Empire State

by Adam Christopher

  Rad shuffled on the ground, making a desperate attempt to free his hands. But it was no good, the knot was too tight. He rocked on his behind and managed to get himself standing without falling on his face.

  "What are you doing? Destroy the Fissure, you destroy everything! Kane?"

  Kane turned. As he did, tendrils of energy curled out from the lip of the Fissure, attracted to the suit like lightning to a conductor. The fingers of power were smoke-like but bright. Kane stumbled slightly, and took a step backwards. When he spoke, it was with some effort and through a grimace of pain.

  "You're wrong, Rad." Kane shook his head slowly, eyes narrowing in discomfort. "We can all go back to where we belong."

  Rad took a hesitant step forward, but the movement sent a static shock up his leg. He stopped and became aware of a peculiar sensation, like walking face-first into hot cotton candy. Whatever was happening to the Fissure, it didn't feel healthy.

  "We don't belong there, Kane," said Rad. He stood tall against the pressure wave pushed out by the Fissure. "We belong here. The Empire State is our home."

  Kane stepped back again. The energy tendrils flared an angry red and seemed to wrap around his outstretched arms like a neon octopus. Kane's head snapped back and he was pulled back further, until he stood across the Fissure's horizon itself. The Skyguard's cloak was yanked violently backward, sucked into the void behind him by an alien wind. When he managed to pull his head back, his face was plastered with a vicious grin. He pulled an arm out of the Fissure's fluctuating corona like it had been stuck there with molasses, and pointed. Kane laughed.

  Rad turned his head quickly. The light streaming out of the unstable Fissure threw shadows long behind him, the high contrast making it difficult to see. But something had changed. The Pastor stood at the edge of the concrete disc, illuminated in blue, alone. His followers were gone.

  Rad looked, tracing the edge of the disc. There was nothing around them but a total blackness. And then the blackness lightened, greying up and then turning a dirty orange over the course of a few seconds. It was the fog, the damned, cold, perpetual fog. The borders of the Empire State had collapsed onto the circle, surrounding them.

  Crater fell to his knees and screamed. The sound was primal, animalistic, and powerful enough for Rad to feel sick.

  Someone called out. Too late, Rad saw Rex roll on the ground. Rex scrabbled on the concrete, scraping nails against the rough surface, until the dropped gun was within his grasp. He then tore forwards on all fours, slipping and striking his knees, even his chest, against the ground as he crawled towards the Pastor.

  Rad felt a tugging on the bindings that held his wrists behind his back. He moved to turn his head, but someone breathed against his ear.

  "When I say run, run. No questions."

  Rad nodded, not turning, mind racing as the Captain lightly patted his back. Rad pulled on his wrists, and the bindings unraveled the last few threads. With the pressure relieved and his wrists free, Rad slowly flexed his fingers, getting the feeling back into them.

  Crater knelt on the ground, unmoving. He had both arms outstretched, and his hood was pointed up at the orange, cloudy ceiling. Rex crawled closer and pawed at his jacket. Crater didn't move, but his eyes, wide through the holes the hood, moved to look at Rex.

  Saliva dribbled down Rex's chin. "You promised me. You said we could go home, that all I had to do was kill the detective. You lied, didn't you? You were going to go home, but not me, right? Am I right?"

  Crater moved his head slowly from side to side, but Rex also shook his head at the same speed. He pushed off the ground and stood in front of the Pastor. Rex raised the gun up and pressed the barrel against the white cloth-covered forehead. The hammer was pulled back again.

  "Aren't you going to stop this, Kane?" yelled Rad. "Aren't you the Skyguard, the protector of the city?"

  Rad turned around, back to the Fissure. Kane was still stuck like a fly in jam, a Vitruvian Man in a superhero costume and cape. Rad gasped in desperation. He turned to Carson. The Captain was watching Crater and Rex, his face blank. Beside him, Lisa Saturn stood, arms folded. She was smirking, like she was enjoying a night at the theatre.

