Bane's Edge

by John P. Logsdon

  “Do your best,” the chief said a moment later. “I’ll try to scramble some help for you, but no promises.”

  “Right.”

  I disconnected and noticed Reaper was staring at me. He had a look on his face that I’d not seen before. Mischief? I couldn’t quite read it, but I wouldn’t say it gave me the warm and fuzzies.

  “What?” I asked with some trepidation.

  “Do you trust me?”

  Whenever someone asked me that question, my default reaction was usually, “Nope, not even a little bit.” But this was Reaper. He was the straightest shooter I’d ever met.

  “Uh…sure?”

  “I believe I can guide us through the runes,” he stated.

  I blinked.

  “You can’t even see the runes, Reap,” I challenged. “How can you guide us through what you can’t see?”

  “Because I can take us a different way.”

  “Like chiseling through the walls or something?” I asked while giving him a look. “You may have noticed that there aren’t any spoons or posters to hang over our efforts in the event of a guard coming by to check on us.”

  “Why would we need…” He paused and then nodded slowly. “You’re being sarcastic again, yes?”

  “Just tell me your plan.”

  He did.

  My jaw hung open and I actually said, “Yikes.”

  Chapter 25

  I’d never been one to believe in things like astral projection and such, but this was some crazy shit.

  “How is this working exactly?” I asked with as much confidence as I could muster. Anything to keep my mind from freaking out right now, was pretty important. “Are we dead or something?”

  “No,” Reaper replied from next to me.

  I couldn’t quite see him as anything more than a silhouette, but I knew he was there. Everything else was pretty clear. The walls, the cells, the floors. All of it.

  “A little explanation would be nice, Reap.”

  “We’re in-between, Piper,” he explained. “This is not death, nor is it life.”

  “Thanks,” I sighed. “That really clears things up.”

  The wolves had all run back toward the mess hall, but I couldn’t say why. All I knew was that we had to get closer in and see what was going on.

  “We can’t get too far from our bodies,” Reaper stated. “Follow me.”

  He glided through the railing and sank down to the next level. I did the same. It was equally freeing and terrifying.

  When we landed on the ground, I could see through the mess-hall doors. There was a wolf standing before a mass of other wolves. They were all kneeling before him.

  “Lucien Bane,” I muttered.

  “Yes.”

  “…and you have all been chosen to serve me,” Bane was saying in a furor kind of way. “I, Lucien Bane, am descended from Thor. You are my flock. Together we shall rule this city, striking fear into the hearts of all who dare stand against us.”

  “This guys is nuts,” I said.

  Reaper didn’t reply.

  “Why can’t I see you clearly, Reap?”

  “Because we are currently connected. To see me would be to see yourself. We are but wisps of energy at the moment.”

  “Ah, right,” I remarked. “Wisps of energy. Should have guessed that.”

  “I’m sorry, Piper, but I cannot really explain what is happening here. There just aren’t the words.”

  The strange thing was that it felt familiar. Not Alcatraz, but rather like I’d been to this in-between place. I just couldn’t place where.

  “I saw my parents die,” I said out of the blue as a memory rushed in. I shook myself. “Why did I just say that?”

  “Inhibitions tend to melt here,” he answered. “It’s okay.”

  I nodded.

  “I was only five,” I continued, feeling like I needed to unburden myself. “They were in the living room and I heard a noise. I was supposed to have been in bed, but it was a terrible noise. Screams and yelling and maniacal laughter.”

  Reaper remained quiet, which helped me to continue.

  “I ran out of my room to see what was going on. There was a man. His hands were glowing and streaks of energy were surrounding my parents. It was like he was taking them…but not physically.”

  “…and your world will end if mine ends, my flock,” Bane’s voice cut in as my memories burned. “Thus, we shall be as one. Working as…”

  “They fell down, dead,” I whispered as I felt my world collapsing like the very day this event had actually occurred. “The man then looked over at me and smiled viciously. I ran back to my room and tried to hide, but there was nowhere to go.”

  I felt like sobbing at that moment as the terror of the memory filled me. But I didn’t want to stop. It was horrible, yet I was compelled to finish it. To face it.

  “The man walked in and raised his hands and began to chant something that I couldn’t understand.”

  My voice was barely a whisper at this point.

  “The man yelled a final word and light flew from him. The energy struck me straight on at first, sucking the life from my body. But then it slowed and I began to feel free.”

  “…which means I will require a sacrifice,” yelled Bane triumphantly. “Who here wishes to merge with the descendant of a god? You shall feed my power and we will become as one!”

  “The world began to dim,” I more thought than spoke, “but the man’s eyes suddenly went wide with horror. The energy had gone back at him. He screamed violently, shaking and twisting as the blues and whites streaking from my body turned crimson and obsidian. Finally, he flew back with a massive explosion and the world went black.”

  The present rushed back and everything in the world went suddenly clear, as if we were standing in our bodies watching Bane. I knew we weren’t, but that’s what it felt like.

  “Susan,” said Bane as a wolf stood up before him, “I should have expected you would be the one. You have carried out a special mission for me this very night already. You are worthy.”

