by Logan Jacobs
The Bruiser looked down, and I could literally see the idea form in his dull eyes. I tried to back away as he lunged at me but the tool locker blocked me. His big, hamhock hands grabbed a hold of my shirt and yanked me off my feet and then slammed me into the lathe.
I managed to get my hands up on either side of the lathe just in time so that my face didn’t get turned into ground beef. The Bruiser was big and fucking strong and started to put all of his weight into my back. My arms, stronger than they had ever been and aided by my regen mod so that they didn’t get tired as fast, still shook from the effort. The bastard probably outweighed me by a hundred pounds.
“Oh, Havak, that is bad,” Grizz noticed. “You should try to better your position. Quickly.”
“Grizz… you… are … not… helping…” I grunted out as my face got slowly closer and closer to the spinning piece of jagged metal. My arms were quickly losing strength.
“Eat it, human,” the Bruiser growled from behind me.
“I made your mom eat it,” I grunted in a gamble that I sincerely hoped worked because I was out of other options.
“What did you say about my mom?” He fumed and bent lower to hear what I was about to say next.
As soon as he did, I snapped my head back with all I had. The back of my skull smashed into his nose with a very satisfying crunch, and I felt hot blood splatter across my neck.
“Arrrggg!” The Bruiser yowled and stumbled back just enough for me to push back off the lathe.
He tried to grab me again, but I ducked under his bear hug and sent a volley of fast rabbit punches into his midsection. The Bruiser’s hands came down from his face to try to protect his side and stomach so I grabbed hold of one and yanked him forward into a judo hold while I twisted his wrist until I felt it pop.
“Oh, excellent move, Havak,” Grizz grinned from the other side of the garage. “I felt that go out of joint from over here.”
I continued to twist until I’d maneuvered him around the side of the lathe before I pistoned my knee up as I pulled him forward and down. My knee hit him square under the chin. That blow on most normal opponents would have knocked them the fuck out, but the Brusiser stumbled back until he crashed into the one known as Rupert who had just woken up.
That’s when I noticed the bright blue flames that had spread out along the wall of guns where the energy bolt had landed not thirty seconds ago.
“Havak, that is the power cache, we should probably depart immediately,” Grizz said, and I could see the look of worry on his face. “In fact, we must.”
“I’m the one with real legs dude,” I grumbled but turned and started to sprint out of the shop, nonetheless.
The Bruisers noticed the same thing we did and began to scramble out as fast as they could as well, all but forgetting us.
“Over the back fence, Marc!” Grizz urged me on, as he matched me stride for stride.
The Parkour mod showed me little blue lines of possible pathways through the debris and junk strewn yard.
Behind me I heard a soft WHOOSH and felt an intake of air flow all around me.
“Ah, shit,” I said as I did a quick wall walk up the brick wall of the yard, kicked off a big piece of metal that looked like a tank turret with all my might and flew over the top of the fence.
The WHOOSH turned into a WHOMP, and a bright green explosion flung me forty feet across the back of an alley and into a large empty lot.
I hit the ground in a barely contained roll, arms akimbo, and came to a flailing stop with my clothes smoldering. I pushed myself up on my elbows and watched as Darry’s shop went up in bright green flames. Some of the munitions started going off, and it was like a fireworks show.
Grizz materialized right next to me.
“That escalated quickly,” he said with his hands on his hips and an “aw shucks” look on his face. “I’ll let you explain this to Captain Har’Gitay.”
Chapter Eight
“I am telling you, Marc Havak,” Artemis said as she applied some topical anesthetic cream to my back, “and you as well, Grizz, that I am a waste bin inferno of emotions right now. I am overwhelmed with incredible sadness at the loss of our friend. That sadness is in an epic battle with the apocalyptic, no apoplectic, no apocalyptically apoplectic rage that I have for the two of you! What were you thinking?”
“Artemis,” Grizz started to explain, “you should not need to worry yourself for us. Havak did a wonderfully commendable, if not somewhat slow, job of dispatching those, what did you call them Havak?”
