Magic Man Charlie

by Scott Baron

  Refreshments had also been laid out, along with clean clothing in the adjacent rooms, should anyone feel the need to shed their bloody attire. The massive AI had done all he could on short notice to make the debrief as comfortable as possible for the team. He knew that despite his stoic exterior, the Wampeh assassin was surely enduring an emotional tempest beneath his calm façade.

  “If you’ll all please make yourselves comfortable, we can begin.”

  With that, the debriefing began, the AI and his other brilliant artificial counterparts listening intently as each teammate recounted the experience. It had not gone as expected. They’d seen that much from the surveillance cameras on both the ships and the ground that had been monitoring the events as they unfolded.

  Additionally, Sid, the AI on Dark Side base, had re-tasked a few satellites to better observe the goings-on down below from that particular vantage point. The result was a rather comprehensive video record of what occurred that day. Including the startling appearance of a new pair of alien ships.

  “And no one saw signs of them on the ground?”

  “Nothing,” Charlie said. “They must’ve entered the city single-file, using the wet trail from the damaged ship to mask their own. By the time they split off and took their positions, the water had run off enough to not leave any more traces.”

  “So, they knew we’d be coming,” Rika said. “Maybe not how many or from what direction, but they knew it.”

  “Yeah, looks that way,” he replied.

  “And they tried to take down Ara as quickly as they were able,” Leila added. “Meaning they know our strengths and were trying to even the playing field by taking her out of the mix. It’s just a good thing Charlie was so quick with his defensive spells.”

  “Not quick enough,” he grumbled. “Ara still took a hit.”

  “Is she all right?” Cal asked, concerned.

  “She’s fine. It just took her a minute to shake it off. I’m sure by now, with all the direct sunlight she’s soaking up, she’s feeling close to one hundred percent again.”

  “This is disconcerting,” Cal said. “That they would feel they had a realistic shot at removing the dragon from the equation means they are confident in their strength. And using the damaged ship as a trap, well, that shows a level of cunning above most foot soldiers’ pay grades.”

  “Meaning there’s someone of a higher rank calling the shots,” Rika said.

  “I only encountered a Tslavar captain aboard the ship during my captivity,” Bawb noted. “And while he appeared most competent, I do not take him for a leader of armies. What was your impression, Tim? You spent more time with them than I.”

  All eyes turned to the bloody cyborg. His own red blood intermingled with the green of the Tslavars. The wounds he’d received during their escape were still oozing, as was the nasty cut on his back where they’d performed exploratory vivisection on him.

  “Ah, yes,” he stammered. “Uh, what did I see? Well, from what I could tell, they were experimenting on the humans and Chithiid captives. They were all dazed when they would be brought back from whatever they’d had done to them, but they were no longer frozen in stasis.”

  “Which means a counterspell must exist that can unfreeze individuals as well as the planet’s population as a whole.”

  “Yeah. I’ll have Ara get working on that,” Charlie said. “But what else, Tim?”

  “Tell him what you told me,” Bawb said.

  “Ah, that. Right. So, the thing is, when they took me to experiment on, they activated some sort of translation device.”

  “It was a spell,” Charlie said. “Just call it a spell, it’s easier that way.”

  “Okay. They activated a spell and questioned me while they were digging around inside my body.”

  “Which must have been something of a shock to them,” Rika noted. “A metal man inside a flesh body. Not something they’ve ever seen before.”

  “They did seem intrigued,” he agreed. “Only, when they took a break from their digging and walked away, they didn’t bother turning it off the translation spell.”

  “But how did that help you?” Leila asked, still unfamiliar with all of the nuances of cyborg anatomy.

  “They didn’t realize exactly how an AI mind works. Or my ears, for that matter.”

  Leila began to realize what he was implying. “You have enhanced hearing.”

  “Precisely. And I heard them talking all the time, since I first got there, really. But at that moment, I had the translator active, so I could actually understand what they were saying.”

  “Which was?” Charlie asked.

  “That they were going to find a way to destroy the strategic mind guiding the planet’s forces. Once they achieved that, the rest of the planet would be easier to conquer.”

  “But that is me,” Cal said. “And just how exactly did they propose doing such a thing?”

  “That part I don’t know. The rest of the time I didn’t have a translator, so it was just gibberish.”

  “But now that we are back, I can help with that,” Bawb said, casting a translation spell, binding it to the cyborg’s body. “There. Now you have the spell the rest of us possess.”

  “Oh, so I can understand now?”

  “Precisely.”

  “Great. Then let’s dig in and see what else they had to say. Cal, do you want to make a copy of my files while I replay them?”

  “Yes, that would be wise. Unlock your wireless, and I will send a secure link. Accept it, and I will be able to copy as you go.”

  “I see it,” the cyborg said. “Okay, got it. You’re in.”

  “Excellent. Then let’s begin.”

  Tim fast-forwarded through his memories to relevant sections where alien voices could be heard. He then slowed to real-time so the non-AIs could keep up and replayed the conversations.

