Our Contest

by Phillip Murrell

  He has jet black hair and pale skin, as best as Julie can determine. She fires her reloaded gun at him. The first round or two bury themselves in his side, but once he knows of her, his reflexes catch up and aid him in evading her shots.

  The beams stop, as do the rest of Knight Terror’s attacks. She looks over at him and watches as a completely human body crumples to the floor. Nobody attacked him, so he must have overexerted himself. Mary Lee drags his limp body to Julie.

  “Mel, I need—” Julie begins.

  She feels her body violently yanked toward another. The marine seems wounded, probably mortally, but another directs her toward him. Julie shoots into the body that she’s being drawn toward.

  “Mel, him,” Julie yells and points at the puppet master.

  Julie feels yet another augmentation become hers to command. She fires at the former puppet master and kills him. She then feels teeth sink into her neck.

  The pale man drinks heavily from her wound and appears to heal his own. Julie feels her life fade. She does the only thing she has left. She merges her body with the vampire attacker. The technique catches him off guard. He screams as her bones pierce his internal organs. Julie realizes that her own screams have joined his. She fights through the pain to give one last command to her team.

  “Mel, give Power to James—aargh!”

  Julie can’t be any more specific. She only feels pain and terror now. For an excruciating moment, she focuses on Melissa giving the augmentation from the unconscious Power to James. James forms a crude protective bunker around the surviving Templars. The only exclusions are Julie and Dante. Julie thinks she sees a black cloud racing toward her. The pain doesn’t let her focus. It could just be her imagination, but her lungs burn inside the blackness. It smells of brimstone and what she can only define as despair.

  Is that demonic laughing? Julie wonders as she closes her eyes for the last time and exists no more.

  Thumbnail seems frantic on the bridge of the Vengeful ISH. The top of the hour just passed. Julie said this would be the time the Malignant realize the battle has begun.

  “We have to go!” Thumbnail complains.

  All the other Templars are in full military gear. They also have ten additional suits of armor. Before anyone can respond, the sirens ring. Flaimeson rushes a station.

  “They are raising shields and preparing to fire,” he informs them of the obvious. “We have to go now. I hate to disobey Father, but we have no choice.”

  “You are not disobeying me,” Abel says.

  All Templars jump at the sudden return of Abel.

  Seal Pup releases his grip on a terrified Mitch. “It doesn’t sound like Mother is going to give us a mulligan,” Seal Pup says through barely maintained anger.

  Mitch suddenly vanishes as a portal appears beneath his feet. Seal Pup tries to grab him but finds he can’t move.

  “What did you do?” Seal Pup accuses.

  “I sent Mitch to a safe location on Earth. The rest of you must hop over to the Womb. Mother wasn’t receptive to my pleas.”

  “I could have told you that before we lost our friends!” Seal Pup screams.

  Votary places a relaxing hand on his shoulder.

  “Flaimeson, send us to the location of Knight Terror. You should get an energy signal from him. We’re all going to bail our people out first.”

  “Not a problem, Votary,” Flaimeson says. “I think the word got out to the Gudz amongst the Malignant. We should be able to take some ships.” Flaimeson approaches Votary with a small tracker. “We have to, this time.”

  Votary nods. Flaimeson attaches the tiny tracker to Votary’s armor, approximately over his heart.

  The Vengeful ISH shudders as the first volley of rockets collides with their shields.

  “Go, my friends,” Abel says. “I’ll return to Mother and await the conclusion of the battle.”

  Abel leaves the Vengeful ISH without any additional advice or encouragement.

  “Hit it,” Votary orders Flaimeson.

  Flaimeson quickly interacts with his vapor board. The remaining Templars of Votary, Seal Pup, Caliber, Flaimeson, Stitch, Thumbnail, Karmic, and Nijigen vanish to finally reinforce their comrades.

  Jillarni sits, unknowingly alone, in his cell on the Vengeful ISH. A smile spreads across his lips as he feels the endless shake of rocket explosions.

