by David Finn
The Babelzon cityscape dominated the horizon, a haunting reminder of how tiny they were, how small this war was.
The Jag cruised across a huge concrete bridge, water glistening beneath in the naked sun.
She slid down lonely streets, the radio playing softly, as she watched the world slide by through her purple sunglasses. Gated communities, desolate streets.
The heavy aura of the Tyrant was in the air. She could hear the coded chat through her glasses, tech bouncing inside her head; she could see the phantoms prowling the highway, guardians of a fragile peace.
Demorn turned the music up. The phantoms faded off the highway. She didn’t need to see them. She knew they were there.
When the Jag hit a residential zone a laser field filtered in behind her. Tony’s house wasn’t far away. Trimmed lawns. Empty suburban streets. His gate swung open at her approach. Demorn still couldn’t believe he had moved out of the Core.
She hadn’t allowed herself to ask why. She’d just followed directions, cut Smile loose, but left her blue watch open.
He had a pool, shimmering in the sun. Overgrown garden. Stagnant pond. She parked the Jag.
A large figure stood in the doorway, shadowed, gesturing for her to approach. A moment of disorientation. But it was Tony. Two years hadn’t been kind. His form was larger. His suit was tattered and his white shirt was grimy. He wore a week’s stubble.
She pressed her face to his in greeting. Old friends, old friends. He smelt of his cool aftershave. It was the only thing she could cling onto, some aspect of him that didn’t change.
‘Why are we meeting way out here, Boss?’
He hustled her inside the house, casting a suspicious glance down the silent street.
‘I don’t trust the city anymore.’
As his girth moved, she saw he had an over-sized laz pistol under his coat, like the old days.
She knew how things were playing out.
‘Have you lost the Council?’
He looked at her with exhausted, haunted eyes.
‘I’m down to one last fringe vote. You know what happens if I lose that.’
Demorn took her glasses off. Her eyes were like green fire. He had held a sizeable voting bloc when she went into the Grave. He had ruled from the Jade Hotel.
‘What happened?’
He chuckled, taking a giant swig of his black coffee, tossing in a couple of sugar cubes. ‘Life happened. My past came back to bite.’
Big Tony sighed with discontent, eyes red-rimmed, hands slightly shaking. Two years is more like twenty, Demorn thought. The man she had loved was there, but hidden in wreckage.
‘You were nowhere. I had to take matters into my own hands.’
Demorn slid into a chair. This was frustrating. She kept her voice calm. ‘I was somewhere and I’m not the only Innocent. Did you call them?’
He guffawed. ‘Oh, I called them.’
‘And?’
‘I used them a few times. Alex mostly. Some others. They’re reliable. She’s not as clean as you. She likes to send a message. It got loud.’
Fucking Alex, Demorn thought. Reckless, fucking Alex who didn’t care who she killed, or what mess she left behind. Alex who had been coming into her room the last five nights when she couldn’t sleep. Alex with her gorgeous body and fluid heart.
‘Alex is Alex. You would have got what you paid for.’
He laughed at that, taking a hefty sip at the coffee. Demorn heard something clatter in the nearby room. She saw a figure move in the other room. Her hand went to her gun.
It was White Lion, but not the White Lion she had known. His eyes were vacant and a giant collar hung around his neck. His jumper was covered in spittle and food stains.
Demorn sneered, looking away in disgust.
‘What the hell happened to your high priced superhuman?’
Tony laughed bitterly. ‘He almost killed me. Six months ago. I got the bastard though, locked him into a zombie inhibitor.’
Tony laughed sickly as he pressed a black button and she watched Lion lurch around the room like some drunken Frankenstein, his glassy, unfocused eyes a mockery of what he once was.
Demorn had seen enough.
‘You’re crazy, Tony. If he breaks through your little machine, he will burn your brain right out.’
Tony lit a cigar and slowly took a drag, puffing the grey noxious fumes.
‘I’m cruel, not crazy. Lion is a psychopath, I’ve always known that. If he cuts loose, maybe I deserve the brain burn.’
Demorn waved her hand. ‘OK, enough with the self pity, it doesn’t become you. I’m back from limbo. You called me here. Why?’
