“Initiator,” Galicia prompted.
“Whatever. The point is Sinza, she’s the only person in this whole bloody place beside you and my sister who hasn’t shot at me, or tried to hurt or kill me since I came here. That makes her a friend in my book. Besides, like she said, she knows this place like the back of her hand, and without her help, we’ll probably either end up back in the Arena or wind up dead.”
Lil’ Doro nodded anxiously at her cellmate’s words.
“Laur is right Sinz,” Galicia agreed. “Because of that bloody Murk, it would take more time for me to even guess at the best way out. And with Mert’s goons on our tail, that’s precious time that we don’t have. Plus, I believe her story. I think she’s worth taking a chance on.”
The three women looked intently at Sinza as she weighed their words against the direness of their situation. After the silence grew palpable enough to cut, the female commando’s shoulders slumped.
“Aww, fuck it!” she growled. “I guess we’ll trust her—for now,”
Lil’ Doro was elated by the decision. Catching Sinza by surprise, she bounding into her arms like a pet cat jumping into her master’s lap, and gave the Special Ops soldier a great big hug and a kiss.
“Thank you, thank you! I promise I won’t steer you wrong. You’ll see!”
Embarrassed by the sudden embrace, Sinza peeled the smaller woman’s arms from around her waist and pushed her away. “Don’t ever do that again,” she growled again red-faced. “If you do, I’ll kill you myself!”
The other three women almost laughed out loud knowing that she didn’t mean it, while Sinza smiled in spite of herself, amazed by the newcomer’s earnestness, and boundless energy.
“Looks like G.I. Jane, over there’s got a new best friend,” Laurina said with a smirk.
“Quite,” Galicia agreed, winking at her comrade. “I think she’s right sweet on you Sinz.”
Ignoring the two Brits, Sinza turned to the little gladiator.
“Alright kitten. You got your wish. How do we get outta here?”
It was slow going.
The good news was that thanks to Lil’ Doro’s knowledge, and 30 minutes of skulking around while hiding in the shadows, the four women avoided further detection by Athena’s guards. The small woman navigated them through a network of unused servant’s passages that she had discovered one day after wandering through the complex in her boredom between matches. There were a couple of tense moments, including once when Doro emerged through a passageway, just as two of the black-robed men rounded the corner. Recognizing one of them, and taking the initiative before they could open their mouths, she closed the panel with one hand before Sinza could come through while waving the other towards the two men.
“Hi Kal,” she called to the younger of the pair with honey dripping from her words. “Athena has pressed the gladiators into service looking for those women who escaped from the Arena; as if we don’t have other things we’d rather be doing.” Doro reached up and ran a warm hand over his chest, as she looked him up and down suggestively.
“Be a good boy and tell your Captain that the servant’s tunnels are clear. When you’re done with your shift, stop by my quarters for a drink and a little fun. Oh, and bring your friend with you.”
The two men looked at each other with a knowing expression, hardly believing their good fortune. Lil’ Doro’s reputation for “fun” was legendary among the guard, and a major topic of speculation during downtime at the barracks.
With a nod to the diminutive warrior, the duo made a speedy exit down the corridor. Once they were out of sight, Lil Doro listened for any other nearby activity. Hearing none, she opened up the portal and directed the other women to come out.
“That was close,” growled Sinza.
“Nah. Piece of cake,” Doro grinned.
After a few moments of walking, another portal was revealed, hidden behind a large painting of a hunter who had cornered a beast with huge fangs next to a cliff. The frame swung easily to the right on hidden hinges, and the four of them ducked into the passageway. Doro slid the panel shut and the corridor fell into complete darkness. Galicia tapped the air a few times and a small glowing orb appeared above the group. It bobbed along with them as they moved, lighting their path with an eerie green light.
“Let’s move it,” Sinza whispered roughly.
The women walked swiftly down the black corridor. After some time, Laurina felt the angle of the floor change and realized they were starting to walk upwards. A crunching sound underfoot announced the presence of more dirt on the floor than normal to their ears. It became more prevalent at each step until finally, Sinza spoke a word to Galicia, and after several taps in the air, a dull green light appeared as a coating on the floor.
Their first few steps on the emerald glaze were like walking on flypaper as Galicia’s power caused the larger pieces of dirt and debris to adhere to its surface. As they continued forward, the power began to feel more solid, like rubber underfoot masking their passage. Laurina looked back the way they came, and sure enough, the energy over the dirt-strewn floor had dissipated behind them as they passed.
Doro continued to lead them upward until they reached an old and heavy wooden door. With effort, she pushed it open and the group emerged into a large airy space. Laurina began walking forward when Li’l Doro grabbed her arm, halting her advance. Two more taps in the air by Galicia and the light from the orb intensified, revealing a yawning black abyss where the floor should have been.
Further inspection showed them to be standing on a metal ledge next to a cavernous airshaft, two hundred feet in diameter, sunk deep into the ground. Smooth steel walls lined the interior, descending further than the women could distinguish. Looking upward, they could see the domed ceiling and several small blinking lights which marked the entrances to corridors leading out of the complex several stories above them, but Laurina could not see a way up the smooth walls to reach them.
