Desperate Times

by Tom Andry

  Nissa screamed. It wasn't in fear. There is a certain sound and tenor in a cry of terror. I'd heard enough of those types of screams in the last few minutes to recognize it. No, this was something else. Something more personal. Painful. She had both hands on her face, clawing. Trying to undo something, unsee something. I couldn't take the time to comfort her. I had to look for an opening, a way out.

  Under the rags, The Raven's skin was a mess. While there was no evidence of cuts from the metal, lots of other types of damage was in obvious. Some of his skin just looked dead. Gray and black, it puffed up unnaturally. Other parts of his skin looked pink and new. Randomly, it seemed, there were bubbles and scabs, open wounds and old scars. There were even patchy bits of green, yellow, and purple bruises.

  What could bruise someone as strong as The Raven?

  Finally, the metal man's power completely failed and he collapsed. The crowd behind him screamed in unison and again charged up the stairs. It was futile; they knew it. But what other choice did they have?

  "Weak."

  I felt the voice in my chest. The crowd shrieked as the monster that was The Raven spoke for the second time. But instead of turning on the metal man, The Raven turned his attention back to the column. The guards, still firmly attached to him, hadn't let up their attempts to hold him back, but now that he seemed to have a target, he pushed forward with renewed energy. The one in front stopped pushing and started striking the super, purple sparks and more smoke releasing at each hit. The Raven, however, didn't seem to notice and swiped at the guard in front with his free hand. The guard shot across the room and slammed into a wall, creating a huge indentation. He dissolved instantly, the metal shards clanging on the concrete as the mist drifted harmlessly to the ground under the newly formed crater in the wall. More mist rose from the floor in front of The Raven to create a new guard. As one, they grabbed onto The Raven and started pushing. The Raven reached out a hand toward the central column and immediately the forms of the guards wavered.

  "No!" simultaneous exclamations came from both Tay and the hidden illusionist.

  With a huge push, The Raven plowed between the two guards and struck the column. The column rippled as if a rock had been dropped into a calm pool. The impact created enough of a hole for The Raven to get his hand through. The hole closed up, but not fast enough. His fist was encased in the illusionary mirror at the wrist. He planted his feet and started to push. Slowly, despite the guards' best efforts, he pushed his arm into the column. The guards pulled and pushed, but it was clear they weren't going to win. Suddenly, the guards disappeared and two huge brick walls appeared on either side of The Raven. With a deafening crack, they slammed together creating a cartoonish outline of The Raven between them. A second set, a third. The mist from the floor was nearly depleted, a scant few wisps clinging to the dead bodies remaining.

  The Raven continued his assault under the sandwiches of walls. Mist drifted to the floor as the walls dissolved and drew back up as they reappeared and attacked anew. They came from the side, the top. It didn't matter. The Raven couldn't be halted. Finally, a hole appeared in the walls so The Raven's head was exposed. The freed mist from the top of the walls swirled around his head, eventually coalescing around his mouth and nose. Like ants through a hole in a screen, the mist pushed its way into The Raven. For a moment, I dared to hope. If she could attack him from the inside, perhaps he'd be more vulnerable. Even though he wore a mask that completely covered his face, it seemed I could just barely make out a smile through the hardening mist.

  "No, no, NO!" Tay was losing it. Well, perhaps that ship had sailed a while ago, but he was now afraid that his "team" wasn't going to pull this one off. He turned, and for the first time, I got a look at the real Tay.

  About five years younger than me, Tay had probably lost most of his hair years ago. That didn't stop him from growing out what he had and trying to cover the vast hairless patch. He was about the same size and shape as before, leading me to guess that the illusionist had simply made him look as he did when he was eighteen. Now, his face showed the years of abuses of probably every "pleasure" he could imagine - from the looks of it, a lot more than I could imagine. The tattoos were predominantly real, though they were mostly marred by scars from over-zealous partners. Instead of billowing pants, he was wearing nothing but dirty, saggy, white underwear and mismatched socks.

