by Alex Fall
“Captain!” Lori yelled, tossing something from the higher level of the plaza down to me. The force of her throw didn't quite cut it though. The mystery package landed behind me, but I knew what it was when I saw it. More cure.
I moved with amazing reflexes but the girl shot the box of cartridges away from me. I took a moment to glare but continued trying to secure my package. I stood to run but when I looked up, there wasn't one package, there was about seventy of them. I paused in disbelief, then yelled at Wyatt through the comm.
“You lazy *cuss*, I thought it told you to lock down that stupid trickster!”
“He is locked down! I've got him in a bubble!”
“That’s not locked down! Render him unconscious! Painfully! For a long time!”
Wyatt's reply was lost, because somehow that girl pushed me to the ground and pulled my helmet off in the same motion. I retaliated with a roar and a burning swipe to her foot, and while I did melt through her shoe, I stopped on her leg and simply tripped her.
Tank. THE tank. The tank with the trickster.
“You!”
We both stood in time to put up our defenses. The woman nodded. “Sapphire Eyes.”
The instant she moved her gun, I vaporized the weapon with a beam of fire. It frightened her into backing up, but then she threw what appeared to be a grenade. I vaporized that too, and whatever it was filled with blanketed the area with smoke of some sort. I noticed a capsule come from out of the smoke and I could tell it was going to hit me but I didn't have time to dodge it. I did my best to deflect it but instead it burst across my right shoulder and hurt terribly. It was filled with something dreadfully cold, something that would injure me with freezing. My plated armor resisted it, but the weave armor offered no resistance.
I fell to one knee and screamed out in pain, clutching my frozen shoulder. No, the gunner to my far right. He's going to shoot me in my now exposed head! I threw myself to the ground and felt the projectile tug a few hairs as it passed. But next came the tank. A solid kick to the head sent me into a defensive flurry. The tank was on the ground with me in a chokehold before I could let my infuriated breath out.
And then a taser.
I threw the girl away when she zapped my hand, but she came right back and hit me in the neck with it. I collapsed back to the ground once again, left only with the option and fury of another burn. With my frozen arm, I blasted an enormous area with fire. I don't know if I got her, but when I curled up in a ball to suck in my pain, another stray shot narrowly missed my head. My frozen and burnt arm was now nonresponsive, so clawed my way to cover. I could hear the tank scrambling as well, but it was almost impossible to see anything with all the smoke and the now growing fire.
“Captain!” Lori yelled from higher up. I couldn't see her and highly doubt she could see me. If she’s worried, she just made herself a target for that irritating gunner. Now would be a good time for me to move, but the pain! It's paralyzing!
I glanced from behind the fake bush I was hiding behind. Checking my surroundings was just habitual at this point. There's only smoke and gloom. Yet...in the stifling blanket of cover, something was catching the glint of the flames. This time my body allowed me to pull my feet up and make a dash. Running up to the glinting object, I found it was the cure, the real cure. However, the magazine casing was busted from when the tank shot it. I immediately dropped to my knees and began pulling the needles out with my good hand, hurrying to manually reload the empty magazine in my “cure gun.” My heart was racing. I felt vulnerable out in the open like this. The gunner started taking shots in Lori's direction, but any second he could find me. I could hear the tank scurrying around me. She has a gun too. Come on, come on, come on! I only need two or three darts! This is so hard with only one hand!
Movement.
My eyes flicked to the side to see the tank hurling herself at me from out of the smoke. She was aiming a knee at my head. I have 0.9 seconds to react, and only 0.3 seconds to move fast enough in hopes of her missing entirely. I flattened myself out while sitting on my knees so that I was also lying on my back as well. The knee brushed past ever so gently with no damage. As I pulled myself up however, the Tank stopped, turned, and kicked the batch of cure out of my hands. Needles went everywhere and my dart gun flipped into the air and landed half a meter away. I gracefully pulled myself to my feet to dodge another blow, then instantly drew my revolver and shot the tank's gun out of her hands. It startled her enough to back her up, but she disappeared into the smoke. However, by this point we were both coughing, so I could at least tell where she was. I fired three more shots haphazardly into the darkness. I think one hit, but she's a tank so what’s the point? I've only got two bullets left and reloading is problematic with one working hand. I need to conserve.
