Ivy

by William Dickstein

  “You need to listen to me,” Lochlan began to tell the Capes, but his words were cut off by Frikshen, who had grabbed two more hot logs from the fire. These were less tempered than the first improvised weapon, and the woman ran at Lochlan to swing one log after the other directly into the Agent’s face. Lochlan stood unmoving as the wood broke on either cheek, his hand coming up to catch Frikshen’s as she tried to punch him. Frikshen tried to pull back, but Lochlan held on, forcing her forward off balance.

  “Let go of me!” Frikshen yelled.

  “You need to listen to me. Don’t do this, Frikshen. Don’t—” Frikshen didn’t wait for the Agent to finish, instead bringing her foot up to push off of Lochlan’s stomach, her hand coming free in the process. As she stumbled backward, Gil fired five quick fireballs directly at Lochlan, each of them hotter than the last as they hit. With the fifth ball of flame, Lochlan’s clothes began to smoke, the dirt clinging to his flame-retardant jacket beginning to heat up.

  Satisfied that he was out of options, Lochlan took the offensive. Frikshen came in again, turning her back around as she threw as much force as she could into a spinning kick aimed at Lochlan’s head. The Agent turned his face into the kick, knowing that the metal lining his skull would have more than enough stopping power. Frikshen’s foot bounced off as harmlessly as the pieces of wood and the lady Cape stumbled back to regain her balance. Lochlan reached out, grabbed Frikshen by the shirt, and lifted the woman easily off her feet. In a single motion, Lochlan turned and hurled Frikshen against the far wall of the GHS house, the force of the throw knocking the wind out of Frikshen as she hit. Lochlan turned to face Gil and was hit with more balls of flame, two of them exploding in his face and lightly singing the inside of his nostrils.

  “Please, Gil,” Lochlan said as he walked forward, his mood module tingling harder and faster than it had since he’d come to Choudrant. “This is a terrible thing you’re doing. I don’t want to hurt either of you.” Lochlan took a step forward and a chasm appeared underneath his feet, the earth opening up to swallow him just above the knees. Lochlan tried to take another step, but could feel the dirt tighten around his legs. The Agent looked to Gil, who held his right hand out in front of him in a fist, and Lochlan watched Gil swing his left hand around in a small circle before pushing it out at Lochlan and sending another large ball of flame flying into Lochlan’s face. Gil continued to hold his right arm out and spin his left hand, the volley of flaming circles flying at Lochlan in a steady pattern. The relief from the heat he’d had to suffer all through the day proved itself to be short lived as he fought the powerful Cape.

  Having caught her breath, Frikshen scurried over. She stood to the side and delivered a kick to Lochlan’s head in between each burst of flame, making him unable to speak from the explosive kicks and literal explosions that he was bombarded with. Each time the Agent attempted to move his legs, he could see Gil tighten his right hand a little more, the dirt becoming even more compacted and working to crush his robotic feet and shins. Lochlan’s mood module ran so hot that he could barely feel the difference between the back of his neck and the front, where he was being hit with the nearly constant fireballs, although Frikshen’s kicks did little more than distract him from coming up with a proper solution that would end the confrontation in a non-lethal manner.

  Lochlan flipped open his pinkie on his left hand, bringing forward the scalpel he had used on O-Rell as the radioactive Cape had gasped for air. As Frikshen’s leg came forward again, Lochlan shot his hand up, slicing so quickly and his blade so sharp that he managed to get beneath the heavily calloused skin she had grown in one area. Unused to being hurt so badly, Frikshen yelped, and Lochlan grabbed her by the ankle, pulling the lady Cape in front of him. Frikshen yelped once more when she was hit in the back with a ball of flame from Gil, who quickly offered a monotonous apology.

  Lochlan beat down on Frikshen’s stomach, again knocking the wind from the woman before grabbing her once more by the shirt. Frikshen yelled for help with her last bit of breath, and Gil’s left hand pushed forward and then quickly back, a gust of air sweeping under Frikshen to carry her away. Lochlan held his grip in spite of the pull and slammed Frikshen back into the ground, hitting her in the stomach again as she landed. The blow hit hard, hurting the woman in spite of her protective coating, and Frikshen doubled over in pain. Lochlan hit her once more before flinging her easily to the side, where she rolled away before crashing into the fence that separated the yard from the street behind it.

