by Noah Michael
“It’s an alpha accelerator,” Maximus answered. “It uses super magnification to accelerate fissile alpha particles and initiate a fission chain reaction inside the target.”
“English please?” Raiden asked as the Shadows drew closer.
“It turns the target into a mini atomic bomb. It’s meant for blowing up walls or buildings, not living things, but it is very deadly. It’s not meant for close range, you should change weapons.”
But before Raiden had the chance, three of the Shadows had reached them. Maximus took the first two. Sarah kept the third one busy with bursts of air, dirt, and falling bricks. Raiden used the distraction to take out the fourth Shadow trailing behind the others. He aimed at the Shadow and a six-inch tube shot out of the barrel. There was a flash of light as the tube cracked in half just as it hit the Shadow’s abdomen. The Shadow screamed before imploding in a cloud of smoke, flames, and gore.
“I told you that it was not meant for living creatures,” Maximus shouted, parrying one Shadow’s blade and fending off a second one with a kick. Suddenly, his expression turned to dread. “Sarah!”
Raiden spun around in time to see three more Shadows sprinting down the alley, Sarah slumped over one of their shoulders.
“Raiden, what are you doing!? They have Sarah!” Maximus sprinted past Raiden. Despite what he had just done with it, Raiden picked up the alpha accelerator, aiming it at a wall down the alley, far enough for the explosion not to kill Sarah, but close enough perhaps for the force to knock the Shadows off their feet. Before it could strike and disrupt their getaway, one of the Shadows jumped into the path of the bullet. Raiden closed his eyes as the Shadow blew to bits.
The Shadow carrying Sarah neared the dead end. Before Maximus could reach him, the Shadow dove into the ground and with Sarah, fled up the alley wall, and out of sight. Maximus fell to his knees, clutching a small kaza in his right hand. Raiden ran to one of the injured Shadows in the alley.
“Where did he take her!?”
The Shadow laughed. Raiden smashed his face against the ground.
“Where did he take her!?”
“Kill me. What does it matter now? I have fulfilled my mission. I have brought honor to my tribe.” The Shadow stared triumphantly at Raiden. He considered hitting the man again when Maximus fired a pistol from behind him. The injured Shadow choked out blood and went limp.
Raiden turned to Maximus who was still clutching the kaza in one hand.
“It wasn’t your fault. Don’t blame yourself.”
“I am not blaming anyone,” Maximus said, wiping a tear from his eye. “Blaming wastes time. I am going to get her back. But if you follow me into this, there is truly no turning back. We are about to enter a battle far greater than anything you have ever seen.”
“There’s already no turning back for me. I’m a wanted terrorist, and I killed three people. Do you know where they took her?”
“No, but, for better or for worse, I know someone who might. Do you know anything about fixing vehicles?”
Raiden looked back at the van. Its belly was almost cut in half. Smoke poured out of the hood.
“We should probably rent a car.”
Chapter Eight
Gil
Michigan City
July 14
9:00 p.m.
Raiden and Maximus stood in the parking lot of Gil’s Department Store.
“I don’t see how this place has anything to do with finding Sarah,” Raiden said.
“You will see once we get inside.”
The store was predictably empty for this time of night. Maximus led the way as they approached a young boy sporting an employee’s t-shirt.
“Can I help you folks?” the boy asked. “The store’s about to close.”
“Yes,” Maximus answered, “I am a friend of Gil’s. Can you bring us to him?”
“How do you know Gil?”
Maximus leaned in, whispering in the boy’s ear. The boy’s eyes opened wide.
“Follow me,” he said, hurrying towards the back of the store. Maximus and Raiden followed.
“Are we about to meet another Enlai?” Raiden asked as they walked, “I thought Sarah was your only ally.”
“She is.”
“So, I take it you don’t really like this guy, which means I probably will.” They stopped behind the boy at a restricted employee’s only door.
