by Logan Jacobs
“Aurora is incredibly strong willed,” I countered. “I’ve given her some of my essence before. We should be fine.”
“Marc,” Nova said calmly, “she’s never been this low before. We can’t risk it.”
“We can’t let her die either, goddamn it!” I shouted. My voice boomed loud and angry in the small confines of the truck. Frustration and fear had gotten the best of me. “I’m sorry. There has to be something we can do.”
“I’ve got it,” Tempest said and before any of us could argue, she closed her eyes in concentration, and her body blurred as if every cell in her body vibrated with atomic frenzy, then a Tempest Clone seemed to shimmy out of her body to sit on her lap.
The Tempest Clone climbed over the center console, squeezed into the back seat, and laid down on top of Aurora. She gently tilted the space vampire’s face to hers and brought her lips to within centimeters of Aurora’s. Nothing happened at first, but then a thin wisp of blue life force flowed from the Tempest clone's mouth into Aurora’s.
It went on that way for about ten seconds and then Aurora’s eyes snapped open. They were brilliant, bright purple and filled with hunger. She reached up and wrapped her hands in the Tempest’s clones hair as the life force flowed in a thick stream like blue smoke. The clone didn’t struggle, even when it was clear that Aurora was draining it beyond the point of no return. Eventually, Aurora got control of herself, as if she was finally coming awake from a long, strange dream. She let go of the Tempest clone who slumped slowly into the floorboards.
“You owe me,” the clone whispered to Tempest Prime before it shimmered and disappear into nothing.
“Always,” Tempest whispered back so low that I think I was the only one who heard it. Then Tempest slumped in her seat and breathed heavy but otherwise seemed okay.
Aurora sat up in between Nova and PoLarr and looked around almost frantically. It took her a few seconds to get her bearings and realize where she was.
“I’m guessing I passed out, huh?” She asked as she pulled her silver hair back off her face and into a ponytail. “Did we get rid of those people eating bastards?”
“We had a little bar-b-que,” I grinned back at her. Relief washed through me like a hot shower after a rough day. “Invited the whole town.”
“Good,” she replied. Since her skin was like bleached alabaster, I couldn’t really say that her color had returned, but the tattoos glowed brighter, and her eyes shone with purple brilliance. Aurora was still tired, but far from the shadow of certain death she had been just a few minutes earlier. “This match sucks. There is not nearly enough to eat.”
“The next checkpoint is coming up,” PoLarr added. “I imagine we’ll all get to rest and recharge there.”
“Thanks for saving my butt back there, Nova,” Aurora said quietly to the auburn haired knight errant who looked more than a bit relieved.
“We would have certainly been cooked along with the rest of that vile village of vermin had it not been for you holding that shield for as long as you did,” Nova said.
“Holy alliteration there, Nova,” PoLarr quipped.
“I knew it was a big gamble going there in the first place,” I said as I shifted the truck into a higher gear. The fuel gauges were all pegged on full, and I was going to put the hammer down to try to make up the lost time. Plus, I really wanted to get to the next checkpoint as soon as possible. We’d been going balls to the wall for thirty-six hours straight and fatigue was starting to set in. “But we really had no choice. I certainly didn’t expect cannibals.”
“Cannibals are never expected,” Tempest said with a grin.
Everyone chuckled as a way to relieve the heightened tension we’d been subjected to, and then we settled into a comfortable silence as the Behemoth chewed up miles like Ms. Pac-Man ate tiny pixelated dots.
As the sun set off to our left, it streaked the purple sky with finger paint smears of orange, yellow, and green, we saw the neon sign of the next checkpoint loom on the horizon. A half hour later, I pulled the Behemoth into the last parking spot in small lot in front of the building that looked just like the last one we’d left from what seemed like a week ago. All the other spots were full, so it appeared that we were the last to make it.
My crew and I climbed wearily down from the cab of the truck and walked up to the entrance of the building.
Tyche appeared before us much as he had nearly forty-eight hours earlier, looking dapper, clean, and well pressed as always.
