by Jamie Hawke
“The Per-Neters,” I said.
“And that location,” Charm said as the dark form of Asterisk closed her fingers around a spot, selected it, and then vanished along with the first Per-Neter. “I know where she went.”
“You do?” I stared at her with confusion. “How?”
“Because, it’s where I was raised. It was my home.”
16
Charm and I had Harp between us, carrying her back into the building as the wind colossus, supervillains, and monsters rained down terror outside. The walls shimmered and there was nothing between us and them, it seemed. Only, apparently I was wrong, because the attacks kept hitting and sending the energy along an unseen wall.
“Visible,” a super shouted. “Beginning the scourge in three, two…”
Apparently, the walls had a camera system or some such setup that allowed us to see out, and a defensive system as well. Rather, the whole Citadel did. Turrets weren’t all that popped up. Glowing spheres rose out of the ground, floating, then blasting out—a good three-quarters of the enemy fell to that series of energy blasts at the same time the turrets started tearing into them.
A glance back showed Hadrian doing something with the Per-Neter that had been in this building, and my brother and his team were lined up, ready in case the enemy broke through. The attacks kept going outside, but by now the enemy had thrown up some sort of counter-measure, it seemed. Some of them retreated through the portals now that they had one Per-Neter in their possession, while other monsters, including one who looked like a stone colossus, continued coming through.
“We’re sitting ducks in here,” I said, watching the display.
“No,” Lamb said, gesturing to the wall behind me, where now I saw an opening forming to reveal a spiral staircase that led down. “We’re in the strongest bunker on this place. It leads down to the core, what is essentially an advanced panic room.”
I nodded, impressed.
“I trust we have everyone,” Hadrian said, moving with the Per-Neter wrapped in his cape.
My heart skipped as I looked for my team, seeing all of them but Aegriss. Then she was there, jogging over, nodding when she saw the look of worry etched on my face.
All in one piece, her voice came through my head.
I’m relieved, I told her, and we joined the others, starting to funnel our way down the stairs. The barrage of attacks stopped outside as the enemy out there stood still, glaring at our walls.
“They know we’re going down,” Laurel said at Charm’s side.
“How do you…?” I started, but seeing the glow of her antennae, nodded.
“They’re coming with?” a super said, eyeing Harp and Laurel, apparently having seen that they had been involved in the attack.
“We’ll discuss that below,” Hadrian said, continuing to usher us down.
Each step echoed through the metallic stairs, which were first lit by the light above and then by a green glow as the last of us entered and the top closed over. The air was stale down here, hot with all the bodies pressed together, and noisy as supers discussed what had happened, lamenting their fallen comrades and debating the next move.
We made it below to a circular room with more screens for walls that displayed images of the area above. Hadrian and Lamb approached one, pulled up floating screens, and started to look over the data and make adjustments. Meanwhile, I checked on my team, applying some healing to Shimmer. I checked over my stats now that I had reached level thirty-five.
Andromida paced, hands in fists. “I thought Asterisk was dead. We killed her!”
“We did, and she was. Is.” Twitch glanced my way, and I took the reins.
“That wasn’t the real her out there, but, I’m guessing, her essence. Like Lamb can do, kind of.” Turning to Lamb, I said, “Right?”
She glanced back and nodded. “My powers are unique to our system. But… Asterisk isn’t from our system.”
“You mean it’s possible there’s some sort of connection to you?” I asked.
She nodded. “It’s possible. My parents… well, it’s rumored they got the powers that led to me being able to do what I do from some alien source. They never would tell me the specifics, but, as far as I know, yes.”
“Wait, let me get this clear.” Andromida stopped, turning to me and then Lamb. “Asterisk is dead, but her essence remains. Like her ghost, kind of?”
“Funny you should ask it that way,” Sam said, stepping out from the rear. She had her helmet on and a bloodied, glowing sword in her hands. “The ghosts have arrived.”
“Ghosts?” I asked.
“An alien race that exist on their own plane and,” seeing the look on my face, she paused and said, “To be clear, no, not actual ghosts.”
“Oh, good. I was like, aliens, mythical creatures, monsters and all that, sure. But ghosts are just… taking it too far.”
“Point is, they came through just now. There were a few supers who were on the other side and I got them through, but then…” She turned, cursed under her breath, and added, “I lost them.”
“Dammit,” Hadrian said, swiping his hands in the air and pulling up a screen that showed the entire Citadel.
“How’d you get in?” I asked.
“There’s more than one entry point,” Hadrian said. “With safeguards in place to keep the enemy out, as long as we hold the ship. He moved his hand along his screen, zooming in on us, then doing a sweep. “It hadn’t shown any others out there, and—”
“They’re blocking it,” Sam interrupted. “Even now, there might be more I didn’t see.”
Hadrian didn’t like the sound of that, and when he glanced my way, I got the message and tried scanning. “It’s not showing anything other than enemies. But… could be my scanner isn’t working, either.”
“I’m sensing brain patterns,” one of the supers said. “Might be some of ours, but also, could be that the enemy is messing with us.”
