Pride X Familiar ReVamp (Pride X ReVamp Book 1)

by Albert Ruckholdt

  A woman’s voice emanated from the palm-slate. I didn’t recognize it, but the girl surely did since her eyes grew wide.

  The woman spoke calmly, in contrast to the urgency we all felt.

  “I will recall the drones, Capella Leone. Don’t shoot the students.”

  For a moment the girl hesitated, then her lips curled into a rictus grin. She started to laugh. “Ah, is that the Raynar Witch? Too late!”

  I felt my stomach drop and my heart almost stopped when the particles of light coalesced into a single point.

  Simone screamed in despair.

  A shrill whistle built up in the air.

  The cannon fired…but not in the direction of the mobile med centers.

  The cannon fired at the drones in the distance to my left.

  The girl blurred when she re-oriented her arm and body.

  Shot after shot of violet light sniped at the drones hovering a kilometer or more away. The shrill whistle accompanied each shot.

  I turned to watch all the dots hovering in the air burst apart like small fireworks.

  The girl spun around and sniped the drones hovering in the opposite direction, blasting them all away in rapid succession. The burning remains rained down on the habitat buildings in the distance.

  Simone dropped the palm-slate, crouched, and then leapt toward the girl.

  She covered the fourteen feet between them in a heartbeat.

  Yet she wasn’t fast enough.

  The girl darted back, a leap that gave her the distance and time she needed to pivot her body and slam the body of the crystal cannon into Simone’s midriff.

  The Countess folded over the cannon like a rag doll. For a moment she hung in the air, draped over the weapon. Then the girl completed the swing and Simone’s body flew into the air, sailing high for a dozen meters before coming down hard on the grassy border of the sporting field. Her body rolled over and over until it came to a stop, and her eyes were closed.

  I didn’t know if she was alive or dead.

  I didn’t even have time to pray for her to be alive.

  In the next moment, I too had leapt at the girl. I knew full well I would fail, but in that moment I knew I had to do something or I’d never be able to live with myself.

  The girl aimed the cannon at me but there were no sparkling particles of light dancing before its barrel. Instead, I hit what could only be described as a wall of air that felt both soft and firm.

  Then I too was flying through the air only backwards as though kicked away by that invisible wall.

  I hit the ground on my back, and rolled over a couple of times before sliding to a stop on the pavement. Agony trapped a scream in my throat – that and the fact I was completely winded by the hard landing.

  Lying on my stomach, I raised my chin and stared in pain at the girl.

  She was watching me.

  She wagged a finger, admonishing me.

  Then she turned in the direction of the medical buses. I could barely move, but I could see that the students out in the middle of the sports field were beginning to run. I could hear the sound of their screams too.

  The girl aimed the cannon, and the light particles spiraled wildly before the barrel.

  Please…someone…stop her.

  The violet light intensified to a single point. The shrill whistle filled the air.

  Dear gods in Heaven, please no!

  A bolt of crimson light flashed overhead and broke into an incandescent shower of sparks against the girl. I watched her stagger forward, until a second crimson bolt knocked her to her knees.

  The air around the girl shimmered, and I realized it was an effect-field of some sort – one capable of shielding against energy based weapons fire. I couldn’t see where the crimson bolts were coming from, but it might have been from the school building behind me.

  In moments, the cannon wielding girl was up on one knee, and while the crimson bolts struck her protective barrier, she aimed her cannon at a point high over my head. She began trading shots with her opponent, and the ground at her feet blew into a cloud of heated dirt and soil.

  Pushing myself up onto my elbows, I craned my neck around and looked at the building behind me.

  Someone was running along the rooftop, firing a crimson bolt every few seconds. Violet light beams chased the shooter, tearing up the building’s façade and parapet. That debris was beginning to rain down to the ground in large chunks. When a light beam struck the shooter, the air shimmered and I realized they were protected by an effect-field of their own.

  I looked back at the cannon girl.

  She was running now, the ground around her exploding with furious energy as the crimson bolts tore it up.

  It seemed like both shooters were evenly matched, though the cannon girl had a higher firing rate. She ran toward the unconscious Countess. As soon as she reached Simone’s side, the rooftop shooter stopped firing.

  The cannon girl took the advantage of that. She picked up Simone’s limp body and held it before her like a shield. At the same time she aimed the cannon at the building and resumed firing at her opponent. She was laughing madly, firing repeatedly and tearing up the rooftop. Whatever didn’t come crashing down as rubble was turned into a powdery grey mist.

  She was so intent on taking down the rooftop shooter, she failed to see what Simone held in her left hand.

  A high heeled shoe.

  I didn’t notice her take it off, but it was in her left hand now, and in the next heartbeat Simone twisted her body while still in the girl’s grip.

  She buried the heel into the girl’s left eye.

  An ear-splitting scream tore from the girl’s throat. In agony she fired wildly into the sky, razing the artificial clouds.

  Simone threw her whole body at the girl, knocking her down onto her back. Thankfully the cannon went silent after only one more wild shot.

  I forced myself up onto my knees.

