The Angel Weapon

by Scott Wilson

“Out with it already!”

  Caden took a deep breath. “After we find my dad, and your mom, and we stop Metl from hitting us, I need you to … I need you to destroy me.”

  Annika glared down at him. “Caden, don’t be stupid. I’m not going to—”

  “If you can’t promise me this,” Caden said, “then I’m not going any farther. It’s just like Jadice said. The same weapon that destroyed the world two-hundred years ago is inside me. And now I know that I can’t control it all the time. I don’t want to cause another apocalypse. Or even hurt another person. It’s not worth it, Annika. So please, promise me while I’m in control of myself enough to ask you.”

  “Caden,” she said, “there’s no way I could ever—”

  “If you don’t promise me, then I can’t help you find your mom,” Caden said, unblinking. “I’m sorry, Annika. But I need you to do this.”

  Annika stared at Caden in silence. But only for a moment. The next she reached into her pocket, ripped out the magnetizer, and pointed it at Caden.

  “Arrows can’t hurt you, falling ten stories can’t hurt you, and drowning can’t hurt you. But remember what Clops said about this magnetizer? At max power, it doesn’t care what you’re made of, stone or steel. Level five turned that metal lock to shreds. Level nine will blow whatever Iltech is inside you to bits.”

  “Promise me,” Caden said, “that when the time comes, you’ll do it. For me.”

  “I promise,” Annika said.

  Caden stood back up, finally feeling relieved, even though the pain from drowning was catching up to him. His insides felt like they were made of stone, his outsides like they were caked in a layer of ice, and his head like it was floating away. But that was good; he was feeling again. Whatever robot-part of him had taken over was gone. For now. It was time to use it to stop Metl, and then destroy it forever.

  He quickly changed into the sailor’s clothes. With a dry puffy shirt and pair of pants on, he took the satchel from Annika and slipped his wet overalls and the picture of his dad inside. The photo had rainbow discoloring around the edges now thanks to being drenched in water, but his dad’s face was still visible. And the writing on the back was clear as ever:

  “I’ll always love you.”

  “We need to find Jadice,” Caden said, feeling more determined than ever. “If she survived the Basement, then she can lead us into the church to find our parents.”

  “We don’t have time to find her,” Annika said. They both looked toward Metl. It nearly filled the whole sky. “If what that spider told you is true, then we only have a few hours left before Metl hits us. For all we know Jadice is dead. We can’t wait around for her.”

  “Then what do we do?” Caden asked. “Just ask the Holy Police and hope they let us in?”

  Annika smirked. “I have an idea. There’s more than one way into the church, and with everything that’s going on, I don’t think they’re guarding all of them. Let’s go.”

  Annika led and Caden followed. They walked down the pier, past the ship Caden had attacked. It was silent now; the laughter was gone. Caden didn’t look over. There was only one way he could prevent that from happening again, and he was on his way to do it.

  At the end of the pier was the harbor. Wooden shipping crates were piled on top of long stone streets, and tall brick lighthouses had roaring fires on top, illuminating the area for nighttime work. But no one was there. The harbor was abandoned. There was only the sound of waves and seagulls.

  As Annika led them closer to the church, Caden saw where everyone was. Over a hill past the harbor, hundreds of townspeople were gathered in Salem’s town square with blazing torches. Even from far away Caden could feel the tension rising. There were screams and cries as people pointed up at Metl in fear and mothers clutched their children close.

  “—doing everything we can,” echoed the voice of the small Father through the wooden cone. Caden couldn’t see him, but his amplified voice boomed throughout town. “There is nothing to fear. This is a blessing sent by Gotama. We should be thankful for his—”

  “Thankful for the flood that took my husband?”

  “The fire that burned down my house was not a blessing!”

  Yells from the crowd drowned the Father out. People were angry. And scared. Caden didn’t blame them; he was too.

  “Where are we going?” Caden whispered to Annika. They’d crouched behind another hill on the backside of the church, bringing them down into damp darkness. Angry shouts from the crowd mixed with the crashes of the waves against the rocky coast. It felt like they were in the middle of nowhere.