The tank charged out of the darkness again, so I holstered my weapon and waited to retaliate. Her first swing was clumsy, and her second hit left her open for a counter. Or at least...it would have had I been paying attention. She tried to pull me into a choke, so I planned on letting her initiate it enough to allow me to slip behind her and out of the hold. Instead, she started it then jabbed something in my neck. I still slipped out of the hold, but I stumbled back and clenched my teeth and eyes shut. Anger! So much anger!
“THAT HURT YOU *CUSS!*” I screamed. I pulled whatever it was out of my neck and my mind panicked. That’s why I'm so angry. I just got injected with the cure…THE cure!
No. It doesn't work on me, please tell me it doesn't work on me!
Movement sent me into a fury. The adrenaline hit me and sped my mind up and powered my muscles. As the tank charged again, she landed a solid blow to my jaw. I completely ignored it. Pain wasn't registering right at the moment. I landed an even more powerful blow in her teeth, enough to stun even a tank apparently. Next, I lit up and burned the area again. Voracious flames consumed the area, destroying anything that wasn't stone, peeling my flesh off and eating the tank's armor, gadgets, and clothes away. The tank let out a sound of horror at the same time I screeched in pain, and we dropped to the ground together to nurture our fresh new wounds. Both of my shoulders were now ruined. My arms and hands were covered in damage, burns or otherwise. My chest even received some burn lashes. I rested on my knees, cycling between curling up into a ball and sitting straight up and clenching my teeth until I feared cracking one of them. The tank fell on her side and gradually pulled herself into a ball as well. Her breathing was extremely escalated, to the point she may hyperventilate.
“Capain! Captain!”
As the next wave of pain swept over me, I growled in defiance, snatched two of the needles off the ground. I jabbed both into the tank and injected them. She summoned the strength to swat me away, but she just returned to the fetal position. Then she fell to sobbing. Tears formed in her eyes. Panic was taking hold. As I knelt over her, my anger swirled within me and transmuted into sorrow. What have I done? Am I watching someone die once more? Keegan...I'm so sorry.
I reached out to touch the girl but hesitated. She's in an overload of pain. I know we are supposed to hate each other, but I understand the pain she's in. Unfortunately, she has never had to cope with this before. I felt...pity.
“Captain!” Lori came running up to me through the smoke. Out of self defense, pulled my revolver and put her at weapon’s point. She halted for a brief moment, just enough to check if I recognized her, then moved to my side.
“Captain, the fire is growing. We have to leave.”
“My comm is gone. Call Tetsuro and a medical team in. We need to save her.”
“What?” Lori asked with some disbelief.
“Now, Lori!”
It bothered me. For perhaps the first time ever, it bothered me to burn someone. She was like that sparrow I killed so long ago. To add to that, I felt an inner panic over the cure. It was inside me. What is it doing? It already had time to run through my system. I don't feel anything different. Maybe I could burn it out of myself? Don’t be ridiculous, I
can't burn my blood off, I'd kill myself. I think...I'm scared.
Even after the Tank was stabilized, I shut myself in my room to brood. Every minute felt like someone throwing a ten kilo plate on me. The cure is eating me. I'm going to die. I was always afraid of being hit with this, I just hoped it wouldn't happen. And now it's happened. What will it do to me? Will I have a reaction to the medicine itself? Will it clash or cancel my Directorate powers? Will it push my powers into overdrive? Will I lose conscious control of the ability to control my fire? I could burn myself to death. I could stop breathing in my sleep. I'm going to die. I'm going to die…
I am going to die.
I snatched the bottle of sleep medication and binged. I drank the pills down like water. If I didn't feel the effects within fifteen minutes, I will take one every minute until I do. But...these are sleep pills. I could die in my sleep. Panic gnawed at me, it drove my stress out of control, driving my craving for sleep medicine up. But the more sleep meds I take, the faster I will die.
