever beat someone like Yousef?