Mystique's Journey

by Daniel A. Jones

  ***

  Ambassador Quinn was not happy about Mystique and Shektee not returning from the hospital. The idea of them running around killing a bunch of people they thought were criminals was bad, but the political problems it would cause if they got caught would be terrible. If he was lucky, the criminals would win and all he’d have to do is send Angelica a condolence letter.

  He had no idea what to think of Shektee. He’d never seen anything affect Major Castleman the way she did. He’d known the man for years and in all that time he’d never seen him nervous, much less scared. It was hard for him to believe that a woman could scare Castleman. Kathrin had told him that he hadn’t seen her true form, but still. The fact that both of them were scared of her forced him to admit that she must be dangerous.

  At least Angelica and Daemon were cooperating. They were set to leave in a half-hour. Once Angelica was off planet, she’d no longer be his responsibility. She was a nice enough person and he liked her, but he preferred a quiet, simple post to the high-stress, important jobs. He’d climbed as far up the social ladder as he wanted and anyone involved with Angelica was bound to be involved with all kinds of schemes. A lot of very powerful people would be interested in gaining her assistance with their plans.

  Angelica had requested Cynthia go with her, which he had no problem with. Cynthia was looking for a way up the ladder and being around Angelica would give her the opportunity. Angelica had also given her phone to Castleman with instructions that Mystique would call and he was the only person she would speak with. If anyone else answered, Mystique would just hang up. Angelica hadn’t intended for him to find out, but Castleman was loyal and so he’d informed Ambassador Quinn the first chance he got.

  Ambassador Quinn’s thoughts were interrupted by a signal from Mrs. Farnsworth informing him that he had a message. Major Castleman wanted him in the situation room as soon as possible. Quinn said a small curse before heading down to find out what the latest problem was. On the way to the situation room, Ambassador Quinn noticed Major Castleman had the embassy guards on high alert.

  “What’s the problem?” Ambassador Quinn blurted out as he walked into the situation room.

  “Shektee has shown her true form and I thought you might be interested in seeing it,” Major Castleman replied from near the holographic display. A three-dimensional image of Shektee in her combat form filled the viewing area. Most of the personnel assigned to the situation room stared at the image. Ambassador Quinn was annoyed Castleman would bring him all the way here just to see some picture, until he looked at the picture himself.

  The image was of Shektee flying. Everything else in the picture had been deleted, leaving just the view of Shektee’s combat form. It had large bat-like wings with a span of at least twenty feet. The soft female body had been replaced with a boney carapace similar to that of a crab, with spikes protruding at various angles and lengths. She still had her flowing black hair, but that was the only thing even closely resembling human. The fingers of her hands were elongated and tipped with what looked like talons. Her eyes resembled pools of oily blackness, but you barely noticed them compared to the gaping maw that was unnaturally large and filled with multiple rows of needle-like teeth.

  Ambassador Quinn stood staring at the horror that had been in this vary room earlier that day. He realized now why Major Castleman had reacted the way he had. “Are you sure that’s Shektee?”

  “Either her or Mystique, and she’s the one that claimed to be of a race other than human,” Major Castleman answered.

  “According to witnesses, a girl standing next to a taxi was shot. Then this thing stands up where the girl had been and flies up to the roof where the shooter was. Police found the remains of a man who looked like he’d been dead for fifty years. The corpse had extensive injures, including multiple broken bones. There was no sign of Mystique or Shektee in the area except for a phone call from Detective Montgomery, who claimed to have spoken to them in Mystique’s dorm room,” Major Castleman explained in detail.

  “That thing was standing not ten feet from me and now it’s loose in the city hunting mobsters. Major, I want you to hunt that thing down and kill it before it can be linked back to us,” Ambassador Quinn instructed, his normal calm crushed under the reality of the situation.