  Gil released a heavy breath, obviously frustrated, and the Elementalist tightened his fist again. Compacted nearly to coal, Lochlan felt some of the rocks in the clumpy earth begin to slide onto him, their heavy weight carrying them through the smaller particles. The rocks quickly fragmented as they pushed against his legs, the shards sliding up along his pants until they surfaced. Gil began to shoot balls of flame again, Lochlan’s skin, and the blood substitute underneath, well beyond the point that it could have boiled had it been a normal human withstanding the onslaught.

  Two larger chunks of rock surfaced just in front of Lochlan, and the agent reached down to grab them both. In a fluid motion, Lochlan pulled back and fired the first rock at Gil’s right hand, which was holding the crushing earth around the Agent’s legs. Gil reached out his left hand and stopped the missile, but his attention was turned so fully to the first rock, he didn’t see the second one coming just to the side. Lochlan managed to hit the Elementalist directly in the forehead, stunning Gil as the small rock split his eyebrow. The Elementalist held his face with one hand and tightened the earth around Lochlan once more with the other. This caused more rocks to slide to the surface, giving Lochlan even more ammunition. Each rock was only a few ounces, but they had more than enough mass to do the damage the Agent needed them to.

  Lochlan’s enhancements enabled him to fire off the rocks from his hands with the dexterity and efficiency of a world-class darts player. The rocks all found the points he’d aimed for, their stinging bite hitting Gil hard enough to break skin as well as the Elementalist’s concentration. By the fifth rock, Gil was bleeding from numerous places on his head and neck, and the earth around Lochlan’s legs had begun to loosen. Lochlan was clawing his way out of the ground before the tenth rock had hit, his skin enjoying the break from the flame as he gradually turned the tables on Gil.

  But Gil’s gene was too strong for him to be beaten so easily.

  Gil shook his head, drops of blood flying from various cuts on his face, and stuck his hands out, causing the blood to freeze in mid-air. The droplets flew forward, some of them forming into larger spikes, and crashed into the Agent. Lochlan covered his face as the frozen blood hit, but continued to walk forward. Gil screamed, his hands like claws as he pointed them at the ground, raking through the air as if he were tilling a field. Gil jumped backward, clawing midair again as he flew, and huge patches of the yard began to levitate. Gil flung his hands forward one after another, and the pieces of the ground hit Lochlan on every side, the Agent bracing for impact each time. One clump of earth was heavy enough to nearly knock Lochlan from his feet, but he managed to continue on, much slower than before. Gil screamed again, and the man’s face grew red, causing the shallow wounds on his face and neck to remain open. Blood continued to drip down through Gil’s field of vision, but the man stood unblinking, his hands spinning in small circles as he resumed throwing balls of flame once more.

  “Gil, just stop,” Lochlan said flatly. “Whatever this is, we can still talk about it.”

  “You don’t know anything!” Gil yelled back. Balls of flame twice the size of what he’d thrown before flew at the Agent, each of them exploding as they hit and causing small holes to begin to appear in Lochlan’s shirt and jacket. Lochlan’s internal sensors registered parts of his skin at over four hundred degrees Fahrenheit, the Agent’s mood module on overdrive as it worked to keep Lochlan’s tone calm as he spoke.

  Lochlan took three steps forward through the constant bo
ut of flames, and tried once more to reason with the Elementalist. “Gil, you need to think. Think about what happens if you continue.” More than once, Lochlan tried to sidestep the floating fire, but the balls managed to curve, and the explosions knocked him back from what little ground he was gaining on Gil, Lochlan looking more like a hamster on a wheel than a man who was walking forward.

  Gil threw three of the biggest fireballs the Cape had ever conjured, trying as best as he could to simply melt the Agent before Lochlan could reach him. When the third ball of flame exploded, with Lochlan continuing to walk forward, Gil snarled in protest. The Elementalist’s hands shot forward and back and a gust of wind swept under Gil to carry him back the remaining length of the yard. To his credit, Gil might have managed to do long-lasting damage with his flames if he could shoot them in a stream rather than bursts. The blast of air, however, only served to cool Lochlan off, which he welcomed—on many levels.

