***
Darine swerved around a piece of falling debris, snatching up two children just as a wall collapsed where they'd been standing. The children were crying and frightened, but safe. "Don't worry," she tried to soothe them, "Everything will be okay now." She wished the circumstances would support her statement. Fires burned at will around her and every structure in town threatened to topple at any moment. People were everywhere, running in every direction. The only word to describe it was chaos, and moving swiftly through this chaos was the dragon. It burned, smashed and savaged the population. To make matters worse, Darine had caught the beast's attention by stealing away its intended victims, often right out from under its gaping maw. She continued to try comforting the children, but they cried all the way to the safe haven she'd established for those she rescued. It was an old Lunite temple, and the chambers beneath seemed well suited to weathering the attack on the city. She left the children with one of the others and promised to find their parents and bring them back safe. She leaped back up the stairs and out of the old temple before any one could say a word to her. She was tired. She'd lost track of how long she'd been flying through the streets of the city, carrying people to safety, often at the last minute. She was pushing her new powers to the limit, determined to save everyone, even though she knew she couldn't. Perhaps it was because she was tired, or maybe the man was just too heavy for her, but when she tried to carry him out of the range of the dragon's claws, she fell out of the air and collapsed on top of him on the road. She was stunned and panting for breath while the man lay on the ground screaming. She turned to see what he was screaming about, and saw the dragon's open mouth descending on them, fire roiling up out of its throat. She turned away and covered the man with her body. A symbolic gesture, she knew, but it was all she had left. The dragon unleashed its fury, but instead of searing heat enveloping her, she felt the presence of another standing over her. She opened her eyes and looked up. There, his great wings extended to shield her and the man beneath her was Kel Vega. The flames hit the ground harmlessly around them and Kel smiled, seemingly unbothered by the fire. "Hello there," he said companionably. "I hope you don't mind, but you looked as though you could use a hand."
***
The fires were dying, which was Jena's doing. She drew the flames to her and into her Totem. Darine returned to her rescue efforts following a brief rest and Kel directly engaged the dragon. He was having some luck keeping it occupied, but all attempts at driving it from the town had failed. He was managing to keep it in one place, which lessened the urgency and increased the success rate of Darine's mission. "Ma'am?" the little boy in her arms spoke hesitantly. "Yes, honey?" She smiled down at him. She'd rescued his mother earlier, and she'd begged Darine to find her son. She'd finally located him hiding under a bed in what Darine presumed to be the wreckage of his home. It was the only thing that had saved him when the building collapsed. "Who are all of you?" he asked in that special awe that is the province of the very young. "Are you with the Pacifica? Mama says the Pacifica are gone, but Da says they'll come back once we got a new High Queen." A sudden thought struck him. "Are you the new High Queen?" Darine laughed. "No, sweetheart," she said gently. "I'm just a lady, like your mama." The boy hugged her. "Hero lady," he said into her neck. Darine smiled. She was exhausted, and ached in places she didn't think could ache, but in that moment it was all worth it. She dropped the boy with his mother at the old temple, received another hug from the boy and one from his mother, then took to the air and flew back toward the fray. An apprentice healer and a few medics were among the crowd, and they had begun to treat the injured. As she flew back toward the others, she directed any evacuees toward the old temple. With the fighting contained, most of those left in the area were able to get themselves to safety, freeing Darine to help Kel and Jena. All of the large fires were out, and the other young woman was simply preventing any more from starting. Darine flew up toward Kel, who circled the beast's head. "How can I help?" she asked. Kel shook his head. "I don't know," he grunted, swooping up and around the thing's snout. Darine held back so as not to become a target herself. The winged man went on. "We can't seem to find any weak spots to exploit," he grunted, flying over to her. "We really need-" his mouth closed and his eyes grew as he saw the dragon's maw gape open, a glow brightening the back of its throat. "Jena!" he shouted to the woman on the ground. Jena looked up, seeing Darine and Kel floating above her and the dragon ready to unleash another stream of fire. Kel would survive the blast, but his flying