Pride x Familiar

by Albert Ruckholdt

  I grit my teeth for a heartbeat, breathing in hard through my nose as I ran across the building’s rooftop.

  I spoke into the palm-slate in a hurry. “I’ll call you when I have news. Good or bad, I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

  I ended the call, then slowed down in order to pocket my palm-slate.

  Afterwards, I ran with all the power and might my Fragment could afford me – all the power I could draw out of it.

  The school was up ahead, one district block away.

  I cursed myself for losing sight of the rider on that lev-bike, but I had no choice. In order to make good time I had to run as the crow flies, whereas she had to follow the streets and adhere to the traffic…or maybe not.

  As I reached the end of the block, I was one jump away from the school. A six lane street lay between me and the ten foot high wall surrounding the school grounds.

  Then I caught sight of her.

  She parked the lev-bike on a side street adjacent to the school, then ran over to the institution. With the aid of her jousting lance she pole-vaulted over the school wall.

  She seemed to know exactly where she was going.

  That was when I noticed the small drone hovering over the school – watching it.

  Was it guiding her?

  If she knew where he was then I would use her to lead me to him.

  I took a running leap, and focused the effect-field generated by the Valkyrie Armor into something resembling winged heels.

  However, I chose not to fly too high.

  Hell, the best I could hope for was a barely controlled glide.

  No, make that a barely controlled fall.

  I landed on the girl’s lev-bike, shattering it into a hundred pieces.

  This time she wasn’t going to have her way.

  #

  (Caelum)

  I looked out at the habitat sprawled before me and was once again reminded I was living inside a rock.

  One rock out of five rocks, with the largest one surrounded by its four smaller kin.

  A rock oasis within the edge of an immense cloud of dust and debris – the Hurakan Nebula.

  A testament to the wholesale destruction committed by the trans-space shockwave that heralded the Cataclysm.

  From the secluded corner of the school’s rooftop, I could see the habitat and its buildings stretch out for two kilometers into the distance. The rock ceiling overhead was hidden behind an optical field that mimicked a partly sunny day. There was even a breeze blowing strongly, courtesy of the habitat’s life support systems.

  The nine foot tall wire fencing that surrounded the building’s rooftop was the only thing preventing me from taking a dive into the school’s central courtyard below.

  I stared at the scene before me, closed my eyes for a moment, then paid attention to what she was saying.

  Oh, I forgot to mention, I was not alone in this corner of the rooftop.

  “Caelum, won’t you say anything?”

  I leaned my forehead against the fencing, then turned only my head in order to face her. The rest of my body continued to angle forward, braced against the fence on my raised arms.

  “What do you want me to say?” I gave her a cheery smile. “Oh, sorry. I should say ‘congratulations’ shouldn’t I?”

  She gave me a trouble look.

  Actually, she’d been looking troubled ever since she arrived at the rooftop.

  I forced a bit more cheer into my smile. “Bet your folks were happy to have their only daughter join a Pride.”

  “Caelum…please…don’t be this way.”

  “Huh?”

  “Tell me the truth. We’ve been friends for so long—”

  “I am telling you the truth. I’m happy for you. You finally get your wish. You’ll be joining an Aventis Pride. Isn’t that what you always wanted?”

  “I wanted both of us to be chosen—”

  “Well, it didn’t turn out that way.” I shrugged. “Who knows, maybe things will change in the future. I still have three years before I’m crossed off their list.”

  True. Though it was rare for anyone beyond the age of nineteen to be accepted into a Pride, it did happen. However, if the Symbiote didn’t find you worthy by then, chances were it never would.

  I glanced away for a heartbeat. “Then again, I’d rather I was never chosen.”

  I turned my body and leaned my back against the fence.

  “I am happy for you, Haruka. I really am. You’ve got a bright future ahead of you now. They’ll push you to get the best out of you, but I’m sure you’ll be up to the task.”

  She gave me a pained look this time. “You make it sound like I’m going off to ‘magic’ school or something.”

  “Sorry. But everyone knows that in this corner of the galaxy where the Aventis rule, if you’re a member of a Pride you get preferential treatment.”

  “I didn’t make that rule.”

  “I’m not saying you did. It’s just the way things work. They won, Regulars like us lost.”

  She seemed at odds with what to say.

  I struggled to keep the cheer in my voice and on my face. “What’s with the troubled look?”

  Haruka looked away. “Why did you call me up here?”

  “To say goodbye.”

  A sob escaped her lips.

  I watched the first tears well up in her eyes then slide down her cheeks.

  She swallowed and asked, “Why?”

  “You know the answer to that.”

  “No, I don’t. I have absolutely no idea!”

  “You’re going to be an Aventis, a member of one of the eight Prides.”

  “So?”

  I sighed. “Aventis and Regulars like me don’t mix.”

  “That isn’t true.”

  “Sorry, but it is the truth.”

  I watched her tears continue to trickle. I felt like my innards were being burned. But there’s no avoiding the truth. It bites like Hell and worse when it comes between you and someone you really care about.

  Damn it. I had to get this over with before I lost it.

  “Haruka, you and I were never that close, so it’s not like we’re breaking up. We’re just…saying goodbye to an old friendship.”