  I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs of what had just happened while trying to come to terms with the fact that I was now looking at the wolf chick who told us Bane was in Alcatraz.

  “I thought she was dead?” I said.

  “That would explain why her light shone so brightly on my scans,” Reaper replied. “It seems that she transported.”

  “Which means that was a normal they shredded.”

  “Or another wolf.”

  “True.”

  Bane placed his hand on Susan’s head and a bright light sprang forth, covering them both. She began writhing in agony as Bane started to grow. I mean physically get bigger. His muscles were rippling and he grew at least a foot taller before Susan collapsed as nothing but a husk of flesh.

  “That was disturbing,” I confessed.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “We have to get back to our bodies.”

  I didn’t argue.

  “Now I have a charge for the rest of you,” Bane commanded as Reaper and I floated back up to the second level. “Find them and kill them. Sacrifice is the key to your eternity!”

  We hit our bodies and came back to consciousness.

  I rolled over and puked.

  Reaper was fine.

  He helped me to my feet, saying, “Are you okay?”

  “Not really. Why the fuck did I just tell you all that down there, Reap?”

  “Your free mind had to come to terms with your parents’ killer,” he answered. “You have been suppressing this for a long time, it seems.”

  “Great,” I seethed. “That son of a bitch stole everything from me. He’s why I ended up in the Netherworld, being teased all my life by kids calling me fucking Harriet Potter. Clever little bastards.”

  “I thought it was Harry Pot—”

  “It is, Reaper,” I interrupted, “but you may have noticed that I’m not a boy.”

  “Ah, yes.”

  I then gra
bbed him by his coat and spun him around.

  “Who was it, Reap?” I demanded. “Who the fuck killed my parents?”

  He looked at me with glowing eyes.

  “Keller.”

  Chapter 26

  Now that the wolves were going to be coming for us, we definitely needed some help, but the main thing was getting those damn runes wiped out.

  “Pecker,” I called down, “where are those fucking Empirics?”

  “I’m working on it, I’m working on it!” he cried back.

  “Well, we’re about to become puppy treats here, so no pressure or anything.”

  “Shit.”

  A thought hit me as I reloaded my gun and got ready for the showdown.

  “Hey,” I said to Pecker, “I don’t suppose you could somehow connect the standard and Diffuser Empirics, could you?”

  “What do you…” He paused. “Wait a sec. So you mean, have the Diffuser Empirics fire and then, after like a two second delay or something, the standards would go off?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Piper,” Pecker replied very seriously, “I do believe you’ve just given me a chubby.”

  “Ew.”

  “Holy shit,” he exclaimed suddenly. “That would even make them the right size to fit in the launchers. Oh man, this is going to be epic!”

  “Launchers?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Whatever,” I replied, thinking that by the time we received them, we’d be dead. “How long?”

  “The launchers will be there in thirty seconds and I’ll get the Empirics rolling out in a steady stream starting in about two minutes. Just load them into the launcher, point, and fire. Got it?”

  “Send me four launchers,” I answered. “We can fire two at a time.”

  “Honestly, Piper,” he replied in a sultry voice, “if you keep this up, I’ll have to redouble my efforts with you.”

  Ugh.

  “Get to work!” I hissed but admittedly grinned. I then reconnected with Chief Carter. “Chief, we could really use some backup here. We’ve got maybe two minutes before those wolves are on us.”

  “There’s nothing I can do, Piper. You just have to find a way…. One second.” I heard him snapping his fingers and then he mumbled something incoherent. “Okay, I just saw two bodies come through. You’ll have backup in about a minute.”

  Whew!

  “Thanks, Chief.”

  Just as I disconnected, I looked back and saw four launchers appear. Next to them were double-stacked Empirics. Not a lot, but enough to get started.

  “Reap,” I said, interrupting his scanning, “how are we looking?”

  “The wolves are fanning out. They’re taking their time. My guess is that they’re going to coordinate this attack so they don’t fail Bane again.”

  I nodded. “Perfect.”

  “I can’t see how,” he replied while giving me a look.

  “I just talked to the chief. He’s sending help. Should be here any second. Having some seasoned Retrievers to join us will get us through this.”

  “That is good,” he agreed with a look of relief.

  I handed him a freshly-loaded launcher.

  “Take this and aim into all of the jail cells you can see below. It’ll wipe out the shields first and then blow up the rest of the runes. With any luck we’ll have these things cleared in minutes.”

  “Wolves aren’t going to like that,” he noted as he fired off his first round.

  There was a pop and a flash, followed by another bigger pop and flash. The wolves howled, catching some of the heat from the blast.

  “It worked,” Reaper remarked as he studied the launcher. “Pecker is really something.”

  “Yes, we all know how fond you are of Pecker,” I spat, realizing this time it was me who sounded wrong. “Anyway, you can learn about the launcher later, Reap. Just fire the fucking thing!”

  “Oh, right,” he said, turning the gun back and launching a few more Empirics.

  By the time he’d finished the one set, I had another launcher in his hands. This was great, but we wouldn’t be able to keep up with this as those wolves were now pissed off and rapidly closing in.

  Where the fuck was our backup?

