Fiasco Heights

by Zack Archer

  The walkway fed into a ramp one floor below, and we galloped across it, lungs straining, running with everything we had.

  Shouts echoed in every direction: the screams of men, the guttural notes made by the snake creatures, and far-off klaxons. It sounded like the entire building was on red alert.

  On the twentieth floor, we were confronted with a cadre of Synths who fanned out and loosed a wall of energized rounds that I was barely able to divert with my forcefield, sending the rounds back into them and turning them to scrap.

  We hurdled what was left of the Snouts, the walls blurring past.

  Our pace was so rapid that we surprised another round of Snouts, causing them to fire upon each other. I flew around the corner of the ramp, leaning into my run like a downhill skier.

  We followed the contours of the ramp as it swung from left to right and soon we were on the seventeenth floor. I spotted the room where the Morningstars were imprisoned. Kree saw it too. My hands came up and she grabbed them. “But they tried to kill us!”

  “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” I replied. “Translation: there’s power in confusion.”

  I thrust a wall of energy at the prison and blew the outer wall in. Acrid smoke filled the walkway, and then I saw Big Dread rising.

  For a moment I had fleeting thoughts of approaching Big Dread and making the suggestion that we should form a united front against the Harbinger and his goons. But then I remembered that they were supervillains with a predilection for duplicity and all-around nastiness.

  I grabbed Kree’s hand and we charged forward, galloping down the walkway. I hoped that Aurora had somehow found a way out of the building or was waiting for us to reach the bottom even though I knew that was unlikely.

  Kree slid to a stop and I stumbled into her. There was a squad of Snouts rushing up to greet us and I could hear the sounds of the Morningstars echoing from behind as they battled the Harbinger’s security detail.

  We were bottled up again. That’s when I noticed that we were on the sixteenth floor. I didn’t really want to get caught in a battle between the bad guys, so I sucked in a breath and did the only thing left to do.

  I looked to the right.

  To the area where the Harbinger’s menagerie of alien monsters was.

  I paused and then I blew the doors off the zoo.

  73

  The outer wall to the zoo fell in with a great crash and we watched, awestruck, as the monstrosities caged inside funneled out.

  The first two creatures moved on their bellies through the smoke like centipedes, long tentacles sprouting from their mucous-coated flesh. The tentacles slashed at the air, tiny fleshy disks attached to their ends which held the creatures’ eyes.

  Beyond them was a monster that had the body of a pig and a raw red bulb-like head, the tissue near the jawline exposed to reveal rows of blunt teeth that were gummed with flesh.

  Behind this beast were two more creatures with pustulent skin that pulsated and spread open in certain sections like flowers to reveal forked tongues that were not unlike giant eels.

  Kree’s gaze wandered to mine. “Remind me how this is going to make things better.”

  “I never said I was making anything better.”

  My eyes ratcheted from the monsters in one direction, to the Morningstars and the Harbinger’s security goons who were battling it out in the other direction.

  “We need to go down.”

  Kree nodded and moved to the edge of the walkway railing. We peered down into the rotunda and saw people scurrying about below.

  “Grab onto my back.” she directed.

  “Not this again.”

  “It’s either that or you face them,” she stated, gesturing to the alien fiends slithering out onto the walkway.

  Kree gripped the railing and swung over. I did the same and wrapped my arms around her upper chest, feeling her muscles contract. Her breaths came in short, stabbing gasps as she threaded down one of the metal beams that supported the walkway.

  I could see the fifteenth-floor walkway below us as Kree slid the remaining ten feet under heavy fire from the Harbinger’s security personnel who were shooting down at us.

  I glanced up only once and watched the things from the zoo wade into the Morningstars and a group of Snouts.

  The alien beasts roared and flailed their limbs as the Snouts shouted and fired into them.

  Somewhere in the din was Big Dread and the Morningstars and I smiled while watching the bedlam, realizing the chaos would serve as an excellent distraction and purchase us some much needed time.

  Hopefully enough to extricate the Honoria youngsters.

  We landed on the fifteenth-floor walkway and spotted a pair of Synths who were busy watching and gesturing at the brawl taking place overhead. When they spotted us, it was too late. I fired a pair of plasma balls that atomized them.

  Waving my arm, I led Kree down to the spot where I believed the children were held, the space hidden behind the massive black door I’d seen earlier.

  Kree pressed her head to the door and made a high-pitched trilling sound, calling to whatever was on the other side.

  Silence greeted her for several seconds and I worried whether we’d made a mistake. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe this wasn’t where the children were at all. Maybe it was a trap and the Harbinger and his brawlers were somewhere waiting for us.

  “Take down the door, Quincy,” Kree said, pulling back.

  “What if they’re not here?”

  “We have to risk it, just like I risked everything to get you here.”

  She was right of course. I owed her everything, but mindful of not injuring the children in the event they were behind the door, I pressed my hands to the metal and waited for the energy to coalesce.

  Blue flames slithered between my fingers and I directed them into the corners of the door, manipulating them up and down so they acted like a saw, burning through the metal hinges.