companion would be so much charred flesh. Jena reached out with her mind and commanded the flames climbing the dragon's gullet to remain where they were. And so the fiery breath grew hotter and hotter in the dragon's throat, until the great beast began to choke, extinguishing the flames and hacking up huge clouds of sulfurous smoke. While it was distracted and reeling, Kel flew in and landed a series of blows to its jaw. This staggered the beast back, but it lashed out with its tail, flinging Kel to the ground. He cut a long gouge in the roadway where he hit. Without hesitation, he threw himself back into the air, once again engaging the monster. Darine flew down to Jena, where she would ideally be out of the way. "That was a neat trick with the dragon's breath," she complimented the other woman. Jena blushed. "Thank you," she said. "I'm still new at this, and wasn't sure that would work." Darine smiled and nodded. "I've done a few things today I wasn't sure would work." Jena smiled back. "It's... Darine, isn't it?" She held out her hand. "Yes," Darine said back, shaking it. "Darine Kanto. And you're Jena, yes?" The other woman nodded. "Jena Cebon," she said. She seemed about to say something else when her eyes clouded over and she looked off into empty air. "What is it, Davin?" she asked seemingly no one. She paused as though being answered, then said, "Yes, of course I can set up a gate here, but you want it how high off the ground? And terminating where?" Another pause. "Why would I- okay." She seemed to be arguing with someone. "Yes. Yes, okay." She came back to herself with a sour expression. "Telepaths," she spat. To Darine, she said, "Stand back. Here's something else I'm not sure will work." She pointed her Totem at the sky, and a ring of fire formed where she pointed. Looking through it, Darine saw a completely different location, though she thought it looked familiar.
***
Kel was getting pounded. He'd get a few hits in, then the dragon would smack him into a row of buildings. He'd get up, and hit the thing a few more times before getting swatted away again. It was a losing battle, and he was on the losing side. The dragon was nowhere near as strong as the golem, but it was still strong enough to do some damage to Kel if it tried hard enough. He dodged the thing's tail and saw that it was sufficiently recovered from Jena's earlier attack to generate more flame. Kel steeled himself for the onslaught when he heard the distinctive crack of a gun from behind him, twice. The dragon's head reared as though struck hard, and it stumbled, blood spilling as its head snapped back. "YeeeeeHAAH!" Kel looked up and behind him in time to see Mandhe leaping out of a fiery hole in the sky, twin revolvers blasting away. Each shot was dead on target, sending bullets made of Spark directly into the creature's eyes. As it fell back into an evacuated neighborhood, Mandhe fell past Kel, smiling as she did. "Are you going to catch me, or what?" she asked, still falling. Kel stared after her a moment, astounded. Then, with a chuckle and a shake of his head, he dove after his old friend, catching her just in the nick of time.
Unfinished Business
Kel hefted a huge beam into place, wings beating furiously to keep him aloft. The beam wasn't necessarily heavy, but it was very unwieldy, and he had to hold it still so the workers from Dagnae Industries could finish welding it to the others. Suddenly, he felt the beam stabilize. He looked back over his shoulder and Darine Kanto winked at him. She held the end of the beam steady until the workers on the ground shouted the all-clear and indicated the framework was done. Kel and Darine chatted as they flew back to where the building supplies were gathered. "You're looking well," Kel remarked, nodding toward Darine's new eye and straightened a
rm. "Though I'm curious as to why you kept the scars." Darine had just returned from the Valley of Mystery, where she'd been one of many healed by Kai Moxen. Darine grit her teeth a moment, then forced a smile. "I wanted to keep the missing eye, to be honest," she said. "I thought it would give me a more mysterious and dangerous allure. But it turns out depth perception is rather essential when flying, especially at the speeds I can reach." "But why keep any of your injuries?" Kel asked, confused. "I know you had nothing beyond Kai's new abilities, even without using the Chalice." "Call it a cautionary example," Darine replied, her smile self- deprecating. "A reminder of what happens when I don't use these powers of mine responsibly." Kel opened his mouth to argue the point, then shut it again just as quickly. Changing the subject, he said, "By the way, how did you manage to secure that beam? That was solid iron and must have weighed tons. Even my arms are a little sore after lifting it." That wasn't really true, but it made his point. Darine shrugged, which was an odd maneuver in mid-air. "I don't know," she said. "Like the rest of you, my Totem told me