by Jamie Hawke
This guy was really starting to piss me off. As I turned to retaliate, I noticed my teammates were holding their own, though they weren’t doing much better than me.
“Oh great son of Apollo,” my opponent taunted, holding his axe with both hands, legs bent and ready for a charge. “Are you in there, hiding within this tiny excuse for a man?”
I didn’t bother with a response, instead throwing myself at him. My shield was down, but that reminded me of one key detail about shields—they rarely gave any protection against hand-to-hand combat. While I might not have been the same size as this mountain of a man, I knew my speed and strength were up there, maybe even surpassing his for all I knew. So, abandoning any use of weapons, I moved outside the arc of his axe swing and caught him with a punch to the jaw.
The crack of his jawbone echoed even above the sound of the others fighting, and he staggered back, eyes wide with confusion and pain.
“Wha…” He started, but the word came out garbled, his mouth hanging slack, blood starting to trickle down his jaw from where bone stuck out.
“Not so invincible now, are we?” I growled, then charged again, going for a sweeping kick. Big mistake—a guy that size doesn’t get swept easily, or maybe part of his powers involved some sort of balance or immovable force mechanic. Either way, my leg hit his and he stared down at me like I was a rat trying to bite his toe.
“AHHH!” he shouted, bringing his axe up.
I went for the only move available at this angle—a good kick straight up into his nuts. Another solid crack, or maybe it was a crunch… either way his axe dropped, and I was rolling, grabbing it, and standing with a heavy swing. When I made impact, no shield stopped me. The metal lodged into the side of his neck and stuck there.
He staggered back, unable to process what was happening. This wasn’t the time to stop, so I pushed the attack, coming in with a jumping punch that finished the job with his jaw and literally disconnected it from the man’s face, tearing skin and flesh.
One of his hands went for the axe, the other tried to reconnect his jaw, which left him distracted. He got the axe out, blood spewing, but I had managed to get behind him and kicked, hard, at his knee. Crunch.
He collapsed to his knees, now about the same height as me. I kept at it, punching him once in the side of the head, then kicking him from the back so that he fell to the ground, face-first.
“No!” another super shouted and unleashed a blast of blue circles at me, but Gale had her, hitting her with a bolt of lightning that didn’t kill her, but still beat her back, halting her attack.
A glance back showed Muerta glaring, but not bothering to move yet. Without taking my eyes off of her, I stepped over, lifted a foot, and stomped on the man’s head. It crunched, skull breaking, leaving him dead.
Finally, Muerta lifted a hand, pointed at me with hatred, and then pointed down.
“Shit,” I muttered as the corpse glowed gold. Only my ability to travel through nearby material allowed me to escape in time. I slammed my hand down just as the explosion started. Flame touched the edge of my forearm, the heat hitting my face, but then I was in the stone, coming up a few feet away from where Harp had just taken off to attack one of the other flying supers.
I risked a second to take a peek at what was going on with the rest of the group, with a cautious eye toward Muerta. She was glaring at me, but not taking any further steps yet. Watching and learning, I assumed, looking for weaknesses.
Sam sent off a barrage of shots, though the target—a woman with red and green colored lights rippling around her body that were sending off blasts in all directions—dodged easily. In a flash, Sam was there, cutting with her sword exactly where the super had dodged to. The sword cut in, digging deep, causing the latter to scream as the colors faded, seeping out of the wound in place of the blood a normal person would bleed.
Sam leaped back, sword slamming into the ground and exploding bursts of electricity toward the super and the next one over. The first one fell, dead, the next was slammed back in time to be hit by a joint attack from Harp and Charm, with Harp striking first.
Meanwhile, I managed to find an “in” on a short super with beady black eyes. He’d been trying to get to Harp a moment ago, and barely registered when I came up on him. I took a shot with my blaster, taking a play from Sam’s hit on her super. It worked! The guy dodged, but exactly to the spot I’d been aiming for with my strike. A good shot as I hit with my tempest and then followed up with the paladin’s Heavenly Blast—a concentrated one that tore through his neck. He still tried to attack, a puddle of shadow forming around him, but a good kick sent his head flying and his torso collapsed, vanishing along with his shadow.
Gross, I know.
When I spun next, I registered my “Level Up” screen and smiled, figuring that could be very useful in the near future. That made level thirty-four. I almost laughed out loud when I saw it was two levels. Damn, these guys were worth some serious experience! Not only that, but my strength and speed had now risen to the point that they were each ten times where they’d started at when I’d first arrived from Earth.
Pardon me for feeling like a badass. I quickly turned back to the fight while using my screen to assign the skill points. I loved seeing that combined skill tree, with both paladin and other, earlier skills together. The ability to travel through materials and heal, to do illusions and turn into a dragon. All of that excited me, and a new thought hit me as I upped my illusion power again. Because I was going to aim for making myself into a fucking dragon paladin. I couldn’t wait.
Aegriss was the only one not fully in the fight. She had a blaster and was using her fists like a pro when the moments came, but against the Tortured she was clearly no match. Seeing this worry in her eyes, I started for her.
“Get back out there.” Aegriss held up a hand to send me back. “Fight!”