I put another pill in my mouth and broke down crying. This is my final moment. I'm sorry Keegan. I'm so, so sorry. If there's any way I can see you again, please make it happen. It's the only thing I want anymore. Please Keegan, let me hear from you before I die…
Before...I…fall asleep...for…
...the last time...
* * *
I sat up and gasped. My stomach! I feel so sick! Launching out of bed, I barely made it to the sink before I threw up my guts. I felt like my body was crushing itself trying to vomit harder. I barely had time to take a breath before I heaved up again. When I finally finished, my strength failed and I fell to the floor with hardly enough strength for my fingers to continue latching onto the sink. The world turned cold and gray, and a terrible shivering took over my body. I feel...so sick…
Am I dead?
A pounding on the door to my room had me open my eyes. Cold sweats were drenching what little clothing I had on in a hurry.
“Captain, are you alright?” Lori called.
“Lori…” It was no more than a whisper. My body wouldn't allow me the strength to speak. I don't even have the strength to breath correctly.
“Captain, your door is locked. What's going on in there?”
“Interface, unlock,” I whispered. The system didn't hear me. I had to repeat it several more times before it recognized the command. In the meantime, Lori grew more impatient which attracted the attention of Tetsuro and maybe even Sharon.
The door switch clicked and Lori stormed in to find me broken-down before the sink.
“Captain! What happened?” she demanded in a panic. A blanket was promptly wrapped around me as I was helped back to standing. I should be hurting from all my burn scabs.
“I died.”
“What?”
“I died...I thought I….”
“You thought you died? Why are you vomiting?”
“Pills.”
Lori's face hardened and from my stunned position I saw Tetsuro peek into my room. Lori switched the lights on and dug around in my bed.
“Sleep pills?...they're everywhere! How many did you take?”
“Forty? Fifty?”
“Did she just say forty?” Tetsuro asked.
“Fifty!” Lori corrected. “She doesn't even know!” She ran her hands through her hair and gripped her head in stress. “OD. I knew it. I knew this would happen. I don't know how to deal with this!”
I closed my eyes she yelled. “Shhh...I'm alive.”
“You're dying!”
“Floating. No cure.” Cure….cure?
“What do we do?” Tetsuro asked.
I took the pills because of the cure. Did the cure work? I leaned forward and spilled onto the ground because of dizziness, but here on the floor was a pill. I pulled it into my fingers then reached inside myself for the sickness. Is it still there? It should be no problem to burn this pill to nothing if it is.
A quick flame consumed the pill and Lori wigged out. She pulled me onto the bed and ran for the first aid kit. She ordered Tetsuro around and both Sharon and Wyatt stormed in with confusion. I don't remember much else after that. The sleep medicine was strong enough to pull me back to sleep.
When I next awoke, I was in a clinic. I had an IV and a band on my arm was tracking my vitals. My body was bandaged and tingled at the burns. A nurse passed by to write something down. Am I in the Decapolis, or Lenburg? Or...am I dead?
It turns out I had a minor overdose on sleeping pills. That's why I felt so sick. But in all the blood work and testing they did on me, there was no evidence to suggest anything else was wrong with me (aside from the obvious, experimental damage I inflict on myself.) The cure seemingly did nothing. In fact, I had to explain to them that I had been injected with it at all. I also had to explain to my crew (mostly Lori) that the reason I took so many sleep meds was my own panic, caused by injection of the cure. Yet...my case wasn't convincing enough. They wanted me to stay here under the watch of “medical professionals.” As if these fools know how to take care of me. Nonetheless, for the sake of calming them and appeasing Keegan's ghost, I remained.
That is, until I heard the whispers of another attack.
Three days after I arrived, about two hours and twenty minutes after sunrise, the personnel of the clinic revealed they were edgy. Something was making them tense, and with my augmented ears, I learned why. The Benevolents were making more attacks against our establishments. But not just any Benevolents.