“Team Havak,” his clipped British accent was almost disappointed, “you are the last to arrive at the second checkpoint. While still in the race, you will start dead last tomorrow morning, long after all the other teams have left.”
“Sweet,” I said arrogantly, “we could all use the time to sleep in a little anyway.”
Without waiting for a reply I walked through his holographic form and into the roadhouse building. My team did the same. I didn’t even glance behind me to see his expression. I was more than a little done with the smug asshole.
“Champion Havak!” Brek-Taupe yelled excitedly as we walked in. “I am so happy to finally see you. We were starting to get worried. I saved you a table by the back. Take a load off and relax.”
I didn’t get to do either immediately because I found my arms full of Artemis’ warm, familiar body, and my lips pressed against her cherry flavored face. She kissed me long, hard, and deep before finally pulling away and punching me in the shoulder.
“I hate your face!” She yelled at me. “Did you not remember in the dossier I made for you that Everywhere was full of cannibals?”
“Nope,” I admitted. “I did not read it.”
“You are a yank visage, you know that?” She asked me full of pouty anger.
“But I’m a handsome yank visage,” I smiled and hugged her.
“I suppose,” she grinned at me, her anger, born of fear, finally melting. “Come on, I have some Blue Betty waiting for everyone, you guys all look like you need it, and we have a special guest.”
“Oh, really? Who?” I asked as we walked over to the only empty table in the place.
“Me,” a feline voice purred inches from my ear.
“Gah!” I yelled and nearly jumped out of my skin. I wheeled around and came face to face with a five-foot seven inch tall humanoid alien female cat, like Neko girl come to life. Her lithe, taut, shapely body was covered in a fine layer of tiger-striped tawny fur, and her hazel eyes grinned at me behind filament like whiskers. This was Fallon Otaku. She was the head of one of the underground gangs that ran everything outside the Champion’s District in Valiance City. We’d helped each other out a few months ago not long after I’d become a champion. I’d helped her get rid of a rat-bastard crime boss so that she could turn the gangs criminal endeavors toward more legitimate ventures to help out the struggling people of her neighborhood. She’d in turn become Team Havak’s benefactor. She was also a good friend and lover of mine. “Damnit, Fallon! Will you please stop doing that?”
“Never, Havak,” she purred with a huge smile on her face. “It’s just so much fun.”
I reached out and pulled her into a hug. It had been awhile since we’d seen each other. She stiffened at my public display of friendship, but I didn’t care. In true cat-like fashion she wiggled free of my grip but not before returning the hug in a brief little squeeze that let me know she did indeed feel the same.
“Stop that nonsense,” she said and straightened out the sexy desert gear she was wearing to fit in. “I’m a cat person for heaven’s sake. I decide where, when, and the duration of such affection.”
“Fair enough,” I smiled and continued on to our table where I practically collapsed into one of the wooden bar chairs. Everyone else did the same, and we all grabbed the big water bottles filled with the bright blue fluid that was Blue Betty. It was a mixture of amino acids, electrolytes and various alien painkillers that helped rejuvenate and take the edge off all at the same time. I ended up chugging half of the
big twenty four ounce bottle in one go, and a comfortable calm spread from my stomach the second the fluid was past my lips.
Pleasantries were exchanged between the team and Fallon when she sat down at our table.
“Fallon,” Tempest said and tipped her bottle of Blue Betty toward the sexy cat. “Good to see you. Am I still banned from your gambling parlors?”
“Good to see you too, Tempest,” Fallon replied. “And yes, indefinitely.”
“That’s fair,” Tempest nodded and chugged the rest of her drink.
“What are you doing here, Fallon?” Nova asked. She had always been wary of the criminal cat boss, even though they had a mutual admiration for one another.
“Thought I’d give you a little surprise,” she said secretively.
“Oh, I like surprises,” I bubbled a little too giddily. The Blue Betty tended to have that effect on me.
“Not until tomorrow morning before the next race begins,” she said. “It’s not quite ready yet, but I think you all will like it.”
“Sweet,” I said. I looked around the crowded roadhouse floor. “Hey, how the hell did all these teams find the fuel to beat us?”
