Mr. Hartley (Alternate Places Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  He focused on the store in Underwood, a shock slapping him in the head as hard as anything Forest had done stopped him, pushing him into the floor hard, so hard he almost blacked out again. The floor creaked under him, even bowing slightly, he thought, so he might be doing something. Maybe something closer?

  He tried for the node in France instead, this time he felt, rather than saw, a fold in space between the two points develop as he pushed through with his energy. Exhaustion rolled over him, nearly making him pass out. Zack tried to fight it, it just didn't happen, the world graying out in a swirl of tiny, shiny black dots, with what looked like glitter around them. Then, slowly, he came back. Making a great effort, he crawled into the shortcut he'd opened up, hoping that it would be real and not just something his battered and bruised brain had come up with to try and comfort him.

  He went through it, a familiar tug taking place, leaving him laying on the floor of a node room, the one he and Libby had come through. He remembered then that he'd left Libby behind, and almost turned back for her. Instead he realized that she'd be safer there, keeping her alive for questioning later. He knew her so well, that he didn't think she could go anywhere in the world he couldn't find. Not even out of the world they all knew. She couldn't hide from him, from this.

  Crawling into the node, he made his way home.

  The store was dark and shut down, but he heard noise out front, people running and shouting. There were no attack noises yet. Thankfully. He needed some help. If he could get to Patty, even Kyle or Norris, then they might be able to help him heal from all of this. Unlocking the door might be beyond him at this moment though, so he tried calling out for help.

  “Drake? Can any of you out there hear me? It's Zack, in the Candle shop. I need help. Just come in, I'll buy a new lock. Please help. Anyone?” So slurred were his words that he wondered if they would understand him if they did hear him.

  “Help!” He tried to be clearer.

  From the front a sharp crash came and Nikki stood beside him suddenly, kneeling.

  “What the fuck?” she said looking at his wounds. “What happened?”

  “Attack coming. Betrayed...” He couldn't bear to say Libby had done it. Not yet. “Attacked, beaten. Got away. Get me Alede. Val or Patty. Please. Explain later.” Still not feeling the pain, he tried to speak as clearly as possible, even the Vampire in front of him winced and said he didn't have to speak, once she understood.

  She used all her speed and came back only a few minutes later with Val following her at a dead run, dressed in black military style fatigues. Even hurt he knew she looked hot. Oh, he didn't care about it at the moment, but it was still there, in the back of his mind.

  “Oh god! What happened to you?”

  He mumbled "betrayed" and asked Nikki to help them to the back. Then he asked her to leave, to go and get ready for the attack.

  When she'd gone, he tried to explain to Val what he needed her to do.

  "Change..." It was mumbled, and he really didn't want to be specific about it.

  "How would me changing into Voite help? I don't see..."

  Honestly, he wanted to roll his eyes, but could kind of understand it. Gender switching was linked to sex for her, not healing. Not even fighting really.

  "No... me..." It took a few repetitions for the words to be clear enough, but after the fifth one, she got it.

  “Change you? I don't see how...” Cutting her off he just said that it would help heal him. Actually, he said, "Ouh, id."

  She understood after a bit that he was ordering her to do it, even as the noise from outside started to shift a little.

  She pursed her lips and looked around.

  “I learned how to do it in school, but I've never actually done it before, what if I mess up?”

  He looked at her and nearly laughed, then told her it would be fine. On the Shadow level. Speaking just wasn't doing the trick at the moment.

  Pulling his shirt up, she laid one hand flat on his stomach, one on his chest, and closed her eyes. At first nothing happened and she started muttering to herself. Eventually he started to feel that odd bubbling and shrinking sensation he had before and everything started to itch including a few place that seemed to be outside his body for some reason.

  Val opened her eyes and gasped.

  “Oh! You're gorgeous!” She started to say more, but Zack held up a hand to stop her.

  “Don't say any more about it. Forget you saw me like this, and don't tell anyone, all right? This isn't about vanity or something, it's important. I just can't tell you why yet.” He looked at her, hoping his new face – her new face, he remembered trying to adjust – would convey the urgency.

