Counterparts

by Lucas Flint

  “He disappeared?” said Stinger. “That’s weird. Do you think he got captured by the Venetians?”

  “Seems unlikely, but I don’t know,” said Bolt with a shrug. “I tried contacting Talon, but for some reason my watch told me that it couldn’t connect. So I tried to contact you, but same message. I think there’s a signal jamming device inside this place.”

  “Yes, there is,” said Stinger. “Is that why you came here? To see if we were okay?”

  Bolt nodded. “Yeah. I thought it was suspicious that my watch couldn’t connect with yours, so I came here just to make sure you guys were okay. By the way, how is Talon and Electrica’s mission going?”

  “I have no idea,” said Stinger, shaking his head. He gestured at the unconscious guard lying before him. “This guy said they were probably going to be in even worse condition than me, but I don’t know what that means or where they are. They might still be alive, but they might also be dead. Just don’t know.”

  “That’s not good,” said Bolt. He looked over his shoulder at Bauta. “At least you got one of the Venetians. Which one is this, by the way? I’ve never seen him before.”

  “He calls himself Bauta, but his real name is Henry Winter and he can make illusions,” said Stinger. “Anyway, could you break these cuffs? They’re really uncomfortable and make it difficult for me to get up and move.”

  Bolt reached down around Stinger and tore the cuffs off his wrists. Stinger immediately stood up, rubbing his wrists and stretching his arms and wings. “Thanks.”

  “No problem,” said Bolt. “Now, I think we should try to find Talon and Electrica. With Rime’s disappearance, I—”

  A shout interrupted Bolt, causing Stinger and him to look down the parking garage in time to see yet another set of guards—each one armed with deadly-looking guns—running toward Stinger and Bolt with their guns before them. There were seven guards in all, but the way they ran so closely together made their group look much bigger than it actually was.

  “Uh oh,” said Stinger with a gulp. “Looks like backup.”

  “Who cares?” said Bolt, getting into a running position. “I can take them all out easy.”

  Before Bolt could take them out, however, one of the guards fired at them. Instead of firing a bullet, however, his gun shot what looked like a mini canister, though it flew so fast that Stinger couldn’t tell for sure what it was. He and Bolt just ducked, causing the projectile to fly harmlessly over their heads and explode against the floor behind them, unleashing a small cloud of yellow gas that Stinger recognized.

  “Uh oh,” said Stinger. He looked at Bolt. “Powerless gas.”

  “Damn it,” said Bolt. “Okay, we’re running. No way am I risking a fight against anyone who uses powerless gas. Not worth it.”

  “What about Talon and Electrica, though?” said Stinger, glancing toward the parking garage’s exit. “Shouldn’t we try to find them?”

  Bolt shook his head. “Not if that means dealing with these guards. We’ll just have to trust that they’ll be able to get out of here on their own, hopefully with Rime’s family in tow. Now, come on. Those guards will be here in seconds.”

  Before Stinger could object, Bolt grabbed him and zoomed back toward the parking garage’s exit. Stinger heard the guards shouting and shooting behind them, but they were going too fast for him to look back. He felt relieved that they were leaving this place, but at the same time, he also felt extremely guilty, because he felt like they were abandoning Talon and Electrica to whatever traps that Mann may have laid for them.

  I just hope that Bolt is right and they’ll be able to save themselves, Stinger thought as he and Bolt rushed out of the parking garage and made their way back into the city itself. Otherwise, I have a feeling that this mission is not going to end well at all.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The thing which emerged from the portal looked like no creature from Earth. It was vaguely humanoid, but it looked like no human that Talon had ever seen. Bony, insect-like wings rose from its back, while jagged teeth as sharp as daggers were exposed between its flabby lips. It had tufts of greasy hair on its chest, while its face was like a squid’s, except with two black eyes that looked disturbingly intelligent. It had long, thin claws on its fingers and it was quite tall, tall enough to brush the top of its head against the ceiling of the room. It wore no clothing, but somehow Talon could tell that it was not just some dumb beast. It looked especially menacing with the portal crackling behind it, making its brownish skin look like a living creature independent of the monster itself.

