Stormfront

by John Goode

  “Lead the way,” I told him, not even looking back at Demain.

  There was indeed a small house up the road that looked lived in.

  “Um, is anyone home?” I asked Ruber.

  “The house is empty, but there is a body buried behind it. After examining it and the house, I believe her to be its former occupant.”

  I was somewhat relieved that I was still shocked about there being a dead body nearby.

  “How fresh?” I asked, not walking one more step toward the house.

  “Couple of days maybe.”

  “Then she won’t be needing the house, will she?” Demain said, pushing past me and opening the door.

  I snarled under my breath, “Keep it classy, witch,” and walked in behind her.

  The interior was everything you’d think it was from the outside, except it looked like someone had hacked her TV up something fierce. Ruber indicated that the dark stains I had been hoping were Kool-Aid were actually dried blood, which made the place look a whole lot more CSI than it had before.

  Demain looked around the place like the normal was going to somehow rub off on her or something. “Charming, is this a common home for your world?”

  And that was my very last nerve.

  “You know what? No one asked you to come along. You volunteered yourself because you’re still hoping to get your hands on the seed, and please don’t give me that fake-ass shocked look. I didn’t ask you to come along, so that means I have no patience for your crap. If you have a snooty or sarcastic thought you want to vocalize while we’re here, don’t. This is going to be hard enough without you pissing me off.”

  She waited until I was done and then replied with “I was asking if this was a common home or was this deceased woman of some stature? That would explain her death if someone had stolen everything of value from here.”

  Bull.

  “No, this is a crappy house outside of town and this lady probably had nothing worth taking. Why she ended up dead I have no idea.”

  “We killed her,” Ater said, standing in the doorway with Kor. When I looked at him with undisguised shock, he added, “Not Kor and I. When we came for Hawk, we came upon this house, and my Third killed the woman.”

  “Why?” I asked, surprised I wasn’t more upset. Instead I just felt tired.

  “Because he was young and thought the job of an assassin meant wantonly killing people. I corrected him of that notion.”

  “How?” Demain asked.

  “I killed him.”

  “Oh, well that would do it,” she said, looking away.

  “The town is under attack. Magical creatures wander the street causing panic and destruction. Oberon is nowhere to be seen, but he must be to blame. These things don’t normally hunt together, so he must be controlling them.”

  “Looks like he found another army after all,” I muttered under my breath.

  “This is my sister’s doing,” Demain interjected. “Oberon has no magical abilities; she is helping him.”

  “That’s not a good thing,” Ater observed rhetorically.

  “No,” Demain agreed. “This is all theater, a distraction of sorts.”

  “Yeah. Big shock! Evil queen is evil,” I said, wishing Hawk was here. “We have to stop the creatures, find Oberon, and get to my dad.”

  Ater looked confused. “Your father?”

  Nodding, I pulled the seed out from under my shirt. “Dragzilla over here is right and wrong. It’s not a distraction; it’s bait. She’s trying to lure me out by sending Oberon here to threaten my home,” the seed began to glow. “That was her second mistake.”

  Kor, who seemed transfixed by the seed, asked. “What was her first?”

  I let the power flow through me. “Being born.”

  And just like that, I was supercharged again.

  Hawk’s concerns about my attitude and how the power was changing me were instantly forgotten as I heard the discordant sounds of reality being broken one note at a time echo from Athens. Someone was breaking the rules and the universe in general was not happy about it.

  “So which one do we do first?” Ruber asked.

  “All three,” I said, knowing what I had to do. Before he could ask me what I meant, I took a half step to my right and then a half step to my left.

  And suddenly there were three of me standing there.

  The one on my right said, “I’ve got the town.”

  The one on my left said, “I’ll find Oberon.”

  “Which leaves Dad to me,” I said for the sake of the others since I already knew what the three of us were doing. “Kor and Ater will go with Right; Demain, you’re with Left; and Ruber, you’re with me.”

  Ater reached out and touched the Kane he was with, who promptly responded, “Hey, don’t squeeze the Charmin, buddy.”

  Ater looked completely lost.

  “We can contact each other,” I explained, looking at the other Kanes. “So if we need to communicate, we’ll communicate through us.”

  Kor looked at Ater and said in a tired voice, “This kind of thing didn’t happen to me before I met you.”

  Ater kept staring at the three of me. “I know what you mean.”

  Demain was not impressed in the least. “So two of them are simulacrums?”

  “No,” all three of us replied, “we’re all me.”

  “Who has the power?” she asked, sounding a little less sure of herself.

  “We all do,” we all answered. “Divide infinity into thirds, and you still get infinity.”

  She did not like that answer at all.

  “So, let’s head into town,” I said to Ater and Kor. “We can put those creatures down fast and try to restore some order.”

  They nodded and followed me out.

  “Get close to me,” I told them once we were free of the house.

  They did as I said, but Ater began to ask, “Why? Do you plan on—?”

  And we were in the middle of the city.

  “Please don’t do that again,” Kor said, sounding like he was about to throw up.