“Here we are,” the boy said, “his office is through this door and down the stairs.”
“Thank you,” Maximus said, opening the door. A blend of acrid odors filled the space, smells of goats and sheep, animal droppings, sweat, and some odors which were utterly unrecognizable. Raiden covered his face with his shirt.
“I can see why you don’t like this guy,” he choked out.
“These are merely precautions to repel enemies,” Maximus replied, covering his nose.
To his relief, Raiden spotted another door not far along. He dove through it, gasping desperately for fresh air.
The room was an overgrown zoo. Cows grazed on grass growing from the floor of their cage. A stable held four fine stallions, and an aviary contained dozens of birds, from eagles to doves. A reptile cage featured turtles, iguanas, lizards, and even a pool of crocodiles and alligators. Monkeys wandered from cage to cage. The room was littered with books: Animalpedia, The Animal Kingdom, and others, sprawled open on the floor.
An orangutan noticed Maximus and Raiden. It was different from the rest of the monkeys. For one thing, it was fully clothed, albeit, in baggy clothes and a wrist watch. It also seemed older and wiser, eyeing them with suspicion and curiosity. As they watched it approach, an enormous cage fell over them and fastened to the floor. Raiden pounded on the cage bars, but Maximus bent down in front of the orangutan.
“I need to speak with Gil. You know who I am.”
The creature shifted. Its arms grew and its hair fell out, until a man stood in its place. He looked ancient, with a long, bony figure topped with thin white hair and a wrinkle-lined forehead. Yet, he carried himself tall and seemed to possess a disproportionate amount of strength for his age.
“Maximus, son of Armolin, what business brings you to my home with a… guest?”
“He is merely a human,” Maximus replied. “Release us from the cage so that we may speak.”
“You should not have brought him here.”
“My name is Raiden, sir,” Raiden spoke up, “I am a friend of the Resistance.
“Give him your hand to shake,” Maximus whispered, and Raiden did as he was told. The man touched only his watch to the palm of Raiden’s hand, staring at Raiden’s face. Raiden felt a small pinch where the watch touched him.
“He resembles Legasus.”
“He willingly offers you his code. Is that not enough to release us?” The man stared at Raiden another moment before walking away.
“Is that Gil?” Raiden asked.
“Yes.”
“And what did you say I gave him willingly?”
“A sample of, what you humans call, your DNA. He now has the ability to take your form and study all of your physical weaknesses and conditions.”
“I really have to stop listening when you tell me to do things.”
The air sharpened with shifting gears and the front wall of the cage fell open. Gil returned with a laser gun on his belt.
“Please follow me,” he said.
They made their way through the aviary to a wooden table adjacent to a duck pond and a bookshelf. Each book was marked up to a certain page. No one spoke, so Raiden broke the silence.
“If you don’t mind my asking, you’re a Coder, right? Like the Guardian Gorbith? I wrote about him in my comics, in the Wildfire issues when he stopped a gang of Burners from burning down Chicago during the Chicago fire.”
“Your comics?” Gil raised an eyebrow.
“It’s a long story,” Maximus said. “But it’s okay. You can trust him.”
“I am an ex-member of the Alliance’s Elite Me
dical Division, or the EMD. We were the top in the field of biology and often worked with builders to develop healing methods. I, as you stated, am a Coder, master of DNA. Using this watch I helped develop for the Alliance, I can incorporate any other DNA I have come in contact with.”
Raiden felt a pang of discomfort at those last words.
“How else do you think I could have managed to live 264 years?”
“You’re 264 years old?” Raiden repeated in disbelief.
“Yes. I revive my physical nature every so often.”
“Why didn’t every Coder change their DNA to make themselves live longer? Why didn’t they change other Enlai’s DNA to help them in battle?”
“It isn’t as easy as it seems,” Maximus said grimly. “The physical pain of transformation is second only to the emotional pain one endures when outliving friends and family. Gil watched the entire Alliance burn down in his lifetime.”