  “What is that thing?” said Talon. She put a hand over her mouth. “Where did it even come from?”

  “No idea,” said Electrica. She didn’t sound nearly as afraid as Talon, although Talon noticed Electrica’s hands shaking anyway. “It looks like one of the carvings on the pillars, though.”

  Talon looked at one of the pillars nearby and saw that Electrica was correct. One of the carvings depicted a creature that looked almost exactly like the one standing before them. It also depicted some humans throwing what appeared to be spears at it, but Talon didn’t spend too much time looking at the carving, because the creature was most likely going to attack them any second now. Right now, it appeared to be scanning the room, as if trying to gain its bearings, but Talon had no doubt that once it figured out where it was, it would attack them and maybe make its way to the surface to harm more people.

  “I-I’ll kill it,” said Rime, holding up his hands, which had icy gas rising from his palms. “F-Freeze it solid before i-it can harm us.”

  Rime stretched his arms out toward the creature before either Talon or Electrica could stop him. Ice began to appear on the creature’s body, starting from the chest and extending across the rest of its body. The creature looked down at the ice spreading over its body, but it didn’t look particularly afraid or even angry. It seemed more curious, as if it had never seen ice before in its life and was trying to figure out what it was. Indeed, despite the creature’s frightening appearance, it looked almost docile, more like a cow or an elephant than a bear in its temperament.

  But then the creature let out an inhumanly low growl and suddenly roared. Its roar was as loud as a bomb’s explosion; inside the enclosed room, it was even louder than it normally was. The ice spreading around its body shattered like glass, while Talon and the others were all knocked down onto the floor from the impact of the roar. Talon bumped her head against the floor, making her head spin before she shook her head and looked up at the creature again. It still stood in front of the portal, but now it was looking at her and the others as if it had finally realized how much of a threat they were to it. It didn’t move, but Talon had no doubt that that was only because the creature was not used to moving on Earth.

  “What was that?” said Electrica, sitting up and rubbing her ears. “I’ve never heard anything scream that loudly before.”

  “T-That w-wasn’t a normal scream,” said Rime, who was propping himself up on his elbows. “I n-need to get my f-family out of here before it kills us.”

  “How?” said Dana. She and Martha were lying on the floor, too, but they were already recovering from the creature’s scream like Talon, Electrica, and Rime. “The secret entrance is closed and going up the elevator would just take us to the lobby where the police are.”

  “Well, you t-two can’t protect y-yourselves,” said Rime. “It would be b-better to get you two out of h-here than to stay here and protect both of y-you while fighting this m-monster at the same time.”

  “Rime, take your family to the back of the room,” said Talon as she rose to her feet. “Electrica and I will distract the monster. Perhaps you can try to force the secret exit open while we distract the beast.”

  “Good plan,” said Electrica, who was also getting back to her feet, though more slowly than Talon, probably because she was older than her and didn’t take those kinds of attacks as well as she used to. “But I’m not sure how long kitten and I will be
able to distract this monster. One more roar like that and I think I’ll be down for the count.”

  “That’s why we shouldn’t waste any time in killing the bastard,” said Talon. “Whatever it is, it has no right being here, so we have every right to take it out, especially if it tries to harm us again.”

  “Okay,” said Rime. “Y-You two do that, b-but I’ll come back and h-help if necessary.”

  “All right,” said Talon. “Let’s do this!”

  Talon and Electrica ran toward the creature, while Rime and his family went over to the secret entrance in an attempt to open it. The creature apparently decided to move as well, because it began walking toward Talon and Electrica, albeit slowly, like it was moving underwater. That made Talon wonder briefly if the creature was from some world where the physics worked differently than they did here, but she ignored such speculations for now in order to focus on taking down the creature.

