by Reiter
“I got an idea!” Ephaliun shouted as he pushed his body for more speed. He called for his goggles and activated his bodysuit.
“This doesn’t work, there isn’t a regen in existence that can put me together,” he thought as he continued running. “Yeah, that means it’s worth trying!” He was slightly relieved to see the wand delayed by the window and he readied the gravity setting of his piton and cable. He hurdled up and planted on foot on the frame of the shattered window. He jumped up and out, targeting the battle wand. Throwing his left hand forward, Ephaliun smiled as his crosshair marker flashed and stayed green as the piton fired from the side of his forearm. The anchor smacked against the side of the wand, but the young man’s body did not swing toward the ground, as the wand was increasing in its flight speed. The sudden addition of bodyweight made the wand lower its altitude almost five meters, temporarily, and it continued to fly… and therefore so did Ephaliun.
“Follow meeeeeee!” he shouted as he streaked over the rooftops.
“I’ll be damned… he made it,” Rahneece thought as she watched the wand and Ephaliun streak out of sight. “Still, that cable thing’s going to be faster than the lift or the stairs.”
“Load swing program,” Rahneece commanded and her goggles formed over her eyes. “Yeah, that never gets old,” she remarked as she looked on the three dimensional mapping of the city. “I need the most easily procured fast transportation.” A park-lot was highlighted on her view and the message: scanning for accessibility, scrolled across her view. One vehicle flashed red, an air-car, and it was followed by the message: target located, drive systems activated, alarm system deactivated. Rahneece took a deep breath as she opened one of the pockets of her weapons belt. The moment she produced the piton gun, she could feel the belt tighten about her waist and the body armour felt a little more snug. She blew out hard as she jumped out of the window, aiming the piton gun. She fired when her marking cursor turned green. The handle of the gun released four small arms; three locked around her right hand while the fourth protruded from the side of the gun for her left hand to grab.
“This is crazy!” Rahneece screamed as she threw her legs forward, as she had practiced in the simulators. Her speed of descent fed into the speed of her swing as she angled around a building.
The anchor released as she cleared the wall of the park-lot. Rahneece landed on her feet and rolled to a stop two meters from the air-car. She got up and the dome over the passenger section opened. Rahneece jumped up over the door and landed in the seat. She threw the throttle all the way forward as she piloted the air-car. She was relieved to see the vehicle could move, but she did not allow herself to relax too much. She was rushing toward a scene to where Teela had either forgotten about the cardinal rule about the brace-coms, or she had remembered it and was calling for help. Things were about to be either very embarrassing for her or threatening to everyone.
** b *** t *** o *** r **
“Whatsamattah, Doc?” Skorunn inquired, rubbing his face. It was clear to see that Teela’s actions had agitated him and he was more eager to hurt someone. “You couldn’t un-ass your feet and give your fellow crewman a helping hand? That’s must be some ship you’re on!” Jovasor shook with anger and fear as he glared at the man who was slowly walking toward him. “That’s it, get your courage up, Rich Boy! Come at me. Let me have it. Who knows, you might get lucky and land one.”
Jovasor yelled as he bolted forward, taking three steps before swinging his fist with all of his might. Skorunn chuckled as he side-stepped the blow, lifting his knee into Jovasor’s ribs. The doctor doubled over in unexpected pain, stumbling forward until he fell to his hands and knees.
“Those are the ribs,” Skorunn stated. “You probably have some eight-syllable word for them. But it don’t matter… pain is all you need to understand right now! And I’m just getting started.
“And get your hands off!” Skorunn shouted, seeing one of his men appreciating the hindquarters of his next conquest a little too much.
“Aww come on, Skorunn,” the man argued in protest.
“You can have her when I’m done,” Skorunn declared, staring intently at the man who knew what it meant to receive the glare and quickly stepped back, lowering his eyes to the ground. “That’s right.” Skorunn turned around in time to receive an uppercut from Jovasor that made him stumble back, but he did not fall.
