by Logan Jacobs
It incinerated a three foot swath of vampires in front of us for the entire hundred yards and then punched a metal melting hole in the foot thick titanium wall of the prison. Vampires burst before my eyes like bloodsucking fireflies filled with actual fire. It sounded like a bag of popcorn in an overclocked microwave. The stench was nearly overwhelming but we couldn’t afford to stop and retch.
Had to keep running. Always forward momentum.
Behind me I heard the solid boom of the scattergun and shrieking cries from the vampires. Just because I could I punched up the volume of the raging guitars to the max.
“Havak, keep moving!” Hann-Abel cried out, and I did as commanded. My left hand swiped across my body and connected with the skull of a vampire who had dropped into our bath from the ceiling above. I risked a look up and saw the whole roof above our heads writhed and boiled with vampires.
“Fuck!” I yelled as they began to drop in the path that I had just cleared. I dropped my pike into the loop on my belt and raised the SunFlare in a two handed grip and pulled the trigger.
The superheated atoms shot out of the barrel, and I started to weave it back and forth across the ceiling like the vampires were books, and I was an avenging Guy Montag. Fahrenheit twenty-five-hundred Kelvin motherfuckers.
The two second blast was over way too quickly. I only had one blast left in the gun.
Hann-Abel and I made it another twenty yards before we found ourselves completely surrounded. The vampires had given us a twenty foot radius of free space as they tried their damndest to locate us, but the stench of burned metal and bar-b-qued vampire threw off their scent and music fucked with their echolocation. Their eyesight must not have been the greatest because they advanced slowly, like an inexorable tide of hungry undead fury.
“If you have any tricks up your sleeve, now would be the time, Havak,” Hann-Abel said as he reloaded the shotgun with his final eight shells. It was slung over his shoulder so that he could shoot one handed from the hip. The rivet gun was in his other hand, ready for action, but I could see that he only had maybe ten bolts left on the gun’s belt.
“I may just,” I yelled to him over the music. “Back to back!”
Hann-Abel nodded in understanding, and we were soon back to back as the vampires had closed the radius to ten feet. I could feel their gazes on us, hungry and angry. Their muscles quivered and jumped in anticipation like live wires. They knew where we were now, and were ready to feast.
“Spin!” I shouted as I brought the SunFlare up for one final burst of fiery vengeance.
Hann-Abel and I spun around in a ballet of smoldering death. The beam of sun fire cut through the vampires as if they were made from warm butter. Once again the air was filled with the stench of burning vampire and the pop-pop-pop as they exploded while their molecules were torn apart by the hot yellow dwarf beam of light. I was able to get three full revolutions before the gun’s power pack ran out and I dropped it to the ground.
“Run!” I yelled at Hann-Abel, and we both launched into full out sprints. Our legs pumped as fast as they could. Pistons in a death race engine hellbent for violent redemption.
The circle of destruction I’d caused with the last blast of the SunFlare had wiped out a good number of vampires, but it had also started a bunch of fires and weakened a couple of support beams for this level. They creaked and groaned loud enough to be heard over the last, frenetic notes of Beyond the Wheel which was quite a feat. Hann-Abel and I found ourselves having to dodge flaming falling debris as we continued on our mad dash to the security station.
I wouldn’t have guessed it, but Hann-Abel was actually a damn good runner. He had a long, steady gait, and I was pretty sure he had a regen mod like mine because our bodies should have crapped out but we were still going strong by the last few yards of our hundred yard sprint. I was suddenly very thankful that I’d scarfed my entire breakfast. It felt like we’d been going nonstop ever since.
Finally, Hann-Abel and I burst through the door of the security station and slammed it closed behind us. I engaged the lock immediately. We found a lone vampire in the tattered remains of a guard uniform, and Han-Abel blew its head off with the final shell from his scattergun. It smeared in a fine spray of black bone and dark gray brain matter all over the bulletproof plexiglass window.