She turned to move for the building on the far side of the square, presumably for cover. Halfway there, one of the supers picked her up in some sort of beam and laughed as he pulled her along. Her shouts of anger fueled my drive as I ran after him, hitting him with blasts from my tempest. Having missed, I ran and leaped into the air, using my ability to make illusions temporarily real and sprouted my dragon wings, then flew for him. But why stop there? I thought, so I created another layer of dragon-based paladin armor along with the illusion of fire coming out of my fucking mouth.
Yeah, it was as awesome as it sounds—except for the fact that I wasn’t a dragon for real and the fire hurt like a bitch. My lips caught fire and I lost my concentration, falling to hit the ground with a thump.
Fuck, that hurt.
“Breaker!” Charm called. She ran over, but before she got to me, Andromida was there, fighting off the super who was shooting green arrows from an invisible bow.
Charm knelt at my side and cringed. I was barely conscious. I wanted to talk, to tell her to go after Aegriss, but I knew by the pain and the look of shock and anguish in her eyes that I needed to heal myself.
It was a miracle I did it right, but as they fought off those around me, I managed to reposition some skills—it was stupid of me to ever think I could manage without the healing skill. Every bit of my consciousness was pleading with me to give up, to lay back and let the pain win, but Charm was there, breathing into my face with her breaths… more than one color, actually. Suddenly I was alert.
“Did you just…?” I asked, then froze, hand going to my mouth to touch it, feel that it was healed. “You healed me.”
She beamed. “I don’t know, I thought—if I can breathe in like that, all those colors at once, is it possible to breathe it out? And seeing you like that, parts of me I didn’t even know I had opened up. And—”
Another attack hit nearby. Andromida deflected it. Then Harp came swooping overhead to counterattack, a maelstrom of wind and sleet and ice-spears following as Gale went crazy on those motherfuckers.
But what was really cool about the whole thing was when Charm
turned to protect me, taking a defensive stance as if she’d be taking a bullet headed for me (not that I’d let that happen!). Waving around in front of me was not one, not two… but three tails!
“Whoa,” I said, and when she glanced back she squealed. “I’m leveling up faster than you, boy.”
“Let’s make a contest out of it!” I jumped up, ready to get back into the mix, but then I remembered Aegriss.
Charm saw the look in my eyes, glanced over to in the direction they’d taken her, and nodded. “I’ll keep them off of you. You find her and bring her back to us. Got it?”
“Yes, mom,” I replied with an attempt at humor, though it fell short, naturally, as she looked at me with confusion. Not the time for jokes, apparently, but that breath thing she’d done had filled me with a strange euphoria that wasn’t going away anytime soon.
Without an attempt to fix it, I took off. This was no time for taking feet out of mouths. I scanned the area ahead and found the super, so that I was able to quickly dart over using my travel power.
Upon seeing my approach, he tried to turn to use his beam on me. But I was already traveling through the building wall, coming out right above him. I landed, catching him in a chokehold, and we plummeted down. He had us up again before we could hit the ground, but not enough, and was losing blood and oxygen to the brain.
I didn’t need any superpower to take him, other than my quick travel. It was a realization that made me feel quite good about myself. When he was down, I turned to see Shimmer filling the square with illusions of our team, so it looked like what was left of the Tortured were fighting a hundred of the same group.
On a side note, my level went up again. Level thirty-five. There was an additional screen that showed my strength was now at one-hundred, lit up as if that was some big milestone. Damn, I felt strong as hell, and I could fight these guys all day if it meant this kind of experience. My muscles felt more alive than ever as I tested my strength, and I quickly assigned the skill to amping up my ability to hold illusions longer.
In the square, Laurel managed to pull up roots from deep below, using them to grab hold of enemies and contain them. Andromida took out the one with a shield, in spite of a good blast from him that made me cringe. They seemed to be handling themselves, so I continued on, finding Aegriss backing away from the center of the battle. Her eyes darted between me and the action.
She was a bit beat up, so I grabbed her, slamming through the closest door without even caring that it opened outward instead of inward, and knelt, cradling her close to me.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Just… need a recharge.”
I knew how to do that. Having already moved my skill points to open as many paths as possible, I made sure I had a clear line at Heavenly Light, then used it as I kissed her. This time, the kiss was real. Not a single android thought. It was just about me, her, and the powers flowing through both of us. The powers were recharging her, improving our bond, and making me feel like quite the badass. Or maybe that was the kiss?
When I pulled back, she smiled. “Now… let’s go kill that bitch.”
“Fucking A.” I pulled her up, then paused. “To be clear, you are talking about Muerta, right? Not one of our teammates or—”
She grabbed my crotch and threatened to squeeze.
“Oh, oh, just trying to add levity to a dark situation,” I protested.
“And I’m just using my desire for you to shut up as an excuse to cop a feel.” She winked, then led the way back to the fighting. Man, to think I’d considered her no more than an android before.
I grinned, took a breath, and ran after her.
20
Aegriss and I charged back into the square, searching for the rest of my team amid the fighting, chaos and explosions abounding. Above us, the A.I.-led ship appeared briefly, shooting at something we couldn’t yet see, then vanished from sight. Ominous, to say the least.