  "Captain Carson! What…"

  Rad was cut off as the air cracked. A second later Crater, the Pastor of Lost Souls, toppled backwards, his white hood no longer white. Rex stood where he was, shaking, the gun still smoking in the air before him.

  The Fissure crackled, and Kane shouted over it.

  "I can get you home, Rex. Come on. There's not much time."

  Rex let the gun drop with a clatter onto the concrete. He turned around on his heel, slowly, looking at his feet. He glanced at Rad, at Lisa, at Carson. Then he stepped forward and looked up at Kane.

  "You can get me home?"

  Kane nodded.

  Carson stepped forward. "We can all leave, Rex. Come with us."

  Rex looked at Kane. His eyes narrowed, and even in the weird orange-blue light, Rad could see his face darken. Rex's mouth curled into a scowl.

  "You sonovabitch, liar!" Rex yelled, his voice echoing off the hard ground. He pushed Carson to one side and ran at the Skyguard, bent down into a football tackle. Rex's right shoulder collided with Kane's chest, but Kane barely moved. Whether it was the Skyguard's armour or the energy from the Fissure keeping him upright, Rad couldn't tell.

  Rex was pushing at Kane, but Kane was in the way, blocking the portal. The beeping from his wrist had become almost a steady whine. Rex slid back, and brought his fists down on Kane's chest. Finally Kane pulled his arms down, and grabbed Rex by the neck. The Fissure protested, rippling with a thundercrack as the tendrils of light whipped around the pair.

  "What did you do, Carson?" yelled Rad over the cacophony. "What did you do?"

  It was the Science Pirate who answered. She'd taken a step or two back, and had unfolded her arms, holding them instead at her sides. The palms were facing back and her hands tilted slightly out, like she was ready to take off on her dead rockets.

  "Energy input," she said simply, and looked at Carson. Carson nodded.

  "Energy input." He turned to Rad and pointed at the struggling figures silhouetted against the transdimensional maelstrom. "There is more energy in the Skyguard's power cells than in the whole fuel tank of the Enemy airship. By overloading the suit on the threshold, the Fissure will absorb the leaking energy. A much more efficient solution."

  Rad pulled his hands free and stood. Lisa watched, her face twisting into a scowl as she saw their prisoner had been freed by someone, and it wasn't her.

  Rad grabbed Carson by the front of his tunic. As his fingers made contact with the fabric, he felt another static discharge, powerful enough to make his back molars sing in sympathy.

  "More efficient? You want the world – both worlds – destroyed?"

  Carson didn't struggle as Rad shook him around. Instead he met the detective's eye and smiled.

  "Not destroyed, no. Overloading the suit is far more controlled. The Fissure will feed off the energy and stabilise even further. The Empire State is quite safe, as is New York. In fact, the tether between the Pocket and the Origin will be stronger than ever."

  Rad relaxed his grip. He stared at the Captain's face, as if he was trying to read the old man's wrinkles like a street map. His mouth opened but his brain wasn't quite done processing the information, so he just stood there for a while, slack-jawed.

  "No!"

  Rad and Carson turned as one to Lisa Saturn. The Science Pirate was backing away, her mouth as open as Rad's in surprise. Her eyes were wide and wild.

  "Skyguard," she cried, "it's a fix. You've been tricked!"

  Kane and Rex were still wrestling, almost in slow motion in the rippling chasm. Tendrils of energy tore themselves off the portal, wrapping around the pair before shifting and evaporating. They were becoming more and more obscured by the light, apparently oblivious to anything happening down on the concrete disc.

  It wasn't quite the stale
mate it looked like. Kane was held firm by his armour and by the power of the Fissure, but Rex was winning. Rex was a desperate man.

  Kane turned his head, and looked into the heart of the abyss behind him. The centre of the portal was black, and when Rad blinked, it flashed violet. Kane turned back, his eyes wide in fright. He pushed back against Rex, harder now, grunting with the effort as his arms locked onto Rex's shoulders. The two stood, balanced at the threshold between one universe and another.