A youngish, blonde haired burn was their leader. My nemesis. My enemy.
It was at that clinic, that particular hour that I realized what I was fighting. I realized what I needed to do. At this rate, even the Decapolis would catch up to me. They will come to the city and see what I have done. Nicolette can handle everything until that day comes. With those two things in mind, it is inevitable the Big Man will fall, all of them. They will lose, even if the Board and the Magistracy itself drag me back to the Decapolis and lock me up. But no matter what, the Greaters won't break unless I target that psychotic burn.
I listened to their fearful whispers until they gave me what I wanted. I learned the location of the Greater’s attack site, and more importantly, I learned where that Burn is.
“Tetsuro, I need a few things from my ship. Could you come land nearby so I can grab some things?”
“How do I know you aren't trying to get more sleep pills?...I mean, I'll do it of course. But, how do I know?”
“Because if all I needed were sleep pills, I would have just taken them from the people around me. I am in a clinic after all.”
“Oh...I guess I'll come down.”
“Good. See you soon.” With that I ended the call. That's all I needed to say to convince someone to bring me my armory. Minutes later my ship landed and I began equipping myself. Tetsuro tensed when he realized I was prepping for a mission, but with some minor threats, he was kind enough not only to allow me to do as I pleased but also to pilot me to my destination. I equipped well. My lucky revolver, plenty of cure, my full armor and comm, two SMGs, and even my templar unit. I would arrive nearby and enter quietly and unexpectedly. That's just how it happened too.
A live convenience store we used to store food was now in disrepair, no thanks to the Greaters. Fire smoldered here and there, and sounds of movement emanated from inside. Someone nearby groaned in delirious pain. I hustled silently over to his side to find one of Nicolette's minutemen clutching his hand. It was terribly burnt. A paragonal voice told me to administer some first aid, but nearby movement put me on edge. I readied an SMG and approached the a side door. What is it with all these old, cheap stores being built as a giant cube anyway?
I peeked inside and saw several people pass by further in. It appeared that they weren't stealing the food, just destroying it. I hardened my face and entered, making sure to be behind cover and out of sight at all times. I heard people chattering and dragging things. It seemed they were about to start on the refrigerator unit
s. That's why I chose this place after all, for the working refrigerators. I moved along a shelving unit to get closer, but then I heard a familiar voice.
“Do I have to? Can't you just cut it or zap it off?” The burn. It's him. The crazy one, the one who tried to kill me.
“It's easier if-”
“For you. It's so tiring on me.” He sounded playfully whiney. Even though it wasn't directed at me, it gave me a slight rush of anxiety.
Now or never.
I leaned out just enough to assess the situation before moving in. A hand grabbed my SMG and pulled it out of my hands with overwhelming force. I stumbled forward then perfectly dodged the Brute's next move.
A supremely skinny man in the corner of the room with his arms folded just nodded and uttered to the Brute, “told you.”
Owls. I hate owls! They ruin everything!
“Hold everything! We have a distinguished lady guest in the room!” the blonde burn announced. He had his hands in the air for the announcement, then pulled one arm in for an incredibly exaggerated bow. There were about eight other Greaters in view. Only one of them bothered reaching for a weapon, but all of them stopped what they were doing to free their hands and watch.
I examined my surroundings carefully. “Psst!” the burn whispered. “You're supposed to curtsy…”
“Forgive my manners, I just couldn't help but notice that you're breaking my stuff,” I replied.
“Are you sure it's yours? It was here long before you got here, and well...finders keepers!”
“Before I kill you, I'd like to know. Are you copying me?” I questioned.
The blonde raised his eyebrows as high as they would go and sputtered a laugh. “Do I sound like I am? Stop copying me, stop copying me. That's not what I sound like, that's not what I sound like…” One of his henchmen snickered.
“You know what I'm talking about…”
“I do?” He put a hand up as if thinking. “Oh! You must have noticed that man outside! Poor soul, but now Howie has a fingerless buddy to play with on the bright side.”