  “Do you think you can get me back to normal now?” He asked her after a few seconds. She didn't nod, she just put her hand out and started the whole thing over again. This time it went much faster.

  Feeling good, if a little weak, he stood up and hugged her.

  “Libby led me into a trap. I don't know why yet. Someone, a family member of hers I think, was there too, with a bunch of Vampires. I killed two Vampires getting out. They're coming here, according to their leader, that Vamp I knocked out a week ago... We told you all about that right?” He looked at her to see her response, a simple nod.

  “What now?” The blonde Succubus, whose hair looked to have been cut into a military bob, instead of being most of the way down her back. He'd noticed that her hair would change length rapidly, but had never asked how it happened. He did that with a lot of things, noticed and then ignored them.

  Really, that's what had gotten him in trouble with Libby. Her inner self had even tried to tell him that something had gone wrong, that he shouldn't help her, but instead of questioning her on that level, he'd tried to give her privacy. In this case it had backfired tremendously.

  “Now,” he said, trying to sound confident. “Now I sit in the void, and wait for Demons, trying to kill as many of them as I can, before they get here.”

  Chapter forty-four

  In the void, he sat, pondering the world. Waiting for an influx of Demons to head toward his Nexus. Zack didn't know if he'd actually be able to determine where this point in the void would be, since there were no actual locations there. He watched the Demon traffic and waited for something to happen. After what seemed a long time of waiting, days, or weeks, maybe longer, he saw a group of them converge on one point and start to disappear.

  He pounced on them, causing the very stuff of the void to boil and shift within them, one at a time, until they were erased from all reality. It took a while to get done each time, and of the nearly thirty that made up the first wave, he only got five. It was a start, he reminded himself, waiting for them to try and leave, possibly to make another trip.

  Eventually one by one, they started coming back the other way. He took out seven on the return trip. When they came back again, he got another four.

  Though he waited and waited, no more came out. After a while the whole of the void seemed to empty of Demons all together. Word, it seemed, had gone out already, to all Demons. Only a few still ventured to travel at this point, and he left those alone. They weren't being a threat to him or his friends.

  Zack, feeling calm and so focused it wasn't funny, returned to the store, hearing a pitched battle going on outside.

  Not knowing what else to do, he ducked and crawled to the front of the store, where the safety glass windows had been broken out again, leaving small pills of glass all over the place. Peeking out he saw that the same thing had happened to Frozen YoGurt as well. He hoped everyone would be all right.

  Hearing shooting, he saw a group of Vampires heading his way, each carrying mean looking weapons. Automatics, he thought, though he couldn't tell for sure. He ducked down, using his ability to see their Shadow beasts instead of looking at them with his eyes, and used his energy to send a dense black line, about ten inches across toward the head of the one in front. To everyone else it just looked like his head fell off for no re
ason. He got two more before the others ran away and hid somewhere. They did it so fast that he couldn't even target them.

  In the distance down the main walkway, there were two floating spheres of fire, lines of white reaching out every now and then, causing people to turn into pillars of plasma, glowing white hot for a few second and then going out, the fuel, including the water in the body, having been consumed.

  The Djinn, he realized, two of them at least.

  People, some of them very small, stood facing a line of Vampires and Demons armed with firearms, the kind that looked like machine guns to Zack. The small people all seemed to be wearing slightly glowing armor of some form and carrying swords that fit their stature.

  When the Vampires and Demons fired at them, the bullets shed off of them like rain. Small flares of energy came from their armor when something hit them, keeping even the smallest of them from moving back under the impact. Suddenly they attacked as one, without any verbal command that he could hear. The Vampires and Demons that didn't run... fell, and didn't get back up.

  He didn't see any of his Vampires or Alede, though at the other end of the Mall he could see Keeber and Nessa along with some of the women from Princess Pretty Nail, shooting at anyone in the walkway they didn't recognize.

  Sometime between the Djinn cooking most of the Vampires that were invading, the main fighting force, it seemed to Zack, and Ang transforming into a dragon, the atmosphere changed. Even though the attackers were now outnumbered, they'd stopped falling, even when clearly killed. Bullets and swords did nothing to them. People on his side, he saw, started to die, or at least go down and stop moving.