  The Science Pirate was on them in a second, although as she ran closer to the Fissure her movement seemed to slow. Rad wondered whether this was an effect of the time dilation, as Carson and Nimrod had called it, spilling out from the Fissure as it reshaped and rebuilt itself from the Skyguard's energy. Rad almost made to ask, when he felt Carson's hand on his shoulder and his hot breath in his ear.

  "Do you remember your instructions, Mr Bradley?"

  Rad turned, his face half an inch from Carson's. It was like talking inside a tornado, he thought.

  "I surely do, Captain."

  "Then I suggest you act upon them as soon as it is practical for you to do so. At my estimation, I would say now would be most appropriate."

  "Anything you say."

  The Captain winked. "Run!"

  Rad turned to run, and saw Carson do likewise, before the both of them were knocked to the ground by a shock wave that pulsed from the Fissure as its border stretched and snapped back like tight elastic. Rad's shoulder hit the concrete and he shouted in surprise and pain. Ahead, he saw the orange fog convulse as the shock wave hit it and continued through into the nothingness that, apparently, now filled the Pocket. It seemed to Rad that the Empire State, the whole Pocket itself, was being eaten by the Fissure rather than strengthened. He hoped Carson had got his calculations correct.

  Rad shuffled backwards quickly, pushing the ground with his palms. The air vibrated, filled with a buzzing that drilled into his skull. He remembered the feeling well. It was the feeling of incompatibility he'd experienced in New York. The Origin was reabsorbing the Pocket. The Empire State was crumbling. Carson had got it wrong.

  Another shock wave, enough to push Rad and Carson down for a second time. Rad saw Kane and Rex framed in the Fissure, still wrestling, a third form clinging to Rex's back, arms locked around his neck, trying to pull him free of Kane. The Science Pirate's suit was unpowered but the weight of it on Rex's frame was just enough. The combined strength of Kane and Lisa were succeeding, and freed slightly from Rex's grip, Kane pulled his fist back, ready to launch an uppercut at his assailant, probably with enough power to kill.

  There was a flash, blinding blue. Rad felt himself sliding back, the rough concrete biting through his suit and into the fat of his buttocks and legs as he was pushed backwards by a colossal gust of wind. The Fissure crackled and buckled, and someone cried out. Shielding his eyes against the flare, he saw the three struggling figures silhouetted against the portal, now a brilliant white. Then more movement as the Fissure flickered. Two shadows appeared, solidifying until they became opaque, moving shapes, gradually increasing in size until they resolved.

  Two figures. Their black outlines easily distinguished – hats, flapping trench coats. Weird gas masks with soup-can respirators bouncing.

  Agents Grieves and Jones ran out of the Fissure at a sprint. They collided with the Science Pirate, one on each side, collected her by the arms and carried her forward as they shot out of the Fissure and onto the concrete disc. The Science Pirate screamed and struggled, but Grieves and Jones had her firmly. They slid to a halt and turned, holding the squirming Science Pirate between them.

  Kane and Rex stopped fighting, just for a moment, and looked out into the Pocket. The white light flared around them, blinding Rad and melting their silhouettes into indistinct shapes. Then the white light flickered, changing to a deep orange.

  Kane made his move, dropping his fist and instead kicking Rex's feet out from under him. Rex cried out and began to fall backwards, and Kane raised his leg and again and pushed with his foot, sending the gangster tumbling backwards, down the short stairs and onto the concrete.

  The Fissure growled, and licked at Kane with a tongue of electric blue light. Still balancing on one leg, Kane wobbled. The energy played around him, regaining its grip. Kane's eyes were wide as he tried to rotate his arms to get his balance. He was going to fall.

  Rad didn't think, he just acted. He got up and ran in one clean and fast movement, fuelled by adrenaline and chaos and desperation. He practically jumped two stairs to the top of the dais, and pushed forwards through the storm of energy with Kane at the centre. The Fissure spat and fizzed and Rad felt his goatee prickle and get hot. He ignored it, and ignored the sharp tug on his unbuttoned trench coat as the Fissure reached for it and pulled the flapping ends towards the portal like the Skyguard's cloak.

