Scion and Glaistig Uaine began fighting in earnest. They weren’t more than a hundred feet apart. Glaistig Uaine was drawing on spirits with a shorter range, now.
One with a fox-face that seemed to be granting three different kinds of enhanced movement, teleportation, super speed and flight. The other two varied from moment to moment. Some existed so briefly that Glaistig Uaine didn’t even try to keep them afloat in the air, images that lasted two or three seconds, employing their powers before they exceeded her natural range and dissipated.
Some came back, used powers in different variations. The ones Scion destroyed, though, they didn’t recur.
Glaistig Uaine was running out, and running out fast.
Weld patiently helped Sveta bind herself to a single pole inside a half-sphere the size of a beachball. When she was inside, he attached another half to the sphere and began screwing it shut.
Here and there, the smallest tendrils found their way out of airholes. They gripped his hand.
“Be brave, Sveta,” Weld murmured.
“I just tell myself I need to act like you,” Sveta’s voice came from within the sphere.
Weld didn’t answer that. He handed the sphere to Sanguine. The red-skinned boy gave his leader a nod, then started sliding down the length of the cord.
The capes who had taken Lab Rat’s juice were among the largest. They descended the rope I’d created. Only a couple were left, now.
“Matryoshka, get the ones from inside,” Weld said. “Think you can manage?”
A young case fifty-three with horizontal lines marking the length of her body nodded. She began dissolving into ribbons as she made her way across the platform.
“You’re not coming, I suspect,” Weld said. I realized he was speaking to me.
I shook my head, the motion jerky.
“If it’s about the injuries, the juice wearing off, we can support you, give you some healing.”
“Not that.”
“There’s nothing you can do. Nothing we can do. Any of us.”
“String Theory hurt him.“
“String Theory died. And she didn’t hurt him so much as shove him. It’s like a three year old pushing a grown man. Right time, right place, catching him off guard, nothing more.”
The metaphor was eerily similar to Shadow Stalker’s one about cockroaches.
“I’m talking abstracts,” I spoke through my swarm.
I watched as a very androgynous figure left the building Matryoshka had entered. She bore innumerable injuries, but stoicly limped her way to the rope, gripping it. She glanced at Weld, then nodded.
“Abstracts.”
“We know it’s possible to shove him, maybe other stuff is possible too. There’s hope.”
“So you want to do this again?” Weld asked. “How many of your friends came? What did you stake on this?”
I thought of Grue. I didn’t know if he was okay, or if he was one of the capes who had been in the water.
“One came,” I said.
“Is he okay?”
“Maybe.“
“I brought everyone, lost three for sure, one that’s a maybe,” Weld said. “You don’t- we can’t do this again. He’s too strong. Unstoppable.”
“You wanted to stay,” I said, stressing the you as much as I was able, speaking through the bugs.
“No,” Weld said. “I didn’t want to leave. Different thing.”
I didn’t have a response to that. Legend, Alexandria and Eidolon had returned. Legend and Alexandria rescued more stranded capes, flying off, while Eidolon rose into the air, positioning himself so Scion was between him and Glaistig Uaine.
“Sveta idolizes me. She sees me as a hero, a spokesperson for our kind. Her therapist asked me to come visit, because she heard about what happened in the Echidna attack, what Cauldron was doing. All of her progress, gone. So her therapist wanted her hero to show up. Give her guidance, support. It worked.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” I asked. I saw Eidolon open fire, not a dramatic attack, but a subtle one, a series of darts that left dark streaks in the air. My entire body tensed, as if I could jump into the fight.
Weld was shaking his head. “She thinks I’m fearless, but I’m not. I don’t have any hormones, any real heart that can pound, adrenaline to flow through my veins. But I still feel fear, still feel despair. I can’t jump into the water and sink to some point lower than mount Everest is tall, spending months or years without any goddamn music. So I stay here and… I try to convince them to leave. I’m a coward in the end, putting them at risk because I’m scared I’ll sink.”
“They left,” I said.
“Because I lied. I’m not going to follow them. I’m staying.”
I nodded.
“Sweet fuck all we can do, you know.”
“I know,” I responded. “But nothing we can do except fight.“
“I don’t know if I should pity you for that perspective or envy you.”
I shook my head.
Weld spoke, his voice grim. “In terms of morale, there’s no fixing this. We put our best foot forward, we failed. I can’t speak for the others, but I can guess how they’re going to feel. I think of myself as a brave guy. I pulled off the hero bit, I lead by example. But I don’t think there’s anything we can do but run.”
“That’s all you’ll do from here on out? Run?“
He looked down at his hands. “And get revenge. I promised other people we would.”
“That’s the opposite of what we need to be doing, Weld. You have to know that.“
He looked up at me with inhuman eyes that were framed by fine wire eyelashes. His expression communicated so much, considering it was hard metal.
“Give me a chance to prove otherwise,” I said.
“Prove-” he stopped mid-sentence. “Prove what?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
Then I moved, hopping up onto the top of the nearest structure, a small building that had stood on the edge of the platform. My bugs stirred around me.
