Mark 2.0

by Prax Venter

  There was no use. Even though Detrious was held fast by Jezebel’s constricting spell, it didn’t really matter if he was protected by this wall of light.

  Abby could- his entire being clenched tight at the reality of her absence again. She was really gone and that hurt more deeply than anything he’d ever felt. But if she were here, she could probably be effective with her Mind Crush and Imaginary Lacerations.

  Mark sent a sharp mental command to Jezebel and Sasha to pull back and stop attacking. This was Sanctuary and Abby would wake up next to him tomorrow. And if she didn’t…

  “Enough!” Mark called out when neither of his Enthralled stopped their assault.

  His voice affected Jezebel first who landed with a thud next to him, panting with exertion. The shapeshifting Druid was seething with such hatred that she stayed in her bear form. Sasha however continued to strike the barrier lying across the river with every ounce of strength she had.

  “What do you want from us?” Mark calmly asked Detrious through the impenetrable wall. He needed to get everything he could from this man and screaming and violence weren’t helping- at least right now.

  Meegon, Chorra, The Doc, and all three of the love-triangle Repeaters had come from the wreck to see what the spectacular lightshow and screaming were all about.

  The man with an onyx amulet took a deep breath and waited for Sasha to wear herself out. With everyone standing quietly for a few seconds, the emotionally wrecked succubus just fell to her reflective knees and began sobbing into her hands.

  Once he had everyone’s attention, Detrious dropped his version of a magic wall and began to speak.

  “I have kept this truth hidden for so long, I cannot express the elation I am feeling that this moment has, at long last, finally come. I was on the Gilded Breeze the day it crashed. My attempts to steal this amulet from the Time Walker wench caused the explosion, and her death by my hand triggered this insufferable curse that everyone else calls Sanctuary.

  “What I have wanted from the moment you walked into my prison, dear Collector Mark, is to keep you here until this Lady Maliah makes good on her promise of godhood, and ultimately, my freedom.”

  It was clear to Mark now that the onyx amulet he wore was filtering parts of his mind while letting the innocuous parts show through. Now that his true identity was gleefully blown, Detrious let Mark see more. Although it was only a shadow of what lay beneath, this ancient consciousness had had thousands of years to not only hone his natural magical abilities, but the vast power gained from the powerful amulet he wore.

  “Here now!” the rotund devil Repeater called out, waving his hand. “Out of all this nonsense, did I just hear it was you who caused this mess? I’ll have you pay dearly for this inconvenience.”

  Detrious laughed. “Worry not, Fedik. Everyone you knew is long dead, even the sister-in-law you’d raped.”

  “I-I- Bu- I don’t know what you could be talking about!” With that, the neon-red-skinned survivor turned from the group and began waddling quickly down river. Meegon watched the dancer and the bellhop follow each other in turn.

  “We will find a way to erase you,” Jezebel said, after shifting back to her satyr form.

  Detrious raised his eyebrows and touched his cheek in mock surprise as he moved over to the lifeless Lunar Power Droid. Using his hand to conceal his actions, he tapped several times on the keypad. A moment later the sexualized female android came to life with the sound of a strange high-tech engine starting.

  The ancient man with the onyx amulet gestured at Mark and his two remaining Enthralled with a sweeping wave of his hand.

  “Prevent those three from coming any closer to this area.”

  “Command accepted.” The monotone words came from the glossy plastic lips of the combat droid as her head swiveled continually between the three of them as if she were a security camera. A muted wave of terrible sadness oozed from the awakened robot, and Mark was compelled to give her a deeper second glance. It was hard to see with the bright sunlight, but the reflective curved surface of her black helmet now displayed white digital eyes. They lacked any expression and were made of small pixels, but they were highly detailed. They also helped him focus.

  But, other than unnamable loss and discomfort, most of what was once a mind with dreams, fears, triumphs, and failures… all of it was now only tatters.