“Either way, we’ll need to send a scouting party out there to check.” Hadrian selected several supers, including my dad and brother.
“Not me?” I asked, trying not to let the fact that I was insulted show in my voice.
He glanced to my mom, and said, “You’re needed here.”
“Bullshit.”
With a frown, he gestured to my mom, then took off with the others in tow.
“Sorry,” my brother said, as his team joined him. “I’ll try to kill a few for you.”
“Do that,” I mumbled, turning to my mom to see what this was all about.
“Remember the pyramid?” my mom asked.
“I could never forget.”
“Well, we have to try something similar, here.” She knelt, hands on the ground. “Come, join me.”
“Are we… praying for a miracle?”
She frowned, chuckled, and then said, “Get down here, smartass. We’re going to bring the fucking thunder.”
“I don’t know what that means,” I admitted, kneeling next to her, hands on the floor as she was doing.
“Like in the pyramid, when you found me in that box. Only, the Citadel gives us more free rein, more flexibility. And has its own army waiting to be activated.”
Now that I knew what she meant, I wasn’t surprised when wires rose from the floor and dug into our hands, and suddenly, it was like I was one with the Citadel.
17
The entire Citadel was at my fingertips, under the shared control of my mother and me. It was like I wasn’t there at all, but then again, I was everywhere, and was very aware of her with me.
Follow my lead, her voice sounded in my head and yet all around. It was similar to when Aegriss and I communicated this way, but also felt like it was part of me. We need to close them off, to ensure they can’t get to us. Then set them up for Hadrian’s attack.
Roger that.
Together, we moved through the Citadel with our minds. When the enemy began their assault on its structure, plowing through the surface, tearing at the
metal and burrowing in to try and reach us, we were ready.
We were able to see it all, to feel it, too, and sense the supers back in the building begin their assault with mental powers and the like against our opponents. My mother and I began moving metal back into place as it was torn up, so that the enemy would dig in, then be surrounded and cut, killed by their own attack. They grew wise to this, though, and others amongst them created energy shields around their diggers to protect them. And then they were into the lower level.
Watch this, my mom’s voice came to me. A little treat I set up a while back, in case of something like this.
A surge of energy shot through the core, cables twisting out to restrain the enemy, and then there was a ghostly image of my mom, as if she were there.
“Last warning,” this version of her said, but apparently, she had no intention of waiting. She likely knew there wasn’t a chance of them really pulling back, because even as the words echoed through the inner circle, she unleashed an army of robotic droids that emerged from a passage behind the enemy, lighting them up with blaster shots.
Another wave of supers pushed through, spinning and drilling down, even as the corpses piled up. My thought—cleaning this was going to be a bitch.
My focus passed down to the next level before they reached it, sensing something. Wavering light showed shadows, images we could sense when plugged in. The ghosts, I assumed, had already managed to reach this lower level. They were able to move through the core faster than the rest, surging inward, and would likely find a way up to us before long.
“I’ve found lightning works against them,” Sam said, still nearby and apparently able to see what we were doing. Or maybe her voice was in my head, too? I couldn’t be certain.
Either way, I watched as my mom lit up a group, and then I did the same. More than just the core’s energy though, I discovered that I could use my travel power in a new way when plugged in like this. Now, instead of just sending myself, I could send my powers like this, too.
Tempest balls of energy formed as a ghostly image of myself appeared, and then lightning shot out at the enemy.
My mom laughed. “There you go!”
It was odd how I had the sensation of playing catch with her for the first time, though lighting up enemy ‘ghosts’ with lightning was clearly a different thing entirely. Still, as her laughter echoed through the hallways and her image shot out waves of electricity, I felt a connection I’d never known that I craved, but now knew had been lacking throughout my entire life.
The ceiling gave way and a super came plummeting, through, instantly turning to attack me. Since I wasn’t truly there, it did nothing. When my mom pushed the walls to collapse on him, he tried to dig his way out but was crushed before he could make enough of a dent to matter. Ghosts moved, a couple flickering at the flash of walls, and I heard Charm gasp.
“Wraiths,” she said, and then cursed. “Not all are ghosts—some are guild wraiths.”
“As in, from your world?” Hadrian asked.
“That’s right. Breaker, can you hear me?”
“I can,” I said, pulling myself out for a moment, and turning to her. “Is this a problem?”
She was at my side, hand on my shoulder. “They protect our prisons, and aren’t particularly powerful. But they’re hard to take down if they know what’s coming.”
“Then I’ll have to make sure they don’t,” I replied, turning and plugging back in. As my mom’s attacks kicked in, missing the wraiths but doing a number on the remaining ghosts, I launched the same attack, but at the same moment traveled through the connection to come up behind them and shoot them with more lightning. On top of that, I pulled my war-hammer out of the air and got in three good hits before one of the wraiths came at me.
Easily enough, I traveled back out of there, to my position with my mom, still attacking with the station core powers. Charm’s cheering came through, as well as that of others, and I was going in and out, attacking, pulling back, then going in, over and over.
