Skyler Grant Anthology

by Skyler Grant

  "Do I get to make-out with them too?" I asked.

  "Only if I get to watch," Columbia said, shooting me a reassuring smile. "Inanna, Anat, and myself along with you. All girl-power and three of you Goddesses. How is that for a team?"

  "They really do Roma proud, don't they? If two such powerhouses were willing to join in, I'd love to have them," I said.

  Columbia said, "Oh, this is good. It seems that Roma is already contracting Mars for the other team. They think the public would just love to see what he can do after the last Liberty party, and have given the go-ahead. Come on, people. This has to happen."

  "You'll be talking about this one for years to come," I said, throwing as much cheer as I could into my voice.

  "And we've met our funding. Persephone, you've got your mission. People, we'll be broadcasting that live in just a few minutes. It's going to blow your mind," Columbia said, then after a moment. "We're off."

  "Thank you," I said.

  "You should have married me. You really should have married me," Columbia said, settling back. "You know how I love what you do, but you're almost useless in there."

  I knew it, but I had a plan around it. It wasn't a particularly great plan, but it was something.

  "How good are those two?" I asked.

  "I'll match Inanna up against anyone alive. I don't care who they have, they won't have anyone better. Anat is a great fighter period, but particularly against other divinities she has some specialized skills. I thought they'd be bringing Mars, she is directly a counter for him, and if they have any others all the better," Columbia said.

  Good. If that fight were as one-sided as Columbia seemed to think it would be, then it might be three on three even if I were considered out of the picture.

  "We've done what we can then," I said.

  "And we're good to go," Columbia said.

  I hoped my team would be okay in the real world for awhile longer.

  117

  I phased in along with Columbia and when we materialized Anat and Inanna were there waiting for us. We looked to have arrived in some sort of village with a towering dark castle looming above it on a hill. It was night with a full moon overhead.

  A few villagers ran at the sight of us, although one young woman remained staring at Inanna. "You're her, aren't you? Inanna? Has Pharosa come to save us all?"

  Inanna looked a bit taken aback by this. "I haven't been with Pharosa for some time. I'm with Roma now. You're a fan?"

  The woman started sobbing. "You're her. We're saved. It's you."

  "What exactly is going on here?" Inanna asked, with a long look to me and Columbia.

  "They're boxed. They're all boxed, they can't leave here," I said.

  A young man stepped out from a doorway and rested a hand on the woman's shoulder. "It's not so bad in the daylight. We're just a village like any other. But every night the monsters come and they do such terrible things."

  The man screamed and his body spasmed as blood began to pour from every orifice. It looked like he was undergoing some kind of seizure, dying in slow motion before our eyes. The woman screamed, but only for a moment before her body straightened, her posture completely changing. A snap of her fingers and the man gasped his last.

  "Oh, don't go giving away all our secrets," the girl purred. "So glad you could join us."

  "Elizabeth, it's been a long time," Inanna said, considering the girl. "Where are you?"

  "Somewhere you'll never get to. I've got a whole village of puppets and I'm so much better than our last match.

  Columbia raised a pistol and shot the girl between the eyes. The corpse slumped to the ground. She asked, "Who are we dealing with? I don't know her."

  "Elizabeth Bathory. Sorceress and practitioner of dark magic," Inanna said, as she drew her blade and chopped the corpse into pieces severing each of the limbs. "She can control the living and raise the dead. We've no allies here apart from each other."

  "Not even that," Mars said, strolling in accompanied by a stately dark-haired man. "Roma always picks the winning team and that isn't you. Inanna, Anat, you are both survivors. Why don't you survive again?"

  "Scared?" Anat asked as she eyed the Roman god of war.

  "Vlad," Inanna said. "They've brought out a full set of horrors, haven't they? Who else have you got with you? I can't think Victor would join you in this madness."

  "Unfortunately not," Vlad said with a thin smile. "Vseslav is guarding our prize."

  I was not getting a lot of these names.