“Well,” she started to say animatedly, “some of the teams attacked each other and siphoned off the loser’s fuel and a couple of others teamed up and wiped out a biker gang after ambushing them, then took their gas and supplies.”
“Oh,” I nodded, “so… we’re the only ones who tried to be reasonable with other people?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” she replied.
“Noted,” I said and indeed made a metal note. “From here on out everyone else can suck it. Do we know anything about the next leg of the race?”
“Yes,” Artemis chimed in. “And it’s going to be a floozie.”
“Huh?” I mumbled. I was very tired and a little buzzed from the Blue Betty so it took me a second to get what she was trying to say. “Doozie, Artie.”
“Yes, doozie,” she said in stride and continued on in full on Professor Artie mode. “Tomorrow you’ll be loaded down with a precious cargo of medical supplies bound for the Central Hospital in Cruxia’s city-state capital of Elysia. They are worth more than gas, gold, and guns combined, and you can bet your floor pesos that everyone in the wastes is going to be trying to get them. Thankfully we’re only sixty miles from Elysia.”
“Oh, well that should be a piece of cake,” I shrugged arrogantly.
“Slice of pie it will not be,” Artie countered. “There will be no less than three criminal gangs who want the supplies once you are in the confines of the city and rogue law enforcement officers as well.”
“My gift should help,” Fallon teased.
“You’re killing me here,” I groaned.
“It is just too much fun taunting you, Marc,” she purred.
“Oh, yeah,” I tried to counter, “I’ll taunt you and see how you like it.” Everyone just stared at me. “I’m very tired.”
“Too bad,” Fallon said, slightly disappointed.
“Cannibals are exhausting,” Tempest pointed out.
“Very true,” Fallon agreed. “We shall, how did you put it? Rain check.”
“Yup,” I said and polished off my bottle of Blue Betty.
The conversation lulled as everyone’s exhaustion kicked in. I took a moment to case the room. Being the last ones to arrive finally let me get a look at most of the other teams. They were all motley and bedraggled, which is how I imagined we looked as well. It was nice to know that the last leg of the race had been tough for everyone, not just us.
I could make out six distinct teams, all composed of various alien races of every shape, color, and number of appendages, and then there was the lone, clad all in black, figure of Vex as he sat at a table all by himself in the far back corner of the roadhouse with his back to the wall.
He sat deathly still with no motion other than the small slit of blue light that oscillated back and forth in his helmet. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as Vex turned his head slightly so that it seemed like he was staring into my soul. It was a cold, hateful stare that I could feel through the layers of his helmet.
“Yeah, he’s pissed at you in case you were wondering,” Tempest said as she leaned over and waved at her former alliance mate. Vex did not return the gesture.
“For what?” I asked.
“Causing our alliance to be split up,” she replied. “I mean, look, I was kinda happy about it because those guys were major assholes. But, Vex, behind that dark visage of eternal terror, is… well, an internal visage of eternal terror, but also a very loyal one. He had some weird bond with Hann-Abel, and you severed that bond.”
“Yay me,” I muttered.
“Yeah,” she shrugged. “He hates your ever living guts. And, if I know Vex, which I kinda do, he won’t stop until he gets his revenge. It’s kinda what his kind are known for.”
“So I have heard,” I said and rubbed at my temples.
“You have that going for you,” she added. “Which is nice.”
A waiter-bot arrived, and we all placed our orders. I was starving and wanted to stuff my belly and then go to bed. Thankfully, our food arrived fast and within seconds I was neck deep in a thick, juicy, medium rare filet of some alien bovine like meat with a side of bright pink fingerling tubers, and a whole bunch of sauteed leafy vegetable drowned in a thick cream sauce. The meat tasted better than the finest Kobe beef, which I’d had only once back on Earth during a long haul run to New York. I’d been delivering a set of mid-range chef knives to a gal who’d just become head chef at a very fancy cafe in Brooklyn. She needed a guinea pig for a new spice rub she’d been working on, and I was all too happy to try it out. This put that to shame. I capped the whole meal off with a big bowl of frozen custard that had a salted caramel flavor and consistency and two pints of Guinness.