  I glanced down at Nineteen. She looked the same. Either the illusionist was continuing her appearance or, more likely, there had never been an illusion adjusting her appearance. Taking the two in as a pair, they almost made sense. In a "refrigerator on the front lawn of our mobile home" sort of way.

  Behind Tay I heard a gurgle and then a chorus of screams. The illusionist was dead. The music, all the furnishing, and everything that made the room look like anything but a large, gray, concrete bunker with emergency lights dotting the upper edges of the walls had been used to combat The Raven. Now, it pooled into an ankle-deep layer covering the floor of the main room. There were no rooms, no hallways, no platforms, no mutated lizardman copse. It had all been an illusion. The space consisted of two rooms. One was Tay's office with the pile of rubble; the other, the one we were all in now, was just a huge open space with a number of support columns and the half destroyed wire mesh cage that surrounded the illusionist. The illusionist was probably the best in the world, even before The Raven killed most of the world's top supers. How Tay got his hooks into her was impossible to imagine.

  The Raven, exhaling mist, dropped the limp form of the illusionist to the ground inside the remains of the mesh column among the fragments of cookies and puddle of milk. He started walking around with his hand extended. He examined people cringing near the walls, the ones too scared to move, passing his hand over the top of each as he walked. They shrunk, trying to make themselves invisible. It was only when one actually did disappear that he acted. A girl. Young, hot, dressed to the nines, she winked out of existence just as he turned his back. He spun immediately, head scanning back and forth. He reached down and grabbed a hunk of concrete, probably the size of a bowling ball, and concentrated. After a moment, he threw. The concrete whistled through the air at near supersonic speed. The girl crumpled to the ground, once again visible, her back obviously broken. He walked over to her calmly and stepped on her head. It exploded under the pressure.

  "Corrupt."

  Tay had been watching the last of this, but again turned and locked his bloodshot eyes with mine. After a moment, he broke away to look at Nissa, then smirked like a kid caught setting fire to the neighbor's cat, "And then there's that." His voice was no longer the young hip, punk. Instead he sounded like an old college professor who had never managed to sell his novel and ended up drinking himself to sleep each night. He broke into a dead run and sprinted past us back into his "office."

  I turned and watched him go, but Nissa didn't move. I had nearly forgotten her scream. She was shaking. Not trembling, not shivering. Shaking. Enraged. A sort of primal growl emanated from the girl.

  "Nissa?"

  Her makeup was streaked down her face, over her eye mask. Her eyes burned with hatred. The Raven, oblivious, continued to circle the room, singling out individuals. Each time he did, they died. There seemed to be no logic behind it. In the mist and rubble, everyone looked the same. Finally, he finished with those along the walls and turned back to the stairs and the gasping metal man.

  "Nissa, there's got to be a door back there," I thumbed over my shoulder at Tay's room. "We've got to get out of here." She didn't seem to hear me. "Listen," I put a hand on her shoulder, it was hot to the touch, "he'll be distracted when he goes for that metal dude. We'll try to get as many out as we can."

  She shrugged off my hand, "Hey! Fucker!"

  I stumbled back, shocked. She was going to get us killed!

  The Raven stopped and turned toward us slowly. His head turned slightly to one side in confusion...or was that amusement? I grabbed Nissa's shoulder to pull her back into Tay's room a
nd, hopefully, out of here to someplace safe. Someplace I could fire her. Young I understand. Impulsive? Goes with the territory. But monumentally stupid? Getting my ass killed in the process? There were no warnings for that. If The Raven didn't terminate her, I would.

  I pulled my hand away, steaming. Nissa wasn't hot, she was burning up. Just to the side of Nissa and a little in front of her, Nineteen watched. She was looking in our direction, but I couldn't tell if she was looking at me or Nissa. It didn't matter. Over her shoulder, I saw The Raven extend his arms to both sides.

  "Oh, shit," I whispered. He'd done this before. At the Tournament. His body started to glow. Slightly orange at first, transforming quickly to a thin halo of black flame that licked up his body, singeing the tattered ends of his costume. A few of the onlookers in the crowd fainted dead away.