“Actually, that was a left,” Jovasor panted. “This is a right!” Jovasor stepped forward, setting himself to punch down on Skorunn’s jaw. A quickly sent side-kick stamped against the young doctor’s knee and he grabbed his wounded leg, staggering back a couple of steps.
“Nah, that was a wannabe right,” Skorunn hissed. “This is a right!” A punishing right hook hammered into the side of Jovasor’s face and sent him reeling to the ground. “You see, that’s the kind of right that makes you say, ‘all right’! You know, unless you’re the one receiving it.” Skorunn grabbed Jovasor and lifted him up to his feet. He ducked a haymaker meant for his face and landed another powerful hook to the same place he had placed his knee lift. Jovasor cried out in pain as his body tried to fold around Skorunn’s hand.
“Where’s your crew, Doc?” Skorunn teased as he looked around. He stopped and kicked hard at Jovasor’s feet, knocking them out from under him. The young doctor fell hard to the ground and rolled over on his side in pain. Skorunn stomped down twice on Jovasor, asking over and over, “Where?” but never received an answer.
“Maybe they’ll all gather at the wake,” Skorunn hissed.
“NO!” Teela cried out. Her voice no longer sounded like a damsel in distress; it was a potent sound that shook the stone of the area and the bones of those who stood within its range. Teela came away from the bench, clad in black body armour that looked more like a second skin that had assembled about her body. She threw her arms back and the ones who had been holding her down flew over Skorunn and Jovasor, screaming as they tumbled through the air. They crashed to the ground and rolled to a moaning stop.
“Let me feel your skin, baby!” Teela whispered as the grabbed the chest of the man who had been groping her. “Ohh, it feels so soft!” she said through gritted teeth, punctuating her statement by lifting the man up and driving his back into the walkway. She stood up and swung the battle wand in an arc, releasing five MannA Bolts, each taking what appeared to be an erratic path to its target, but each struck true to the chest of her five targets. Each body burst in green and gold flames as MannA attacked their bodies. Teela stumbled forward as she was shot in the back. It was a projectile rifle that had fired the shot. Teela turned and the three large crystals on her left shoulder fired Force Energy beams, imprisoning the man in a cube that slowly contracted around its captive. He screamed as he fought against the walls of the construct, but his objection did nothing to slow the process.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Skorunn yelled and Teela turned around, ready to thrash the young man. She stopped and gasped at the sight of Skorunn holding a blade to Jovasor’s neck. Blood was already beginning to run down the steel. “You can just hold it right there, bitch!” Teela looked around, but she could find nothing that would resolve her dilemma. “Now you drop that stick or lover-man gets his throat ripped! Now… I’m counting down from five.”
“I hate countdowns,” a synthesized voice called out. Both Teela and Skorunn turned to the source of the voice, seeing only the tall trees around the edge of the park. Teela only needed to turn her head, but Skorunn had to turn his body. “Bingo!” A laser beam shot out from the treetops, striking Skorunn in the right forearm, removing everything from that point to his fingertips from the rest of his body. He screamed, watching his hand drop to the ground.
“Get to Jovasor and get low!” Ephaliun commanded, dropping from the tree. The hard landing forced his stealth field to fail. He rolled and came up firing at the two men closest to the downed doctor. As soon as Teela bolted into her run, Ephaliun ran toward the tree, fading from sight, running around it once he
was invisible.
“They’re like cockroaches when you turn on the lights,” Ephaliun thought as he tried to get a line on his next target. He thought it better to get away from the trees and closer to his fellow crewmen. He ran as fast as his suit would enable. Gunfire tore into the small grouping of trees that had served as his landing pad and Ephaliun ran to the couple, readying his satchel catch-net.
“Hold your breath!” he commanded as he threw the field over their bodies. He scored some of the walk way and the contact cancelled his stealth field.
“There he is!” one of the men yelled. Ephaliun turned, dropped two smoke bombs and fired his pistol, scoring the shoulder of the crier.
“Damn snitch,” Ephaliun muttered as smoke rose up to his chest. He dropped to one knee and re-engaged the stealth field.