  As Talon was quicker than Electrica, she reached the creature first. She slashed at its shins with her claws, but to her surprise, her claws just bounced off the creature’s skin like steel. The creature responded by kicking her in the side, the blow knocking her down flat on the ground. The creature, despite its thinness, had hit surprisingly hard, leaving a huge bruise on her stomach that made it hard for her to think or focus on anything else. She wasn’t dead, nor unconscious, but she was now starting to think that a different set of tactics was in order.

  But then Talon’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud thunder sound behind her and a lightning bolt—courtesy of Electrica—struck the creature in the chest with a loud boom. The creature staggered backwards, its chest burning and smoking, but the creature didn’t die or fall down; however, it did look down at the smoking black spot on its chest where it had been hit and gingerly touched it as if to inspect the damage.

  Talon looked over her shoulder to see Electrica standing not far away, her hands crackling with electricity. Sensing that Electrica was going to fire another lightning bolt, Talon rolled to the side and onto her feet. She backed away, putting as much distance between her and the creature as possible just as Electrica fired another lightning bolt at the creature.

  This time, however, the creature opened it mouth and swallowed the lightning bolt whole. The creature quickly closed its mouth and, for a moment, its whole body and skin shone with yellow light before the glow faded away, leaving the creature to look pretty much exactly the same way it had before it had swallowed the lightning bolt. Yet there was something about the way in which the creature stood that made Talon feel uneasy; the creature’s eyes were wider and it looked like it was more awake, as if the lightning bolt had given it an extra bit of energy, like a cup of coffee in the morning.

  Electrica, on the other hand, didn’t miss a beat. She just hurled another lightning bolt at the creature, but then the creature vanished, causing the lightning bolt to disappear into the portal behind it. Talon looked around, trying to see if she could spot the creature, which she at first thought was invisible until she heard a whistling sound and realized that the creature was just moving extremely fast.

  Before Talon could share that realization with Electrica, however, the creature appeared behind her and slashed at Electrica’s back. Electrica managed to jump forward, but the claws still slashed through her suit, causing her to cry out in pain as she fell to the floor, her back now horribly bloodied and cut up. Electrica herself was still alive, still breathing, but it was pretty clear that she was in too much pain to get up or defend herself.

  The creature, on the other hand, remained standing above her. It raised its claws, no doubt to deal the killing blow, but Talon rushed over. She jumped over the fallen Electrica and raised her claws just as the creature brought its own claws down on her.

  The creature’s claws landed on Talon’s like a boulder. Talon almost fell to her knees, but she managed to gather enough strength to hold back the creature’s claws. Up close, the creature’s face was even more disgusting than ever; its greasy hair was dripping some foul-looking liquid, while its eyes stared down at Talon with what might have been surprise. Perhaps it was surprised that such a small human was able to hold back against it; not that that would last very long, though, because Talon could already feel her arms starting to weaken. She would have to let go eventually, and once she did, both she and Electrica would be cut to ribbons by this creature’s blade-like claws.

  Must … push … back, Talon thought. Must … not … let … it … win!

  But just before Talon’s claws let out, the creature suddenly vanished again with a whirl of wind. Talon accidentally staggered forward, but quickly regained her balance and looked around the chamber for the creature. She saw Rime and his family still trying to open the secret entrance (and not having much luck, by the look of it), but the creature itself was nowhere to be seen until another burst of wind went by her, sending her ponytail fluttering, and she whirled around just in time to see another claw coming her way.

  Talon immediately ducked. The claw only managed to cut off a bit of her hair that went up when she went down, but otherwise she managed to avoid getting hurt by it. She looked up at the creature, which was now clearly glaring down at her like it was getting tired of trying to kill her. She understood, given how she was getting tired of almost being killed by it, but she had no idea how to beat it until she glanced at the still-open portal between its legs and an idea came to her. She ran between the creature’s legs, just barely avoiding its swinging claws, forcing the creature to turn around and run after her, but Talon managed to stay ahead of it. It seemed like the creature was not using its super speed, but that was fine by Talon, because she couldn’t let the creature capture her before it was too late.