“Maximus, I did not wish to share such personal information with a human stranger. The past is in the past. Let it remain there.” Something in Gil’s eyes contradicted his casual tone.
“Perhaps the time has come for you to stop hiding from the past like a coward and start fighting for the future,” Maximus said coldly.
“If you’ve come once again to beg me to join the resistance, leave now.”
“I did not,” Maximus said. “I have finally found a surviving Enlai willing to help us. A very young Surger, probably the last of her kind. She was captured by the Shadows. They want to use her for something called the Nexus Mirror.”
Gil’s eyebrows rose at the mention of the object’s name.
“If I will tell you what I know, you will leave?”
Maximus nodded. Gil weighed his options, then continued. “The culture of the Shadow Tribe is of honor and pride. Following the destruction of the Alliance, the Shadows set up camp in the School of Socrates itself as a display of power. If they kidnapped a Surger, that is where you will find her. As for the mirror, I have heard only rumors. In the times of the Alliance, it was said that the Guardians protected an ancient artifact known as the Nexus Mirror. It was said to hold a great power within, a power as old as time itself.”
“That doesn’t sound like something we’d want Roko to find,” Raiden said.
“Agreed,” Maximus replied. “Gil, I’ve searched for the school before, to no avail.”
“The Shadows’ greatest strength is deception. Even if you find the school, they can render it invisible through illusion. Even I do not know how to find the real one.”
“Is there anything else you can share? Information regarding their leader?”
“The Shadow Tribe answers only to the Chief of Shadows. Each chief is more powerful than the last, having to slay his predecessor to gain his title. I can provide you with quick transportation to Greece to a known entrance of the shadow realm in Epirus,” Gil said, “however, the transportation runs on sunlight, so you will need to wait until morning. Which means that unfortunately, you will need to spend the night here.”
Gil noticed Raiden’s visible discomfort at the invitation. “Don’t worry. The living quarters are separate. Maximus knows where they are.”
Maximus stood. “I’m going to go to sleep now. I suggest you do the same, Raiden. We will need our energy tomorrow.”
Maximus walked back through the aviary, leaving Raiden alone with Gil.
“You’re a DNA expert, right?” Raiden asked.
“That is correct.”
“How difficult would it be to change mine? I’m in a war way out of my league. It wouldn’t hurt to, you know, have super strength or something.”
“Human, I can change your code for you, but give yourself ample time to analyze the decision. Each being is built perfectly, with balanced strengths and weaknesses, even humans. It is something the Enlai have never understood. I don’t want you to learn more about yourself and who you truly are only to regret having left that person behind. You already have the potential to do great things.”
Raiden nodded, surprised and emboldened by the unexpected, but kind words. “Can’t you come with us? I don’t really get along with Maximus either, but we’re trying to save a little girl’s life. You might be the difference between success and failure.” Raiden waited but Gil patiently ignored the question, turning to his books.
“Maybe Maximus was right,” he said, “maybe you are a coward.”
Gil’s head spun, glaring angrily at Raiden. Suddenly, his hands gripped his face and his eyes shut. Raiden staggered back as flames erupted from the old man’s chest, spreading quickly down towards his feet as his entire body turned to fire. The wrinkles on Gil’s face disappeared. His expression grew fierce, he suddenly looked like a young man. The flaming figure turned towards Raiden, letting out a terrible roar. A new wave of heat and light hit Raiden, who shielded his eyes with his hand. Lowering his hand, he couldn’t believe what he saw.
In front of him stood a dashing young man with shining blue eyes.
But he was no ordinary man. Floating above the ground, he was made completely of clear, shining water, save for the dark flame burning within his liquid chest.
“What are you?” Raiden asked.
“This is my true form, discovered over hundreds of years of searching. I know more about myself than I had ever thought possible. I know who I am, and I am not a coward.”