“This way,” Doro called, stepping lightly along the cold steel path. The ledge they were following was only four foot wide and extended in a complete circle around the lip of the shaft. For whatever reason, its original engineers disdained to include a protective railing around the edge into their calculations. The four women hugged the wall on their left, careful to avoid being too close to the chasm on the right. Laurina slipped once and several loose rocks skittered off the ledge. A sharp ping echoed through the air as one of them immediately struck the shafts’ metal lining, and then silence. They listened for a long while, but the women never heard another sound.
Mercifully, the ledge they had been following around began to widen, and when they reached a point directly across from where they started, the group arrived at a set of metal double doors.
“Ta-da!” Doro sang, triumphantly pointing to the elevator. The small gladiator reached out with a smile and pressed the call button, but it remained dark and lifeless. Her lips quivered a bit as she pressed several more time, and her smile fell away altogether as she put her ear to the door itself.
“Shit!” she exclaimed, pounding her fits on the cold metal.
“What is it?” asked Sinza.
Lil’ Doro turned and pointed an accusatory finger at Galicia. “When your friend there hacked the power in the Arena,” She began, looking quite upset. “It must’ve locked down the whole facility. And I don’t know any other way out from here. Without the elevator we are trapped, and that means I led us to a dead end.”
“The other explanation is that Athena had all of the exits deactivated from the beginning,” said Sinza. “In that case, there was no reason for you to know what she had done, so don’t go blaming yourself.”
Doro looked ready to cry.
“That’s easy for you to say now, but if her guards find us up here, we’ll be screwed all because of me.”
Laurina felt horrible. Not only for their current situation but because she had never seen her vivacious friend in such a morose state of mind before. S
he thought a moment and ventured, “Gal do you think that you can get the lift to---”
As she spoke, the green light above them flickered several times before dimming.
Turning her head, she caught sight of her sister’s face. It was slick with sweat, and her pallor had a gray tinge to it. Little wonder. During most of their escape so far, and especially at the siege in the corridor, Galicia had been using her Initiator powers almost non-stop. She was exhausted.
“This light won’t last long. My CCE reserves are diminished,” she said sadly.
Sinza moved over to her quickly and placed a gentle hand on her partner’s shoulder.
“Shut it down and take a rest. That’s an order,” she said.
Needing no more prompting, she relaxed her concentration, and the green orb faded into nothingness. As it did, the semi-darkness of the airshaft seemed to settle over them like a shroud. The women stared at each other in silence as a feeling of hopelessness began to worm its way into their minds. The feeling became more pronounced when the normally unflappable Lil’ Doro sighed heavily, slid down the wall to the floor, and sat with her knees curled up to her chest looking defeated. Sinza decided that she was having no more of it.
“Listen up all of you!” she barked in her most authoritative voice. “This is just a setback, not the end of the world. We are not dead yet! We’ll either figure out something using Galicia’s power once she’s rested, or else we’ll have to go back the way we came and find another way out of this complex.”
An abrupt thumping sound caused the women to fall silent. Each of them scanned the area trying to pinpoint the location of the noise when Sinza cried out suddenly.
“Gal, bar the wooden door! Bar the-”
On the opposite side of the shaft, the door shattered into splinters, and twenty black robed guards, with a few carrying flashlights, began to pour out of the corridor. Catching sight of the four women they raised their rifles and fired. Most of their shots went wide of the mark, but a few came dangerously close to their position.
Laurina and Sinza split away and returned fire, drawing the guard’s attention from the other two as they moved. Not to be outdone, the men of Athena’s guard also split into two groups, slowly making their way forward along the ledges on both sides. Automatic fire echoed into the air, as both groups fired toward their quarry. Hot projectiles ricocheted around the two women from the Carbon world as did their best to keep the guards pinned down, and while they managed to hit several of them, more poured in from the corridor to replace them.
“Bollocks!” Laurina swore to herself as a bullet passed by her ear.
“Not good,” Sinza whispered while ducking down into the shadows as she fired back.
From out of nowhere a flare of blue fire came to life. Two small walls of azure force solidified in front of each group of Athena’s forces, causing them to halt their fire. Galicia tapped the air around her and the fields enclosed the pursuing troops into two bubbles.
“That will buy us some time,” she said to Doro who was crouched next to her. “But not much.”
Galicia’s sister and her partner quickly made their way back to where the others were holed up. Lil’ Doro had shaken her mind out of the mental fugue that had attempted to claim her while fighting to come up with a useful strategy they could employ.
“Galicia, maybe you can try pushing them away from the corridor,” she said urgently. “Once we make it back inside, you could erect a barrier and trap them out here, while Sinza and Laurina take out anyone in the hall. The black robes will be limited in their movements due to the narrow space. Maybe if we’re lucky we can break through to the main corridor.”
Sinza smiled tightly but shook her head. “If Galicia had larger CCE reserves that would be a great idea…”
“But what other option do we have?” Doro argued.
“Not many,” Laurina chimed in gravely
“Damn! What I wouldn’t give for a grappling hook and some rope right now!”
“Or a coupl’a grenades,” Sinza added.