things about my power and what it makes me, but it isn't so great on the fine details. I'm really learning as I go." Kel gave her what he hoped was a comforting smile. "As are we all." They landed by the huge pile of iron beams, wooden supports and large stones. "I really do need to thank Mayor Dagnae," she admitted. Looking around, she shook her head. "If I hadn't been here..." Kel laid a hand on her shoulder. "You were." Darine nodded again, then stepped over to one of the stones. She knelt down and made as though to lift it. She strained until it seemed her muscles would tear from her flesh and stopped, panting. "Nothing," she said. Then she hovered a few feet off the ground. "I noticed, however," she told Kel, "when I was flying about rescuing people, that a number of them were far heavier than anything I could even lift, let alone carry, yet I carried them to safety with relative ease. When I had time to think about it," she rose higher, talking as she climbed slowly through the air, "I thought about it in relation to some of the other abilities I have only while flying. My eyesight improves to a ridiculous degree, and I can almost sense the varied displacements of air around me. My theory is," she swooped up and over, flying down toward the stone she'd failed to budge. On her upswing, she lifted it with ease, taking it into the air with her, "that when I try to carry something while flying, I'm somehow imparting my own ability to defy gravity to whatever I'm touching. Without gravity's pull," she explained, "nothing really weighs anything. Here." She tossed the stone to Kel before grabbing another. It caught him by surprise and he collapsed to the ground beneath it. Kel stood, stone held in one hand, and smirked. "Very funny," he muttered. He prepared to take to the air and get back to work, but a quick thought from Davin back in the Valley brought him up short. Kel! Stop what you're doing and gather the others. There's trouble. "But this town is still in need of--" The builders Mar sent will finish the work you started. Grab Darine and meet Jena at the portal. You're needed elsewhere.
***
Sa'raa, Queen of the Cat People, planted her clawed feet and held back several members of the Order from her wounded subjects using little more than a spear and the strength of her will. She was tired and bled freely from many wounds. She would not die, an old curse saw to that, but the injuries sapped her strength and stamina. Most of her army had fallen, and those left were in very poor shape. Their assault on the Order's stronghold was a disaster. She hadn't anticipated so many of them, or that they would fight so hard for their twisted cause. A rifle blast sent her sprawling and she howled in pain. She grit her teeth as she felt her flesh close over the shrapnel. Her surgeons would have to cut her open again later to pull all of it out, an experience she was not looking forward to. A woman strode forward through the crowd of her followers. Her face was gaunt and pale, her hair a tangled rat's nest and her eyes wide with madness. "Fanna Otaku," Sa'raa growled. Fanna's laughter was a loud cackle braying at the edge of hysteria. "That is me, that is my name," she sing-songed. "You've lost, silly cat girl. Lost, lost, lost allll the throwing stones." She smiled brightly. "They say you can't die at all," she said, "so I'm really very curious what will happen to me when I eat your heart." She turned to the men flanking her. "Boys, be a couple of darlings and cut it out of her chest, would you?" Sa'raa swallowed hard. This was certainly going to test the limits of Umbra's curse. The two men stepped forward to do their mad mistress' bidding, but were reduced to ash before getting very far. Fanna and Sa'raa both looked up, one with relief, the other in puzzled fury. Above them both, Kel Vega and Darine Kanto floated, Kel's wings stirring small gusts of wind. Jena and Mandhe stood beneath them, Mandhe with both guns trained on Fanna and Jena completely aflame. Kel glared down at Fanna. "I should have known you couldn't just stay dead," he growled. "Though I see the trip back from death left you even more unhinged than before." "You've changed as well, my love," Fanna cooed up at him. "The wings are delightful. I knew I chose well when I selected you to father my godlings." Darine raised an eyebrow, whispering to Kel, "Now there's a story that needs telling." "Later," Kel grunted. He raised his voice so it carried across the bloody clearing, to all the members of the Order still locked in battle with the dwindling forces of the Cat People. "Hear me, all of you!" he shouted. "You sought to use me to create a new race of gods! What you see before you is proof that your efforts were in vain, for gods do stride across Amorlia once again!" his hand swept out to indicate himself and his companions. "This world is under our protection!" his eyes narrowed as he stared hard at Fanna Otaku, scowling. "And your kind are no longer welcome here."