  “This madness is too much,” Meegon said, gripping his head. “You… all these many years? You’re not a Visitor, but really a Repeater who retains their memories?”

  “Sorry, old friend,” Detrious said, rubbing his legendary amulet. “But you are simply unsatisfying entertainment to me. Yet, better than nothing.” The dark-haired man reached out to pat the curved helmet of the petite battle droid. “This one belonged to the Time Walker. An artificial Enthralled. For years after her owner’s death she was also a plaything for me, passionlessly obeying my every whim. Eventually discarded out of boredom before you ever arrived.”

  “I’ve lost my sanity…” Doctor Cordin said as he shook his head. Then he too fled the area and never intended to come back.

  “Old fool is virtually worthless,” Detrious said as he walked toward the shocked bird-woman and white-robed poet. “But could help keep me sane. Repeating what I know with someone possessing at least a modicum of understanding. Mmm, sane might be the wrong word.”

  Meegon and Chorra winced as he drew close, both equal parts terrified and frozen in raw awe over this sudden change after centuries living closely with this person.

  “You should consider yourselves lucky I’ve grown out of my cruel phase or your blissful Sanctuary could have been a quite different experience.” He reached out and grabbed one of the bird-woman’s exposed nipples, roughly pinching it between his fingers. Mark took a step forward and the five-foot droid held out both of her small black fists toward him.

  Jezebel was a blur as she tackled her Collector out of danger, but the beams of golden energy vaporized a large chunk from her furry hip.

  Mark felt her sharp pain a moment before he hit the ground. It took a massive amount of willpower to fight the instinct demanding that he deploy his own magical dome, but he did not want to show this evil man one of the few remaining tricks he had at his disposal.

  Healing was fair game though. He quickly rolled over on top of his strawberry-blonde savior and willed the bloody exposed muscle to heal. Brilliant points of light rained down around them and Jezebel slowly unclenched her jaw.

  His restoration work done, he looked over to see Detrious walking away from the bird-woman who was now seeking refuge in Meegon’s arms.

  With his back to them, the dark-haired man started to sing at the top of his lungs as he strolled off into the multi-hued trees lining the Serpent River Canyon.

  “Godhood is shining down,

  Godhood is mine!

  Godhood is soaring up,

  All in good time!”

  Everyone except the deadly android that remained near the wrecked airship watched him until he was gone.

  “I can’t believe…” Jezebel stammered as she got up on her knees. “If Abby doesn’t respawn tomorrow-”

  Mark held up his hand as he stood. “Stop. I know.” He helped the satyr to her feet, then he led her over to Sasha while keeping his attention on the bottomless combat droid. Her black fists tracked his movements but lowered them when he angled his steps away from its position.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Mark said, pulling Sasha to her hooves. “And figure out what the fuck we’re going to do now.”

  He glanced over at Meegon and Chorra and they were both whispering together. Mark felt a surge of connection between them. When it came down to what mattered, the balding man would give up everything to save her life and would do anything to make her happy.

  Perhaps they could be allies tomorrow.

  Mark led Sasha and Jezebel back across the river to get away from the droid and put the wreck between them as they moved. They passed the dead croc
odile soldier and Mark paused. Would they be able to enlist his help? Before moving on, he put his foot on the sturdy creature’s chest and yanked out the blade. Clenching the hilt in his fist, he shot a glance up above the crash site for the pair of Visitor air elementals. But all he saw was clear blue skies.

  With a deep breath, Mark led his Enthralled down river.

  This time, instead of flying off, Mark just marched them close to the stony canyon wall until they found a shallow secluded overhang.

  “Here,” he said, pointing to the ground, and his despondent monster-women stepped into the afternoon shade. “Keep a vigilant watch. I’m not sure who to trust anymore, and we’ve got bird-women and air elementals to keep an eye out for.”