As the evening went on most of the other teams slowly moved upstairs to their quarters. There was no staying to chat or blow off steam by drinking too much booze. Everyone who was left in the race had taken some hard knocks on the last leg and needed to rest.
“I suggest we all hit the hay, kiddies,” I said, yawned, and stood up from the table. “Tomorrow is going to be a big day, and we are going to have some ground to make up. My gut, and years of watching the Amazing Race, says that the next checkpoint is going to be an elimination so we’ll have to go hard and fast.”
“My favorite, sugar,” Aurora drawled with a sexy smirk as she finished up the last of a large bowl of pasta with an electric blue marinara sauce and flat, breaded, medallions of cheese covered meat.
“I said rest, Aurora,” I grinned at her.
“Tease,” she said and made a big deal out of pretending to pout.
I gave Nova, Aurora, PoLarr, and even Tempest, quick goodnight hugs and then headed up the stairs with Artie under my arm.
“Wanna cuddle?” I asked as we walked into the room.
“Always,” she replied and nuzzled her head into my chest.
I wish I could say that we had a great cuddle session, but as soon as my head hit the pillow the Sandman wrapped his slumber filled arms around me tight, and I was carried off into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Chapter Fourteen
I was in a pissy mood that no amount of coffee had been able to dispel. As much as I’d wanted to sleep in a little, my body's internal clock got me up at the crack of dawn, and I had to watch as every other team got to start the next leg of the race before us. Each team zoomed off into the desert, while my team stood and watched. We had to wait another twenty minutes even after the team before us burned rubber and set out on the next leg.
On the plus side, everyone in my alliance was well rested and ready for action. We all stood outside the roadhouse next to the Behemoth which we spent the early morning refueling, restocking water and ammo into, and repairing some minor damage.
“I’ll get to be in comm contact with you for this leg,” Artie said excitedly. “I’ll be monitoring the rad
io chatter on several bands to help you guys keep an eye out for baddies and law enforcement alike.”
“Breaker, breaker, Artie V-Five,” I joked. Artie’s contagious ebullience always managed to brighten my mood no matter how dark.
She was just about to question what the hell I had said when there was a full throated engine roar from behind the roadhouse and a second later a sleek, black, two-door muscle car came around the corner in a massive powerslide. The thick, all-terrain wheels spun furiously in the dirt and then gained traction which shot the car forward like a rocket on two axles. It skidded to a halt not two feet from where I stood.
Fallon popped her head out of the open T-top and smiled at me.
“Surprise!” She said triumphantly.
“Uh, what is this?” I asked, somewhat confused.
“It’s your surprise,” she replied. “You know, I’m your benefactor, I can give you stuff during a match if the rules allow, and I am giving you this. This is a Cruxian Road Rager. Used as an interceptor car by law enforcement and highwaymen alike. You can use it to run interference for the truck.”
“Watch ‘ole Havak, run,” PoLarr chimed in from behind me. Nova, Tempest, and Artie all started to admire the car.
“You’re at a distinct disadvantage today, Marc,” Fallon continued, slightly more serious. “You can use the car to scout ahead, or draw heat from the truck so that you can make up some much needed time.”
“I can drive the truck,” Tempest offered. “I’ll keep the pedal to the metal.”
“Nova, PoLarr and I will take our positions on the top of the truck and be ready for any asshole who might want to stand in our way,” Aurora added.
“I’m starting to like this idea,” I said. “What is the Road Rager packing?”
“Oh, oh, can I tell him?” Artie said and held her hand up like she was the smartest kid in class. Which, she was.
“Knock yourself out, Artemis,” Fallon grinned and hopped out of the car.
“The Cruxian Road Rager is a two-door coupe model asphalt assault hot rod,” she said as she walked around the car. “It’s got a twin-turbo, fuel-injected engine capable of seven hundred and fifty horsepower. Electronically adaptive steering, mag-braking, kinetic dynamic suspension, and synced all-wheel drive. The twist for this baby is it actually gets almost forty miles to the gallon due to the engines micronized cylinders and hyper-charged transmission.”