  Mostly they were discussing the prisoners and how weak a species they seemed to be, though the taller alien subjects did seem a bit more resilient. But it was the one called Tim’s immunity to their magic that was troubling them. He was impervious, somehow.

  A lengthy silence followed, until they finally came to bring him for experimentation. Initially, they activated a translation spell for him, asking questions as they opened his body. His lack of pain reactions disturbed them. That the metal man could disconnect from his flesh exterior’s damage sensors was simply beyond their comprehension. Only when they dug deeper and found his metal endoskeleton did they realize they had something entirely new on their hands.

  They called the captain, who came to the lab to examine the cyborg. By this point they had deactivated his translator spell, so he had no idea what they were about to say until the replay taking place this very moment.

  “The fact that it is able to be opened up without harming the internal functions is remarkable,” one of the Tslavars could be heard saying. “The other subjects would be rendered unusable with such invasive activity.”

  “Yes,” a deeper voice replied.

  “That’s Captain Sindall,” Bawb noted. “I know the voice well.”

  The Tslavar conversation faded as they walked from the chamber, returning a short while later with something in tow.

  “Are you certain this will work?” the captain could be heard asking.

  “Yes, Captain. Once planted inside, we will seal the wound enough to hold it in place. From what I can tell, the subject is no longer receiving pain stimuli from that area, so I believe he will not even notice it is there.”

  “Good,” Sindall said, the smile on his face almost audible in his voice. “And once this prisoner is rescued and taken within the innermost halls of the Earth people’s defenses, the device will detonate, wiping their leaders from the board and giving us the edge we need.”

  All eyes locked on Tim, but the cyborg was already on his feet, one hand groping around his back at the stitched-up wound his captors had inflicted upon him. “Oh no,” he said, wide-eyed.

  He locked g
azes with Bawb, then turned and ran from the room, darting down the hall and diving into the concrete-walled changing room Cal had provided for them should they so desire.

  The blast tore him to shreds, knocking out the thinner walls of the room, sending sparks bursting through the air as a magical fireball flashed out through the facility. Charlie and Bawb instinctively combined their powers, each casting a protective spell with all of their might within the command chamber.

  Leila’s Magus stone flared bright as well, adding an additional layer between them and the flames that were devouring the facility around them. The walls shook and collapsed, and if not for the magic preserving the room’s rough shape, they’d have been entombed beneath hundreds of tons of rubble.

  The debris finally settled into a stable resting place, allowing the survivors to stop casting their spells and crawl through the gaps in the rubble until they reached the open space of the loop tube terminal.

  “Holy shit,” Rika gasped, looking at the sheer scale of the damage.

  The destruction was massive. Whatever spell the Tslavars had managed to embed within the device hidden inside of Tim, it had destroyed indiscriminately. Cyborgs were shredded, some reduced to molten slag. Humans and Chithiid who had been frozen in place since the ordeal began were now no more than piles of blood and bone.

  “There’s nothing we can do for them,” Charlie said, shaking off the shock as best he could. “Cal, you there?”

  Nothing.

  “The automatic fire suppression systems are only semi-functional,” Rika noted.

  “I see,” Charlie replied. “We have to get to the surface.”

  He started for the far end of the terminal, where the damage seemed less intense. The others silently followed behind him, stunned at the sheer destruction around them and the utter miracle that they had managed to survive.

  Bawb joined Charlie in prying the stairway access door free, then they all began the climb toward fresh air. They would survive this day, and they would regroup. And then there would be hell to pay.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Sunlight and fresh air greeted the survivors of the magical blast as they stumbled out of the partially collapsed stair access and onto the streets. What they saw was incredible.

  The ground above the terminal, while intact, had sunk––several feet, in some areas. A portion of the roadway had also buckled, forming a sinkhole where the high-pressure water pipes beneath were sheared away, blasting their contents out with great force before the backups to the backups finally sealed off the flow.

  The explosion had likely caused far more damage than the Tslavars had ever hoped to achieve. And it made Bawb even more angry than he already was. Despite his blank expression, the vein in his temple was beginning to pulse visibly, and Charlie had never seen that kind of rage and restraint from him before. Whoever wound up on the receiving end of the Wampeh’s blades, it would undoubtedly be a brutal demise. And he had an inkling that the Geist was going to make it slow and painful.

  “It was all a setup,” Bawb growled as he surveyed the damage. “The whole damn thing. The crash, the escape, all of it. They wanted us to break free. It was the only way they could secrete that bomb into the command center.”

  “There was no way you could have known,” Rika said. “And remember, those Tslavars damn near killed you back there.”

  “I am well aware. But it is also highly likely that they were not aware of the plan. More likely than not, the intention was for Tim and I to make our escape during the battle, eventually making our way back to command, where their device would detonate. But when Ara and your new weapons caused more damage to the ship than originally expected, lines were blurred, and troops meant to be on the front lines fell back to defend the ship.”

  “Which is why we encountered so many,” Rika noted.

  “Precisely. Regardless, with all the confusion, we returned to command a bit earlier than planned. It was the only thing that afforded Tim the window to do what he did.”