  I watched the Countess struggle with the girl. She raised her shoe high, then slammed it down again only to be knocked aside by a wild swing of the crystal cannon. Simone rolled away, and the cannon girl tried aiming at her. Before she could shoot, a crimson bolt struck the crystal cannon’s effect-field. Sparks flew, and the next bolt hit the ground between the girl and the Countess.

  Simone used the cover fire to run away. She tore off her right shoe and then sprinted barefoot toward the building behind me.

  I gained my feet just as Simone arrived at my side, and together we ran for the safety of the building.

  I could hear the air crackle behind us as bolt after bolt covered our escape.

  We pushed the glass doors open, almost breaking them in our efforts to flee into the building.

  Then I heard the shrill whistle that accompanied every shot made by the cannon. We had barely run a few feet into the foyer when the entrance behind us shattered with a loud roar. It came crashing down and large pieces of ceiling struck our backs, knocking us to the floor.

  Then something heavy fell on my head, and I lost consciousness moments later.

  Chapter 16.

  (Caelum)

  Caprice asked, “Where are Rina and Maya?”

  Severing answered her over the communication line connected to our headset-visors.

  “Rina is currently engaged in combat with the cannon girl.”

  That made sense. Rina’s Fragment was a crystal shard-like gun-blade. In gun form it was a sniper rifle that fired crimson bolts of energy that could immolate a heavy tank with a single shot. But if she was using it here, then she’d have to restrict the energy release or she might blow craters into the ground.

  Severin continued. “Maya is stationed outside the library where Crimson Crescent’s invisible network hacker currently resides, along with a squad of Public Security Enforcers who entered via the underground tunnels. Additional Enforcers are outside the Academy grounds trying to keep a low profile but that’s moot now that their drones were annihilated. Also, I see a number of news channels
starting to arrive. The disturbance has not gone unnoticed.”

  “The Prides will clamp down on that soon enough,” Kaleb said with certainty. “They covered up the restaurant attack and the parking level incident. They can cover this as well.”

  I wasn’t so sure. Attacking Galatea Academy and having so many students witness it was going to be difficult to suppress. I asked, “What about the Countess and Haruka? Are they safe?”

  “They ran into the west wing of the high-school building. However, there was damage to the entrance. I haven’t been able to raise them on their palm-slates. I don’t have enough security personnel to dispatch to them and I doubt the teachers would want to go down and take a look. The firefight is still quite intense despite the cannon girl’s injuries.”

  Caprice looked up. “She’s injured?”

  “Yes, Simone was able to land a hit before she had to run away.”

  I felt my innards grow cold.

  The Countess had come to blows with the cannon girl? What the Hell was she thinking?

  I realized I was clenching my jaw not in anger, but in fear for her, and my heart had picked up its pace.

  Caprice’s eyebrows rose slowly. “She did better than I did….”

  Kaleb and I both stared at her, knowing what she meant.

  Remembering Caprice’s encounter with the cannon girl made my worry for Simone and Haruka jump another level, and that made it difficult for me to stand still. In fact, it made me faintly tremble.

  I didn’t want to be stuck at the bottom of this stairwell waiting for the door to open.

  I wanted to be up there protecting Haruka and Simone.

  Kaleb was tense when he asked, “Severin—was Simone injured?”

  “I don’t know. Like I said, she and Amiella fled into the west wing before the entrance took a big hit. I don’t know where they are now, and we don’t have eyes in that part of the building.”

  Unable to hold back my frustration, I snapped, “Why can’t you send any guards over there?”

  Severin sounded way too calm and it only served to frustrate me more. “That is because all the guards are busy. We are currently working with the administrative body to perform a discrete evacuation of the students through the underground emergency tunnels leading out of Galatea Academy. Those security guards are essential in keeping the evacuation moving along.”

  “Discrete?”

  “Discrete as can be. At present the network hacker seems engrossed in the one task of breaching level seven. He hasn’t bothered locking down the Academy. In other words, he appears content to let the students evacuate—and there goes the seventh layer. They now have access to the network’s black box core commands.”

  I shook my head, not understanding.

  Kaleb said, “He’s talking about the subset of commands that control the information network at the highest level. Commands that can dictate access to the Vault. The truth is, it’s not really seven layers that they breached. It’s seven security seals, one for each of the seven Prides.”

  “Seven Prides? There are eight Prides.”

  “That is correct,” Severin intoned. “However, it appears the Lanfear Pride chose not to participate in the Vault’s security arrangements. As a result, there is no eighth seal.”

  I frowned slightly. “What are the seals?”

  Severin explained, “They are security codes only known to the Primogens of the seven participating Prides.”

  Caprice shook her head very faintly in the weak light. “I don’t understand. The Student Council’s plan was to wait for Cee Cee to make their move and then for us to capture the hacker. Now we’re stuck here waiting for the door to open so we can stop Cee Cee from stealing some Artifact from the Vault.”

  I nodded and so did Kaleb.

  Caprice cocked her head. “But if the Prides knew that the seven layers were seals protecting the Vault, and they knew this was what Cee Cee was after, why didn’t they change the seals after each one was broken?”

  I glanced at Kaleb who shrugged in agreement.

  Caprice continued. “If what’s in the Vault is a prized artifact, shouldn’t they have done everything in their power to stop the breach?”