  “We’re going to one of my favorite old hangouts,” Annika said. “It’s just up ahead. There’s a tunnel that comes out of the church and right into the ocean. It’s where all their garbage goes. I used to steal some stuff from it. It’s not usually guarded, so we might be able to get in.”

  Caden followed as they crawled along rocks, until they came to the peak of a jagged slope and peered over the top.

  “There. Do you see it?” Annika asked. Below them, just a moment’s run away, was a perfectly circular stone opening in the side of the cliff. Gooey liquids in a variety of colors were leaking out of it onto the small sandy beach and then into the ocean.

  “Don’t tell me you stole food out of there,” Caden said, slightly disgusted.

  “I washed everything first, obviously,” Annika said grumpily. “Let’s go. It looks like no one’s—”

  But there was someone guarding the entrance. A red stallion came clopping out of the shadows with a white-clad rider. It was a member of the Holy Police, lantern in hand, keeping watch.

  Caden readied himself to use his angel weapon, hopefully for the last time. But then the Holy Police turned toward him and Annika.

  It was Dom.

  Chapter 14

  Into the Church

  Caden did a double take. How could Dom, the potato-shaped bully, be one of the Holy Police? He looked again, just to be sure, but it was really him. Dom may have been completely covered in the white uniform from head to toe, but Caden would recognize that freckled face anywhere. The puffs of curly red hair sticking out from the top of the hood were even more of a dead giveaway.

  “Is that Dom?” Annika asked in disbelief.

  “Yep,” Caden said, doing his best to stifle a laugh.

  “He kind of looks like an egg riding a horse,” Annika snickered. “And I think he’s alone down there too.”

  “Well then,” Caden said. “I guess we’d better go say hello.”

  The two of them climbed over the rocky hill and made their way down the other side to the small beach. As they walked, tiny pebbles dislodged from the path and clinked down the slope, getting Dom’s attention.

  “Who goes there?” he demanded. He tugged the horse’s reins and held his lantern out toward Caden and Annika, looking just as shocked to see them as they had been to see him.

  “Hello, Dom,” Caden said calmly.

  “Stop right there!” Dom said. He reached behind his back with his free hand and pulled out a crossbow. “I’ll … I’ll shoot if I have to.”

  Seeing the crossbow made Caden and Annika stop, but only for a moment. Caden put out his palm, visualized the crossbow sliding right out of Dom’s hands onto the sandy ground, and it complied right away. It landed with a soft bump; it wasn’t even loaded. Suddenly Dom was empty-handed and looking quite scared.

  “Run, Milchama!” he yelled, snapping the horse’s reins. Caden was one step ahead of him. He imagined Dom stuck in the air while the horse galloped away, and that’s exactly what happened. Milchama sped off like he’d been stung by a bee, but Dom remained hovering in the air, still in saddled position.

  Until Caden released him to collapse on the sandy ground.

  He fell on his rear with a thud. Caden and Annika ran over, magnet-gun and palms out, standing above him as he lay on the ground, hands up in surrender. It was hard to imagine th
at this was the same person who had threatened Caden with a sledgehammer just two days ago. If only he’d known how to use his angel weapon then.

  Annika let out a laugh. “The Holy Police must be pretty hard up for help if they’re letting you join them.”

  “I’m … I’m not even supposed to be here,” Dom said, sweat dripping down his reddened face.

  “Then why are you here?” Caden asked.

  “Everyone else is out looking for you,” he said. “The whole Church is trying to find you. And anyone left over is doing crowd control to prevent a riot in town. They just threw a suit on me and gave me a fake crossbow and told me to guard over here. I’m not an official Holy Police yet. I … I barely even know how to ride a horse!”

  This was getting pathetic. Caden and Annika exchanged glances.

  “What do we do?” Caden asked.

  “Toss him in the ocean with your power,” she suggested. “Then let’s get going.”

  “No!” Dom cried. “You’d better not do anything to me. Or else I’ll tell my brother and he’ll get you good! He isn’t afraid of your stupid weapons or anything.”