Charm and Harp reached us, and so did Laurel a moment later. Harp and Laurel continued to fight as Charm threw her arms around Aegriss and gave her a big kiss on the cheek.
“I knew he’d save the princess.”
“Not a princess,” Aegriss said.
“And I didn’t save her, just helped defend her.”
Charm laughed at that one, but spun around and rejoined the fight as a wave of Refurbished joined the battle and spotted us, pressing the attack.
“Sam…” Charm leaped over Laurel and, with her glowing, extended claws, took off the heads of two Refurbished. “I think someone hit her.” Another well-placed strike gutted a super. “Saw her going down, and not in the good way.”
“Where is she?” I asked, spinning, searching the square.
Laurel scanned the area, her eyes wide, though she was likely looking more with her mind.
“There!” Charm said, pointing in the opposite direction. Only when I followed her finger, I saw she was indicating a nice store with a red dress in it. “It’s perfect!”
“Are you shitting me? At a time like this?”
“At all times!” she replied, and shoved me toward it. “Get me my dress!”
I laughed, about to make a joke and say we’d get it when the fighting was done, when the store and the whole block behind it exploded. I pulled back, blocking my face and putting up my shield in case debris came our way. People were screaming, running around the nearby streets, smoke billowing up into the sky.
“Fuck me,” I said, and then saw a large enemy ship come flying past, sending out silver discs that exploded on impact. Another building went up, then another.
“Gale, Shimmer, you seeing this?” I shouted into my comms.
“On it!” Gale replied, and our ship appeared, going after the enemy in pursuit. A moment later though, more enemy ships were pushing back, too strong for it. We would do what we could here on the ground, but we needed a path to victory, one I could envision.
“Sam,” I said, turning back to Laurel. “Where is she?”
“It was that way,” Charm said.
Charm indicated, and sure enough the enemy were falling back, piling up—if she was this great Shadow Mystic that Hadrian had spoken of, I could see how this might be her doing. Aegriss stayed with Charm, Laurel and Harp, fighting at the line to give me room to push forward to help Sam.
My heart thudded hard in my armor, my breaths coming strained as I charged forward to join in the fray, screaming in a sort of mixed battle cry and panic as I went. The Refurbished were streaming out into the square in a mass, a line of supers and Dex behind them. This was clearly the ambush they’d been planning, but I wasn’t scared yet.
One of the supervillains came at us, leaping over the Refurbished in a fine display of hubris. Gale taught him a lesson with an ice spear right through his neck, at the exact moment he started to unleash a whip of light that resembled the power I’d seen Sakurai using back on that alien ship.
He fell. The enemy didn’t care, didn’t even bother to check on him to see if he was dead or alive. Refurbished opened up, shooting at us, directing their fire over to my left, where a line of Russian military and police forces had formed. Fighting was still going on high above us between ships, but I was glad to see their government had anticipated something like this. They even had several tanks and mechs at the ready, energy shields up and forming a defensive wall as shots rang out.
Seeing them there with tech that could at least help them survive while we did the big fighting gave me hope. Amid their firing, half the enemy charged—Dex, Nihilists, and supers charging in now, too. Sam charged out to meet them, firing with her massive gun and sword at the ready, cloak flapping behind her but seemingly propelling her forward at great speeds.
We had our shields and extra stats and boosts from Twitch, but in the chaos I’d lost sight of the others outside of this little sub-group of ours, and was simply throwing back attacks at the Refurbished as I searched the chaotic square for them.
“Give me room!” Twitch shoute
d.
“What?” I replied, sending Heavenly Blasts in big spreads at the enemy.
“Cover fire!” she said, then had up ten screens at once, trying something. Aegriss’s eyes went white as she connected with some of the friendly mechs and other machines nearby, compelling them to begin the assault on the enemy and pepper them with firepower.
Twitch grinned. “I scanned some of you earlier, and if there was ever a time to try it—”
“No, you can’t!” I kicked a Refurbished in the skull, collapsing it, then turned to try and stop Twitch, but it was too late.
She had all but one of the screens off… and hit “confirm.”
“What’d you do?” I asked.
“Some adapted powers from Harp and Gale, for now.” The screen faded and she stood, wobbly. “I feel… different.”
An explosion went off nearby, gold light fluttering down from the sky.
“There’re too many!” Andromida shouted, flying in with her metal tunnel, blue light flooding us as she came nearer. Twitch did her thing and the blue light moved over us as before, when we’d faced the dragon, and then the floating gold light hit.
A series of explosions echoed through the night, one after another, and then many all at once. The ground was being pulverized, fighters good and bad destroyed in the blasts, buildings falling around us.
And yet, we stood tall in our shields even though none of us knew if we’d survive the next few seconds. More of the light fell, looking almost like snow—or maybe this time it was snow? I couldn’t be sure, but what I was sure of was the fact that a figure had appeared over the remaining domes of the cathedral. She was floating over to us as if riding the floating light, her hands outspread, hair waving back behind her. Eyes glowing gold.