  As if on cue, two bodies appeared in the cell, which was already cramped enough.

  My jaw dropped when I saw who it was.

  “Brazen?” I groaned in disbelief. “Kix?”

  “Hey, boss,” Kix said with a big grin. “The chief said you needed backup.”

  “Yeah,” teased Brazen. “He said something about how you couldn’t handle a bunch of puppies all alone.”

  If we made it out of this in one piece, I was going to give the chief a piece of my mind.

  Chapter 27

  I immediately put Kix in charge of loading the launchers. Brazen had two and Reaper had two. I was spending my time shooting Death Nails into anything that got close.

  While I hated to admit it, Brazen and Kix were probably the perfect teammates for this particular situation. There was no real thinking involved. Load, point, shoot, repeat.

  The wolves were dropping like flies, too. They had no chance, but Bane had filled their heads with sacrificing themselves.

  Idiots.

  “Just start launching at everything,” I commanded. “But don’t get caught in the wake or you’ll be wiped out.”

  We filled the area with Empirics and Death Nails like there was no tomorrow.

  At least until we ran out of the Empirics.

  Fortunately, by then the wolves were depleted so badly that they didn’t have a chance against us. Still, I wanted to be cautious because Bane may have had more hiding in wait, and Reaper and I already saw how he turned into a massive wolf himself.

  “Get your guns,” I instructed. Reaper glanced at me. “You have your stun thing ready, and maybe a shield if we need it.”

  “Got it.”

  I turned to Brazen and Kix. “The lead wolf is huge and he’s not going to be easy to take down. Chances are he’s got more wolves out there somewhere as well. I’m hoping we’ve done enough damage to his funhouse of runes so that at least those won’t be a problem anymore.”

  “We just got another batch of Empirics, Piper,” Kix said, pointing at the corner.

  It wasn’t much, but every little bit would help.

  “That’s the last of them, babe,” Pecker announced a moment later, connecting to all four of us. “I can make more, but it’ll take a while.”

  “Don’t bother,” I replied. “They were a big help, but I think we can take it from here.” I then caught Reaper looking at me and rolled my eyes. With some difficulty, I added, “You did good, Pecker.”

  “Good enough for a glass of wine, maybe?”

  “Keep dreaming,” I replied.

  “At least you didn’t say no.”

  We disconnected and Kix handed the Empirics-filled launcher to Reaper. It was one weapon he seemed to be okay using. I personally found this odd seeing that Empirics wiped people out en masse, but Reaper was rather odd about these things. If the weapon destroyed the person without much anguish, and said person was bad, he seemed okay with it. But if the weapon caused a lot of pain and suffering, he was against it, regardless of the disposition of the person being shot.

  By the time we got down to the first floor, it was clear that the mess hall was empty.

  “Scans, Reap?” I asked.

  “Nothing is coming up,” he replied. “I see no blank spots in here, but…” He stopped walking. “He’s gone outside. There’s another building.”

  “I think there are quite a few buildings,” I remarked.

  “Which direction?” asked Kix.

  Reaper pointed and Kix tapped his chin for a moment.

  “Warden’s house,” he said after a few seconds. “I’ll bet that’s where he went.”

  “Is he alone?” I asked before we headed out after him. “I’d rather avoid any more traps, if possible.”

  “There
are some red dots,” Reaper replied, looking confused, “but they all seem to be moving away.”

  It could be that they were planning to flank us. Of course they could also just be deserting Bane and leaving him to his own fate. I didn’t know, but I wasn’t pleased at the prospect of a multi-angled attack.

  “Keep your scans on, Reap,” I said with a sigh. “I have a feeling it’s going to be tough enough to deal with Bane, let alone a bunch of wolves sniping at us from all sides.”

  I started to purposefully walk toward the door that Reaper had pointed at.

  “And one more thing,” I commanded while rubbing my still-sore neck, “if anything even gets close to us out there, put a fucking bullet in it.”

  Chapter 28

  The Warden’s House was essentially a shell of a building. No windows, no doors, and no roof. Just a massive concrete shape of what was once an impressive house on a godforsaken island in the middle of San Fransisco Bay.

  “There’s definitely an issue,” Reaper said, putting out his hand to slow us down. “I can physically see that building is wide open, but my scans show it’s closed up.”

  “Blank zones again?” I asked.

  “Not really,” he replied while scratching his neck. “I can scan Bane is in there without a problem, but the building itself is…I don’t know.”

  “Is there anyone else in there?” Brazen asked as Kix slowly raised his hand and pointed at the roof.

  Standing on top of the building was Lucien Bane. The moonlight bounced off his chest in such a way as to make him look like the perfect model for one of those urban fantasy novels I’d seen from time to time.

  “Dramatic much?” I sneered, taking aim with a Death Nail.

  It bounced off a shield.

  Expected.

  Bane laughed heartily at my attempt as we resumed our walk toward his stronghold. At least now we knew why Reaper was able to track Bane but not see into the building. Shields didn’t block Reaper’s scans, after all. But if there were no dead zones, that meant Azura and Keller had some other rune situation going.

  “Want me to hit them with Empirics?” asked Reaper.