  The air also served to knock Lochlan’s mood module free from his neck. The tiny machine had loosened when the air first struck the Agent, and it tore completely free of Lochlan’s body as the last leg of the wind passed over him.

  Lochlan’s mechanical heart began to race. His body filled with adrenaline, something it hadn’t done for years, and his hands started to shake. Lochlan felt his vision tunnel as he stared at Gil, the Cape standing still as well, perhaps wondering if he’d somehow managed to shut the Agent down. Lochlan’s internal systems screamed at him, his electronic notebook pushing warnings into the Agent’s brain at a thousand miles an hour. Lochlan’s head became so full of noise he couldn’t hear that Frikshen had finally gotten up and was running full speed at Lochlan.

  Frikshen jumped through the air, both feet flying forward at the Agent. Lochlan let out an inhuman noise on impact and the windows of the GHS house behind him shattered. Lochlan reached over as Frikshen’s feet struck him and turned a full circle after grabbing her by the ankles, flinging so much blood so quickly into Frikshen’s brain that she passed out, the lady Cape having no idea that Lochlan was throwing her at Gil.

  Gil raised a piece of earth just in time to deflect his partner-turned-missile and thought to go on the counter attack, but Lochlan was too quick. Even before he’d completed his throw, Lochlan was already screaming again, running on a path to Gil at a hundred or more miles an hour. Lochlan was a cheetah on steroids as he bounded over to the Elementalist, giving Gil no time to breathe before Lochlan crashed into him.

  The systems in Lochlan’s mind continued to issue warnings, the Agent’s electronic notebook executing a program designed for such a scenario. Running the program pulled Lochlan’s attention away long enough for Gil to shoot a blast of air in between the two of them— the Cape immediately yelled out in pain as he realized the weight of Lochlan’s body had broken one of his arms. Lochlan landed to the side of Gil and the notebook continued to yell at the Agent. Gil was up on his feet in an instant, sending fire once again raining down on Lochlan in quick bursts. The notebook was worse, was more distracting, than Frikshen had been when she was kicking Lochlan while he was stuck in the earth. Snarling, Lochlan reached into his pocket and retrieved the electronic device, then turned it sideways and flung it at Gil. The device flew through the flame and hit Gil directly in his forehead, wedging inside of an existing cut. The Cape screamed out in pain and was quickly cut off by Lochlan, the Agent’s hand around Gil’s throat in an instant.

  Lochlan choke-slammed Gil into the ground, and then picked the Cape back up by his shirt to slam him again three more times. Gil’s legs pointed straight at the sky on the third slam, and Lochlan could feel the Cape’s head bobble and Gil’s body go limp.

  Lochlan released Gil and stood up, his vision no longer tunneled. The Agent’s eyes were wide and full of fury, but his body was beginning to calm down, his breathing less quick than it had been. He could feel his heart as the beating slowed, and tried to make sense of the scene around him. Frikshen and Gil were still alive—even though Lochlan had succumbed to his rage, he hadn’t killed either of the Capes. Frikshen would wake up with some broken bones and a massive headache, and Gil would have some broken things as well, but the both of them were still breathing. Lochlan had damaged his electronic notebook, but the device continued to scream in his mind, so he knew it was still operational. Even without the tiny module in his neck, Lochlan’s mood began to stabilize.

  Then the noise from the big top carried over, the sound of elephants and circus music sliding past the myriad of sounds playing in his head, and Lochlan thought of the people on Main Street. He thought of the ragged clothing and the abundance of food stuck on display in front of children who were obviously starving, and the tunnel vision returned. Lochlan jumped high and far, flying through the air to the street behind the yard, no thought in his mind at all about cleaning up the fight he’d had with the Capes. Frikshen woke up to an empty yard and the smell of scorched earth, the sight of her broken partner before her, and she screamed.

  But Lochlan was already too far away to hear her.