“Bruisers,” I replied quickly to shift attention back to Grizz. Artie was as angry as I had ever seen her.
“Bruiser, yes,” he said with a smile. “Besides, we were just doing what the Captain asked of us. You know how eager I have always been to assist law enforcement.”
“Save that shit for the people from out-of-town spending money to visit someplace they are not from because I ain’t buying it!” She scolded and pointed her finger right in his holographic face. Then she turned her attention right back to me. “And you! I know what I said isn’t correct at all but don’t you dare correct me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said as innocently as I could manage.
“Yes you would, and you know it,” Artie countered, and then I could see on her face as her anger wave crested and then went back out into the emotion sea to be replaced with an overwhelming sadness. “I’m sorry. I’m just so sad about Darry.”
“You don’t have to apologize, Artie,” I comforted her.
“Indeed,” Grizz added, “we are all saddened by the loss of our friend. It is normal to display such sadness with other emotions. Anger often feels powerful, which is why it so easily displaced grief.”
“Not for me it’s not, Grizz,” Chaz said from the table near the command center. He’d been hanging out with Artie to see what we thought of the club the night before when Grizz and I arrived with the bad news. Tempest, Nova, PoLarr, and Aurora still hadn’t made it into the gym yet. We usually took it very easy the day after a match and, despite all that had happened, it was only eight o’clock in the morning. “I still don’t believe it.”
“None of us want to believe it, Chaz,” Grizz said plainly. “Darry meant a lot to a lot of people.”
“I’m glad you and Marc are going to find out who did this,” Chaz said firmly as he wiped big, blue tears from his face.
“Oh, yeah, that reminds me,” I blurted out then took the small micro-drive out of my pocket. We’d been so busy telling our story and then getting yelled at for it that I had forgotten about it. “I found this under one of Darry’s work benches.”
“Oh, let me see that,” Artie said and quickly took the device from my hand. “Why didn’t you give this to me when you got here?”
“Um, getting yelled at?” I countered.
“Right,” Artie said, chagrined as she walked around to her massive computer station and plugged the device into a slot near her keypad. The light in the device went from blinking to solid as Artie tapped a few commands into the computer. “Oh. Oh, wow.”
“What?” I asked and moved over to her at the computer.
“This drive is more heavily encrypted than anything I have ever come across,” she said reverently. “Which, you know, is saying a lot because I happen to actually be a computer program, sort of. I’ll run it through a few of my encryption breaking routines, but I doubt I’ll be able to see what is on here.”
“Need something hacked?” Tempest asked as the door to the gym opened, and she walked in with a cup of coffee and a damn donut.
“Jesus, did we miss super hearing as one of your races abilities?” I asked incredulously.
“Nah,” she replied through a mouthful of donut as she walked over to us. “More like an acquired trait. I grew up on my own in a rough part of town. It pays to pay attention. And by pay, I mean save your life.”
“Thank for the offer, Tempest,” Artie said. “But if I can’t crack it, I don’t think anyone c
an.”
“As good as you are, Artie,” Tempest replied with a raise of her eyebrows, “I have friends in some low, dark places who have picked up a few tricks that you might not know about.”
“Well, I don’t know about that…” Artie groused.
“It’s not a statement on your skill there, kiddo,” Tempest shrugged. “I just know not nice people who play dirty.”
“Title of my sex tape,” I blurted out mostly because I coudln’t help myself.
“Please, Havak,” Tempest chuckled. “You just think you’re not nice. Although, you do like to play dirty. Let me make a quick call.”
She tapped a few buttons on her wrist comm and walked off away from us into the locker room.
“I know we are all occupied with the Darry situation right now,” I said as a thought hit me. “But do we have any info on the next match yet?”
“No,” Artie said as she checked her computer. “I think there is going to be an announcement tomorrow. Apparently there is yet another new mode.”