He rushed to the console as the hoard of vampires outside the window began to recover. There seemed to be a never ending supply of the creepy freaks. They began to throw themselves against the window with furious vigor. Their black blood began to streak the window as they banged their heads.
“Um, you might want to execute the liquidation code,” I said to Hann-Abel.
“Thank you Lieutenant Obvious,” Hann-Abel spat back. He finally found an alpha numeric console and typed in the code. “T H X one one three eight.”
He punched enter and for a second nothing happened. We exchanged worried glances for a second then we noticed that the cuffs on the hands of feet of ninety-nine percent of the vampires began to glow red. A second later, they all began to melt like the T-1000 in a pool of molten metal. Smoke, thick, acrid and black filled the room outside of the guard station as the vampires all turned to goo. Hann-Abel and I watched in abject elation mixed with disgust and horror as the vampires flooded the floor with a lake of melted skin and bone.
After about twenty seconds it was all over. Maybe ten vampires remained out on the floor, ankle deep in their former compatriots, looking stunned and very, very confused.
“Well, now what?” I asked genuinely. “To be honest, I didn’t think we’d make it this far.”
“To be honest, neither did I,” Hann-Abel confessed. He punched a few commands into the keypad, and a display came up on the wall. It showed level one, which, surprisingly, still crawled with vampires.
“Wha fuck?” I muttered in disbelief.
“Makes sense,” Hann-Abel explained. “That level was mostly guards. It’s where they would have congregated.”
“How much time do we have until nightfall?” I asked nervously.
“Ten minutes,” Hann-Abel said after checking the time on the computer readout.
“Well then, we better get the lead out,” I replied.
“We can take an access ladder up to the next level,” Hann-Abel said. “It’s on the complete opposite side of the level as the shutter controls.”
“Of course it is,” I replied wryly. “I wouldn’t expect anything less. We have ten minutes. Let’s do this.”
With a grim nod Hann-Abel and I left the security station and walked amidst the muck of dissolved vampires like conquerors. The few remaining vampires on this level were too busy licking their own wounds and recovering from the liquidation to give us much notice and we made our way to the ladder without incident.
“Age before beauty,” I said and grinned at Hann-Abel while I motioned for him to start up the ladder.
“Experience before idiocy,” he shot back with a wink. Goddamn if I wasn’t starting to like this son of a bitch. I shrugged and began to climb the ladder the thirty feet up to the access hatch for level one.
“I know after this is all over we go back to hating each other’s guts,” I said as I climbed. “But before that, can we at least grab a couple of drinks at the Breach?”
“I thought you’d never ask, Havak,” Hann-Abel chuckled from below me. “Yeah, that sounds pretty fucking good. Just don’t invite Tempest. She wants my ball in a basket.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
We made quick work of the ladder and were soon perched just below the hatch that would let us out on Level One. Amid another sea of vampires just minutes away from sundown. We had nothing but hand held weapons and an iron will to survive.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“You have any more of that music?” Hann-Abel said as he readied his rivet gun.
“Bitch, please,” I replied with a giant, arrogant, scoundrel grin. “I always kick out the jams.”
I pulled the re
mote from my pocket and hit the button to play the next song before I dropped it as I yanked the level on the doorway and launched myself out of the hatch.
War? by System of a Down blared at full volume. The guitars were like demonic voices sung by dark demons to urge us forward. Drums pounded in our ears louder than our heartbeats and Serj Tankian’s howling vocals were like destruction incarnate.
I flew out of the hatch and landed amid a mass of vampires. Pikes filled my hands and utter blood lust filled my vision.
I spun and swung, the pikes lashing out with deadly intent. They smashed into the closest vampires’s skulls and dropped them instantly. From just behind I heard the pfft-pfft-pfft of Hann-Abel’s rivet gun as it fired its last few bolts and more vampires went back to hell.
We started to run like linebackers after a floundering quarterback, hopped up on adrenaline and grim desire to survive. I soon lost most conscious thought as vampire after vampire fell before our vicious onslaught.
Singular was our purpose.
Get to the shutter controls.