  Khard sat on top of the Halley’s property, the old roof not quite as water damaged as other parts of the house, and wondered briefly whether his body was too heavy for the structure to support him. Being so full of metal was still new to the Cape-turned-Agent, and he was concerned that the post he had picked might not have been as ideal as it seemed.

  We would be sad if Khard broke the house. We like that house very much.

  Well, even if he fell through the roof, the rest of the house would be alright.

  Oh. That would not be so bad, then.

  Khard was finding it increasingly difficult to pay attention to anything other than the sky above him, so clear were the stars in Choudrant in comparison to where he’d grown up. The older Agent let himself forget for just a moment that he was supposed to be looking out for O-Rell, and instead concentrated on naming as many constellations as he could rather than look out for the radioactive Specian. The field of multicolored flowers to his left, right, and center swayed lightly in the cool breeze the night brought his way, and he caught the faint scent of something delicious, the aroma of the food from the vendors on Main Street carrying all the way to where he was.

  Khard turned to look at the tiny lights of the small city and zoomed in his vision using the enhancements in his eyes; he was surprised to see that there were so many people gathered at such a late hour.

  “How eerie,” the older Agent said to himself, his attention then pulled to the truck that turned off of the far road to head to the Halley’s property. “And how interesting. Who is this?” he asked no one in particular.

  Khard likes to talk to himself.

  Eh, I can relate.

  The older Agent jumped easily from the roof, landing on the Halley’s front lawn; the soft grass crushed under his feet, and his body almost sunk into the wet earth. He thought to walk over to the gate, but could see it opening before he had the chance. The truck pulled around and onto the cemented parking lot next to the lawn, and Khard put on a smile as he saw who it was.

  “Chief Rainch,” Khard called out. “What brings you down here? I just realized I forgot to give you a call.”

  Chief Rainch stretched her limbs before walking over, shaking her legs out a bit on her way. “Lucy forgot some things. I came back to collect ‘em, was gonna drive them over to her in the morning. I’m surprised to see you here, though, Agent Khard.”

  “We saw O-Rell,” Khard said.

  “You did?! Do you have him now? Is he inside?” Chief Rainch started to walk to the front door, then stopped and turned back to Khard. “He didn’t… I mean, did he tell y’all what the hell is goin’ on?” The chief’s face was blank as she asked, in spite of the inflection injected into her voice.

  “Unfortunately, he ran off before we could speak with him. Is that really what you were going to ask though, Chief Rainch?”

  “Well what happened, then? You saw him and he ran away?”

  “That’s almost exac
tly the way it went. We were surprised by the running, as O-Rell’s appearance placed him much closer to death than to being in any kind of shape to run— especially as fast as he did. His lungs were nearly crushed under the weight of the liquid that had pooled inside of him, and then only a moment later he was bounding off into the forest, too fast for me to catch. We decided to come back here and wait, to see if he comes back, after leaving the… what did Wallace call it… the Choudrant Station.”

  “Y’all been to the station, huh?”

  “Indeed.”

  “You know where Wallace is?”

  “I do not.”

  The chief blew out a long sigh. “You know something, Agent Khard? I think I’m getting too old for this.”

  Khard smiled. “I can share the sentiments, Chief Rainch.”

  “Oh, call me Syndi. I ain’t been a proper Chief of Police for almost a decade. Come on, let’s go have a drink inside. There’s some truth I think it’s time I told you, before you go uncovering anything else and getting the wrong idea. Lucy’s got some local whiskey. It ain’t much, but it’s the best you’ll find for a hunnerd miles or more.”

  “Music to my ears,” Khard replied as they walked through the door. Chief Rainch—Syndi—flipped a few lights on before grabbing some glasses from the cupboard. The whiskey was in the freezer, and Syndi poured two tall glasses, then drank both of them one after another in a single gulp before pouring two more. Fresh whiskey in both hands, she walked back over to sit across from Khard in the waiting area.

  “Alright,” Syndi said. “How much have you put together?”

  Khard laughed. “Not much. Why didn’t you tell us about that underground facility? Or why there’s a warehouse where you’re printing robots using scrap metal?”