  Inanna nodded and said, "Vlad here is more commonly known as Dracula. Superb strength and speed, and as immortal as you are, Persephone. Although it takes him longer to return. Vseslav is another sorcerer and a Werewolf as well."

  "I only know Mars," Columbia said. "I should know everybody."

  "Most corporations choose to keep their sponsored heroes in the public eye, but some forces prefer to work in the shadows. I had no idea these ones were connected. You dare to show a lot of your hand," Inanna said.

  "It is a winning one," Vlad said. "Let's do this."

  Anat didn't need to wait for an invitation, in a blur she was moving on Mars. With a pair of daggers she didn't have the range of the massive sword he drew and yet she was undeniably more limber.

  Inanna charged Vlad, who turned into mist and soared past her to rematerialize behind me. I felt fangs bury themselves in my neck and the world went blurry. For an instant I wanted this man. I wanted him more than I'd ever wanted any man before. I ached for him, yearned for his touch and thrilled at the honor of being his dinner.

  Then Inanna was bodily throwing him off me to send him crashing through the wall of a building.

  "Don't let him do that," Inanna said.

  No kidding. I still wanted those feelings a touch, although they quickly faded and I simply felt weakened. The village was descending upon us. Columbia worked to keep them at bay, one shot after another putting the villagers down—although soon afterwards the corpses shambled up o their feet and back to life.

  "Get the limbs," Inanna said, before a massive bat flew out of the building where she'd thrown Dracula, grasping the Goddess and carrying her high into the sky.

  "Got it," Columbia said, and she began to blow the limbs off the villagers one at a time. We were killing the very people we'd come to rescue. If I was hoping to make some kind of point here, it was gone now.

  Whatever horrors I'd hoped to reveal to the public wasn't going to happen and that meant that it was time for my backup plan. This one was way riskier.

  I moved up to Columbia. "Can you hold them?"

  Anat was still trading blows with Mars. Unlike at the party, he wasn't taken unaware this time. He was already bleeding from several wounds, but Anat too had a nasty cut across her thigh. The Goddess was winning, but the battle still might go either way.

  "We're great in a straight-up brawl, but they have some sneaky sorcerous bastards doing what they're good at," Columbia said, as she blew off another head.

  "I've got a plan. I think you'll hate it. I think Liberty will hate it," I said.

  Columbia gave me a look. "You aren't surrendering to that son of a bitch. I won't allow it."

  That wasn't going to be a problem. That wasn't my plan. It spoke well of her though that her immediate thought was I was going to attempt some heroic self-sacrifice.

  We were temporarily free of assault. I kissed her, I made it a good one. I owed the viewers and her that much. I didn't think I was likely to survive what came next.

  Columbia met the kiss for a long moment before she pulled away to glare at me, "Fuck it. You really are going to do something stupid."

  I was going to do something smart. It just didn't have great odds behind it.

  "Wish me luck?" I asked.

  "We'll hold," Columbia said. "Do what you've got to do."

  That was as good an answer as I was going to get.

  Inanna and Dracula crashed to the ground in a tangle of bodies. Inanna looked as if she
'd had half her faced gnawed off, but Vlad was in turn a mess with most of his intestines hanging out.

  "Wood through the heart," Inanna said with a pained groan.

  Well. I could do that much at least.

  "Bamboo," I said and focused my powers. From beneath Dracula sprouts erupted upwards impaling the vampire in a dozen places. I wasn't sure just where in that mass of insides his heart might be at the moment, but I figured that way I'd get at least a part of it. I must have. The body glowed a brilliant red and exploded into a shower of dust.

  Anat's severed head rolled past. "Bitch," Mars said, stomping forward. Anat hadn't gone down easy, but that fight hadn't gone like it was supposed to. "Who's next?"

  I couldn't get distracted here. I couldn't. I'd already wasted too much time.

  "Ismene, log me out," I thought and with a wrenching sensation the surroundings faded and I was back in the sewer. There was the sound of gunfire. I'd wandered from one battle into another.