  Mark gripped the thick metal sword with the intent to kill as he sat against the stone between his loves and hoped his True Sight would show him bright-red targets if any were to come near. The soldier’s weapon was heavy and probably non-magical when compared to the solid ethereal energy he’d grown used to, but it was sharp and way better than nothing.

  “He took Abby out first for a reason,” Jezebel said, keeping her voice down. “I don’t think he could face all of us at full strength.”

  The three of them were hyper-connected after recent events and the woven bond between their hearts buzzed like a shaken beehive. Sasha saw both Mark and Jezebel putting the loss of Abby aside to strategize about tomorrow, so she wiped the tears still leaking from her blue eyes and focused on what mattered.

  “That little Power Droid changes the equation,” she said. “I don’t think we can stop him from activating it. We start too far away- she wouldn’t even have line of sight until it’s too late.”

  “And we’re not at full power. Without my connection to the goddess, I’m fucking useless in combat again.”

  They were quiet for a while as the gentle breeze rustled the blue, yellow, and red leaves above the long black-and-white shafts of trunks around them. They looked like birch trees.

  Sasha broke the silence first, but her words were only a whisper.

  “He only needs to kill one of us to win.”

  Jezebel worked her hoof in the powdery dirt where they sat. She was already leaving a rut.

  “Yes,” she said with a nod. “Detrious knows we won’t leave any of the others behind.”

  “You both still have your ability points,” Mark said. “And I refuse to believe Abby will lose hers when she wakes up in a few hours.”

  When he thought of it like that- that Abby was only in another room sleeping and it would be less than six hours before they saw her again… He continued.

  “Among our other options, we have plenty of time to figure out how to spend them right.”

  Jezebel took a deep breath. “I was thinking the same thing. Specifically, that physical copy ability. If I could appear identical to Chorra, I might get close enough to end his life before he can do anything.”

  “End it how?” Sasha asked quietly. “You’ve got vines and would have to shift into something else to deal any physical damage. He flash-disintegrated… her.”

  “You’re right,” the satyr said, rubbing the curve of her right horn as she thought. “I might be able to conceal a weapon under the harpy’s feathers.”

  “Let’s put it in the pile of tactics,” Mark said. “If we try something like that and fail, the surprise advantage of a doppelganger will be gone.”

  “It’s fitting that I find myself in this same impossible situation after what I did,” Sasha muttered to the ground, and the urge to shout at her flared out from Mark’s mind so forcefully that it shocked all of them.

  He took a deep breath and looked her straight in her wide eyes.

  “It’s getting fucking old, Sasha. We need you fully with us, now more than ever. You should be thinking of what abilities you can bring to this team and our not-impossible situation. You did what- five real-world minutes of kidnapping so you could virtually fuck some lucky dude’s brains out? Based on what you told me, I believe you’ve already paid enough for it. Add in the fact that I wouldn’t even exist if you were a good girl… Sasha, as your Primary User, I command you to get the fuck over it and embrace that badass bitch I love so much!”

  The succubus’s blue eyes narrowed as more liquid started to spill over. A torrent of every emotion possible assaulted her mental wellbeing before her one true pillar of desire pushed everything out. The desire to be by Mark’s side for all eternity now included Jezebel and Abby, and this core of reforged, smoldering will stood stronger than ever. The feeling hummed straight through the center of Sasha’s being and cleared out most of the clinging black cobwebs of regret on its way.

  The last tear leaked out as she exposed one of her fangs with a small half-smile.

  “This bad bitch could really use a hug right about now.”

  Both he and their bonded strawberry-scented satyr moved in unison to envelop Sasha. She quivered within their arms as they all held each other close.

  “I could see inside you,” Jezebel whispered. “Through Mark and his gifted sight, I… saw such vivid representations of what we all mean to you.” She pulled back and locked her eyes on Sasha’s before continuing. “Not too long ago, I still harbored resentment toward you and Abby. That you burst into my home and demanded to share my new toy.” She turned to look back out into the thin forest that lined the edge of the canyon. “That was foolish. I am so much more than I was because of you three. When we get Abby back, we will be whole again and then we can beat this murderous asshole.”