  “How can you say it like that? How can you sound so freakishly reasonable? Do you know how much this is tearing me up inside?”

  “You’ll get over it. You’ll attend one of the five academies in Pharos for the Aventis, and you’ll make new friends—Aventis friends—and you’ll find someone ‘special’ over there. Pretty soon, you’ll be right as rain again. You’ll forget all about me and start anew.”

  “Are you doing this to make me hate you? To make it easier for me to leave? And why do we even have to do this?”

  “I’m doing this for me.”

  “What?”

  I smiled at her, and this time I meant it. “Haruka, you know how much I hate the Prides.”

  She pressed her mouth into a thin bloodless line.

  I added for good measure, “If I say goodbye now, before you become an Aventis, I won’t hate you. If I do this afterwards, it’ll be just that much harder for me.”

  I meant that too.

  Once the Haruka before me became one of them, I wouldn’t see her as Haruka anymore.

  I pushed away from the fence and swung my arms, working the stiffness out of my shoulders.

  “So, Haruka. This is goodbye. I’ll miss you, but I’ll get over you.”

  I bowed to her formally.

  “Thank you…for taking care of me all these years.”

  When I straightened I saw the ashen look on her face. She swallowed a number of times, before wiping away her tears with the back of a hand.

  Then she laughed bitterly. “I see. You were always like this. Always choosing to bear everything even if it made you the villain. I really was right about you. Since there’s no easy way for this to happen, you chose to make yourself the bastard of the play.”

  “No. I
just want to forget about you as soon as possible.”

  Now she looked dismayed.

  I smiled nonchalantly, shoved my hands into my school trouser pockets, then felt my palm-slate in one of them. An idea came to mind so I pulled out the palm-slate. Calling up the screen that listed my contacts, I held it up for her to see. I made sure the voice command recognition was turned on.

  “Contact listing, Haruka Amiella…delete.”

  “Confirm delete,” my palm-slate requested.

  “Confirmed.”

  I heard a chime and knew the deed was done.

  Her horrified look deepened before her expression turned hard and cold over the span of many seconds. Then she took out her palm-slate and held it up for me to see.

  “Contact listing, Caelum Desanto…delete.”

  “Confirm delete,” her palm-slate requested.

  “Co…con…conf….”

  Her hand trembled so much the screen was leaving afterimages in my eyes.

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “Go on. You can do it.”

  “Shut up!” she screamed. “Just shut the Hell up!”

  She gripped the palm-slate in both hands but her fingers shook badly and wouldn’t go near the screen.

  “Haruka, you’re making this much harder than it has to be.”

  “Go to Hell! I hate you!”

  She turned and ran away, squeezing through the gap between rooftop structures that made this the secluded spot it was.

  I stared at the empty space she left behind.

  “That’s my girl. You never disappoint. So easy to manipulate.”

  I looked down at my palm-slate.

  “I wonder if I should delete all those photos and videos of us together?”

  I was busy mulling that for a while when I noticed the palm-slate’s screen was wet. I wiped it dry but more drops landed on it.

  “Huh?”

  I looked up at the habitat’s sky. Still partly sunny. No sign of rain. Hell, it never rains inside a habitat.

  Then I noticed it was hard to see. My vision was blurred.

  I wiped at my eyes and my fingers came away wet.

  I looked at them for a while.

  “Well I’ll be. I guess I haven’t forgotten how to cry.” I laughed softly. “You hear that Celica, I guess I couldn’t keep my promise to you after all.”

  A simple promise.

  To cry for our parents, to cry for family, and no one else.

  Well, I had no one else to cry over now.

  Yet I was crying over Haruka.

  I shuffled over to the fence. It was getting hard to see the school buildings ahead of me, and the habitat skyline beyond it.

  I shoved the slate into my pocket before I could accidentally drop it.

  I didn’t bother wiping my face.

  Big boys don’t cry, she used to say.

  Bloody smart thing to say to a ten year old about to turn eleven.

  “Gods damn it…I miss you…Celica.”

  I bowed my head and squeezed my eyes shut.

  “Why…why did it have to be her? Why Haruka?”

  Why the Hell was she chosen? Why was her body compatible with the Symbiote? Why did the Prides take everything and everyone that was dear to me?

  I hated them.

  I blamed them for my parents’ deaths.

  I blamed them for my sister’s death.

  Why did we Regulars have to be so subservient to them?

  My fingers bent the wire fencing into an unrecognizable tangle.

  I held onto it, and hung against it for a long time. Even after the school bell sounded signaling the end to the lunch break, I still hung onto the fence and refused to move.

  I had no intention of walking back to class.

  I would accept the detention this would garner me, but I wasn’t in any state to sit through afternoon lessons.

  Around me, the school grounds quickly grew quiet. I could hear the sounds of the habitat city, and I lost myself in them.

  I wasn’t thinking anything at all when I heard something land on the rooftop a few yards away. I turned in fright and saw a bundle of limbs roll across the rooftop and come to a crashing halt against the wall of the rooftop hut behind me.

