Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4)

by P. S. Power

  "This is the IPB base. The Infected Protection Bureau. Clearly I'm Infected. Do you know what that means? You're here, but not everyone from other worlds has known about it."

  "Nope? What is it? Black Plague? You look healthy enough."

  The girl grinned, and took his hand, which was almost normal feeling to him.

  "This way. Walk with me, strange man I don't know. I think Brian is off in the main office. Anyway, about fifty years ago, people started showing up with super powers. Most of them suck. People glow a little, or smell like pie. Junk that isn't worth much in real life. Some are more powerful. All of us have some kind of mental problems. We get kind of stuck, on one emotion, thought or concept being the prime thing we always come back to. Like me. I have a real problem resisting doing anything that seems like fun to my subconscious mind. Brian is all about self-sacrifice. Things like that. What about your world?"

  He had to think for a moment, then made a face.

  "Not exactly like that. I was kidnapped as a child, sold into sexual slavery, and ended up in the void between worlds, where I learned to walk the lines. It's kind of like teleportation. Time works differently there, so I'm a few hundred thousand years old, or something, by this point. I don't really know. We have different groups though. Vampires, shape shifters, and things like that?"

  The girl smiled at him and pulsed her hand in his a bit.

  "Wow. Cool. So, no zombie war there?"

  "Nooo? Why would you ask that?"

  "Oh, the world there sounds familiar, if only a little. We have a guy here from a different reality where there was a zombie war. Jake. He's not you though, since he's Mickey, another guy here. Still you should meet. He's really sweet. Basically he's Jesus, I guess? Only the real thing? You should meet."

  That made no sense to him, but it was probably going to end up being linked, so he smiled.

  "Sounds good. First, I need to deliver this."

  The building they went to was cool inside, though the outside world was hot. Like it was summer, which it certainly wasn't back home. There was also a bird woman at the front desk. She had a yellow beak and blue feathers on her head, but a very nice voice. He'd seen people like her before, so didn't blink over the idea now.

  "Hi, Bridget. Who's your friend?" The emphasis on the word friend was kind of telling, and hinting at the same time. The woman there clearly thought that her holding his hand meant something.

  He smiled, and reassured the shadow within the bird lady that he wasn't a pedophile, since Bridget was only sixteen. Not that it wouldn't be legal anyway. Really, after a bit, he just shrugged.

  "Zack Hartley. I need to deliver a package to Brian Yi?" He didn't explain the rest, but the bird girl bounced in place a bit, and pointed to the left. Her right.

  "Conference room three. We need to get that man an office some day. He's here all the time, and... Yeah."

  Bridget pulled Zack along by the hand. Her small body, which was taller than Merry's, was a lot more powerful than it looked. Since Merry was stronger than he was, it made sense to him, so he just smiled, holding her hand in his left, the envelope in his right. They walked on close pile mustard colored carpet for a bit, and then he was tugged through a door to the left.

  "Here he is. Brian? Package for you!" The girl moved so that he was standing there, his hand still in hers.

  Across a large table, which was flat and black, there sat man who looked to be in his twenties, had brown eyes, black hair, and a lean, hard aspect to his face. He was also Chinese. That made sense to Zack, who smiled. Alternate realities and infinite possibilities, after all. Though honestly, around the edges there was kind of a resemblance.

  "Hi! Letter for you? It's from Riley the Trickster. In a different reality? I'm Zack. Hartley. Um... I'm basically you? From a different world?" He was about to explain that part, when the man stood, came around the table and stuck his hand out. It was to shake, but he got an envelope, since otherwise Zack's hands were full.

  Brian looked at him closely, and then at Bridget.

  "You do know that she's your granddaughter, don't you?" The man was being serious, but didn't seem to get the whole picture yet.

  Zack smiled and looked at the small red headed woman, who looked a bit funny with her short rust colored hair, but familiar enough that it was clear what the reality was.

  "Nope. In my world she's my wife. One of them. I have eight, and before you ask, no I didn't get a choice in it. So the relationships are totally different that way. She's, Merry, is an Elth. Basically an elf, but never call them that, if you meet any. Also, be careful with the information in there. Tricksters are powerful, but they'll do anything they have to in order to make reality come out right. Including getting people killed or maimed."

  The man opened the envelope efficiently, and nodded after a while.

  "I see. Okay, I might need to get with you, or this Riley, on parts of this. It's... Different. I can come visit?" The shadow inside the man wasn't really asking, but he was trying to be polite about it all. Outwardly. Inside he was harder than Zack was. More like Gwen, really. If she were a hardened killer.

  "Sure? Well, one more delivery then. Um... I don't know, but maybe you should bring that zombie war guy, when you come? I'm guessing, but it sounds right."

  Brian looked at him, then Bridget, who spoke.

  "Jake. He's from a different world too, so I mentioned him."

  "Oh. I'll ask?"

  That was his clue to leave, it looked like. Bridget pulled him away then, as he waved and said goodbye, not wanting to be rude. Brian just stood there for a bit, tossed the envelope down, and ran at a wall, entering a rift that appeared in the air just before it.

  He blinked, but no explanation came.