  Nissa, in some sort of twisted pantomime, slowly raised her hands in front of her, about shoulder-width apart. Her palms were flat and faced each other and her fingers were pointed straight up. Green electricity crackled and arced between her palms.

  The Raven's whole body stiffened. Whatever she was doing was getting his attention. And that's not the sort of attention I wanted. I glanced down at the young girl. Nineteen. If anyone in this room was safe, it was her. I knew that. I knew it and I didn't know it. I couldn't leave her out there. I just couldn't.

  In what I would describe as a fit of madness, one I hoped I'd learned to control in my years on the job, I jumped forward and grabbed Nineteen under her armpits. I turned and swung her legs up, catching them so that she was cradled in my arms. I jumped back, wrapping my coat around the small girl, just as The Raven attacked.

  Black fire surrounded us as I knelt, hugging the girl close. I looked down. Her eyes, for the first time, were closed. Her chin was nestled against my chest and she was breathing easily. The heat was intense, but not overpowering. With my free hand, I pulled my hat down tighter on my head. I chanced a glance over my shoulder.

  I'd managed to put Nissa between me and The Raven. That wasn't the plan and it could have been that she'd sidestepped to protect us. I didn't know. Nissa had brought her palms together in front of her so that she looked like one of those praying choir girls at Christmas mass - if those choir girls had huge mohawks and wore skintight vinyl. The Raven had brought one of his arms forward and a column of the black fire was belching out from it. Nissa, somehow, had erected some sort of forcefield that was deflecting the fire around us. She was like a rock in a stream.

  Through the fire, which I realized was more of a deep purple than black, I saw the metal man again calling on his power. Metal was swirling around his hands. He had not only reclaimed everything he'd already used but also the remaining metal from the illusionist's cage. The Raven saw him too and turned his power away from Nissa and toward the super, cutting a deep, glowing swath into the wall as he went. Before the metal man could cry out, he was vaporized. He and anyone or anything behind him. Smoldering lumps of unidentified flesh pooled on the ground. Half of the stairway evaporated like so much butter in a campfire. Anyone fortunate enough not to be in the direct path ran, jumped, or dove out of the way. Others died instantly. The least lucky lost anything from a foot to a third of their body. Cries of pain and terror intermingled.

  I turned back to Nissa. What the hell? What was she doing? I couldn't even think about the fact that she was a super and hadn't told me. I'd deal with that later. That metal guy? He was dead the moment he stepped up. And honestly, supers have to be prepared for that. But we might have gotten some of those people out. People, mostly tippys I suspected, that probably would never be identified. Even if they could, many wouldn't have told anyone where they were going or what they were doing. Now they'd just be missing persons. Forever.

  Nissa's head was bowed over her hands, and her field, only visible before because of the fire outlining it, now began to glow a light green. It surrounded her body in an egg shape that was anywhere from a foot to two feet deep. Nissa's shoulders tensed and the color intensified. Slowly, she lifted from the ground, her legs locked together and her feet pointed straight down. In this position she looked like a cross or a dagger. The field grew in thickness and color as The Raven extinguished the flames emanating from his hand and turned his attention back to her.

  With a whoosh of displaced air, a tube of green shot out of Nissa's green energy field and pinned The Raven to the back wall. The concrete and brick behind him cracked and crumbled as Nissa attempted to crush the killing machine between it and her power. For the first time, The Raven grunted in protest as he attempted to free himself. He managed to get one arm free and extended it toward Nissa. I expected something, more black flame probably, to shoot out of it. But there was nothing.

  After a moment or two, locked in this position, The Raven got angry.

  A minute ago, Tay knew he was going to lose. Now it was my turn. Nissa screamed in frustration and rage as The Raven's own thin coating of purplish-black flame intensified. Where the green appendage met The Raven's body, black flame flared and crackled. Nissa bowed her head lower and every muscle in her body I could see was clenched and quivering. It didn't look like she was breathing.