  “Good luck, my friends,” Jillarni says. “My celebration awaits me.”

  Jillarni sits back as the ship explodes around him. The magnitude of the blast is so large that he feels no pain.

  “Oh shit!” is all Keith hears before Jenny violently yanks on the steering wheel to her car.

  A bright light continuously illuminates the night sky over their heads.

  It must have startled her, Keith thinks, because it scared the shit out of me.

  Jenny overcorrects the vehicle and sends the car into a spin. The car behind them on the highway slams into them and their spin becomes a tumble. Keith hears a crunch as metal collides with concrete. He’s quickly disoriented as he holds on to the seat as they plummet over the side of a bridge into the water beneath them.

  The air escapes Keith’s lungs as their car slams into the flat water after dropping fifty feet. He momentarily blacks out.

  When Keith comes to, it couldn’t have been too long, he sees water filling into the vehicle. He turns his head and looks at Jenny. She has a cut on her forehead, but she’s still breathing. He unbuckles and reaches over to her. She’s unresponsive to his touch. He unbuckles her seat as well and pulls her into his lap.

  He reaches into his pocket and curses himself for leaving in such a rush that he left his phone, wallet, and multipurpose tool. It could have been used to break out the windows.

  Wait until the water fully fills, Keith thinks.

  He knows that opening the door will be easier then. He hears Jenny moan as the water rushes in.

  “Jenny, wake up.”

  “Keith,” she says.

  Her hand slowly goes to her head. She rubs the cut and screams when she sees the blood.

  “Calm down,” Keith says.

  “We have to get out of here!” Jenny panics.

  “Calm down. Once the water fills up, we can open the door. We’ve already settled on the bottom. The water wasn’t too deep, maybe twenty feet at most.”

  “I love you, Keith,” Jenny tearfully shouts. “I don’t want to die without saying it again.”

  Keith fights back his own tears. The fear of imminent death begs him to tell her the same, but his pride keeps his lips sealed.

  “Take a breath,” Keith advises moments before the water takes the rest of the air.

  Jenny does as instructed. Keith yanks on the door, but can’t get it to open. He kicks and pounds, but the damage from the collision made it so that the internal mechanics are unresponsive. He looks at Jenny as she bangs on the other doors. Nothing is moving. There’s no escape. Keith’s lungs burn as he frantically claws at the back window. Spots of black fill his vision.

  Cammy looks out the window of her home in Yama. She looks, along with the people in the streets at the mysterious fireball that briefly lit up the night sky before vanishing. Cammy doesn’t have much time to consider what happened. A solid green beam flies toward her face. She disintegrates, along with all her possessions, as the twenty-mile wide beam of destruction from the boreship slams into Yama.

  From his studio, Papa Nutmare also fails to realize the implications of the green light that ends his life.

  Sally isn’t even looking for the source of the explosion when the beam kills her. She helps the short-handed staff at Yama Heritage. Mitch’s little sister dies due to her unselfish nature.

  Cecilia sits at the head of The Enterprise conference room table. Around the table are her chief officers. The upper leadership of The Enterpri
se winks out of existence as the death ray burns their flesh and boils their blood.

  Just east of the attack on Yama, a Malignant troop transport hovers over the hidden entrance to The Lair. Bright green lasers blast the doors open, and the Malignant troopers drop inside. They move as one unit through the abandoned halls.

  “Locate the relics,” the officer orders. “We will equal success.”

  “For Mother,” the others cheer.

  The platoon of fifty men and women move through the halls and ignore all the machinery around them as they follow a sophisticated scanner to a cache of ancient, even by Malignant standards, technology. The platoon clears its way to the door that Abel always kept closed.

  “Open it,” the officer orders.

  It is the last thing he says. A spinning disc separates his head from his shoulders.

  The other marines turn and see three dozen copies of the same augment standing before them in white robes. They speak as one.

  “You may not have them.”