  Devon, who'd been repelling invaders with Beatrice, suddenly turned and ran to his shop.

  The fighting continued, but nothing they did could harm the last twelve or so invaders, even the hottest fires of the Djinn couldn't touch them, though the light did blind them for a few moments. Spoiling their aim a bit.

  Devon came back at a run, and a voice, a Shadow voice, thundered in Zack's mind.

  HOLD!

  Everyone else froze for a second, Zack however ignored the command and walked out of the store, to see if he could tell what had happened. A huge Shadow hung in the middle of the Mall, looking a lot like his friend, Big Shadow, though smaller, a mere third the size at best.

  Another such Shadow became visible to him, it had been holding itself over the invaders. It regarded the other Shadow, floating up to meet it. A few seconds later a third, almost identical black, floating thing became visible. Their shapes shifted and moved, incomprehensibly. Just when you felt you had a perception of what they were, things changed, though they didn't actually move at all. It would have been more confusing, but Zack saw similar things each time he talked to anyone.

  They didn't move or talk at all, each one orienting toward the other silently as far as he could tell. After about five minutes of this, everyone but Zack frozen in place, a voice boomed again.

  IT HAS BEEN DECIDED. EACH SIDE SHALL HAVE A CHAMPION. THE VICTOR TAKES ALL. THE WINNER HAS TO OUTLIVE THE LOSER. IN CASE OF A DRAW, NEW CHAMPIONS WILL BE DECIDED.

  Zack wondered why champions should be picked, since a fight had already been going on. He projected this on the Shadow level just to see if anyone would answer.

  ONCE THE FRAY WAS JOINED BY ONE OF US, THERE COULD BE NO FAIR VICTOR WITHOUT DESTRUCTION OF THIS WORLD. WE HAVE INTERCEDED TO RIGHT THE BALANCE. OUR BROTHER WILL NOT GIVE OVER AND ALLOW HIS MINIONS TO BE SLAUGHTERED. HE AGREES TO A DUEL BY CHAMPIONS AS A FAIR CONTEST.

  They were further told, on a more silent level, that each would be measured and judged to see who would be the champion for their side. Many factors would be used to make the best choice for each, equality of combatants being a prime concern.

  WHO SPEAKS FOR THIS PLACE?

  The voice asked. Zack knew it came from the one on the left. How he knew this remained a mystery to him however.

  Devon stepped forward.

  “I speak for this place. I command my kind here, oh Arch-Demons from beyond.” A low bow accompanied his words.

  WHO SPEAKS FOR THE OPPOSITION?

  “I do.” A familiar voice spoke from the other side of the mall, walking out from behind one of the square white pillars, where he had been hiding. Zack knew the face well, it hadn't changed in all of these years, nor since he had last seen it at Lesser Shia.

  The Demon riding around in the corpse of his father stood there, wearing a black suit, holding a hand gun with a really long clip hanging out. He sauntered arrogantly toward the floating masses and bowed to the one on the right, that had been helping his side win.

  “Master,” he intoned reverently.

  THE ARBITRATOR WILL SELECT THE CHAMPION FOR EACH SIDE. WE'LL THEN HEAR BRIEF ARGUMENTS AS TO THE WORTHINESS OF EACH AND OTHERS MAY BE SUGGESTED, THEN THE ARBITRATOR WILL RULE AS TO THE FINAL NAMES.

  The center mass of roiling blackness moved over the people below, stopping briefly at each one, eventually he worked his way down to where Zack stood, repeating the same action.

  Then it moved back to its original place, flickering slightly for some reason.

  THE CHAMPIONS ARE: LESEIL DUROC FOR THE OPPOSITION AND ZACHARY HARTLEY FOR THE DEFENDERS. STEP FORWARD.

  Zack, hoping that he had an opponent that he could at least hit with something other than his face saw quickly that the other champion, Duroc, turned out to be Forest.

  Of course.

  If that amulet stopped him from using any of his abilities, this fight would be a bit like a kitten fighting a lion. Funny on paper, but quickly decided and in this case, not in the right way.

  Devon took a step forward, and addressed the central Arch-Demon directly.