  Mark found that he couldn’t agree more.

  “We won’t be able to come up with a final plan without her, but let’s get to work exploring every option.”

  - 7 -

  Mark sat up and was instantly conscious of where he was. After a microsecond to confirm that Abby was back and fully connected to his heart, he stood up and cupped his hands to his mouth.

  “Wait!”

  The crocodile-man looked over at Mark and paused his daily ritual.

  “Is he dead?” the solider asked with a deep gravelly voice from his fanged snout.

  Mark’s brows came down and the impulse to ask, “Is who dead?” didn’t even reach his mouth before sword pierced reptilian heart once again.

  However, the connection was established, and his blind eye was set free to collect every scrap of information. A handful of nightmarish flashes imprinted on Mark’s brain before the soldier called Exor faded away from his own mind.

  His duty entailed looking for Nel-Ora, the Time Walker responsible for this loop in reality. An organization called The Lunar Consolidation had expected her to check in at a Star Port Shale and when she did not arrive, Exor was sent out to retrieve her. When the elite tracker and seasoned warrior entered the doorway, he would become the Sanctuary’s first Visitor. Detrious had prevented him from leaving then as well except the villainous man was at the height of his frustration from being freshly trapped and endlessly tortured Exor for possible information.

  The solution was obvious. Honor dictated that Exor should grant himself a quick death at his own hands instead of potentially giving Detrious something useful about this place or his homeland.

  Mark sucked in a breath as he fell out of the dead creature’s mind. It had only been an instant, but everyone else was already carrying out their part of the plan. Jezebel ascended into the air to his right as the overjoyed Techno Succubus dashed past him, her sharp hooves kicking up tufts of grass.

  “What-?” Abby said before Sasha swept her up off her feet and turned around. Mark locked eyes with his smallest Enthralled as he moved to his own objective. Her beautiful, precise mind was mostly blank with confusion, but she was wholly herself. He willed her a message of calm as the pair retreated for the same spot along the cliffs where they sat yesterday.

  Everything was still under control and his three loves were once again connected, so he put them out of his mind as he ran along the length of the wrecked airship. His job was to note th
e exact patch of sandy grass that they needed to reach before seeing the glossy flesh of the ass-up android.

  Sasha was right, there was no way they were going to cut him off in time, yet Detrious was still at least twenty yards away from it by the time the Lunar Power Droid fell into Mark’s line of sight.

  The trapped psychopath wasn’t going to take any chances with a Collector and his fully alert battle harem. Despite the legendary artifact around his neck, he opted for activating the over-powered bot as soon as possible.

  “Dare not confront me, puny heathen!” Detrious called out while moving at a swift jog. Mark stood where he was and watched as the unhinged man bent down and typed in the code. The trio of Devil, Fish, and Bellhop Repeaters moved to approach him, more confused than normal. Mark ignored them.

  There had to be a way to stop Detrious from reaching the war machine long enough to take him out.

  As the black-and-white armored fembot got to her feet, Mark pulled back behind the bow of the broken ship to rejoin his fully restored team. Before he took one step, three thick blasts of golden energy surged across the river, then faded away.

  He had a good idea about what happened but confirmed it when he poked his head back around the wooden wreckage and saw the blackened legs of the three Repeaters smoldering on the ground. Every other part of them had been vaporized.

  The short robot kept her solid legs planted firm as her torso rotated past ninety degrees then shot another pair of golden lasers from her black fists toward where Doc Cordin had to be sitting. At least he wasn’t in pain anymore.

  Detrious noticed Mark peeking and called out as he pointed to the clear rushing water between them.

  “Every living thing that crosses over onto God’s side of the canyon will become a pile of ash- smote by my angel of death! But do try and enjoy the rest of your lives in sunny, sunny, sunny Sanctuary.”