  “With all due respect, we can’t. A full squad of my best in battle armor might be able to kill it but it would take heavy weapons and that would draw a lot of attention. There’s no subtle way to kill one of those things; you have to hit it hard with something big. And don’t forget that Mystique is running around with it. Between the two of them, we don’t stand a chance.”

  Major Castleman was no coward and Ambassador Quinn knew it. If Castleman didn’t think they could win, they probably couldn’t. “How smart is she…it?”

  “I have no idea. She seemed intelligent at the meeting and acted like she was smarter than everyone else,” Major Castleman observed.

  “Mystique is a sneak, so with luck they’ll know enough to try and stay out of sight. When she contacts you, make sure she understands that if any of her activities are linked back to us I’ll brand her an outlaw.” Ambassador Quinn was uncharacteristically emotional about his instruction. He waited long enough for Major Castleman to nod his understanding before storming out of the room.

  Castleman watched the ambassador leave. Castleman, like most of the senior people assigned to this embassy, had chosen it because they’d reached the point in their lives when they just wanted to relax. They’d chosen Nebular 4 because it was quiet and nothing important ever happened here. He understood the ambassador’s situation and empathized with him, but he wasn’t the one who was going to have to fight Shektee. Castleman had a good group of soldiers and they were well-trained, but against those two most if not all of his men would die. He had to figure a way to keep this situation under control.

  ***

  “What the hell happened? I expect better from you. You can’t run a simple kidnapping,” Lenny ranted at Michael. “You have a plan to fix this?”

  “The copilot and three of the five guards on the shuttle are working for me. They’ll take over the shuttle and land it outside the city where I have another group waiting to bring Miss Grayson to a secure location,” Michael explained.

  “Okay. Let’s see if this works better than your last plan.”

  Michael stood silently as Lenny continued to rant about his failure. He was tempted to tell Lenny it was his own fault the operation had gone wrong. If Michael had full control, he wouldn’t have had drug addicts watching Mystique. Michael knew arguing with Lenny wouldn’t do him any good, so he just stood there and listened. He wasn’t sure Lenny would approve of his orders to the guards to kill Mystique if she was on the shuttle, but she had to die before she could testify against him.

  ***

  Daemon led Angelica and Cynthia across the roof to the transport shuttle. The shuttle was a little bit larger than the armored shuttles used around the city. It was triangular-shaped with the nose extending ten feet in front of the wings. A hatch was open and a set of stairs extended out from under the hatch. Daemon had to duck to pass through the hatch, but inside the passenger compartment the ceiling was close to eight feet high. The passenger area was designed for comfort with oversized armchairs lining one side and a bar on the other.

  Angelica took a seat in the front of the compartment near the door to the cockpit. Cynthia took a seat next to Angelica, while Daemon moved to the back. The guard detachment moved in and spread out around the compartment while a young lady asked Angelica and Cynthia if they would like anything to eat or drink. Daemon watched each of the guards as they settled in. They were all wearing security armor and were carrying some kind of energy rifle. Daemon had argued with Major Castleman about the guards. He saw no need for a security team to escort them to the ship. The shuttle was going straight to the ship, but Major Castleman had insisted that they have an armed escort. At least Daemon had convinced him not to make them we
ar the powered armor.

  Angelica sat back and relaxed, closing her eyes so the others thought she was going to try and sleep through the trip. Cynthia was a little disappointed; she’d hoped to have a chance to talk with Angelica. She wanted to thank her for healing her and ask that she be assigned as her aide. Mystique had turned out to be a very nice, if not a little cold, girl, but trouble seemed to follow her. Cynthia wasn’t sure what to expect from Angelica, or Daemon for that matter. Now she would have to wait until later to find out what kind of person Angelica was.

  Angelica was not sleeping. She had experienced a glimpse of the future and was trying to focus on causing it to happen again, this time with more clarity and length. In the glimpse, everyone except one of the guards was dead or unconscious and it looked like a fight had taken place in the compartment. She’d told Daemon about it, which in itself would change how the fight goes, but was no guaranty they would be safe. She needed to find out what had started the fight and who was involved.