Tony’s eyes narrowed. She noticed his gold chain, pressed against the fleshy neck. His old rings, the coldness in his eyes. Tony was still clinging on. She could still see the Mob henchman who had fought his way from a few dodgy betting rackets to the very top.
Tony was the type who would play the game right up till the moment the assassin plugged him in the heart. In his own cautious way, he was fearless. She liked that about him.
‘Do you remember Rachel?’ he said.
Long pause. Suicide Sue. A favour asked.
Demorn nodded. ‘Daddy’s girl. The hostage from the ice caverns. Daddy paid in cash.’
‘Yeah. Well, Daddy was mine, bought and paid for. But he got greedy and sold out from under me just when I needed to call that marker in.’
She looked at him without blinking. Things churned inside, rage and disappointment.
‘So this is why we’re out in the back suburbs, instead of sipping cocktails in the Jade Lounge?’
Tony’s laugh was that of a dead man, filled with too much knowledge.
‘That’s why. He’s dead in the back room, Demorn. I did him myself. Meantime, she’s in the Ruby Room. You can either take her or kill her.’
She kept looking at him for about five seconds. She could almost feel the offers she’d had over the years, both serious and casual.
Tony blinked slowly. ‘Do you want to hear me say I’m sorry, Demorn?’
‘Was he the vote to send you down?’
‘He was the one I could never be sure of.’ Tony looked away. ‘Until I was.’
She looked at him for a few seconds before nodding slightly, weighing things up. ‘Okay.’
He held up a glowing jade diamond, a huge chunk of stone. ‘She’s in the Ruby Room. Do with her what you will.’
Tony tossed the jade stone to her, hot in her hand when she caught it.
Demorn murmured an Asanti prayer as she felt the power pulse through the glowing stone, filling her with an edge of superstitious terror. Her vision blurred, shifting through the diamond. She could glimpse the chambers within, a vaguely familiar girl with shortish black hair slumped against the diamond wall.
She looked at Tony sharply, holding the diamond in her fingers.
‘Do you know the history of this rock, Tony?’
His smile was wasted and sincere. ‘Wouldn’t have a clue. I know you Innocents covet it.’
The jade stone bled ruby red trails when she ran her fingers across it.
‘It is an artifact of the ancient world. It is of Kerloan, before the fires consumed it.’
His smile could not have been more free of warmth.
‘I don’t even know who or what Kerloan was.’
She matched his cold expression with a sad smile.
‘But you sure knew what to steal from our Clubhouse.’
Tony sighed. ‘Ah, c’mon. I’m sure you stole this from a fucking museum or something, Demorn.’
He looked sad and old.
‘I’m sorry for breathing, kid. Anyway, they said you want her. They tell me she’s in there, somehow.’
Demorn’s lip curled, wishing she didn’t let people get close.
‘Don’t apologise, Tony. You needed the vote.’
Tony disappeared beneath cigar smoke. It wasn’t two years ago. There was no Sinatra clone and no beautiful hos
tesses. Lion wasn’t beautiful and lethal anymore. Nothing was glamorous.
They. Who are they, Tony?
She needed to get away from him. Demorn excused herself, prowling through the house. It was spacious, but everything was messy and a bit unkempt. There was an unattractive siege mentality vibe in the air.
Demorn found a small secluded room in the back, which she locked, then barricaded with a chair against the handle. She sat on the floor, cross-legged, arranging herself, finding a mental calmness, a place of peace, letting the mind routines take over.
The diamond went from hot to cold in her hand. Jade to ruby red.
When she was ready, Demorn held the stone up, letting the power awaken and wash through her face and body. It built slowly, pulsing with a radiant warmth that consumed her, making her believe she was far from this anonymous suburb, seeing the curtain rise over a crimson dusky sky, and a single strange floating pyramid that she rushed toward. She slipped out of this dimension.
The girl was huddled in a dark sweater on the couch, a hoodie pulled across her face. Her hair was shorn down to nothing. She was covered in electronic tats.
Demorn’s eyes danced across the markings on her face and arms. They were elaborate and perfect. She could see codes written deep inside the skin.