“Jesus,” I said. “Is that unusual?”
“Tremendously, Havak,” Grizz replied. “In my time as champion, there were three new modes announced in the entire time.”
“And this is three in as many weeks roughly,” Artemis added. “Something weird is going on for sure.”
“Okay,” Tempest said as she walked out of the locker room. “I have someone who can help us out, but we gotta go now.”
“Now? Really?” I asked.
“Yup,” she replied on her way toward the door. “And they don’t like to be kept waiting so let’s move it.”
“Will you let the others know where we have gone and fill them in on what has been happening, Artemis?” Grizz asked. The two of us quickly fell in behind Tempest.
“Absolutely, Grizz,” Artie replied.
“I’ll help too,” Chaz chirped up. “My race is very good at helping communicate bad news. It is a gift and a burden.”
“Thank you, Chaz,” Grizz said. “Darry was quite fond of you, I hope you know.”
“Really?” Chaz asked as fresh tears welled up in his eyes.
“Yes, really,” Grizz responded with kindness. “You drove him nuts most of the time, but he cared for you deeply.”
“Yeah, I do that to people,” Chaz admitted.
“Hey, buddy,” I said reassuringly. “It’s part of your charm. We wouldn’t have you any other way.”
Chaz smiled back at me through his tears, and my heart broke for the little guy. But I had to put that aside for the time being. We had a lead and were on it.
Grizz and I followed Tempest out of the Hall of Champions and out on the street where we quickly hailed a cab and jumped in. Grizz and I were in the back and Tempest sat with the driver.
“Where to?” The cabby, who looked tremendously like Slimer from Ghosbusters, asked.
“TechDark Alley,” Tempest answered and watched the cabbie intently for his reaction.
“Whoa, that ain’t no nice part of town, lady,” he grumbled, but didn’t flat out refuse.
“Yeah, we’ll make sure you get compensated for the excursion,” Tempest assured him and pulled a wad of credits out of her pocket.
“TechDark Alley, coming up,” the cabbie said when he saw the fat stack of credits and pulled the hover-cab out into traffic.
Ten minutes later we departed from the main flow of traffic and began a labyrinthine series of turns down various streets and alleys that seemed to sink us lower and lower into the bowels of the city. It got darker and darker the lower we went, the light not able to penetrate the canopy of buildings, pipes, and walkways.
After a few more turns the cab set down at the mouth of a very dark, dirty, dingy, and rather scummy looking narrow alleyway.
“TechDark Alley,” the cabbie said and held out his hand for the credits. Tempest went to put them in his hand and then pulled them away when he tried to take them. “And you never saw us or had a fare that went here today, right?”
“Nope, I ain’t never been down here before, too dangerous,” the cabbie replied. I could tell this was not his first time at the rodeo.
“Good,” Tempest said with a wink and plopped the money down into his eager, outstretched, hand. “Nice not doing business with you. Oh, and hey, don’t drive too far away. There is twice this to bring us back.”
“All the same to me,” the cabbie said. “Ping the code on the side of the cab, and I’ll be here in five minutes.”
Tempest nodded, and we all got out of the cab which hovered off as soon as the doors closed.
The narrow alley wound through the gap between what I assumed was an older office building or some kind of industrial plant.
“Let’s go,” Tempest instructed and began to walk into the alley.
I shrugged at Grizz, and we followed her.
The alley was deserted except for a few mangy street animals that were kind of a cross between a bunny and a sewer rat. Which was a decidedly hideous combination.
About half way down the alley we came upon a large, battered, unassuming steel door. Tempest stopped in front of it and smiled at us.
“Okay, when we get inside, follow my lead,” she said and then gave a patterned knock on the door. A moment later the door opened just enough for us to slide through into total darkness. With an audible clang the door shut behind us.
Dim lights came to life to illuminate a rather small one room interior at the end of the small, narrow hallway we were now in. Veins of green light streaked every surface I could see. The walls, floor, and ceiling seemed to pulse like a heartbeat.