“There is always more to learn about yourself,” Raiden said. “I don’t know how you are doing this, but if you think that locking yourself down here is the way you are meant to be, you’re missing something.”
“Let me show you who I am. Reach into my heart.” Gil was referring to the fire within his chest and Raiden hesitated at the offer. “I will not hurt you. I promise.”
Cautiously, he extended his arm. He felt the cold, tingly water as his hand moved closer and closer to the burning flame. Touching it, he winced, and everything went black.
“Open your eyes.”
A small room was occupied by one desk and two friends. One, smiling, held a watch.
“This is it, Gil. The tool every Coder dreams of, and we’ve built it.”
“You’ve built it, Shaun. I just came up with the idea.”
“You always come up with the ideas. It’s my turn. Are a couple of beers a good idea?”
“You bet--” The door smashed open, followed by gunshots. Shaun dove in front of Gil, the bullets burned through his chest. Gil knelt over him, but he was still. With no time to mourn, he grabbed the watch from the hand of his fallen friend and ran out the broken door. The building was filled with the cries of people running, screaming, dying. Bullets and lasers whizzed through the air, and walls exploded.
Gil found a broken plant jar on the floor. He tore off a leaf and, put it in the top of the watch, which lit up and injected two shots into his wrist.
His skin turned green, and vines grew out rapidly from his arm.
A laser beam barely missed his head. Gil turned towards the shooter, thorns sprouted from his fingertips. He unleashed them at his target, sending the enemy tumbling to the floor.
“Galaxius’s forces have reached our floor! Evacuate immediately!”
An explosion erupted, blowing four Alliance soldiers to pieces. A man stepped out from the dust, his body made completely of steel, a sinister smile on his face.
“Stone!” Gil ran towards the man while shooting vines at his legs. The man grabbed the vines and swung them, sending Gil crashing through a window. As he fell, Gil wrapped vines around a large tree and swung, avoiding impact. Flames erupted from the window he had fallen from. Gil ran, and as he did so, his skin slowly regained its original color.
Darkness.
The sky was clear. The air was calm. Gil, older now, stood on guard outside a house with another man. A figure approached them, expressionless, wearing a steel armband on each wrist. As he drew two long blades, the steel spread down his along his body, turning him completely metal.
Gil ran into the
house to warn the others. Armolin was playing with his child in the living room. He delivered the news and Armolin sent his son to hide. Gil ran back to the door only to find his comrade on the floor with multiple stab wounds in his back. No sign of Stone.
Shouting erupted inside the house.
He moved back inside, jumped over the bodies of two more guards, and headed for Armolin’s room. Armolin stood with a foot-long gash on his abdomen, swords in his hands, facing Stone.
“Gil, go! He is too powerful. Save my son.” Armolin charged Stone. Gil closed his eyes and turned to the child’s bedroom, finding him in the closet. He grabbed the boy from the closet and threw him over his shoulder.
“Let me go!” the boy screamed and flailed in his arms. “We can’t just leave my father to die!”
Gil ran with the child, not looking back, tears streaming from his eyes.
Darkness.
Raiden awoke, speechless. In front of him stood Gil, back to his original form.
“I fought alongside my friends and loved ones and watched as they gave their lives for my own. I have always been the one left to escape, the one sent to flee the losing battle, in hope for the future. Well, the future has arrived, and I have failed them all. Their deaths have been in vain. Maximus is right to despise me. Not because I am a coward, but because I am a failure.”
“The future isn’t over. It’s still happening,” Raiden said. “If you would only fight with us, maybe you can still honor your friends.”
“I have no honor to my name, and therefore none to give,” Gil answered, “I am a worthless man.”
“You say you know everything there is to know about yourself. I think that’s a lie. There is always more to learn. And I hope that when you realize that, you will make the right decision.”
“Perhaps…Or perhaps not.”
They stood in silence, not knowing what to say next.
“You are a special man, Raiden, and for that I would like to give you a gift.”