‘Are you comfortable, Rachel?’
The girl looked anything but comfortable. Her hands gripped hard on the couch. Demorn could smell the desperation and the barely concealed panic.
Demorn said, ‘The Room is locking down your talents. We may as well chat.’
The girl sighed quietly.
Demorn leaned back in her leather chair, admiring the Ruby Room. She hadn’t been here in years, long before she had gone to the Grave. When Xalos hadn’t spawned for her, in those dark months, the transition through the stone into the Ruby Room had been almost impossible.
It was a sizeable, luxurious office, thick red curtains across a huge bay window. Gold-framed movie and comic posters hung on the walls. Demorn sat behind a black wooden desk. Couches wrapped the walls. The room opened up to small dance floor and a stage.
Demorn felt a brief surge of loneliness, thinking of nights when she had sat with friends, talking softly. Where had everybody gone?
A faceless, tuxedoed waiter appeared beside her with a tray. Demorn took a glass of cold water which she sipped at slowly. She nodded her thanks and he vanished.
‘I don’t even know where the hell I am,’ Rachel snapped.
‘I’m Demorn. You’re in the Jade Room of the Innocents Club.’
The girl looked around suspiciously at the red walls, the framed photos of old comic issues and movie stars.
‘Are you fucking KIDDING me? I heard about the Club at the Portal. I heard it was a real kick-ass pad. THIS is what people get so excited about?’
Demorn asked softly, ‘You don’t like it?’
Rachel pointed to a framed picture of Wolverine fighting Hulk, and a dazzling display of old movie star photos.
‘Who the hell did the decorating here? It’s like a museum of lame old shit.’
Demorn smiled. They were getting somewhere. ‘Blame me. It’s just stuff I like. Hey, I got them to put the wet bar in. And you wouldn’t believe some of acts who have played here.’
Rachel’s gaze swung around to Demorn, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
‘I believe I wouldn’t know any of them! You actually like this weird, ancient shit? How old are you? Seven hundred?’
Demorn laughed. ‘Try twenty-something. So yes, I’m ancient. What am I supposed to do? Wear black eyeliner, hang around the portal, and hustle knock-off Mirage?’
‘Bitch, you’re old. The hustle would eat your ass.’
Demorn smiled her scary smile. ‘Maybe. It didn’t the first time.’
The girl managed to access something on a face-tat and her face went ghostly and her eyes were purple tracers.
Demorn could feel them penetrate her mind. She didn’t trigger any of her shields.
Demorn said, ‘You won’t be able to hurt me, Rachel. But you’re welcome to look inside.’
Rachel’s mind-gazing shut down after a minute. Flesh came back to her face. ‘You’re a real stone-cold bitch, aren’t you?’
‘Don’t believe the hype, Rachel. It’s just a job.’
‘And it’s your messed up head. It’s all hot girls, violent comics and blood. You sure do like the pretty things. Who’s the blonde chick by the white house?’
Demorn slammed her shields down. ‘A friend.’
The girl laughed, ‘Yeah, sure, not heavily suspiciously romantic or anything! Note for your therapist, your head is a montage of you and her making out, mixed with rows of corpses.’
As she spoke, the girl came alive, some of her tats waking, glistening on her skin. Demorn saw a gleaming green dragon writhing upon her arm.
‘Rachel, I know who you are.’
The girl’s voice rippled with nervous sarcasm. ‘Barely! But I know who you are! Real question is, what the hell do you want? Did you really just want to hear me THANK YOU for saving me in the ice cavern a hundred years ago? Well thank you, killer, but guess what, home was no fairy tale, not that you ever checked.’
Demorn leaned back in her chair. ‘Nobody comes home to the fairy tale. It sucks, but it’s true.’
The girl rolled her eyes. ‘Wow, deep stuff. So, is this the bit where you tell me what I owe you? ’Cause you can get lost, I deal in cash. And I don’t bleed my tats for randoms.’
Demorn smiled inside; she liked this girl’s attitude. ‘No, this isn’t that. I was well paid for rescuing you, and I don’t need your powers. This is something else.’