  118

  Sparks was slumped against the Network junction, lit up by a portable light, it looked as if he'd been shot again. A hand was clutched over his abdomen and blood was seeping through his fingers. I sat up and blinked, my eyes needing to adjust to the lower light levels.

  "Don't suppose you fixed everything?" Sparks said.

  "Afraid not. I've got a plan, but you're going to need to get the others away from here," I said.

  "What about you?" Sparks asked.

  "I'm going to work on that fixing everything plan," I said.

  "Ismene, I need you," I thought.

  "Just what a girl loves to hear," Ismene said.

  "I need a few things. First, you've hinted before about some combat upgrades you made to me. We hadn't talked, but I think it is time," I said.

  "They aren't my invention or anything. They were designs from the last big war that only ever got a few trials. You've got glands that can fill your system with battle hormones, super oxygenate your blood, deaden pain receptors and cause your synapses to fire a lot faster than usual," Ismene said.

  All of that sounded pretty good to me.

  "Why didn't they become standardized?"

  "The body wasn't meant to be used that way. It's like any other machine, you can push it beyond its limits, but it burns out. Fast. Once triggered it gives some serious advantages for a time, but then the body starts to have some catastrophic breakdown. Without me and the changes I've made a fatal one. With me, you'll have some serious downtime," Ismene said.

  I could pay that price. With what I had planned, if I didn't take every advantage, I'd probably be dead anyways.

  "You know what I'm thinking. You know my plan," I thought.

  "I know it. With the nanotechnology flooding your body I can make it happen. Are you sure this is what you want?" Ismene asked.

  Of course I wasn't, but I didn't see any other way out of this and do what needed to be done.

  The Corporate Council had voted. If Alena Polias didn't die from falling to Earth, then she had suffered death by democratic decree. I was Persephone now. Maybe Columbia got to log off and still be Abigail, but I didn't have that luxury.

  "Do it," I thought.

  "You're live. Now and forever," Ismene said.

  I was. With the nanobots flooding my system everything a Network feed provided to watchers could be provided to my real body as well. Right now, those who tuned in were seeing through my eyes, smelling the stench that surrounded me, hearing the gunfire echoing from the nearby tunnel.

  "Thank you for joining me," I said quietly to that watching audience. "You might be wondering why I cut out from that fight. I don't know how much you really know me, but I'm a creature of two worlds. I'm the Goddess of Vegetation, but I'm also Queen of the Underworld and a Goddess of Death. Welcome to my other half."

  Sparks was looking at his datapad and then back to me. I didn't have time to answer his questions.

  "Juice me up," I thought to Ismene and stepped out into the main sewer junction.

  It almost knocked me off my feet. It was intoxicating, every sense suddenly heightened and the world moving so much slower than it had mere seconds before. I wondered what the viewers at home got from their feed. Did they see the world like this, or at a normal speed where my motions made little sense?

  Diva was slumped against a wall of the sewer, pink hair matted thick with blood. It looked like a bullet had grazed her scalp. It didn't keep her from holding a rifle. Masque was still prone in the muck looking through the scope of her sniper rifle. Hammer and Giles were ahead of them, both had engaged in melee with a mass of attackers.

  Four bodies lay at their feet, torn apart. Giles' armor showed heavy dents and even a rent or two. Hammer looked even worse, several holes in him, a few of which leaked blood and more of which oozed oil.

  A heavy armored figure was guiding a force of guards down the tunnel. I thumbed the Silversmith to maximum penetration and put a shot through his head and the body tumbled backward.

  "Please tell me we're getting out of here," Diva said.

  "You are. Take the Specters and run," I said.

  "Like hell," Diva said.

  "Diva. You're right. I got us into this mess. I picked a fight and you've bled for it. You've bled enough. Go. Live. I've already transferred payment for the job," I said.

  Diva stared at me, her lips pursed.