  “Your brother?” Caden asked. This was the first he’d heard of Dom having a brother.

  “Yeah, my brother Freid,” Dom said. “He’s inside the church. I just found out today that’s where they’ve been keeping him. You’d better get away from me before he comes after you!”

  “Your brother isn’t a prisoner?” Annika asked.

  “He works for the Church,” Dom said. “I mean, he has to stay there as punishment for using Iltech, but he’s super smart. They use him for lots of stuff.”

  Caden’s heart leaped with excitement. If Dom’s brother was there, then his dad had to be there too.

  “Can you help us get in?” Caden asked. “I need to find my dad.”

  “No way!” Dom yelled. “You’re a criminal! You’re the most-wanted sinner right now. I don’t care what kind of weird powers you have, you’d have to kill me before I’d help you.”

  Frustration burned through Caden. They were so close. He didn’t have time to explain everything to Dom that he’d learned about how the Church was wrong and Gotama wasn’t real. He just needed to get through Dom’s thick head with something quick.

  “Listen, Dom,” Caden said. “You see Metl up there?”

  Dom quickly glanced up at the shining gray ball and red X filling the sky.

  “Yeah.”

  “Metl is going to hit us. It’s going to kill everyone. You. Me. Your brother. Anyone you’ve ever cared about will be dead. The only way to stop it is if I meet my dad. I don’t know why, but I have the power to put an end to this. You’ve seen what I can do. I just need my dad to tell me how to do it.”

  Caden could see the gears turning in Dom’s head. The idea of helping Caden was causing him extreme mental anguish, but the idea of being smashed to pieces was probably worse.

  “You can really stop Metl?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Caden said. “If you help me find my dad.”

  “And my mom too,” Annika added. “Please help us, Dom.”

  Dom turned to Annika and his face softened. He stood, brushed off his white uniform, and picked up the lantern from the sand.

  “All right,” he said. “Follow me.”

  He hopped into the tunnel carved into the cliff and started walking down the dark, damp corridor. After a quick exchange of surprised glances, Caden and Annika followed. Annika kept her eyes narrowed in suspicion and followed behind with her magnetizer drawn. Caden wasn’t prepared to trust Dom either. He kept his glowing red palms ready to go at any moment.

  The journey through the tunnel was disgusting. The circular pathway was just low enough that they had to walk crouched, careful not to scrape their heads along the gooey ceiling. The floor was even worse. The stone pathway was coated in a thick layer of slime, and liquids of every gross color imaginable flowed by. Caden did his best to avoid the larger pieces of garbage that came floating past, but he did step on a few of them. They were disturbingly squishy.

  And yet, Caden felt the same internal tug as before when they’d walked through the tunnel to the Basement. He had to be sensing electrical signals. But this was the church, the last place on Earth that should have any Iltech. It didn’t make sense.

  “Just what is that power of yours anyway?” Dom asked, his voice echoing through the cramped stone passageway.

  “It’s kind of a long story,” Caden said.

  “Try me.”

  “Well, it’s called an angel weapon. It—”

  “Yeah yeah, great. Were you born with it or did you steal it?”

  “Uh, well, I was born with it. But I’ve met others who had them installed later.”

  “Huh,” Dom said. “I wonder if after you stop Metl from hitting us, my brother could rip that angel thing out of you and put it inside me instead.”

  Caden didn’t say anything. The thought of Dom, or anyone like Dom, with an angel weapon was horrifying. He was glad he’d made Annika promise to destroy him when they were done.

  “Are your parents inside the church too?” Annika asked.

  “Even if they were, I wouldn’t know,” Dom said. “It was always just me and Freid. He’d work all day at the stonesmith, then tinker with his Iltech inventions at night to sell underground and make a little money. It worked well … until the Police found his workshop.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Caden said, feeling sympathy for Dom for the first time ever. Dom just grunted.

  “Whatever. Anyway, we’re here.”

  They had reached a dead end. There was nothing except a stone wall illuminated by Dom’s lantern. It was wet with putrid-smelling liquids like the rest of the tunnel.

  “Where are we?” Caden asked.