***
At the sight of Kel's group of superhumans, most members of the Order surrendered. To the last of them, they showed great fear, both of Kel's band and their mad leader. "She was normal once," one of her lieutenants said to Kel as the Cat People began rounding up the Order. Fanna struggled with the strength of a madwoman, but was easily subdued by Sa'raa and two others. Her subordinate looked on sadly, then turned back to Kel. "There was a time," he said wistfully, "it seems so long ago now to think on it, that she wanted the Order to be a force for good in the world. She wanted us to be heroes." Kel nodded, not without sympathy. "I remember," he said. "The first couple of times I met you, I had the feeling your hearts were in the right place. No offense meant, but at the time I just found you annoying and incompetent, rather than dangerous." The officer laughed ruefully. "Aye, for the days when our worst offense was incompetence." He sighed. "But then she died that first time and came back... changed. There was a new fervor to the mission. Where once it was almost a lark, now things were deadly serious." He shook his head. "With each resurrection, it got worse. Fervor became zealotry became obsession turned to madness. That whole business with you and a race of gods..." He hung his head. "It never should have..." he choked back tears and Kel laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Aye," he said. "I'm no stranger to regret myself." The lieutenant just nodded. Looking up at the winged Champion, he asked, "What is to become of us?" "Well," Kel began, "there are numerous factors to-" BLAM! All heads turned to see Mandhe standing over the dead body of Fanna Otaku, one of her pistols smoking. "Mandhe!" Kel cried, "What in the Broken Hells are you doing?!" "Testing a theory," the young Gunfighter replied calmly, her gun still trained on the dead woman. Fanna stirred, the bullet wound closing. She climbed to hands and knees, glaring up at Kel. "I'll see you flayed alive for this, Champion!" she spat. "I'll pull genetic material from your corpse to make my-" BLAM! She fell to the ground, dead. "Mandhe!" Kel cried out again. "Relax," she said with a wave of her hand. "I know what I'm doing." Sa'raa approached, a look of interest on her feline features. "Not that I object, necessarily," she said, "but what are you doing, exactly?" Fanna stirred once more, immediately shouting threats and profanity at Kel. She was much less lucid, however, with no mention of any overreaching plan. Mandhe shot her again and she died. Turning to the Queen of the Cat People, Mandhe explained, "Given that each resurrection further deteriorates Fanna's sanity and mental faculties, I theorized that if I killed her enoug
h times, eventually she'd come back an idiot." She shrugged. "Since there's no way to kill her permanently, this seemed the best way of dealing with her." Sa'raa nodded her approval and continued to observe. Fanna stirred and began to scream at Kel, though it was by now unintelligible, and Mandhe shot her again. "Mandhe," Kel's voice was scolding, "this seems awfully cold, even for her." "It's a cold world, Kel," Mandhe replied, still watching Fanna, "and it's better off without her in it." This went on for a while, but finally there came a time when Fanna returned to life and clearly did not recognize anyone, nor her surroundings. It was clear she'd also lost most of her grip on anything resembling thought. She twitched a little, her hands fluttering as though she'd forgotten their function. She looked up at the people around her through glassy, wild eyes. "Nuuuuuu," she said, grunting. "Bnnnn. Nuh! Nuh!" Mandhe turned to Sa'raa, gesturing at Fanna. "She's all yours," she said. Sa'raa bowed slightly, indicating one of her men should carry the clearly incapacitated woman. "Sa'raa," Kel said, "wait. You can't just-" "Can and will, Kel Vega," Sa'raa cut him off. "This woman caused the deaths of untold numbers of my people," she growled, "my own flesh and blood. That makes her mine to do with as I please." Kel stepped back, nodding. "As you will," he said. With another bow, the Queen led her Cat People out of the clearing and they quickly vanished into the forest. Kel stood watching them go, his face pensive. Jena approached. "Kel," she said, "I've created a portal to Vega. The Pacifica have said they would take custody of what's left of the Order." Kel nodded, still staring into the woods. "What should we do with their headquarters?" she asked hesitantly. Kel turned to look at the Order's stronghold, his thoughts turning to his own time within its walls, and the many sins he committed there. Gritting his teeth he turned away. "Burn it," he growled. "Burn it down to the bare rock if you can without destroying the forest." Jena nodded, fearful of the look in the Champion's eyes. "What then?" she asked. "Bring everyone back to the valley," Kel said wearily. "We all need to talk." Then he took to the sky, leaving the others to carry out his orders.
Amorlia: Age of Wonder Page 18