  "Kane!" Rad reached out, fingers stretched wide, grasping for something – anything – on the Skyguard's suit to grab hold of. His fingers skidded across Kane's chest until he made another step forward, enough to get both hands on a bicep. He hung on and pulled backwards with all his weight, attempting to arrest Kane's slow-motion fall into the void.

  Kane screamed something Rad couldn't make out, and with a colossal effort dragged his head around. Kane's face was wild, his eyes wide and mouth pulled into nasty, tooth-filled crescent.

  "Get off of me!"

  Rad ducked as Kane dragged his free arm out of the Fissure's suck and swung it in an attempt to clip Rad's head. The movement loosened Rad's grip on Kane's arm; sensing this, Kane flicked it outwards with a yell, throwing Rad off and backwards.

  "You don't deserve to go home. We tried to help you, and you fought us!" Kane yelled, spit collecting at the corners of his mouth.

  "I'm not Rex, you lug! It's me, Rad!"

  Kane snarled and kicked out, his boot touching Rad's shoulder enough for the detective to instinctively jerk even further away.

  The beeping from Kane's wrist finally became a single tone. Rad could hear something else too. The Captain, shouting something from behind him. But behind the curtain of energy pushed out by the Fissure, Carson may as well have been shouting in New York.

  Rad got to his feet, teeth gritted in effort.

  "Kane!" he spat, and reached out once more. "It's me. I'm trying to help."

  Kane's expression collapsed. Rad didn't look behind him, but wasn't sure whether his former friend was able to see past the pyrotechnics and out into the hangar. He hoped he'd seen Rex lying on the ground near Carson.

  "Rad?" Kane reached out with one arm.

  "The world's greatest detective, here to help." The recognition was all the motivation Rad needed. He moved forward easily, and grabbed the offered hand. At his touch, Kane's fingers hugged Rad's forearm below the elbow, and Rad pulled. As Rad rotated his arm to get a better grip, his fingers nudged the half-open panel. Something inside the gauntlet felt hot.

  Kane's hand slipped and suddenly their hold was precarious. The Fissure was alive and jealous, greedily drinking the energy leaking from the Skyguard's suit, grabbing and grasping at its prize, unwilling to surrender it so easily. Kane's body moved back another half-foot. Rad managed to crawl his hand up Kane's wrist a little more, but he realised this tug-of-war could not be won.

  "Kill it, Rad!" Kane turned his hand a little and jerked his head towards the gauntlet panel. There was the flashing blue light, in a nest of cables. Neatly done, but not perfect.

  Rad understood. He ground his teeth and pulled on the arm, succeeding only in dragging himself closer to the Fissure rather than Kane away from it, but that was his intention. Holding Kane's forearm so hard his fingers felt like they would snap like dry twigs, Rad grabbed at the cabling with his free hand and pulled. Some gave, the blue blinking light went out, and the whining stopped instantly.

  Rad's loosened his grip. He wasn't sure what to expect, but the Fissure's hold on Kane seemed to slacken.

  Then the portal convulsed. It was a liq
uid, organic motion, as the glowing, fizzing ellipse turned inside-out for a fraction of second, then rebounded. The wind buffeted and the buzzing in his head was agony. The whole world was a nauseating mix of blue light, orange fog, and sound. Rad squinted, trying to see more clearly, but was lifted off the platform entirely. He caught himself on his hands and rocked forward onto his knees.

  The Fissure had stabilised, back to the vertical ellipse, faintly glowing blue. The air felt lighter, somehow, and Rad sucked on his tongue as his mouth was filled with the sharp tang of vinegar.

  "Rad?"

  Kane stood in the centre of the Fissure. His cloak was slack and its torn edges dangled gently around his ankles. He looked exhausted and as Rad stood and stepped forward, Kane's eyes unfocussed and he fell backwards into the blackness. In a second, he was gone.