  Before any marines can react, one of the clones activates a button. The Cave, the ship that brought Abel to Earth, explodes all around the assembled. They are killed, and the vessel is completely obliterated under the sand of the southwestern United States.

  Darsh senses the loss of his clones at his former lair. From the streets of New Delhi and everywhere across his country, he protects his people from the Malignant marines who have landed. The whistle of flying chakras augments the cacophony of sirens, screams, and weapons fire. None of it matters to Darsh. He wades through the bodies as he effortlessly kills. His own clones use a multitude of abilities to slay the invaders. The green beam that his Lair clones reported is not his concern yet. It will be. Darsh knows that the laser will fire until the planet turns every inch of Earth into its path. Until that moment, Darsh will fight.

  A clone transforms into an otherworldly dinosaur and bites a marine in half until it is felled by penetrators. Another yanks a marine out of the sky and squeezes him with the force of millions of pounds per square inch. The flying marine oozes out of its armor but not because of any augmentation.

  Darsh smiles to himself. The Malignant will not survive long in his domain. He knows he can keep himself alive in space. He doesn’t fear the world’s destruction but feels obligated to give hope until it does end. It’s something the old DJ would have done.

  Chapter 10

  Seal Pup aims his Gudz rifle down the hall as he appears on the Womb. He sees the bodies of hundreds surrounding a thick black cloud. The bodies look horrifying as they stick to walls and ceilings just as easily as they lay on the floor. Blood, spent brass, discarded wrappers, and various organs float everywhere. The cloud doesn’t move, but Seal Pup knows it must be Dante. Screams come from inside the cloud. The other Templars assemble around it.

  “Xibalba, let us in,” Votary says.

  “His helmet does not work,” Flaimeson reminds them. “We have to get them out once he recognizes us.”

  “Not likely to happen as long as people are still screaming inside of this,” Nijigen says.

  He stands slightly too close to the smoke. A blistered and puss-dripping hand swipes at Nijigen before vanishing inside the safety of the black smoke.

  “Shit,” Nijigen says as he jumps back.

  “I’ve gotta do it,” Votary says. “Make sure you cover Xibalba as soon as I do.”

  The other Templars nod in agreement. Votary takes a running head start and dives into the smoke. The moment he does, the smoke vanishes, and Dante collapses to the floor in his black comfort suit.

  Seal Pup identifies two Malignant still on the other side of the cloud. He fires penetrators at them, but they have no effect on the first. The pens pass through his green gaseous body.

  “You!” Karmic accuses as Seal Pup’s pens slam into the mutated body of the other Malignant.

  His body is pale with long black hair. His clothing is torn, and he clutches his injured side. The man looks directly at Karmic when he challenges him. He must be able to see in the dark.

  “Great, more piggies come to fight Vlad?” Vlad gloats.

  Karmic charges the man who killed Gabriella. He swings his talwar. Vlad dodges but not with the speed from the earlier battle. He evades the blade and swipes at Karmic with his long claws. They scrape against the Templar’s armor but do little else.

  Seal Pup surveys the battlefield as he hears Malignant retreat at their presence. Pens are fired from the assault rifles his peers carry. He looks back toward Dante. Stitch already has him mostly suited up in a fresh armor. The man seems shell shocked as his helmet closes around his face. Behind him is Knight Terror in a protective bunker form. Seal Pup’s thoughts are interrupted as he also dodges an attack from the green gaseous man.

  He appears to have to hold his breath to attack. Seal Pup blasts him with his adhesive and sticks the man to the wall when he becomes human again. He watches as the man holds his breath and melts through the prison. Seal Pup anticipates this. Once the man falls through, he gasps for a breath. Seal Pup kicks him in the face and crushes his lower jaw. The man falls backwards against the wall and slides down it unconscious.

  Seal Pup turns his attention back to Karmic and Vlad as he listens to Caliber’s pens sail down the hallway. Vlad is on his knees and holds up a hand to halt Karmic’s killing blow.