“Damn, I really need to stop watching the Captain’s video logs,” Ephaliun thought. A bullet whizzed by his body and another ricocheted on the ground nearly a meter in front of him. Ephaliun jumped back and then quickly to his right. He was surprised to find that the smoke did not give any sign of his movement, but chose not to take time to question the matter. Tossing a grenade to his three o’clock, he ran toward eleven o’clock. Jumping over one man, he could hear another howling. Landing outside the ring of people, he could hear responses to the call… in all directions.
“What the hell!” he thought as he took to running again. Knowing the general area, he took the path that would lead to the area that had served as the battleground when his captain had squared off against Falco Sylgarr. He did not plan on running the entire distance, he just needed to reach the arrangement of shops that would serve as a level of cover for him. He was surprised with the speed that he covered the distance, and quickly opened his holding bag as soon as he reached an alley. Jovasor gasped for air as he rolled out and Teela slid to a stop on one foot and one knee. She did not look pressed for oxygen in the least and stood up to look at Ephaliun as his face mask retracted into goggles.
“We can get to explanations later,” the young man said. “How bad is Cole?”
“Damn me for a fool!” Teela cursed as she looked around. She had not been away from Black Gate that long. How could she have overlooked the feeling of when the tide was coming in? “How could I have forgotten about this?!
“He took a couple of hard blows,” she explained. “I don’t think he’s critical.” A gunshot ricocheted off the black armour and into Jovasor’s leg. The body armour held, but the impact made him cry out in pain. Both Ephaliun and Teela fired on the sniper, but he had returned to cover before the laser blast or the MannA Bolt could get to him.
“I got them over here! Southeast Annex!” the sniper called out.
“This is a damn nightmare!” Ephaliun said as he pressed his back to the wall.
“No, this is a Bowel Tide,” Teela explained.
“A what?!” Ephaliun asked, taking out another flash-bang grenade.
“A Bowel Tide. When the Bowels invade the lower city sectors.
“And this is your first time dealing with one?!”
“The campus is on the other side of the station, and it has security!” Teela stated. “We’re on the wrong side of the city at the wrong time.”
“Must have been some date,” Ephaliun said as he threw the grenade up to the sniper’s position. He readied his goggles, flexing his hand around the pistol grip.
“Actually, it wasn’t.”
“Ouch. Oh well. Don’t look up.” The light burst was incredibly bright and the sniper stood up from his position, putting his hands to his eyes. Ephaliun took assisted aim and fired, scoring a head shot. “Just like in the simulator! But that only takes care of the sniper. We need to get mobile, and I mean fast!” A horn sounded outside the alley as an air-car landed on the street. Rahneece peered up over the window and waved.
“Hey, you need a lift?”
“Okay, at this exact moment you are one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen,” Ephaliun said as he looked around for more snipers.
“Not half as sexy as seeing you go flying across the skyline,” Rahneece thought.
“Truce?” he asked.
“No,” Rahneece smiled. “I was out of line.”
“We will have to agree to disagree then,” Ephaliun replied, returning the smile. “Teela, get Jovasor and let’s go!”
“Whoa,” Rahneece thought, slightly reviled by what she had heard. “Did he just tell the girl to–” Teela used only one arm to lift Jovasor from the alley floor and she ran quickly, obviously unimpeded by the additional bodyweight. “Never mind!”
They could all hear howling as Teela closed the door with both her and Jovasor in the back seat. Ephaliun rode shotgun and only started to relax when he could no longer hear the howling.
“Don’t breathe too easy just yet,” Rahneece said as she looked at her brace-com. “Look at what just came across the channel!”
** b *** t *** o *** r **
Dungias moved as quickly as he could, opting to maintain his power reserves, placing the load of transit on his body. His strides were smooth, powerful, not at the maximum speed he knew he could attain. He allowed most of his muscles to relax, keeping his senses sharp given the current level of activity in the lower sections of Black Gate. People were moving about on all tiers and the Traveler could feel their emotions swelling, building toward a rage.
“CK, what is the likelihood I am observing the beginnings of a Bowel Tide?” he asked.