Sheer destruction to anything that stood in our way.
I found myself in a wall run before I knew what was happening and did a somersault in the air with vampire claws inches from my back. At the last moment I flung out my arms and bludgeoned two of the creatures before they could drag me to an undead grave.
Hann-Abel had dropped his rivet gun and wielded his leather cutting knife like some kind of violent brush in the hands of an artist of death. Limbs, digits, and heads fell.
The music had reached a feverish crescendo, and I knew it was now or never.
Vampires swarmed us and we fought like berserker barbarians.
Just as the dripping fangs of a vampire were about to descend on both our necks, I found myself four feet from the shutter controls.
“Leroy Jenkins you undead fucks!” I screamed and hurled my pike at the controls.
It flew through the air, twirling end over end in agonizing slow motion, and just as I swore I could feel the tip of the vampire’s fangs a hair’s breadth from my neck it hit the button and the shutters flew open.
Dusk sunlight, dim but still with the whisper of the light of day, flooded into the room. The vampires halted immediately as if frozen and then turned to dust.
Hann-Abel and I didn’t slow down, still driven by the primal instinct to live, and continued on to a staircase that would lead us to the ground level.
We climbed the stairs two at a time and soon found ourselves in the harsh, arid, wind of the desolate moon that housed the Pitt just as the sun finally fell below the horizon. The sky was full of purple, blue, and bright orange.
It was the most spectacular sunset I’d ever witnessed.
I turned to Hann-Abel and held out my black, ichor cover hand. He shook it without hesitation, and we shared a quiet moment. Two survivors of unspeakable horror.
Then I felt the tingle as my atoms were split asunder, and I was beamed back across the galaxy.
When I opened my eyes, I was in the matter transmit tube back in the Hall of Champions.
I burst forth and grabbed Artemis into my arms and hugged her for all I was worth.
Strangely, I didn’t get a customary kiss.
She stood before me, with fat tears in her eyes, and the gym was full of people, and there was a lot of yelling.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked as I pulled away from Artemis and tried to make heads or tails of what was going on.
The gym was full of CDPD officers, and Captain Har’Gitay was in hushed conversation with Grizz who had holographic handcuffs on. Nova stood to the side, and I could feel the waves of aggression coming off her from ten feet away.
PoLarr was on the other side and hugged Aurora who was crying as well, which is something I’d only ever seen once. Tempest was lounging in a chair by the command center trying to look cool and above it all, but there was tightness around her eyes and I could see her clench and unclench her fists rhythmically. Chaz was here as well, and he moved over to Artemis once I broke off our hug. He was surprisingly calm, and I could see his little antenna glow slightly as he attempted to soothe Artemis psychically.
I walked over to where Har’Gitay and Grizz talked. He was flanked by two CDPD officers.
“Hey, guys, what’s going on?” I asked as flippantly and cockily as I could manage.
“Unfortunately, Havak,” Har’Gitay said business-like but I caught a brief glimmer of apology in her eyes. “We are here to arrest Champion Grizz for the murder of Darry Dar’Tor.”
“I’m sorry,” I said and chuckled as I wiggled my fingers in my ears. “I must have reformed all wonky because I thought you just said you were arresting Grizz for the murder of one of his closest friends.”
“Our CSI uncovered video footage of Grizz entering Darry’s workshop the night before he was killed,” Har’Gitay said with resignation. “And there were digital fingerprints in the circuitry of Darry’s weapon’s testing chamber that points directly to Grizz.”
“Bullshit, Captain, and you know it,” I blurted out, suddenly very angry. “That’s why you had us--”
“Havak! Over here!” Har’Gitay cut me off and dragged me by the arm over to the side of the gym, away from her officers. She lowered her voice, so that I was the only one who could hear. “I know this is bullshit, Havak. You think I want to be here doing this? This order came from very high up. So high, I don’t even know from where. But I was commanded to do this immediately today.”
“Okay, so… what’s the play?” I asked.