  Talon mounted the steps onto the platform two at a time and had to jump to reach the platform upon which the glowing portal stood. She glanced over her shoulder just in time to see the creature right behind her, but she didn’t stand around waiting for it. She ran toward the portal, but stopped mere inches away from its surface and turned around to face the creature.

  The creature towered over her, its claws flashing before it. It didn’t seem to understand what she was trying to do, but Talon knew it would only be a matter of time before the creature realized what her plan was. The creature did not seem very smart, but it was hard to guess its intelligence level, given how it couldn’t talk. It eyed her carefully, however, as if it was trying to decide how it was going to hit her without also falling into the portal.

  “Come on, you dumb beast,” said Talon, waving her claws at the creature in as threatening a manner as possible. “What are you waiting for? Afraid of a little girl? For such a big, bad monster, you sure do seem easily skittish.”

  The creature raised its claws, but Talon immediately shouted, “Rime! Do it!”

  Rime, much to her relief, seemed to understand what she meant. He stopped trying to open the door and waved his hands at the creature. The floor under the creature suddenly became covered in ice just as the creature slashed at Talon. Talon leaped out of the way to the side, however, causing the creature’s claws to miss her. The momentum of the creature’s claws caused the creature to stagger forward suddenly and go sliding across the icy floor to the very portal from which it had emerged.

  The creature let out a growl of surprise, but it was unable to stop itself from vanishing into the portal. It was an instant transition; one moment the creature was in their world, the next it was back where it had come from, although the portal itself still remained active. Talon had no idea how to shut off the portal, but she decided that it didn’t matter, because she needed to check on Electrica, who was still lying on the floor looking almost dead.

  Sighing in relief, Talon turned to look at Rime and shouted, “Good job, Rime! Now let’s get out of here before that creature gets back!

  Rime nodded and gave her the thumbs up, but then his eyes widened in horror and he shouted, “B-Behind you!”

  Talon whirled around just in time
to see the creature’s claws emerge from the portal and clasp on either side of the portal’s gateway. The creature’s head emerged from the portal, looking down at her with its black eyes. Talon met the creature’s gaze and froze. She didn’t know why she didn’t run or flee; she just couldn’t help but stare up at the creature. She felt like she was looking into the gaze of a being far more intelligent than she first thought. It was like the creature was trying to communicate with her, but she didn’t understand what that—

  Instantly, Talon felt something hit her mind like a boulder. She cried out in pain and stumbled onto her behind, grasping her now-aching head with both hands. Images flashed through her mind of things she didn’t understand—an ancient underground city, strange beings in cloaks seated at the controls of what looked like spaceships, bizarre spaceships traveling through the deep void of space—and she wanted to cry out, but she couldn’t utter a word. She did manage to look up at the creature again, which was now raising it claws again like it was going to finish her off.

  At the last second, a lightning bolt—this one stronger than any before—came out of nowhere and slammed directly into the creature’s face. The creature actually roared in pain and lost its grip on the gateway, causing it to vanish back into the portal once more. At the same time, thick ice began to form on the surface of the gateway, until soon the gateway was covered in thick sheets of ice.

  A second later, the ice tightened and the gateway completely shattered. The portal abruptly shut off as chunks of ice and stone fell to the floor. A few fell near Talon, but she was far enough away to avoid getting hit by the worst of the debris. Still, Talon stared up at the spot where the gateway had once stood, her chest heaving up and down as she realized just how close she had come to dying.

  Then Talon heard movement behind her and looked over her shoulder. Electrica was standing up again, one hand out, but she looked awful. Her back was still bloody from where the creature had slashed her and she looked very pale, as if she was about to fall unconscious any second now. Rime still stood near his family, his hands out, but he lowered his hands and went back to work on opening the secret passageway out of here.