  Outside, the girl turned, pulled him down and kissed him.

  "So, married? How hot is that? We should go do it. Only, I have things to do. I'm on tap for a press conference, after all the deaths. You know. We lost some people. It wasn't good."

  Then she walked away, looking sad and like she was about to cry. It was abrupt, but Zack found the right shortcut, and walked through it, heading toward the node he needed.

  After a bit of a walking, and several shortcuts, he ended up back at the basket shop, looking at the last envelope. It had a picture on it, of a woman. A single name, too. The others had all had more than that, even if he hadn't been able to read the first one.

  Glenda.

  Finding that one didn't go well for him at all. He ended up in a nightmare realm, on a battle field, in a city he didn't recognize. Running alongside a woman in what seemed to be futuristic fighting gear, who shot at someone he couldn't see with a weapon that didn't make any kind of light, just a bang, like a gun, even though it didn't seem to really do all that much.

  She didn't try to kill him, just hiding behind an old dumpster. When she stopped he understood that her body wasn't much taller than his own, but she was vastly muscled. Like a bodybuilder. It wasn't a great look, but he really doubted that she was going to care about that at the moment. He certainly didn't.

  Her face had scars on the right hand side, and her voice was rasping, and harsh. Calm and focused at the same time.

  "Who are you, and why are you here?"

  "Zack Hartley, delivering a letter to Glenda? From a different reality? Apparently I should have called first."

  The woman moved, fast enough that he had to slow time to understand what she was doing. There were things in the air, about the size of her hand, which she struck with the side of her weapon. They had mechanical wings, but went down as long as those were damaged enough. There were sharp, razor like, protrusions on them, and were stopped for good by the woman next to him, with what seemed to be metal soled boots.

  When they were destroyed, the woman grabbed the package from him, and growled. This time she lost her cool a bit, if only externally. It was clearly an act, her shadow told him all about it as it happened. She wanted to reach him, and get him to do what she wanted, so fa
ked being scared.

  It had almost nothing to do with what she was thinking, which was how to move into a better position before the next salvo came in.

  "Fucking run, asshole! Do you want to die? The swarm is only the first wave and you aren't dressed for this. I can't protect you and survive, so guess which one I'm going to pick doing?"

  Zack got the basic idea, since there was a rolling, and thunderous, machine army coming down the barren city street ahead of them. Large buildings stood on either side. He stood, extended his internal energy in a single black line, and destroyed one of the things, then managed another tank like robot, before ducking down again. If it was that at all. They looked machine like, but held shadows, like people. Some of them did. The ones in what seemed to be armor.

  Glenda smiled at him, laughing a bit.

  "Still, run away. This isn't your fight. This is mine to deal with. I'm the Cymed here." She seemed worried about saying that, like he'd judge her over it, but that wasn't his plan for the day.

  Zack nodded.

  "I get the idea. Can you cross reality lines?" He didn't know how to explain the concept to her, but there was a rapid shake of the dirty head next to him.

  "Fuck no. The Swarm can, I hear, but that's new. No one has gotten at that data yet. Are you saying you can?"

  He nodded. "Yeah. I'm not from here. I'll try to get back to you, about once a month then? Not in a fight next time? If I can help it."

  "Great plan. If you get out of here alive. Go! I don't have time to chat right now. Rendezvous in a month. Thirty days."

  Zack got up and ran to the nearest shortcut, which meant walking for a long time, sometimes running and hiding, to find a node. The Swarm, whatever it was, was all over the place. Most of it seemed like machines, or robots, but there was clearly something inside at least a portion of them. To be honest, they looked like arch-demons, to him. One of them managed to shoot him with a large caliber bullet, just as he got to the node, vaporizing his head.

  It should have killed him, but he was in the node space when it happened, and was able to rebuild himself as he transferred through the void.

  On the good side he was done with his deliveries for the time being. That last one had been insanely intense, but like with Jelly earlier, his fault. Zack really needed to get better at looking before he went places. It was, he realized, trying to catch his breath, the kind of thing that his brain didn't really want to understand. The world that Glenda existed in was so dark, and different, compared to his own that his mind didn't want to admit he'd been there.

  He had however. Now he had points of contact, too. A small group of people, who, in potential, might be willing to help him in his fight to save reality. It was an odd group really, now that he stopped to consider it. That tall man had seemed strange, and so far away that he might not be able to help anyone.

  The others all seemed to have their own lives going on, but Riley had him take those letters in for a reason. Now he just had to hope that it was about a thing that might, in some manner, help them all. If not, well, there wasn't a lot that could be done about it. For the first time in a while, Zack was left with a feeling that he wasn't truly in control of what he did in life. More than that, he couldn't see any way out of the stream he was in. The world flowed around him, and Zack was a log, inside it.

  All he could do was hope for the best, and try not to be stuck on the rocks for too long.

  That wasn't reality however. He had choices to make, and even if all choices had to be made, somewhere, in all variations, his were still the ones that influenced the reality he was in. It made the concept of free will a little bit sketchy, but it probably didn't really matter. Either he had a choice in how things came out, and so did the others, or they didn't, and they'd do whatever they had to anyway.