You took my dad from me, my hometown. You took our hope, betrayed humanity.
I don’t do well with betrayal.
As I moved along the platform, I got a view of the last of the Irregulars making their way into the water. Fallen debris was keeping them from being dragged into the narrow whirlpool beneath the structure. They swam as a group, some using pieces of wood for flotation.
They just had to get far enough away from Scion for someone to open a door.
My swarm climbed the rope, taking it apart, for multiple strands. They formed a single cord that was thin, but a quarter of a mile long.
Me, my passenger and my screwed up monster body were all in agreement.
I want to hurt him.
Want to prove this isn’t hopeless, that we can do something.
I don’t want to lose to another bully. I’m done with surrendering to forces of nature, human nature or otherwise.
My swarm extended in his direction, carrying a strand.
I hurried across the length of the platform. Who was still here?
What could I do?
Nobody of consequence on the upper level.
Down there?
Drawing out a cord of silk between me and the railing, I used my faulty flight pack to lower myself towards the water.
Silk wound itself around Scion’s eyes. He didn’t pay it any mind. His focus was on Glaistig Uaine. Her spirit was the same one she’d used before, launching ineffective attacks that left blotches of darkness across the sky.
I found the capes on the water. A Thanda, three birdcage capes. The Thanda was using his power to fix them all in space, so they stood just a short distance above the water. Two of them recoiled in fear as I lowered myself to their level. The Thanda was calm, by contrast.
The wind blew the silk, threatening to pull it from my grip. Scion was moving, and it could break at any instant.
I passed the silk to the Thanda.
He gave me a curious glance.
Then he froze it in space.
It fixed the thread’s location in space, froze Scion as well. The golden man was rendered immobile.
Glaistig Uaine, Legend and Eidolon all struck him with everything they had. Attacks too big or too slow to land otherwise.
I collected the remains of the silk before it could land in the water.
Not enough length to use the Thanda again. I moved, relying on the flight pack.
It shorted out, and I used the sole remaining panel of antigravity to land on a shattered corner of the oil platform. It was slowly sinking into the waves.
The swarm. Not many bugs, but something.
I’d thought he was perceptive enough to see through the decoys, but he was the golden fool. The Simurgh had deceived him before.
Maybe it wasn’t that he could draw the logical conclusion and know that there wasn’t a human inside. Maybe he was too ready for breakers, for capes who didn’t follow the usual rules.
I created a swarm decoy, gathering all of the bugs from the surrounding area. I couldn’t tap the resources beneath the water, but I could draw from the life that had gathered on the rig, the bugs that feasted on the algae that clustered around the legs of the structure.
The body approached, and Eidolon moved aside. He moved as if it were a comrade joining the fight, as if he, Glaistig Uaine and the swarm-decoy effectively had Scion surrounded.
Idiotic, nonsensical. Scion didn’t even react to the maneuver.
Glaistig Uaine attacked, and Scion retaliated. Her spirit teleported her away.
Eidolon created mirror images of himself, illusions, and Scion lashed out. Only one of the illusions remained.
It fizzled out.
Eidolon died?
No. Eidolon struck out from the clouds above. Scion seemed to anticipate it, sliding out of the way.
The tempo of the attacks and counterattacks continued. Scion attacked Glaistig Uaine’s spirits, and still, the destroyed ones failed to return.
A pattern?
He was an alien combatant, a stranger from another world, who saw the world in an entirely different way from how we did.
But there was a pattern.
I divided the swarm decoy in two.
Divided each of those two into two more.
He’d stopped the spirit from spreading across the sky, and had made a concerted effort to eliminate Glaistig Uaine’s spirits. He’d eliminated Eidolon’s illusions.
Whether the creations were concrete or otherwise, it was something that seemed to provoke him.
Was it something instinctive? A part of his species? Something he watched out for in enemies, in threats or competition?
Scion turned and blasted the swarm out of the sky.
The last of my bugs.
His hand turned my way, as he floated in my direction.
He knew who was controlling them.
It was a diversion, a crucial distraction.
Glaistig Uaine flew in close, creating another set of spirits. Two to either side of her, one in the lead.
I recognized the one in the lead, distorted as it was.
Clockblocker’s spirit touched Scion, and the golden man froze.
She banished the ghost in an instant, recreated the one who had created the dark blotches in the sky.
The blotches began to move, gravitating towards Scion.
Concentrated in one spot.
She plotted this, planned out the extended attack.
I felt my hair stir, drifting towards that spot.
I’d seen something similar, once upon a time. I backed away until I was able to grab something for a hold.
They all gathered into a single dot, and the effect intensified.
The effect around Scion broke, and he began drifting towards the dark point.
He resisted, and I could sense something from him. Not alarm, but a reaction nonetheless.
From Glaistig Uaine and Eidolon’s body language, they saw it too.
He reached out, one hand stretched towards the center of the effect.
And Eidolon used a power, effectively detonating the effect, reversing it.