  The door’s hinges split and the slab of black metal fell forward as Kree and I sidestepped it. The door crashed to the ground, sending up a plume of dust that obscured visibility for a moment. I swatted away the silty light, squinting, searching the space on the other side which was a warren of cubbies.

  Forms moved out into the hazy light.

  Figures of various shapes and sizes.

  Small shapes, the outlines of children.

  Kree’s hand covered her mouth, stifling a cry of delight.

  A kaleidoscope of emotions welled up inside of me.

  Astonishment.

  Elation.

  My breath caught because we’d actually done it. We’d freed the Honoria children the Harbinger had been keeping captive!

  I followed Kree into the room, reminding her that we didn’t have much time. The children, twelve of them, ranged in age from four to nine. They appeared to be in good spirits, and Kree quickly rounded them up.

  “Let’s go, let’s go!” I shouted.

  I led everyone back outside and noted the explosion and rattle of small-arms fire coming from the direction of the walkway. We couldn’t go back out the way we’d come in.

  “We need to go down,” Kree said.

  “Easier said than done.”

  She gestured to a nearby loop and slapped her palm against the control panel. I thought it was unwise to crowd everybody in a loop and told her so, but she replied that we didn’t have a choice. We either risked a ride in the loop, or we fought our way—with children in tow—down the remaining fifteen floors.

  Kree led the kids inside and I squeezed in after them.

  The loop shot straight down and opened to the ground floor.

  I led the way out as building personnel tore past us, running for cover. Glancing up I watched bodies from the battles on the floors above slam down all around, mostly Synths, but a few human security guards and a couple of aliens from the zoo as well.

  Their bodies landed with concussive booms, and the ground quickly sheeted with their blood. The battle
was still being fought overhead and I caught sight of Big Dread, hovering in the middle of the rotunda, shooting bursts of energy at the Harbinger’s security personnel.

  Kree signaled for everyone to head to the far side of the building and I gathered a sphere of energy that I heaved into the wall, tearing a huge hole through it, opening a passage to the outside world.

  She herded the children through the hole and turned to me. Before she reacted or even spoke a word, I could tell something was wrong.

  I could feel a change in the quality of the air. My breath was visible and the hairs on my wrists stood at attention. Before I turned around, I already knew he’d found me.

  The Harbinger.

  I pivoted and there he was: big as life, and twice as nasty.

  He smiled and then rocketed right at me.

  74

  I powered up a forcefield and stood my ground, planning on fighting to the end to buy Kree some time to escape with the kids. I watched her duck through the hole in the wall just as the Harbinger swung his hands around.

  Bolts of blue light erupted from his wrists, frozen tendrils that slammed into the forcefield.

  Gritting my teeth, I fought to maintain the forcefield, but the Harbinger was so fucking strong that he pushed me back.

  The villain’s icy tendrils snapped out like snakes, slipping around the forcefield and latching onto my wrists.

  The cold bound my arms to my side.

  The big man laughed boisterously and pulled back on the tendrils as if I was a fish snared in a net that he’d just cast.

  My legs gave out and I tumbled to the floor.

  The Harbinger yanked me forward until our faces were separated by mere inches.

  “Where’s Dez?” the Harbinger asked.

  “Working on his anger management issues,” I replied.

  “How did you escape the prison?”

  “With a little help from my friends.”

  The Harbinger grinned. “You’ve caused me a lot of problems, Quincy.”

  “I’m glad I could help.” I tried not to wilt under his fiery gaze.

  “But none of it matters,” the Harbinger sighed, twisting his tendrils around my wrists. “We’re nearing the end stages.”

  “Is this where you start to tell me your dastardly master plan to destroy the world?”

  He grinned. “I probably should, shouldn’t I? After all, you’re going to play a starring role.”

  Instead of telling me about his plan, the Harbinger slugged me hard in the jaw and my head snapped back. I was disoriented as the Harbinger laughed and let me flop to the ground and then he began dragging me like a sack of trash across the ground level of the building.

  The sounds of battle still echoed and I envisioned the Harbinger’s army shooting it out with Big Dread and the Morningstars.

  The Harbinger wasn’t distracted by any of it.

  He was focused on hauling me through a pair of doors that swung open to reveal a set of stairs that I was dragged down. The Harbinger picked up speed as we passed a dozen well-armed Snouts standing guard, bowing to the villain as we slipped by. Next, we moved through two airlocks and past more rows of Synths and human guards who pointed and jeered at me.

  Through it all, the Harbinger didn’t utter a word until we’d arrived at a lower level in the building which looked like a combination bank vault and mad scientist’s lab.

  There was an enormous open vault door with a steel and brass-colored locking mechanism on one wall, and on the other wall was a long clear screen that showed what looked like a real-time image of the sky over Fiasco Heights.

  The middle of the space was cluttered with banks of computer equipment, vials of multi-colored liquids, and a wide array of gadgets and gizmos strewed across tables and workbenches.

  I struggled to my feet (my hands were still bound) and that’s when I noticed the metal circle on the floor in the center of the room, which corresponded to another circle visible on the roof.

  The Harbinger waved his hands and what looked like a length of frozen rope shot from his fingers. The rope hit the ground and oozed around the metal circle which began thrumming and glowing.