  Across the room, The Raven started to pull himself out of the hole Nissa had pushed him into. As he stepped out, brick, concrete, and dirt rained down on and around him. Slowly, he moved forward.

  "No!" Nissa screamed as three more tubes of force shot out from her and slammed into The Raven. But they seemed to have little effect. The Raven was just too powerful. He raised his arm again and once more, black flame shot out. This time it ate through the green appendage, slowly working its way back to Nissa.

  She struggled, there was no doubt about that. But he was just too strong. After a few moments, her field was reduced to the egg shape around her and it seemed she was having a hard time maintaining even that. The Raven had advanced to just a few feet away.

  I should have run when I had the chance. When Nissa had him pinned...that would have been a good time, I realized far too late. But now, Nissa's field was the only thing keeping the fire from us. I looked down again and Nineteen, my body between her and The Raven, hadn't moved. She was resting on one arm and across my knee. With my free hand, I reached down and checked that my Inertial Dampener was on, almost laughing at the futility. It wouldn't do anything against The Raven's power. My clothes were resistant, but not to something that could obliterate supers.

  A dull thud behind me was followed immediately by the cessation of the black fire. I stood slowly, knowing I could do nothing else. I turned as The Raven took a step toward the unconscious form of my assistant. She was crumpled in a heap, smoke rising from her prone form. He nudged her with his foot, rolling her over onto her back. He knelt down and almost gently turned her face to him. He studied her for a moment as I froze, rooted to the spot, afraid to do anything to drawn his attention. After what seemed like forever, he stood and extended his palm over her, arm at shoulder height, fingers extended slightly. With a jolt, his face snapped to me.

  "Abomination."

  "What? Me?" I stammered, stepping back. The force of his gaze was like a spotlight. I felt like a deer in headlights. I wanted to run, but was powerless to do so.

  The Raven raised a leg to step over Nissa. I continued to fall back, terrified. The Raven remained frozen in place, one leg half over my unconscious assistant. I thought he was going to step on her as he did the invisible girl until he cried out.

  The sound was a mixture of pain, rage, and madness. It was so loud that it hurt my ears and so low that it seemed to shake the room, causing new debris to fall from the various holes that had been recently created. The Raven fell back, holding his head. I looked down.

  Where there had once been a little girl, fast asleep, now lay a tiny tempest. Her face was screwed in concentration, little lines on her brow. White eyes were replaced with large, sky blue irises surrounding deep black pupils. Aside from the expression of intense concentration, she looked positively norma
l. I looked up at The Raven. He fell back again, holding his head and screaming. Every time he screamed, those who were not dead or moaning screamed with him. Finally The Raven crouched down, looking up. He jumped up and flew out of the hole he'd created when he entered.

  Everyone who was left stood, staring at the hole in silence for what seemed to be an eternity. Some were moaning in pain and still others were crying softly to themselves. When it seemed clear that he wasn't going to return, I exhaled. I looked down at Nissa, breathing deeply on the floor, then down at Nineteen, still in my arms, her eyes again closed. Now how was I going to get both of them out?

  # # #

  Chapter 15

  Getting the girls out wasn't as hard as I’d feared. Most of the people left were only mildly hurt. There were a few with cauterized wounds and a couple who were unconscious or in shock, but for the most part, they were either alive or dead. The majority made their way to the hole in the room to look up at The Dragonfly club above. The lights were still strobing and flickering a multitude of colors, but there was no music and no signs of life. Drunk or not, the patrons above had fled at the first sight of The Raven.

  "You're going to want to stand back," I called out, drawing attention to myself that I didn't really want, "that doesn't look stable." As if to punctuate the point, a piece of concrete slid down out of one of the recent holes in the walls and crashed to the floor. Everyone jumped in unison. "Just find a spot that doesn't look too damaged and wait there. If you want to have any chance of reimbursement from the Super State Reparation Fund, it'd be best if someone official found you down here."