  “Hey, relax will ya?” Dom said. He grabbed hold of one of the stones in the wall and shoved it to the side. As if by magic, it slid across like the lid to a wooden box, revealing a large red light with numbered buttons. Dom pressed one of the buttons and the light turned yellow.

  “What is this?” Caden asked.

  “The way inside, duh,” Dom said. “Now be quiet, I have to put in the password.”

  Caden and Annika were silent as they watched Dom’s thick fingers press button after button. Again. And again. And again. Dom must’ve pressed them over one-hundred times before he finally stopped.

  “It’s a … it’s a really long password,” he said. “Now wait a second.”

  The yellow light turned green and the wall started shaking, as if there was a mini earthquake.

  “What’s going on?” Caden asked.

  “Can you go five seconds without asking a stupid question?” Dom groaned. He grabbed another stone in the wall and pulled. The wall swung open like a door. Inside was a small white room, so small in fact that it wasn’t a room at all.

  “Is this an elevator?” Caden asked, remembering the lift in the Basement.

  “I don’t know what it’s called,” Dom admitted with a shrug. “But I know what it does; it goes up. Get in.”

  The three of them filed inside. The cramped elevator was barely big enough to hold them. Dom closed the stone wall from the inside, sealing them in the four white walls.

  “Are we moving yet?” Annika asked anxiously.

  “Trust me,” Dom said, “you’ll know when we’re—”

  The elevator lurched upward with a jolt. Caden lost his footing and fell to the floor, and Annika accidentally grabbed onto Dom.

  “I gotcha,” he said to her. Then he turned to Caden. “You lose your balance? Huh. Would’ve thought an Iltech sinner like you would be right at home in this thing.”

  Caden didn’t say anything as he stood back up and the bumpy ride continued upward. This elevator must’ve been what he’d been sensing in the tunnel. But why did the church have an Iltech elevator? And how high were they going in the statue-church? Up to Gotama’s beard? The human
-ant’s antennae?

  He didn’t have to wait long to find out. The elevator convulsed to a stop and there was a pleasant “bing” sound, like Jadice’s tea maker.

  “Oh, by the way,” Dom said with a smirk, “I’m sorry.”

  The elevator doors opened, and Dom ducked down as Caden and Annika were suddenly face to face with a dozen Holy Police all pointing crossbows at them.

  “Down on your knees!” they yelled in unison.

  Caden reacted instinctively. He thrust out his palms and Annika reached for her magnetizer, but they were too late.

  bzzt!

  One of the Holy Police fired, but there was no sound of arrows piercing the air. It was a blast of something worse—magnets.

  The weapon shot out a magnetic field, sucking Annika’s weapon right out of her hands and into the Holy Police’s possession. Caden felt the full impact of the weapon ripple through his body, as if he was a puddle someone had splashed into. He collapsed to the elevator floor on his knees, suddenly losing the energy to even stand.

  “Excellent work, Dominic,” came a voice. The group of Holy Police parted and a tall, slender man in a blood-red Holy Police uniform strolled up to the elevator. He had the same freckles and curly ginger hair as Dom, and he was carrying a magnet-bow—the weapon that had sucked away Annika’s magnetizer and disabled Caden.

  “Thanks, Freid,” Dom said. “It took a while to input that message to you guys. But it was worth it, huh?”

  “I would expect no less from my genius little brother,” Freid said. He handed the magnet-bow to a nearby Holy Police, helped Dom up, and led him away with an arm behind his back.

  “Mr. Freidric, sir,” said one of the Holy Police. “What do we do with these two?”

  “Put them in the cell,” Freid said.

  Dom turned to his brother. “Hey, remember it’s only the boy that’s the sinner. The girl didn’t do anything wrong. She was kidnapped.”

  “No worries, Dominic,” Freid said. “We’ll let Father Yohan deal with them when he gets back. Until then, we’ll keep them safe.”

  Caden still felt weak, as if the magnet-bow had ripped out his will to live. He couldn’t even stand. Two Holy Police lifted him under his arms and carried him into the room. Right behind him Annika was kicking and screaming, requiring four Police to subdue her.