  Daemon wanted to stand, but the young lady had insisted he sit for the flight. He’d accepted her offer of a drink and asked for a large glass of beer. She’d retrieved it from a room behind the passenger compartment and then taken a seat next to him at the rear of the compartment. Daemon took a sip while the young lady signaled the pilot they were ready for takeoff. Daemon looked at the guards and noted that three were tensing up. Angelica had told him about her vision and he had a feeling he knew who was going to start the fight. Each of the guards had their rifle lying across their lap, but only the two who were fully relaxed weren’t holding the pistol grip. The other three would have a definite advantage in reaction time. Christine, the stewardess, was relaxed, which meant she wasn’t in on whatever was going to happen, or at least Daemon hoped she wasn’t.

  The shuttle lifted off and accelerated upward. The pilot angled the shuttle at a pretty steep pitch until they were well above the city. Once they’d reached a few thousand feet, the pilot decreased both the angle and the rate of acceleration to make the rest of the trip a little more comfortable for the passengers. He’d only been told that the main passenger was a high-value asset who needed to be on the ship immediately. He’d normally switch on the auto pilot and coast up to the ship but something about this run made him stay in manual mode.

  The copilot expected the pilot to switch on the auto pilot and waited a few extra minutes. Angelica felt the surge of emotions the copilot felt as he drew the pistol from his ankle holster. She knew the fight was about to start, so she allowed her fear of the unknown to wash over her. Daemon felt Angelica’s sudden burst of fear and knew it was time.

  A muffled shot was heard from the cockpit, causing the compartment to erupt into motion. Unfortunately for the three guards, Daemon was already in motion. One of the guards brought his rifle up, aiming in Angelica’s direction, while the other two were bringing theirs to bear on their comrades. They made the mistake of not thinking Daemon couldn’t do much from the back of the compartment. The nearest guard was hit by the large beer glass while the guard getting ready to shoot Angelica caught Daemon’s battle-axe to the side of his head.

  The uninjured attacker fired at the guard sitting next to him, burning a hole in the man’s breastplate armor and chest. The attacker who’d been hit by the glass also fired but his shot was delayed a second, giving his target the chance to dive out of the way. The man’s shot burned a hole through the chair. Daemon was out of his chair and charging the nearest attacker. He summoned his axe back into his hand just in time to slice through the man’s torso, spraying guts and gore across the room. The last of the attackers fired at Daemon, but his shock at the death of his two companions slowed his reaction time and threw off his aim. Daemon was able to get his axe in the way of most of the energy bolt. The part that Daemon failed to stop burned a chunk out of his side. Daemon screamed in pain as the beast took control.

  The pain would have incapacitated most people, but the beast cared nothing about the pain Daemon’s body felt. It only had one thought: kill. The focus of its attention was the man in armor in front of it. The beast swung with the flat of the axe blade. It was going to kill the man, but it wasn’t going to do it quickly. The man dodged back as expected, but he didn’t back up far enough. The spike protruding between the blades sliced through his armor. The beast didn’t hesitate; it launched itself into the man, tackling him to the ground. The man didn’t stand a chance against the strength and fury of the beast.

  Angelica felt the beast enter Daemon and knew she had to do something to stop it. The creature was focused on the guard for now, but once it was done it would move on to the next person until it had killed everyone but her in the compartment. Her only chance of saving the others was to help Daemon regain control. She knew she couldn’t affect Daemon’s emotions, but she could heal him. Angelica focused on healing Daemon’s wound and reducing the pain it was causing. The fact that she had to project her healing at Daemon instead of through physical contact made the process much more difficult.

  Cynthia and Christine had both hidden as best they could, hoping if they weren’t a threat the attackers wouldn’t hurt them. Angelica was glad she didn’t have a screaming assistant to deal with. Cowering was good; the beast would save them for last, which left the other guard as its next target. The man had retrieved his rifle and was aiming it at Daemon. Angelica could only pray he didn’t shoot her brother. She wasn’t sure if Daemon could regenerate the amount of damage the energy bolt would do. The fact that the beast would still kill the man was a given.