  For him, it was going to have to be enough, Zack decided.

  Then, because he could, he walked away, and just went home.

  Chapter thirteen

  In the end, Zack decided that showering was the best plan. The idea of letting a curtain of water hit him, gently massaging, was better than anything else he could think of that wouldn't need help, at the moment. It was just about six in the morning, and he had a few hours before he needed to get off to work. While he soaped his hair, and stood under the warm flow of water, someone walked in on him. Even with his eyes closed, he could see that it was Libby. Her inner bat flipped and flapped at him, which was entertaining.

  He rinsed his hair as she came into the shower itself.

  "Hey! I haven't seen you in a week, practically." Her voice was chipper, and her hand moved over his chest, the water making the movement feel smooth and sensuous. Leaning forward she ducked her head under the flow of of falling wetness. "You haven't been avoiding me, have you? I mean, sure, we spent all that time in the void together, but it doesn't really count, you know?"

  Zack finished rinsing, and sighed.

  "I didn't realize I was gone that long. It felt like a few hours to me. That probably means that time was running differently in some of the alternate realities I was in." That meant he had to explain, Libby washing herself as he did, then doing his back for him. He returned the favor as he spoke, scrubbing her gently. She was small, but also dense, as far as her musculature. She had slightly better definition than he did, even though he wasn't doing that badly anymore.

  At some point he'd managed to build a little bit more muscle than he used to have. Not that there was a good reason as to why that would be. He stayed busy, but there wasn't a lot of weight lifting involved or anything. He used to do that, but now, lately... Not so much.

  Turning into him, Libby nodded, taking him in her hand, working until he started to get hard.

  "That sounds... Wild, actually. They were all you?" The question there was a good one, but had already been answered.

  Zack just smiled then.

  "I guess? I mean, really different versions. I guess it would be more accurate to say that we fill the same niche, for our realities? I don't know that it really matters, but that girl, Bridget? She really did look like Merry. Only she didn't, at the same time. Taller, for one thing. Like, four-six, so practically a giant version."

  They didn't speak for a while then, Libby distracting him by doing some very entertaining things that they technically weren't supposed to. There had been a rather major issue a few months before, due to Zack having addicted most of the women in his life to pleasure. He hadn't really intended it to be that way, but it had happened, and he'd known that it was going on. He felt bad about it now, though distant from it at the same time. It was a thing he'd done, and recalled now, but it also felt like it had taken place thousands of years before.

  Which was due to that just being a fact.

  It made sense to him, having lived it all, but Zack knew that almost no one else would really understand the concept. He'd lived for a long time, and while some of the others had as well, none of them had been around even half as long as he had now. Not even a hundredth of the time.

  It left him feeling detached from the reality around him. A thing that took part of the color and life, away from it. Even as he experienced his time with Libby, his friend, there was a detachment between them. She cuddled damply to his chest, and he went through all the right moves, holding her closely, burying his face into the top of her head. Zack wanted to be close to her, but it just didn't seem possible now. He'd lived too long for that.

  As they got out, she looked up at him, and smiled. It was a warm and loving thing. Much better than what he'd been managing, though it probably looked close to the same. Even his shadow was trying to make it happen. Not lying, but expressing a portion of himself more strongly than he really felt.

  For a moment he wondered if Libby was doing the same thing.

  They dressed efficiently, with Libby smiling nearly the whole time. She got into some rather plain seeming clothing, for her. A nice blouse, but it was just a light blue thing, and black slacks. He was in a silk shirt,
which was new, but purple, and had suspenders, which were just plain black that day. It wasn't normal for him, but they'd been in the closet, so he put them on. They kept his own black slacks up well enough. His gold toe socks were comfortable, and slipped into his dress shoes smoothly. Claire had gotten them for him, he thought. At least it seemed like the kind of thing that she would do. They'd just showed up one day in his room, about a month before.

  Looking at Libby, he winked.

  "You look nice. Different." She normally either dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, or business wear. This was professional, but dressier.

  The Bat-girl nodded at him, her face considering.

  "Yeah." Then she looked away, and shook her head for a bit before turning back to lock eyes with him. "I have a meeting, with the Shifter leadership today. Someone told them that there was a shifter line walker, and that it was me, so now they're freaking out a bit. After nearly getting me killed like they did... Well, I don't want to be petty. I mean, I get it. I sold you out to evil vampires. I kind of wanted to die, too, but not really, you know? I'm tempted to tell them to go fuck themselves."

  It was a thing that Zack could understand. Once upon a time having Libby Paterson as a line walker would have meant a lot of free travel between different lands for her people. That could have meant billions of dollars of effort for free. Then they'd put an open ended hit order out for her, which had resulted in her being set on fire. She'd healed from it, sure, Zack and Claire getting there in time to kill the assassins, but it had been very close.

  So he nodded at her.

  "Right. Well, I'll back whatever you decide to do. Always." At least in that kind of thing. Libby understood that.

  She still seemed surprised, which showed on her face, her eyes going a little bit wide.

  "Yeah? But... I mean, shouldn't I take the high road?"