“Fuck them good!” Charm said, earning her a reprimand from Hadrian.
“Oh, God,” Sam said, but laughed.
“Breaker, on me,” my mom said, and I pushed my consciousness to focus on her, following a signal that led to an inner passage closer to the surface. It took me to a room where a handful of our supers were barricaded in, with the stone colossus pounding on the door, until it was almost broken through.
We had them now, this little group of our lost supers, but if I didn’t act fast, they would be goners. First, I warped the metal with my core connection, supporting the door, then I traveled to their location, appearing out of the floor. The supers turned to attack, but upon seeing me in my Elder robes pulled back.
“Everyone, hands on me,” I said, and a moment later we were traveling through the Citadel, reappearing near Hadrian and the others. The rest were back as well, apparently having either made a retreat or already finished with their scouting mission. A few ran forward, exchanging hugs, but by then I was back with my mom, checking on what we’d do next.
It seemed, however, that we’d held off the assault on the Citadel, leaving only those above as threats.
“Can you get us a clearing to the crystals?” Hadrian asked. His voice was distant, as if heard through a filter.
I came back to them and looked around to confirm he had been speaking to me. He also looked at my dad, brother, and all of our teams.
“We have a good shot,” Drew said, nodding to me, “if Breaker can distract them with that dragon thing he does while I get my team on the wind colossus. You have a plan?”
Hadrian nodded. “I think I can close the portals.”
“Let’s stop wasting time, then,” my mom said through gritted teeth, eyes still closed and plugged in. “I’ll do what I can while I’m in the system. The rest of you push them back, I’ll hold them there.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Sam said, going for the door, staring me in the eye, waiting.
“We’re going to need all the boosts we can get for this one,” Twitch said, and pulled up her screens to give us all boosts in speed, defense, and whatever else she could. Other supers did the same, so that my screen was showing me at three hundred percent in many areas.
All that, plus another one of those mixed-color breaths from Charm made me charge for the door, transforming even as it opened, and going at the colossus with fervor.
When I’d almost reached the monster, I realized this wasn’t going to work. He being wind and me with dragon wings, I was pushed back. My only constraint—aside from the energy to maintain my illusion power—was my imagination, however, so I transformed into the floor of the Citadel itself and moved along it with a combination of my illusion and travel powers, coming up to the creature and wrapping around it. Andromida joined me, so that even as it tried to beat us back, we managed to first contain it, then pull at its glowing core and smash it.
Sam flew past on metal wings that had emerged from the back of her suit, absorbing the ball of light that came from the core as she landed. I thought they had been crippled, but they seemed to be in order now. Maybe fixed by whomever had fixed Aegriss’s arm.
“Don’t mind if I take that, do you?” she said, and when I shook my head, she thrust out at the closest supervillain in a way that shot out a burst of light, sending him flying off into space. “Thanks!”
She was back in the fight with her sword and gun. The Citadel was alive as we supers upped our game. In less than a minute we had pushed back the enemy, killed off most of the monsters, and even managed to contain the wind colossus.
We had cleared a path so that Hadrian could reach the crystals. Now supers formed around him, creating a wall between that spot and the portals, attacking in all directions to keep him clear.
“The portals aren’t closing!” Hadrian shouted, hands on the crystals, smoke rising from where he was in contact. “It’s like something’s stuck, something…”
I turned to s
ee Harp and Laurel there with my team and realized what it was. Pulling up my troubleshooter screen, it only took a moment to confirm that they still had some of Asterisk in them. She was keeping the connection through them, and only I could stop it.
Moving the shapes around and putting the patterns together, I managed to target what I thought was the code allowing her presence to stay. With a final swipe it was done, and she fell out of them like water that hit the ground to form into a puddle, starting to take shape instantly.
It pushed up, a head and then hands, a body following. Asterisk looked around at each of us. Only, we knew it wasn’t her, but a reflection of her, or a shadow. However you wanted to word it, this thing was not really her, and I didn’t even wait for it to finish or to speak before throwing my full arsenal of tempest energy and every sort of blasts I had at my disposal its way.
When I was done, the puddle had evaporated but Twitch stepped forward, a hand up, and did something on her screens. Pink energy walls appeared and sucked something out of the air, pulling it together as the walls closed in, four of them, then a top and bottom until it was a box. The box squished, smaller and smaller, until it was no more.
“That ought to do it.” Twitch grinned.
“Overkill, maybe,” Lamb said. “But… maybe not. Good work.”
It was done.
18
Even though we knew where we would be going, Hadrian decided we needed a plan before charging off to chase down the Per-Neter. This attack on the Citadel had proven the enemy even more adept than we had figured, and powerful to boot.
Clearing the bodies hadn’t been easy, but soon they were off in space, gone forever.
Laurel and Harp were getting back into the swing of things, confused by all that had happened. Both remembered the events but described them as if watching from the backseat. For now, they both needed rest. Charm went back and forth during the night, checking on them, but when they slept in and wanted to rest during the day, too, she left them to it and joined us.