  A metal cylinder moved piston-like out of the ground, revealing what looked like one of those tubes that are used to launch torpedoes on a submarine. The cylinder moved up and locked into the metal circle on the roof.

  “Do you know what that is?” the Harbinger asked.

  I shook my head and he grinned. “A device of my creation. A pulse cannon that lacks only one thing.”

  “Whatever it is, I’ll go out and find it if you let me go.”

  The Harbinger laughed. “Ammunition, Quincy! It lacks ammunition!”

  “Then, I guess we’re done here, so I’ll be on my—”

  The Harbinger turned and grabbed me by my arms, lifting me up off the ground.

  I was carried over to the vault door and slammed roughly to the ground.

  I looked inside the vault and a green light glowed near the back. I didn’t need to be told what it was; I already knew that the trap bottle was stashed inside.

  “Get inside,” the Harbinger ordered.

  “Are you nuts? I can’t expose the antimatter. If I do that it will blow the whole fucking universe up.”

  The Harbinger moved his arms in a circular pattern and spun a web of blue light that soon encased me. “Meet my latest creation. An electromagnetic containment field. Alas, I can’t manufacture a field as small as the one you can and I can’t channel the antimatter itself, but I do believe my larger field will enable you to work your magic.”

  “You sure about that?”

  He smiled. “You’ll have to go in and let me know. This is the first time I’ve used it.”

  Great. I was the guinea pig for a device that if it malfunctioned would destroy creation. Fantastic.

  He produced a clear vial the size of a thumb drive. “I need that filled.”

  “And if I choose not to?”

  “Then I’ll choose to detonate the whole thing.”

  “But then you’d die.”

  “I’m divine, Quincy. I’ve been touched by the Creator of everything. I win either way because even if the universe is destroyed, the bythos and a portion of me will remain. Rest assured, I will find a way to resurrect myself.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re fucking batshit crazy.”

  He smiled. “Most gods are.”

  The Harbinger nudged me into the vault.

  I stepped into the gloom and paused, allowing my eyes to acclimate. The shadows fell away and I spotted the trap bottle hovering in a field of green light.

  I inched ahead, listening to the electrical hum of the Harbinger’s containment field which snapped and crackled.

  Nearing the trap bottle, I removed the top from the Harbinger’s minute containment vial as a beelike buzzing sound, a note emanating from the trap bottle itself, filled my ears.

  Pearls of sweat formed at my brow as I stood before the trap bottle, trying to determine how I was going to fill the containment vial.

  I recalled how difficult it had been to contain the antimatter, how’d I created an energy field that surrounded the Light Breaker even as it caused the glass casing to shatter before me.

  Reaching out my hand with the small containment vial in it, I waved it around the trap bottle and the small containment vial began hovering.

  I squinted, focusing on the trap bottle.

  My gaze fixed on the inky black cloud, the antimatter, that shifted inside the bottle. Concentrating, I began harnessing all of the ambient energy, channeling it through my fingertips. For a moment I had thoughts of turning and attacking the Harbinger but realized the antimatter would likely be compromised and explode in the attendant struggle. My only option was to buy some time by filling the small vial.

  Blue fire appeared at my fingertips and soon enveloped my hands. The fire fused into points of light, lasers that pulsed. I directed the lasers toward the trap bottl
e and they shattered, cloaking the bottle in a magnetic field of golden light.

  I reached out and opened the trap bottle.

  The inky black cloud, the antimatter housed inside, rocketed toward me and then—

  It stopped.

  Mid-air.

  Captured in the middle of my small, contained magnetic field.

  As before, I held my hands out and brought them together. The antimatter was forceful and nearly pushed my hands apart. This time I was able to channel a portion of the antimatter into the Harbinger’s small containment vial before slotting the rest of the antimatter back into the trap bottle.

  I held the trap bottle in my left hand and the small containment vial in my right. The sound of hands clapping echoed and I looked back to see the Harbinger grinning. “You’re better than I imagined you’d be, Quincy.”

  “I do what I can.”

  “Bring the bottles to me.”

  I held them up and the Harbinger’s smile slipped away. I was a man with absolutely nothing, which meant I had nothing left to lose. I think the Harbinger could see that and it unnerved him. Still, he knew that I wasn’t like him. I wasn’t some amoral asshole who’d blow an entire world up just to make a fucking point or prove my divinity.

  “The bottles, Quincy,” the Harbinger demanded. “Now.”

  I was frozen by irresolution and the Harbinger used that against me, surging forward. He grabbed me by the throat and lifted me up. I fought to pry his fingers from my throat, wheezing.

  The Harbinger grabbed the small containment vial from me. He dropped me to the ground and moved away, studying the vial as if it was an object of unparalleled beauty.

  He moved over to the torpedolike weapon, his pulse cannon, and pulled back a breech, opening a slot within the device.

  He slid the small containment vessel inside and slotted the breech back in place.

  “This is it,” the Harbinger said, grinning like a fiend. “Consider yourself fortunate, Quincy. One day you will be able to say you were there when the new universal order was created.”

  I nodded and then I pointed. “I think she might have something to say about that.”