“You need to figure out who the real killer is,” she replied with a sigh. “Yesterday. They are going to expedite Grizz’s trial by the end of tomorrow and with this evidence they will find him guilty… and erase his memory file.”
“Wait, they’ll execute him?” I sputtered out incredulously.
“Yes,” she nodded. “I can try to stall him in processing but I won’t be able to buy more than a day. Tops.”
“Okay, okay,” I said and rubbed my temples which had started to pound. I hadn’t slept in over thirty-six hours and was exhausted. “I’m on it.”
We walked back over to Grizz, who stood motionless and stoic.
“Champion Grizz,” Har’Gitay said. “You are under arrest for the murder of Darry Dar’Tor. You will be given a speedy and fair trial. Do you have anything to say?”
“Havak,” Grizz said and turned his face toward mine. I couldn’t read his emotions beneath the stoic mask he wore. Grizz usually had his emotions on his sleeve for all to see and this made me worry. A lot. “Find them.”
“I will,” I said to my trainer. “I promise.”
“I know you will,” he said as the officers began to lead him out. “I trust you.”
With that, Har’Gitay, Grizz, and the rest of the cops left the gym.
Stunned silence filled the room as loudly as any explosion.
“Marc,” Artemis said through fresh tears. “What are we going to do?”
“Exactly what I promised I would do,” I said with renewed energy and solid determination. “I’m going to find out who really killed Darry and bring them to justice.”
“I think we can help with that,” a familiar, sultry, female voice said from just behind me.
“Gah!” I yelped as I spun around and came face to face with Fallon Otaku. Fallon was an underworld gang boss, had a chair on the Council of Nine No Ones, and was a good friend… and sometimes lover. “Every. Goddamn. Time!”
“That reaction is priceless,” she purred.
Fallon stood about five-foot-six, and her lithe, sexy frame was covered in a fine layer of tawny fur with markings like an American Tabby cat. Her emerald green eyes were fixed on mine and a small, satisfied smile tugged at the corners of her lips. Fallon wasn’t like normal crime bosses. She used her position and influence to help the poor neighborhood that compromised her “turf”. She was also a Team Havak benefactor and had provided many a needed skill upgrade or, most rec
ently, a bad ass car for our last challenge, at just the right time.
“Indeed, it is priceless,” another voice said from my side.
“Double gah!” I blurted out as I turned to see Fallon’s right-hand rat, Baba-Tadao, who was literally a four-and-a-half-foot tall rat.
He was probably also a ninja. Splinter could eat his sewer dwelling heart out. Baba was dressed in a sleek, black, motorcycle body armor and had a vibra-blade ninjato strapped to his back.
“One of these days I’m going to figure out how you two do that.”
“You may, but not today,” Baba grinned, and his whiskers twitched.
“As glad as I am to see you two,” I said, and I could feel the seconds ticking by and with each passing one went a moment to save Grizz. “But we are in the middle of something here that requires immediate attention.”
“That’s why we’re here,” Fallon said, suddenly all business.
I could see how commanding a vast Robin Hood-esque criminal organization had begun to change her. She stood with a silent confidence that had always been there, but it was far more at the forefront. “I think we can help. You need to gear up, we’re going for a ride.”
“Okay,” I said and shrugged. I’d pretty much figured out that in, and out of, the Crucible of Carnage, it was best to just roll with the punches. To leap first and ask questions later. Somehow, the net always managed to appear. “Where are we going?”
“To the lair of a TechnoWitch,” Baba-Tadao said gravely. “To see if we can resurrect a ghost in the machine.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Marc, I want you to be careful,” Artemis said as I stood in front of the weapons locker. If I was going back out into the dangerous world, I wanted to make sure I was prepared. I’d already changed into a new jumpsuit and had put on a stealth version of my normal light-weight armor. It was matte black and coated with a polymer that helped absorb sound. The armor was one of the last modifications that Darry had made for me, and it seemed fitting that I should wear it now.
“You know I’m always as careful as I can be,” I said back with a wink that I hoped conveyed more confidence than I felt at the moment.