  Severin sighed over the communication line. “We don’t know. As I said before, we were left out in the cold. The truth is this might very well be what the Powers-that-be wanted.”

  Caprice muttered, “You mean they wanted Cee Cee to come in and steal what’s in the Vault?”

  I said, “That’s crazy.”

  Severin replied, “Not if this was the only way to bait Celica Desanto into the open.”

  I sucked in a lungful of air. “You mean they intend to capture my sister?”

  “Or kill her,” Severin added.

  I felt a sharp wind blow through me, a sudden chill that iced my innards. “Then I guess that makes my sister Public Enemy Number One.”

  Even though she appeared calm and unperturbed, I saw the hint of concern in Caprice’s eyes when she looked at me.

  I chose to change the subject quickly. “So do we know what manner of ‘demonic’ artifact Crimson Crescent is after?”

  Severin sounded a tad miffed. “No. The Raynars have been unforthcoming. So too the Avenirs. I’m rather hurt by my Prides’ reticence.”

  I looked at the door. “Why hasn’t this door to the Vault opened?”

  “Very good question,” Severin said. “Perhaps they opened one of the other doors.”

  Kaleb growled, “So where are the other doors?”

  Severin sounded snippy. “I am trying to find out.”

  Caprice asked, “A better question is why hasn’t Maya moved in on the hacker.”

  “Actually…the answer to that is rather simple….”

  Caprice’s voice gained a slight edge. “What’s the answer?”

  “Because she’s facing an opponent of her own….”

  #

  (Maya)

  Like Pervert Desanto, Faint Smile and Rina, I had the ability to overclock.

  That and my Fragment are probably what initially saved my life.

  Overclocking, combined with my Fragment and ten years of swordsmanship kept me alive afterwards.

  When I received the call from Kaleb, I ran into the girls’ toilets nearest to me, and changed into the skinsuit I carried in my gym bag.

  Two minutes later I was dressed in the skinsuit, with headset-visor in place, and walking out the toilets. I ignored the looks the girls in the toilets gave me and hurried to my classroom, Two-Bee, where I threw my gym bag into a corner. Again, my appearance garnered shocked and puzzled looks, but I had no time for my classmates’ stares.

  I felt like a holovid action drama character as I ran down the hallways, and past the students making their way back to class. The first lunch bell had rung, telling students to get a move on. The second and final bell was sure to sound five minutes later.

  I heard Rina telling me she was heading up to the rooftop with her gun-blade. She sounded embarrassed and self-conscious so I assumed she was dressed in her skinsuit and was weathering the looks of students and teachers alike.

  Two teachers tried stopping me, but I manifested my gauntlet-gloves and the twin swords. This gave them cause for concern, more so when I waved the blades and warned them to back off. They tried sinking into the walls as I ran past them on my way to the library.

  Severin told me the students were clearing out of the library, but I would have to wait until they all departed. For now, only a handful of students suspected something was wrong, but those in the library were oblivious to the hacker’s presence.

  I waited around the corner from the library and peeked at the Aventis leaving the large, four storey room from the third floor entrance. I found it strange that in this day and age with all the photronic gear we have, people would still choose to read hard printed material. Our library had thousands upon thousands of books. Since coming to the Academy I’d spent a few occasions in the library, mostly to avoid interac
ting with Aventis, but also to pass the time skimming the countless titles.

  Shit! Why did they have to choose the library?

  I really, really didn’t want to damage the place.

  The library was precious to me. It was where I could hide from the other Aventis until classes resumed.

  I told Severin as much, so he advised me to keep the collateral damage down.

  That puzzled me.

  If this hacker was using a Fragment that wasn’t designed for combat, then why was Severing warning me about collateral damage?

  When I asked him, Severin said that just because we couldn’t see the hacker, it didn’t mean they weren’t armed. For all we knew, they could very well have a bomb strapped to their chest. For that matter, they could have planted bombs throughout the library. In short, I was going to have to watch my step.

  Once Severin told me the last of the students vacated the room, I took a position outside the entrance leading into the library from the third floor. Severin gave me the order to move in, but was almost immediately countermanded by someone on the channel. I didn’t recognize the woman’s voice, but a few moments later a squad of six Enforcers clad in armor-skins – the heavy, beefed up version of the skin-suit – came thundering down the hallway and waved me back with rifles drawn. Even after they took up positions around the door, some of the Enforcers kept their weapons aimed at me.

  I backed away. “Severin, tell these assholes I am ‘not’ the enemy.”

  The woman replied, “Don’t interfere with our procedures, Familiar. Know your place.”

  Then Severin asked, “What’s the answer to life, the universe and everything?”

  I blinked, and understood what he meant – switch to a pre-agreed upon encrypted channel, one the Enforcers could scan but not interfere with.

  I answered quickly, “I have no idea what you mean.”

  I was certain he knew that wasn’t the case, though I heard him say, “Airhead” over the line.

  I kept the other channel open, while listening in on the encrypted channel. At the same time, I backed away a few more feet from the Enforcers around the entrance, and from those pointing their rifles my way.

  “So? What’s the deal?” I whispered.