“With all of the sightings of Bowel citizens on the upper levels, and the formation of entrenched security forces at the sector gates, I’d say we can confirm one is happening.”
“The hotel where the others are, is it in a protected area?”
“The hotel is, yes.”
“CK!” Dungias hissed.
“The situation is well in hand, Master,” CK insisted. “… I am keeping a good watch over all of them. They’re not exactly helpless, Master. You need to concern yourself with your destination and how you’re going to liberate your targets, given the security of the complex where they are being held.”
“We shall see if their idea of security is a means to absorb and repel a frontal attack,” Dungias whispered. “That is the tendency here, and Brattle does not seem to be the sort to change things.” Gunfire drew some of Dungias’ attention as he jumped from a rooftop to a support beam. The angle of the beam allowed him to slide down its length to the outside wall of this level of Black Gate. Dungias jumped before reaching the wall, flipping so that his feet landed against it allowing him to press off from the wall, bounding for another building.
Using his cloak and Alpha, he rode the air currents all the way to the apartment building where he phased through the walls and floors until he came to a type of storage room. Without an exact location of what he was looking for, Dungias thought the room was as good a place to start as any. He had to be mindful of sounds and the flow of the Energies, specifically electricity. The people he now sought would not be in an area of low current.
“But they just might be there,” Dungias thought as he looked through his goggles to find an area that practically glowed with electrical current. In the middle of the activity were three small bodies surrounded by five large forms, though only one was larger than the Traveler.
Checking his power reserves, Dungias opted to use the door out of the storage room. He encountered a roving guard and the Traveler’s hand was faster than the human’s ability to speak. Striking the man’s throat to keep him from screaming, Dungias touched the man and an electrical current passed from Alpha to the man’s spinal column rendering him unconscious. Dungias was one flight up the stairway before the man fell to the floor.
Opening the door to the apartment, Dungias could see the largest of the five guards who looked up and was quite surprised to see someone he did not recognize. “And just who are you?!” the large man barked as he looked Dungias up and down.
“Someone who is not looking for needless aggressio
n,” Dungias replied. “You are currently in possession of three souls. If they tell me they wish to remain with you, we will not have an issue. But if they ask for freedom, I intend to give it to them.”
“They got shooters in the walls!” a young female voice screamed a warning and Dungias smiled. The Traveler had a dedicated affinity for children, and he did not mind demonstrating emotion to the guard. There was every indication the man was not capable of the sort of awareness to come to the healthiest of conclusions.
“Take him!” the man commanded in a strained whisper.
Alpha had already erected a gravity field around its creator, and Dungias put his hands against the field as slots to Dungias’ left and right opened revealing ready gunmen with their assault rifles trained on him. They fired at him without mercy and had spent nearly half of their fifty-shot magazines when they noticed that their projectiles were not reaching the intended target.
The gravity field allowed Dungias to extend his energy-absorption ability and rob each projectile of its kinetic force. Round after round dropped to the floor, to the amazement of those doing the shooting and the one who had called upon them to fire their weapons. The large man looked at the floor and saw the bullets. Clenching his fists, he looked up into a pair of unwavering gold eyes.
“Allow me to guess,” Dungias said softly as he drew Alpha from its sleeve. “You intend to do what the bullets could not.” The man lunged forward and choked as Alpha was thrust into his neck. He gasped, grabbing at his throat when the rod was thrust into his chest, delivering a bolt of electricity. “I am coming girls!” Dungias announced. He heard three cheering voices as he walked further into the apartment. “The rest of you may wish to strike or shoot yourselves while coming up with a suitable and agreed-upon story as to why the triplets no longer belong to Brattle. Good evening, gentlemen.”
Dungias opened the door to shouted warnings. Gravity pulses struck the catches and triggers that needed to be kept in place to keep the traps from going off. He looked into the room and tried not to let his anger register. The accommodations were deplorable, save for the computer equipment. It was not state of the art, but it was probably the best Brattle could get his hands on, and it had been highly customized.