  I had to ignore his distress because of the harpies trying to drag off Mr. Podduff.

  My eyes flared and the air around their wings burst into flames. The nasty, black feathers that made up their plumage went up in seconds, and they quickly dropped him and tried to put themselves out. They called out for assistance, which brought Ater and Kor to attention.

  I could hear faint singing as forms began to seep out of the shadows that made up the alleys between businesses. The shadows became beautiful women who smiled at us with large, nonthreatening smiles as they walked toward us. Kor’s bow leveled on one, but I could sense his hesitation since they weren’t doing anything hostile.

  “What are they?” I asked Ater, who just stared at the women.

  “I don’t know….”

  The closest one to Kor held her hand out, and the elf began to lower his bow in return.

  “Screw this,” I said, focusing my power. “Reveal!”

  A wave of power came rushing out of me and what was a pack of beautiful women became a collection of hags with gaping holes where their hearts once were.

  “Ellerwomen!” Ater called out and began to swing his knives.

  The hags descended on us with talons as long as swords.

  And just like that, they were something else.

  The street was filled with a half-dozen women who had short, blonde hair and were dancing in place. Ater paused and looked at me for an answer.

  “They were Ellerwomen, now they are Ellens.” Ater looked confused. I winced and said, “Give me a break! I had to think fast. The worst they will do now is give people oversized checks. Come on.”

  I heard screams coming from You Must Remember This, so I took off sprinting toward the sound. When I got to the store, a man-sized black cat standing on two legs was trying to force its way inside. Mr. Adler and his husband were on the other side of the door trying their best to keep the thing out.

  �
�Bad kitty,” I said, summoning up some power.

  It turned and snarled at me, and I could see a white spot on its chest. I didn’t know what that meant, but I didn’t care because the raw hatred in its eyes made two things clear: one, it possessed human intelligence, and two, I wouldn’t have a chance to reason with it.

  It lunged at me at full force, and there was no time to dodge or get out of the way. Instead I reached out with my power to change the thing as it moved toward me. In midair it began to shrink from human size to child size to finally cat size by the time it got to me. Changing its form hadn’t done anything to calm it down, and it still tried to kill me with its normal, cat-sized claws.

  With one last tug, I changed it to an actual cat, and it paused in midtantrum, wondering why it had been so angry a few seconds ago.

  “Are you going to kill it?” Ater asked.

  “It’s a cat,” I told him, putting the feline down. “There’s no reason to kill it.”

  Before he could answer, a thunderous roar came from the middle of town and the streets shook like a T-Rex was coming at us. I looked up and saw a massive thing with the skin of an elephant and what almost looked like the body of a bear. It had horns and glowing eyes, and it was coming right at us.

  “Behemoth,” Kor said, sounding like he was going to piss himself.

  “I don’t care what it is,” I said, looking toward it. “It needs to get out of my town right—”

  A cold fire burned in my chest as pain unlike anything I had ever felt before exploded inside me. It was more than pain; it was… fear… death. It felt like part of me died. I used my power and tried to figure out what was attacking me.

  And then I knew… it was Hawk.

  I was feeling what Hawk was.

  And just like that, I vanished, leaving Kor and Ater on their own.

  I WATCHED Kor and Ater walk out of the house and turned to Demain.

  “Okay, let’s find Oberon and, if we’re lucky, we’ll find your sister.”

  “Don’t be so eager to do that,” she chided. “She has had thousands of years to set the plan into motion. She will be ready for you.”

  I ignored her and used my power to move us closer to the city.

  Demain was not a fan of being teleported against her will, and she recoiled from me in reaction. “Some warning next time!”

  We were near the center of town on top of the courthouse. It was the highest building in Athens and was the best bet to see anything far off.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Looking for Oberon.”

  “Dear gods,” she muttered. “Do you really think he is going to be sitting somewhere waiting for you to find him? He’s hidden, magically.” She raised her hands and began chanting a spell. “If you want to find magic… use magic.”

  A dove appeared in her hands like a cheap-magician’s trick, except I knew that was no dove. To the normal eye it may have looked like a bird, but in fact it was a spell; a rather powerful one.

  “My sister will have given Oberon some kind of nondetection spell, which means practical spells won’t find him. So instead we are going to go looking for the null spot.”

  “What is a null spot?”

  She gave me a half smile. “It is the area around a person that is covered by a stealth spell. It’s subtle, but if you know what you’re looking for, it stands out like a beacon.” To illustrate her point the dove took off and began flying rapidly across town.

  “We need to follow it,” she said quickly.

  I concentrated and the air in front of us solidified into bricks and began to form a transparent road toward the dove. I didn’t waste a second and began to run across it, following the spell. Demain was not so sure.

  “You couldn’t have just levitated us or given us wings?” she asked, touching the road with her boot.

  “You said we needed to follow, so follow!” Ignoring her, I took off and kept running.

  The makeshift road curved over the town, and from up here I could see the damage already done. Whole blocks were destroyed, some by fire, some by creatures. Here and there I saw people trying to fight back, but these were magical creatures. They didn’t come with an instruction manual. I could see the other me with the elves as I passed over. They seemed to be fighting a cat thing… better them than me.