The G-driver had sent Scion flying into the atmosphere. Eidolon had apparently taken a lesson from it, because he’d emulated the effect. Here, Scion was plunged into the water.
Another hit, another inconvenience. Something.
He was in the water. He’d come back up.
We could do it again. I just needed to form another decoy.
Except I’d used up every bug I had on this.
Not bugs, then.
I flexed the legs that Lab Rat’s serum had given me, then dove into the water. I held my breath, making my way deeper.
It was negligible, but I wanted as many as I could get.
Simple lifeforms. If there were none above the water’s surface, I’d use the ones below. A glance above me showed one of the flying heroes above the water’s surface, watching. Good. We’d be able to coordinate an attack.
We were too far from the ocean floor for me to find crabs or lobsters, but there were others.
Krill. Two inches in length, at best. But they were alive, and I could move them. I could use them. Another swarm decoy, another combination attack. Something that-
My claw twitched.
I closed it, then flinched. The ‘teeth’ of the claw had bitten into soft flesh. It hadn’t been soft before.
I kicked, and I could feel the lack of strength in the leg’s movement. The spasm wasn’t as strong, and a wet feeling was running along the inside of the leg. Fluids leaking.
No. I wasn’t going to stop. Not now, not like this.
He’d have to surface, he’d be angry, distracted. There could be an opening.
I kicked, paddling myself forward, and I wasn’t moving towards the surface Just the opposite.
My lungs were feeling the strain. I didn’t care. He’d come up, and we’d-
Crimson blossomed across my vision, obscuring my view. Blood. Mine.
One leg came free of the socket.
No.
Piece by piece, I started to come apart.
The decoy. If I keep it together until he comes, let them split apart naturally, maybe he’ll be fooled.
I started to try and move towards the surface, aware of my circumstance. My strength wasn’t there. My muscles had been cannibalized for parts to build this temporary body, and the reversion process wasn’t supplying them with everything they required.
My flight pack failed. I couldn’t raise myself to the surface.
Let me prove we can fight back. Don’t let people like Weld give up at this point.
My consciousness began to dim, faster than it had before. I didn’t have the benefit of adrenaline. I had desperation, but it wasn’t quite the same.
My vision gradually fogged. I felt my body going numb. My arm, my face.
Water began to fill my mouth. I didn’t have the strength to keep my lips pressed together.
Let him rise to the surface. Let this trick work again and again. Let it be the Achilles heel.
A false hope, a faltering one. I knew it wouldn’t work again.
I coughed, and it was a weak cough, barely a hiccup. Enough for water to make its way into my throat.
But I focused on the swarm, on the krill. Kept them in formation.
Alexandria died like this. Drowned.
A shadow passed over my vision.
I forced my eyes to focus.
Glaistig Uaine, smiling slightly.
She’d been the one above the water.
And here she was. Not helping. Waiting.
At least I’ll still be able to contribute, I thought.
The water moved, and I saw a look of disappointment on her face.
A glance to my right showed a portal. A door. The water was flowing into it in vast quantities, and I was being pulled along.
He’s gone. He’s nowhere close, I thought.
We won’t recover from this, I thought. Won’t pull together with this kind of strength again.
We lost.
I blacked out.
27.x (Interlude, Eidolon)
June 24th, 2013, now
“He returns,” Glaistig Uaine spoke in her chorus of voices. Were there less voices in there than there had been? She was dripping wet, having just ascended from beneath the water’s surface, but a spirit was attending to her, drawing the moisture forth, coiling it into wreaths and ribbons that trailed around the Faerie Queen and the other spirits.
Eidolon stared out at the horizon. He could sense the shift in air pressure, see the movements in clouds and water alike. Scion wasn’t any bigger than an ordinary man, but the world seemed to react to his existence.
“I know,” Eidolon answered, belatedly.
Something crumbled beneath them. The oil platform wasn’t designed to stand on two legs, and it was deteriorating under the stresses. Eidolon could feel his pulse quicken, excited despite everything.
Excited, despairing, hopeful, hopeless. He had no idea what to do.
He had a mission.
He’d never been one for drumming his fingers, for pacing or biting his nails. He had never gotten in the habit.
Eidolon closed his eyes for a moment, releasing his hold on the sensory power. Like something swelling within him, filling every available space, another ability took hold. Something defensive. An invisible bubble surrounded him, linked to another power. Teleportation.
It was a strong defense against aimed attacks, but it wouldn’t help against something indiscriminate enough. He had a matter creation ability that was perhaps worth trying, and he had a density warping ability that could perhaps deflect blasts while letting him stand on the air.
He was reluctant to give up either of them. Both were options, possibilities. Warping of time and space tended to have an effect, so the offensive power was a good one to have on hand. The density warping ability was key to his staying airborne.
Flight was too important, but it was an ability he had in shorter and shorter supply.
“Can I assist you, High Priest?”
He opened his eyes. High Priest. “I need more abilities than I have. There is a hole in my defenses. To cover it, I’d need to give up my flight, or give up my offensive power.”
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