  “Mr. Hartley is not a fighter. He's a good man, with many sterling traits and indeed is proving to be a unique talent, but to my knowledge he's not well-suited by strength of arm or martial ability to such a contest, surely others here would be better suited to this task? Or is this competition a mere farce? If so, then I'll withdraw my suggestion...”

  Zack didn't bother feeling insulted. That summary was probably kinder than his actual abilities warranted. He noticed Wu-Li nodding at this slightly, though Dan looked at him and smiled a tiny bit, from where they stood on the side lines.

  He couldn't tell if everyone could move yet, but little signs of motion started appearing in the crowd. A nod, a shift of weight, one of the Trolleinkein scratched something on their face, Birk, he thought.

  The Demon in black, Cruxias if he'd been told the name correctly, took a step forward as well.

  “I disagree. Zack has already bested Mr. Duroc in physical combat, in front of nearly a hundred witnesses. More, he was the first of the defenders to set foot into the Moorplank Center, a battle which he played the largest role in winning of any single being involved.” Shifting his weight to address the arbitrator more directly he continued.

  “He has, in fact, acted as champion for others and rescuer of more. If anything, it should be us that call foul here. Would you set the Djinn on us if we asked to have this one refused as being too powerful?”

  SILENCE!

  This seemed to come from the arbitrator.

  THE DECISION STANDS. LESEIL DUROC, ZACHARY HARTLEY. YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR BATTLE. YOU MAY USE ANY WEAPON YOU FIND OR CAN MAKE ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE. TO LEAVE THE FIELD IS TO FORFEIT. THE WINNER IS THE LAST ALIVE. YOU MAY NOT HAVE HELP IN THE FIGHT ITSELF AND MAY BRING ONLY WEAPONS YOU PERSONALLY OWN AT THIS TIME.

  Zack shut down all of his emotions in a few moments, already having been being suppressed for hours it took only a small amount of focus to finish the job. Then he shut down all possible sensation of pain again, since he'd let go of that part of things after his change and healing.

  “Husband! Your sword!” Merri, dressed in shining, gold-colored armor that glowed slightly and carrying a sword nearly as long as she was tall, resting on one shoulder ran to him, a smaller blade in her other hand. Slipping the sw
ord into his left hand, she drew her long blade and cut the palm of his right hand, asking him to take the handle in his now bleeding hand and call the sword by name.

  Looking at the runes which danced and shifted like an optical illusion, he couldn't make out a name at all.

  Merri, seeing this, blushed and whispered. “She's called 'Shield of Innocence'...”

  “Shield of Innocence!” He called out with a strong voice, just in case that is what she had in mind. She beamed at him. While it seemed a bit melodramatic to him, the other Alfric all nodded approval, so maybe he'd done it right?

  Turning to the Arbitrator she called out, “This is a true sword, bonded now to my husband, but commissioned as a dowry over two months past. No weapon can ever be said to belong more truly to a being!”

  No one, not even the Demon Cruxias tried to argue the point.

  Forest clearly didn't see it as a threat, being a little shy of two foot long, straight and he presumed, sharp.

  Keane came over with Claire, though he did the speaking.

  “Vampires are strong, fast and agile. Wood through the heart, which means the center, not the thing in the chest, that will weaken even an old one like him. It won't kill him though, for that you must take off his head, or burn his body to near ashes. Use that trick of yours, where you make things explode –”

  Zack interrupted. “Off the table. He had an amulet placed under his skin, to keep it from working on him. I already tried earlier.”

  Keane just accepted this, knowing time would run out soon.

  “Then use the other trick, speed only works if they know where to run. Win. Things will go poorly for us all if you don't.” This last bit came out rather dryly.

  Claire didn't hug him, nor did any of the others. Hilda stood across the central walkway, with the other Trolleinkein, looking... proud. Val looked worried, as did the rest of the Alede. Not that he could blame them. If my fate rested in my hands I'd be worried too, he thought, then realized it was in his hands.

  Not having a lot of options, he held his blade up awkwardly and began pulling his Shadow in around his soul, ready to go invisible as fast as possible. He also had a thought, which probably wouldn't work, but could buy him some space if things went the way he thought they might. Maybe.