  Daemon knew the others in the compartment were on his side and fought to keep the beast’s attention on the man who it was beating. The pain of his wound was decreasing and he could feel Angelica’s healing energy flowing into him. He used the strength it gave him to push the beast away. Slowly, Daemon regained control and stopped beating the dead man’s corpse.

  Angelica decided it was best if Cynthia didn’t see what’d happened so she moved over to where Cynthia was cowering and rubbed her back. Angelica used the contact to drain some of Cynthia’s energy and to increase her fatigue. Cynthia slipped quietly into unconsciousness. Angelica then started to move to Christine to do the same thing, but noticed as she did so that the shuttle was angled wrong. They were descending.

  “Daemon, the pilot is taking us down,” Angelica half-yelled to make sure he understood she expected him to somehow stop the pilot.

  The guard had lowered his rifle and backed to the rear of the compartment. He stopped long enough to herd Christine back into the galley area. He took up position at the door, bringing his rifle up to the ready position. Angelica could feel his fear, but to his credit he was working through it to do the only thing he could think of.

  Daemon was standing at the door to the cockpit thinking about what to do when Angelica reached his side. She’d decided that since the guard had Christine out of sight she should help Daemon. “As soon as I force the door open, he is going to start shooting. I can’t block the shots; they might ricochet back into the control panel. You’re going to have to drop him while I take the hits,” Daemon explained.

  “Hold on a sec. I am going to try and slow him down some. Give me to the count of twenty, then go in,” Angelica instructed as she sat down next to the door and started to meditate.

  She reached out with her senses and found the copilot. He was nervous but under control. She couldn’t sense the pilot, so she assumed the copilot had killed him. Angelica had learned it was easy to drain the energy from people and normally it made her feel guilty, but not this time. She pushed her ability, taking as much of the man’s life energy as she could. She barely heard Daemon cut through the door.

  Daemon counted to twenty and then sliced through the door, cutting the latch and lock away. He then spiked the door and pulled, forcing it to slide back into the wall where it was housed. The copilot was looking at the door in amazement as Daemon came into view. He had just enough time and energy to lift his pistol and fired one roun
d into Daemon’s stomach. It would have been a chest shot on a normal-sized man. Daemon was ready for the pain this time and didn’t lose control; instead he thrust the axe spike into the man’s chest, piercing his left lung and nicking his heart. The man died almost instantly as Daemon twisted the spike.

  Angelica heard the pistol shot and hoped Daemon wasn’t hurt too badly. She’d felt the spike of terror in the man and broke her connection to him. She didn’t know what would happen if she was connected to someone when they died and she prayed she’d never find out. Angelica switched her focus back and looked up in time to see Daemon slumping backward against the wall. He used the wall to slow his fall to the floor and landed in the sitting position opposite her. Angelica saw the blood oozing from a fresh hole in Daemon’s shirt.

  “Guard, can you fly this thing?” Angelica yelled as she crawled over to get a better look at Daemon’s wound.

  “No sir,” the guard responded automatically, not moving from his self-assigned post.

  “I can do it,” Daemon told her as he started to climb to his feet. Angelica scrambled to her feet to help. Daemon pulled the copilot out of his seat and passed him back to Angelica. She was not happy about having to hold the corpse, but they were in a hurry. Angelica carried the body back a few feet before dropping it on the floor with a thud. Daemon was in the seat and strapping in when she got back to him.

  Angelica knew she wouldn’t be any help to Daemon flying the shuttle but she could heal his wounds. She reached down and rested her hand on his shoulder while he familiarized himself with the controls. Angelica started pouring her energy into healing Daemon. A few minutes later, the major damage was healed. Angelica opened her eyes to see Daemon operating the controls.