  The road began to descend toward the school, and I felt my stomach drop. Bad enough Hawk… well, Spike had burned down the theater, but if Oberon had holed up in there, I had a bad feeling the school wasn’t going to survive.

  How did Buffy’s school last seven seasons?

  The road vanished at the front of the school, so I stepped off and waited for Demain to catch up.

  “Next time don’t look down,” I said with a grin.

  She muttered, “When you’re this far up, everything is down.” She looked up at the school. “So he’s in here?”

  “It’s your bird; you tell me.”

  She waved her arms again and two things took a step forward out of invisibility. I don’t know if those words mean anything, but one second there was nothing, and the next two nine-foot-tall Valkyrie-looking things were walking at us.

  Whatever they were, Demain was about to lose her cool.

  “Devas!” she practically hissed, backing away.

  I glanced over at them. “Don’t look like Whitney or Britney to me.”

  I concentrated on them. Now to—

  A cold fire burned in my chest as a pain unlike anything I had ever felt before exploded inside me. It was more than pain; it was… fear… death. It felt like part of me died. I used my power and tried to figure out what was attacking me….

  And then I knew… it was Hawk.

  I was feeling what Hawk was.

  And just like that, I vanished, leaving Demain on her own.

  I WATCHED the other two mes leave and looked over at Ruber.

  “My dad will be at the house.”

  “How can you be certain?” he asked, floating closer.

  “Because if anything weird ever went down, he made me promise I would head to the house and wait.” I began to summon power around me to teleport us.

  “That seems to be a rather odd request, doesn’t it?”

  “You aren’t from here, Ruber, but suffice it to say, after 9/11, everything changed. My dad was one of those people who worried about everything, so we had a plan if things got weird.” I paused a second as I felt my power anchor in place. “Hold on.”

  One moment we were in that poor old lady’s house; the next we were standing in front of mine.

  “That is an unsettling feeling,” the ruby said after a few seconds.

  I was already running up the walk.

  The moment I saw my house, everything changed. The fear I had been holding back forever, the panic that I was in way over my head, every single emotion I hadn’t been able to deal with came bubbling up because no matter how bad it got, there was one constant in my life I had always counted on.

  My dad would make things better.

  I was halfway to the door when it opened, and he was standing there, looking as freaked out as I was. I just barreled into him and gave him a hug that would have made a wrestler proud. I was crying, I was blubbering, and I didn’t care. I was home and my dad was all right.

  “Kane,” he said, holding me tight. “Why is there a floating ruby following you?”

  And just like that, the moment was over.

  I pulled away and tried to dry my eyes. “There is a lot I need to tell you, Dad, but first, are you all right?”

  He nodded, not taking his eyes off Ruber. “I was worried sick looking for you. I thought you were out in the middle of all that.” He paused. “He’s from the other world, your mother’s world, right?”

  He looked at me, and I am pretty sure my jaw was literally touching the sidewalk.

  “You knew about that?”

  He sighed. “I do now… it’s complicated. Come in off the street. It’s not safe out there.�
�

  We walked in, and he closed the door behind us. His bags were unpacked in the middle of the room, meaning he couldn’t have been here that long.

  “What day is it?” I asked him.

  “Monday,” he said, confused.

  “No, I mean, how long has it been since you last saw me?”

  “I saw you Friday when I went to California. Why, how long has it been since you saw me?”

  “Months and months,” I said, collapsing into a chair.

  “That is the time differential created by an unsecured Sending,” Ruber explained helpfully.

  Of course all that did was make my dad freak out.

  “It talks?”

  “Dad, this is Ruber, my friend who happens to be a living ruby. Ruber, this is my dad, who happens to be wigging out about you right now.”

  “Hello, Mr. Vess, I am the Raatnaraj Ruber Scientia, first consular to the Stone Throne and a good friend of your son. Pleased to meet you.” He bobbed in the air for a moment, which was his way of bowing, but my dad didn’t know that. Instead he held his hand out as if Ruber was going to grow arms.

  “Pleased to meet you… Ruber.”

  “How do you know about the other worlds?” I asked my dad, sounding a lot angrier than I really was. Actually I was exhausted, but much like infants and Paris Hilton, when I get tired I end up sounding cranky.

  “I didn’t,” he said, sitting down across from me “Well, I didn’t until Jewel called me.”

  “Jewel!” I said, jumping out of my seat. “Last time I saw her, Spike had charmed her parents and—”

  “It’s okay,” he said, standing up and trying to calm me. “She’s fine, they all are. At least they were before all this started happening.”

  “So what do you mean you didn’t know until then? How does that work?” Again with the angry.

  “You just said it; her people have the ability to charm, which is like superhypnosis actually. They can’t….”

  “I know how charms work, Dad,” I snapped and instantly regretted it. “I’m sorry, I have just been running around confused so long, and to find out that you might have known something and didn’t tell me is just….” I took a deep breath. “So she charmed you?”