  “Why should I?” Karmic asks.

  Karmic doesn’t wait for a response. He plunges his blade through the top of Vlad’s shoulder and through his heart below. Vlad seems unimpressed. He cackles as Karmic frustrates himself while pulling the blade free.

  “Sorry to disappoint you,” Vlad taunts. “You won’t get revenge for your friends I killed. This one was especially troubling, but her plan to kill me failed like all the others.”

  Vlad removes his hand from his right side. The Templars see Julie’s dead face staring back at them.

  “It was a clever attack,” Vlad admits, “but my body is getting rid of the last remnants. Once we took her, the rest of your people folded.”

  A look of concern passes Vlad’s face. It turns from concern and confusion to pain. His scream amplifies the suffering in his eyes. Seal Pup smiles beneath his helmet as Votary speaks.

  “Do what you have to do, Karmic,” Votary says as he holds Vlad down.

  The Templar needs no further permission. He curls an armored fist and punches Vlad repeatedly. The man, without his augmentation to support him, dies by the second blow. Karmic literally punches through his face. Karmic wiggles his fingers and allows pieces of Vlad’s flesh to fall between them to join the gore that floods the hallways.

  Seal Pup walks to the blood-splattered bunker and knocks on it.

  “Knight Terror, open up. It’s safe now.”

  The doors open and spill the contents from inside. Seal Pup is momentarily puzzled when he sees Power lying inside his own body. His heart drops more when he sees Gallery’s amputated stumps. The mystery of the bunker is soon revealed when James transforms himself back into a human.

  “I’m beginning to like this,” James says.

  “Don’t get used to it,” Votary says. “Swap, change him back with Knight Terror.”

  “Why? We need the firepower,” James says.

  “We just hopped over here. That means the functional Malignant ships can, too. We need you to shut down their suits if we come across any,” Votary explains.

  James sighs. “Oh well, all good things have to end.”

  Melissa transfers the powers back to their rightful owners. Stitch checks on both Gallery and Power. It’s been too long since Gallery’s injuries. Stitch can no longer repair the damage.

  “Those tourniquets aren’t needed, at least,” Stitch says. “The damage to her elbows is better, but she’ll need replacement arms. I’m hoping the Malignant will have a way to fix them.”

  “She will have
lifelike prosthetics,” Caliber assures.

  “Everyone, get into your replacement armor now,” Votary orders to the rescued Templars. “We’ll wait for you to power up, then we have to go.”

  “Can’t we just hop into Mother’s throne room?” Nijigen asks.

  “Not anymore,” Flaimeson answers. “We do not have a portable hopper, plus I am sure the Malignant vessels that still operate have jammers in place now.”

  “Shit,” Mary Lee curses. “Does this mean Mother will escape?”

  Flaimeson shakes his head. “Mother is not our target. The bridge is. She knows this and has no reason to leave. I am sure she and Father are regarding the battle from there.”

  “Stitch, any idea if Gallery and Power will recover?” Seal Pup asks.

  Stitch shakes her head and holds up her hands. “How the hell should I know? I keep telling you guys that I’m not a doctor. They’ll wake up when they do.”

  “Okay, this means we have to leave some people back here. Stitch, wait with Mag Pulse, Swap, and Roids. Templars, everyone leave your drones, too. That’ll be enough to protect them,” Votary says.

  “I thought I was going with you? I want to keep fighting,” Mag Pulse protests from inside his new armor.

  “I’ve changed my mind. You’ve done your part,” Votary answers. “You need to rest. The rest of us will fly to the bridge. We have to get there as soon as possible.”

  Conflict echoes from the distance.

  “Your friends?” Votary asks Flaimeson.

  Flaimeson nods.

  “Good. It sounds like we have help now. We shouldn’t have to worry too much about the Malignant fighting to this point. They’ll consolidate around Mother now. They can’t lose this ship or they’ll have to cease their attack on Earth.”