  I didn't have time to argue. The corpse of the heavily armored soldier had been pushed aside and his comrades were making their way through the sewer tunnel. Due to its width they couldn't fit more than three across. There were perhaps a dozen of them in this push.

  Unless they'd called in more reinforcements this was a lot of their forces they'd committed to wiping us out. But then, what else were they going to do.

  I sheathed the Silversmith and readied my spear. Then I was charging. In these close confines they didn't have to be amazing shots to stand a chance of hitting me. Even so, with my enhanced combat abilities I was aware of the movement of each barrel. I wasn't reliant simply upon my Olympian reflexes.

  I brought the haft of the spear down upon a rifle of a lead soldier before spinning the weapon and slashing across the throat of another. Then I was among them.

  They weren't prepared for a melee, and they definitely weren't prepared for me. I wove among them and where I moved they suffered. I cut off a hand here, a head there. A soldier in back tried to flee and I severed his legs at the knees.

  In what felt like mere breathless seconds, what had been a force come to kill my people was a pile of corpses adding their blood to the filth that surrounded us.

  "Milady," Giles said, in a tone that was part awe and part horrified. I didn't have time for this. Green was hopefully still in the Network, hopefully still distracted with what was going on there. Perhaps even the others were closing on him in that castle, or perhaps they were already dead.

  I was sure somebody would soon let him know that the rules had changed. I was hunting him here instead.

  I ran down the tunnel. At the far end a group of technicians were setting up a large hose that led through the hatch above. With my brain firing like it was, I figured out their intent quickly. Acid, they must have a large supply of it on site. If their latest push failed to take my comrades, they intended to pump it into the waters of the sewer.

  I set upon them. There were no innocents standing against me this day, every one I fought was complicit in the creation or maintenance of this factory of horrors. A part of me nagged that I wasn't this extreme, that this wasn't me, but that it was the combat drugs coursing through my system. It didn't matter if it were, it was righteous that they perish and they did.

  When the last of the technicians was sprawled dead against the wall I leapt through the hatch. There were more there, arranging several large tubes filled with yellowish fluid. The acid, I assumed. I killed them with quick thrusts of the spear and pulled the tube from the tunnel before closing the hatch.

  That should keep my people safe
for the moment, I knew Diva would waste no time in getting them away. I'd failed them leading them here, but at least they would survive it. It was more than could be said for so many of those brave Knights of Camelot.

  I turned my attention to the tubes. I let my gaze play upon the bodies floating inside.

  "These are the people behind the villagers you saw us fighting. The boxed, professional victims with no choice what happens to them and no escape from what horrors that are inflicted upon them," I said to the audience at home. "When they die or cease to be entertaining the tubes are flooded with acid and they are flushed out with the trash."

  I looked upon the bodies of the technicians I'd just killed, sprawled in the spreading pools of their own blood.

  "This is the fate of those that assist them. I'm not done yet," I said.

  Ismene had found Green earlier, and he hadn't moved. Right now, he was behind his own private army.

  119

  I could only hope that the images I was sending might inspire the population to share some of my fury about what was going on. If not, that they might at least give some fear to those who helped bring such things about.

  "You need to hurry things up. Your systems are deteriorating faster than I expected," Ismene said.

  I wasn't worried. I was fearless. It was liberating, this rush of power. That cold knot of ice that had dwelled within me for so long felt so far away now. I was above the hatred and the terror and the grief that had caused it. Elevated above such puny mortal concerns.

  As I stepped into the hallway filled with barricades I saw oh so many rifles pointed at me. There truly was no trace of fear.

  It was right about then that the floor exploded beneath my feet. Some kind of planted charge, it threw my body upwards and I slammed my head hard against the ceiling, then dropped back down. The world was a blur of sights and sounds. I didn't hurt, not exactly. I was aware that my body was hurt, but that was an almost distant and unimportant thing.

  Then a rifle butt came down on my nose and shattered it. Blows were hammering down and I seemed to be surrounded on all sides. They were hitting and they were kicking. My armor did a good job at shielding me from the blows, but there was only so much it could do.