“Tempest Dirk,” an oddly modulated female voice floated in from around the corner in the room at the end of the hall. “I was wondering how long it would be before I saw your face again.”
“You know me, Neophor,” Tempest replied and started to walk toward the room. She motioned for us to follow her. “I never stay away for long.”
The room we walked into looked like something out of a Matrix nightmare with organic looking computers strewn about like microchip detritus. Thin, clear, fiber optic cables emerged from the computers and stretched across the floor until they came to an end right into the head of the female alien known as Neophor.
She sat in a skeletal ergonomic chair with hands resting on the arm rests. She was probably about five foot six standing and had pale, metallic grey skin. Most of her body was covered with cybernetic enhancements, but they were so techno-organic that it seemed like they were grown instead of installed. The same green light that pulsed through the veins in the hallway coursed through the fiber-optics. The ones coming out of the left side of her head seemed to have outgoing light, and the ones on the right had incoming. Her eyes were either completely white or rolled back into her head. I didn’t know which was creepier.
Neophor was sexy in an H.R. Geiger kind of way, which I guess some folks were into, but not me. When all three of us were finally in the room her eyes rolled back down from the back of her skull. They had green irises and jet black, oversized pupils.
“Ohhh, who is this drink of holographic water?” Neophor purred in her off-putting computer modem voice. “Tempest, have you been holding out on your old pal, Neophor?”
“Neophor, this is my trainer, Grizz,” Tempest said begrudgingly. “Grizz, this is a buddy of mine, Neophor.”
“I’m, Marc,” I said even though no one asked. I was routinely ignored.
“Pleasure to meet you, Neophor,” Grizz said politely with a bow.
“Please,” Neophor said lasciviously. “I know who the mighty, and feared, Grizz is. I just never thought I’d get the chance to meet you, in the flesh so to speak. You certainly do not disappoint.”
“Um, thank you?” Grizz said, confused and a little off put.
“Keep it in your pants, Neophor,” Tempest said curtly. “We’re here on business.”
“Oh, boo,” Neophor said with a fake pout. “I have a lovely little virtual play room that you and I could have s
o much fun in, Grizz. You could show me why they used to call you the destroyer.”
“They never called me that,” Grizz said.
“I did,” Neophor replied with a wink.
“Okay, okay, you freak,” Tempest finally stepped in front of Grizz and pulled out the micro-drive from Darry’s workshop. “We need you to try to crack the encryption on this.”
Once the drive came out Neophor’s attention shot to it immediately, as if she could smell the forbidden information held inside of it, and it was a delicacy to be devoured.
“A Zetta-bit Exa-decimal non-replicating Vault Drive?” She said reverently. “I didn’t even think these existed anymore. Where did you find it?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Tempest said. “Can you crack the encryption and get the information?”
“Honestly,” Neophor said softly and then looked at us, “I don’t know. And that has me almost as excited as your shirtless friend there.”
“This belonged to a recently deceased friend of ours,” I finally chimed in, tired of being left out of the convo. I was the one who found the damn thing after all. “We’re hoping something on there leads to his killers.”
“Darry Dar’Tor?” Neophor said with surprise. “Was this Darry Dar’Tor’s?”
“Has word of his death made the media already?” Grizz asked.
“No, not yet,” Neophor replied and then motioned to her fiber-optic locks. “But I tend to get all the info there is in Valiance City before it even knows its info. I’m plugged into virtually everything. A constant data stream, like glorious blood, pumps in and out of me all day long, much like I wish Grizz would--”
“Neophor! Focus!” Tempest clapped her hands. “Can you do it and how long?”
“Maybe?” Neophor replied. “What is it worth?”
“Credit is no issue,” I said. “I’m a Champion, Marc Havak, from Earth, maybe you’ve heard of me. I’m kind of a big deal. Anyway, I have lots of credit--”
“Two hours with the big guy here,” Neophor said, cutting me off.