“I’ll give it a go!”
The other three women turned to Galicia as one and looked at her as if she had grown another head. Beads of sweat had broken out on the face of the blonde Initiator as she concentrated on the field she created while speaking earnestly to her companions.
“At least I think I can. Anything is better than sitting here hangin’ about while my power drains. But whatever we do, we have to do it now.”
Sinza looked first at Doro who nodded assent, then gazed long and hard at Laurina who reluctantly nodded as well.
“Alright Galicia, it’s your show. Doro, you and Laurina will walk right behind her, and I’ll bring up the rear.”
Once everyone got into position, Sinza nodded to the blonde to begin.
Determined to see things through to the end, Galicia focused intently on the task at hand. The women marveled as the field surrounding Athena’s guards flared up into cobalt, and began to contract. The men inside the bubble of energy were forced backward little by little, and the four began the long walk back to the corridor, with Sinza and Laurina holding their rifles at the ready. They stepped onto the narrow shelf when suddenly they heard a sharp cry from Galicia, and then the blue force field abruptly began to flicker in intensity.
Oh no, she’s losing it.
Sensing the weakening of the fields, the black-robed men inside began to push against them, in any way they could. The two groups began to slowly stretch towards each other, widening the bubble further with each step. A few of the men pressed their gun barrels against the energy walls as well, searching for any weakness.
Galicia tapped furiously on her invisible keyboard, with shaky hands. Her blonde hair lay plastered against her cheek as beads of sweat fell like drops of rain from her furrowed brow, She grit her teeth as she committed every ounce of her concentration towards maintaining the integrity of both fields.
The energy bubbles flickered wildly in intensity from cobalt to azure, to powder blue, and back. Currents of CCE arced through the field like lightning gone mad. Several of the gun barrels began to pierce the field in a few places and a low moan escaped the lips of the blonde Initiator as she fought to push them back inside.
Seeing her faltering, a roar escaped the lips of the men, and they pushed even harder. The tendons of their exposed necks were taut like cords due to their exertions and they fought madly against the wall of force. Galicia’s moan rose in pitch as she pressed them back, desperately trying to maintain her control.
Suddenly she screamed, and the walls of force began to die.
“No!” cried Sinza
The four women watched in horror as the last remnants of the twin bubbles flickered feebly and slowly began to dissipate. Galicia collapsed onto the metal flooring in a heap. Laurina wrapped her arms around her and held her close. Her younger sister’s brow was still furrowed in concentration, but her face reflected her defeat.
“I’m so sorry Laur,” she said weakly.
“No,” Laurina shushed her with a finger on her lips. “You did the best you could, and I am proud of you!”
Athena’s forces seizing the advantage, worked their way past the dying barrier, taking aim with their rifles as the last vestiges of Core Conversion Energy dissolved into the air. Sinza raised her weapon as well, while Laurina lowered her sister to the floor. As she stood up, anger and fierce determination were reflected on her face as she brought her rifle to bear.
If this is it and we’re going to die, I’m takin’ as many of these dirty blighters with me as I can.
A deep rumbling suddenly shook the air, as a massive explosion pierced the ceiling several stories above them. Chunks of metal and Plascrete plummeted like meteorites down the shaft carrying into the abyss below. Daylight poured through the opening and two black-clad figures descended rapidly on ropes. Halfway down, both released their harnesses and sped quickly down to the women. As they landed, one of them turned to face Athena’s guards just
as the twin barriers died.
Several taps in the air and the figure reformed Galicia’s bubbles with ease. The men inside who were freed just a moment before were outraged by this sudden show of power and pounded futilely against it with the butts of their rifles. A few more taps, and suddenly the twin bubbles with Athena’s forces were lifted from the ground and maneuvered forward until they hovered over the yawning chasm. Abruptly the blue power faded, and the men fell screaming into the abyss below.
“Good job Hanz,” the other hooded figure said. He turned and faced the four stunned women and threw back his hood, revealing a long mane of white hair.
“You!” exclaimed Laurina.
Recognizing the identity of the mysterious figure, Sinza immediately raised her rifle or began to. With one tap of the air, a slender cord of green energy wrapped itself around the weapon and pulled it from her grasp, right into the hands of Hanzoh Chun.
“Naughty, naughty,” he grinned.
Another tendril of power relieved Doro of her knives, and Laurina of her rifle as well, but she was too surprised by the appearance of the two men to notice.
“How did you find us?” she asked.
“Never mind that now,” Gavrael said. “We’ve got to get you out of here Laurina. Do you have the disk on you?”
The redhead stared at him incredulously.
“Do you have it?” he repeated more firmly.
Flustered, she responded, “No!”
The Lieutenant uttered a curse as he slapped a fist against his palm.
“Well, no matter. Let us get you to safety then. Follow me.”
Lil’ Doro who listened intently to the exchange, walked over and stood defiantly in front of the white-haired soldier, putting her hands on her hips before she spoke.
“Hey! What about the rest of us?”
“We came for Laurina,” he said to the women. “The rest of you can do what you will.”
Hawks Effect_Dangerous Reunion Page 8