  It took a moment for me to realize I was looking at a girl, bloodied and beaten to a blue pulp. I could tell she was a girl by her figure alone, though her face was covered by the visor of the helmet she wore. She was dressed in the remains of a bike suit, torn in places too numerous to quickly count. A weird black mist surrounded her right arm and the long pole she held in her hand. The mist faded and the pole vanished with it, leaving a sudden chill in the air that I felt all the way to my bones.

  My heart jumped then began to beat loudly as my mind questioned what I’d just witnessed.

  Was that a Fragment I’d seen fading back into that other space? What did they call it, Pocket Space?

  I stared at the girl.

  If that was a Fragment, then she must be a—

  A second bundle of limbs crashed to the rooftop. This bundle landed much better than the first, and I watched it resolve itself into the slender body of a girl probably no older than I was.

  She was wearing a uniform I didn’t recognize.

  Actually, she was wearing the remains of a uniform. I had a clear view of a lacy white bra showing through the rents in her white blouse, and her skirt was sporting several non-regulation slits that revealed smoothly toned thighs and—black underwear?

  She stood up smoothly on legs that resembled those of a mythical Valkyrie.

  Her hands and forearms were sheathed in black gauntlets, each with a two foot long blade that ran over the top of her hands.

  She wasn’t looking in my direction but at the girl lying against the wall. When she took a step toward the girl, the newcomer faltered and fell onto her hands and knees.

  “Damn—pushed past my limit.”

  Cold permeated the air, spreading thick and fast over the rooftop. I shivered as that strange black mist enveloped the girl’s arms and legs. When it faded, I saw she was wearing school shoes and black stockings.

  Now I was certain I’d just seen a Fragment disappear.

  What the Hell was going on here?

  Who the Hell are these girls?

  The girl wearing the remnants of a uniform gained her feet and quickly walked over to the other girl by the wall.

  She spoke in a flat, emotionless voice. “Now to find out who you are….”

  She nudged the girl harshly, then reached for the latter’s neck and chin, and removed the helmet. The girl in the bike suit was clearly unconscious. Her eyes were open and heavily lidded, but she wasn’t home.

  The uniformed girl stared at the comatose one for a long while. I watched her press her lips into a thin line, then reach into her skirt for something.

  I was surprised her skirt’s pockets were still intact, which was more than could be said for the remains of the palm-slate she pulled out. After staring at it for a moment she put it back into her skirt’s pocket, then fished around the other remaining pocket.

  I wondered if she was aware of my presence.

  I didn’t have to wonder for long.

  She suddenly stopped feeling around in her pocket and turned to faced me.

  I saw her face clearly.

  Wow!

  What a beauty!

  Near raven dark hair, emerald green eyes, and a heart shaped face.

  Even with her clothes in shambles and not looking her best, I couldn’t deny this girl was clearly an eight point five out ten.

  The only reason I didn’t give her a higher score was because I found her lacking in one critical aspect – a decent chest.

  That white lacy bra might as well have been a training bra.

  Despite the situation I forgot myself and released a heavy sigh.

  Compared to Haruka who had an impressive bust, this girl was a major disappointment.

  Even so, I gave her another good look.

  O
n second thoughts, other than her small breasts, she had a fine figure and her looks made her appear exotic. Maybe I’ll give her an eight point eight on the ten scale.

  I noticed she was regarding me with a fixed, emotionless expression on her face.

  I smiled guiltily. “Ah…hello there.”

  “Caelum Desanto….”

  I blinked and lost my smile.

  She knows me? What reason could she have for knowing me?

  Eh—this might not be good. Maybe I should be making a quick retreat.

  “Who’s asking?” I replied as I started backing away from her.

  She started walking toward me. “Please don’t make this any harder than it needs to be.”

  My eyes widened. “What?”

  Hadn’t I just said the same thing to Haruka?

  Wait, was this girl here to make me suffer for making Haruka cry? Did Haruka’s Pride-to-be send her? Was this retribution for shredding my friendship with her?

  I prepared to defend my position on the matter, but then I glanced at the unconscious girl on the ground.

  Was I going to end up like her?

  The flat-chested girl picked up her pace, then drew a menacing butterfly knife from her skirt pocket.

  My eyes grew wide and I began to panic in earnest. “Wait—wait! What the Hell are you doing? You can’t bring that into the school. Weapons aren’t allowed on school grounds.”

  “Please don’t run away,” she said.

  Are you serious? Don’t run away?

  As she raised the knife she added, “This is for your own good.”

  Gah—she really was serious. Crazily, insanely serious.

  Before I could run away she leapt toward me.

  I threw my body to the left, hoping the blade would only graze me at best.

  But then something odd happened.

  Her leap continued carrying her toward me albeit very slowly.

  It was like watching a holovid played back at a quarter speed.

  Very slow indeed.

  I had time to see the artificial sunlight glint off the blade.

  Time to see her lips part slightly as she exhaled.

  Time to see her body sail past me as I desperately threw myself out of the way.

  It was all so surreal.

  This had never happened before.

  Then I saw surprise spread across her face, before it slowly turned into elation.

  Her voice sounded funny, as though I was hearing it at a quarter pace as well.