  “He saved us,” Charlie said. “Sacrificed himself to save us all.”

  “And he will be remembered,” Bawb said. “With a great deal of violence and bloodshed.”

  A burst of steam rose from the fissures in the sidewalks and roadway, as well as spouting out in a great plume from the stairwell.

  “Looks like the fire suppression system is back online,” Charlie said. “At least it’ll stop any further damage. But what kind of spell was that? I mean, I’ve seen some pretty powerful and unique things thrown at us, but nothing like that.”

  “I am familiar with it,” Bawb said. “Though I would never sink so low as to use its like.”

  “Why? What was it?”

  “A tool of the weak and cowardly. A terrorist’s device, designed to cause maximum damage in a completely indiscriminate manner,” the pale assassin said, his distaste readily apparent. “I have killed many in my time, but a Wampeh Ghalian does not lay waste to innocents. Whoever cast this spell has no honor, and I look forward to ending them personally.”

  “If we can find them,” Charlie added. “Ara, you close enough to hear me?”

  A long pause hung in the air. “Barely. What do you need, Charlie?”

  “I need you to get with the ships still in the area and form an observation network. We need to know exactly where those bastards are and be ready to strike at a moment’s notice.”

  “You sound agitated?”

  “Damn right I am. Bob’s escape was a setup. They planted a massive bomb inside the cyborg we rescued along with him. The command center is destroyed, and much of the loop tube terminus is inaccessible until the fires are all out.”

  “How could this happen, Charlie? I felt the intensity of their magic. That was no diversion they launched at me. They were very much trying to kill me.”

  “I know. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t also want to cripple what they thought was the nervous system of the planet’s defenses.”

  “But how?”

  “If those other ships were cloaked all this time, it’s very possible they’ve observed us coming and going long enough to have figured out where command was, and how best to get inside.”

  “This does not bode well.”

  “No, Ara, it does not.”

  A crackling hiss boomed out across the intersection, the static receding until it was no more than a faint background noise.

  “Now I am angry,” Cal said, his voice crackling over the damaged speakers.

  “He’s alive!” Leila exclaimed.

  “Oh, yes. Very much alive, my friend,” the mighty AI replied. “It seems our Tslavar invaders once again misunderstood the nature of this world’s technology.”

  “I don’t understand,” Leila said.

  “What he means is the AI computer itself––the actual machines that are Cal’s brain––that is nowhere near that command center, am I right, Cal?” Rika said.

  “Exactly. I merely chose to utilize that location for our base of operations out of convenience and proximity to the loop tube network. As for me, my mind is perfectly safe, and it would take quite a lot more than that attack to even scratch the walls of my processor vaults.”

  “And now the loop tube system is damaged,” Charlie pointed out.

  “Yes, but only in this location. It is easy enough to bypass, but I believe we will not have need of––” Cal abruptly fell silent.

  “Cal? Everything okay? You still with us?”

  “Yes, Charlie. But I have just received word from other AIs across the globe. It would seem that there have been other instances of cyborgs detonating within city walls.”

  “You mean there are more booby-trapped people out there?”

  “It would appear that way. None were rescued as Bawb and Tim were, but there have been some reports of confused cybernetic citizens appearing after unexplained absences.”

  Charlie’s mind raced. This wasn’t just an attack on Cal. This was a global attempt to disrupt the AI network
itself.

  “Cal, you need to get a hold of every AI you can. Tell them to immediately quarantine any cyborg who has even the slightest abnormal behavior in a blast-resistant area until they can be evaluated. We know what to look for. Now we just have to keep them from wandering into any sensitive places and accidentally blowing themselves up.”

  Bawb and Rika shared a blood-thirsty look, then turned to their friend.

  “Charlie?”

  “Yeah, Bob?”

  “We must get to my home.”

  “Hunze’s safe, man. She’s okay. Relax.”

  “No, you misunderstand. We must get to my home so I can retrieve my weapons,” the assassin said with scary calm in his voice. “For now, my friend, it is our turn to hunt.”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  The escaping ships had plunged deep beneath the waves as they sped off in a magic-powered flash. As soon as she saw them accelerate to speed, Ara realized the spells being used to power the craft were far more formidable than even she had imagined.

  Much like the sonic tech-magic aboard the submersible craft Charlie had intuitively helped power, these ships were utilizing a magic-driven version of the Earth technology. Only, they used spells rather than science to achieve the effect.

  “They are increasing their speed,” Ara called out to the small squad of AI-piloted ships keeping pace alongside her.

  The ships, possessing an intelligence of their own, were thrilled to be flying a mission with an actual dragon. It was the sort of thing they’d tell tales of for the rest of their days. That was, of course, if they survived the current endeavor long enough to tell them.

  Ara pushed herself faster, the magic she cast without so much as a thought cutting the air in front of her, allowing her to reach supersonic speeds without the discomfort of a sonic boom. “Soon I may be unable to match their pace,” she said into the buffeting winds. “Without exiting the atmosphere, I cannot fly much faster.”

  Far below, her quarry moved at likewise impossible speed, deep beneath the waves.