The girl pulled the hoodie back from her shaven head and all the tats went out. She was a lot younger than her wise-ass voice.
‘OK, so assume I’m not completely stupid. This obviously has something to do with my dad.’
Demorn put her empty glass on the table. She pulled the Diamond from her leather jacket, rolling it from hand to hand.
‘Your dad is dead, my boss killed him.’
The girl watched her and watched her. After a while, she said in a blank voice, ‘Am I supposed to cry?’
Demorn said calmly, ‘You can do what you like, Rachel. The Jade Room is a sanctuary.’
Rachel was staring at the plush red walls, silent, thinking. ‘He hated everything I did. I haven’t seen him all year. I hated his whole bullshit life. He locked me out of the house a while back. I didn’t call, I didn’t care. I still had a trust account.’
Demorn got up and walked to the red curtain by the window. She ran her finger over the framed Marilyn portrait, feeling sad and far away.
‘Your father owed favours he couldn’t pay. I’m sorry it happened, but that’s the truth.’
Demorn held the Jade Pyramid up, it was throbbing with raw power and it flooded her heart and soul utterly. The Room shook viciously.
The girl looked scared as jade green light flooded the room, washing away even her tats, and for a moment she was young and back in the caverns again, trembling before Demorn, who wore a glistening clear glass crown.
Rachel pressed her skin in desperation, seeking some form of electronic protection, but nothing came. She suddenly looked very young, stripped of everything.
Slowly, the green light dimmed in Demorn’s hands.
‘What is that? Are you some kind of witch?’
Demorn held up the glowing stone. ‘This is the Jade Diamond, a fragment of a holy icon that fell into Innocent hands.’
Demorn pulled the red curtain back on the wall.
Outside, was a churning blue sea, upon which they floated. Looking at the wild ocean Rachel could see Black Skull Ships rising and falling in the violent water.
‘It’s part of a Pyramid from a dead civilisation. Parts of the structure were never built. They lived as thought-dreams, and even those are rubble now. If the icon was ever fully gathered, it would form a City the likes of which has not been seen
in eons.’
Rachel was at the window, watching open mouthed as burning energy stars fell into the wild sea. A black tinted window formed over the girl’s face, some kind of instinctive protection.
‘How do you know such things?’ the girl said, her voice shaky.
From the corner of her magic eye Demorn saw the flickering red shadow of Toxis, resting against the couch. Her arm ached with the buried memory of their lost connection. She knew that if she looked straight on, the image would vanish.
Toxis was gone, lost to the Chasm in Firethorn. Only echoes remained.
She put her hand gently on Rachel’s shoulder. Perhaps she wouldn’t have to ruin another life, wouldn’t have to consign another to the electronic abyss.
‘I lead the Innocents, Rachel. We ride those waters in those Skull Ships, if that is what the job requires.’
Rachel had both hands on the window. ‘You’ll kill me if I don’t join, will you?’
Demorn was quiet. ‘Right now you’re hustling up by the portals. It’s no way to stay alive, not in this city.’
Rachel laughed bitterly. ‘Are you actually saying your lifestyle is a safe one? Because those waters look haunted, Demorn. I feel scared, not safe.’
The diamond burnt brightly in Demorn’s hand. Rachel was shaking.
Demorn drew the red curtain over the storm window. Her voice was calm.
‘I have a price on my head in a thousand cities across multiple worlds. Nothing is entirely safe. But we have a clubhouse, somewhere to stay. We’ve got a force-shield, telepaths, sorcerers, assassins. If the monsters want to attack us, they will face a house of swords. I’d take those odds over hustling at the Portal.’
Rachel looked at her. ‘You don’t have anyone else, do you?’
Demorn smiled. ‘I have a brother. I have the Innocents. That’s all I need.’
Rachel said, ‘I didn’t even like him, y’know . . . even before I knew what he was like, I knew what he was like. It’s kind of funny, but it’s true.’
‘Then let him go, join us.’
Rachel pointed at the jade diamond.
‘Is it true what that thing does? I’ve heard people say the Innocents wipe your mind with spells and bullshit magical items.’
Demorn shrugged. ‘In the end, the Jade does exactly what you let it do.’
