Smoke, Vampires, and Mirrors

by Dima Zales

  No, not “like.” Given this guy’s traditional Russian shirt, this must be a chort. I guess the ones who worked with Woland weren’t the only ones of that kind.

  In the next instant, the chort’s arm solidifies back, killing the invader instantly.

  “Thanks,” Felix says to the chort, then hits another one of Tartarus’s minions in the stomach, causing the guy to fly ten feet into the air.

  Itzel did a great job with the suit.

  The rest of Tartarus’s henchmen must realize the suit is a problem as well, because a bunch of them start sucking energy from Felix together.

  Felix screams.

  The Golem’s chest opens up. In the place where a person’s nipples would be, two giant guns show up—and fire at the idiots who conveniently clumped together.

  Two explosions later, Felix’s opponents are no more.

  This is so cool. I bet Felix is controlling the suit using his technomancer power.

  The rest of the fight lasts a couple more minutes, and when there are no more of Tartarus’s spawn left to kill, Felix and his remaining allies walk up to the gate.

  “It should be stable for a while longer,” Felix says uncertainly, and then, to my huge surprise, he steps into the gate.

  His allies follow.

  I wonder why they’re doing that, but before I can find out, the vision cuts out.

  This next vision takes place in a park with an Eiffel Tower clone in the distance.

  Are architectural designs stolen from world to world as much as the comic book ideas? Too many patterns seem to repeat themselves.

  Here, the gate is already open, and the fighting must’ve been going on for at least a minute or so.

  I only recognize a couple of people from our side: Thalia, who clearly found this fight a good enough reason to break her vow not to leave Earth, and Sparkles—a.k.a. Sir Lightning.

  As I watch Thalia, I realize she was holding back during our training. Here, she moves like death personified—every twitch of her thin arms downing at least one, but usually two or three opponents at a time.

  In the meantime, Sparkles shoots lightning left and right—which looks very impressive and makes me wonder if he was always able to do that, or if the TV performance boosted his abilities to this degree.

  Just like Felix’s crew, when Thalia’s comrades finish all the spawn, they enter the gate—giving me an inkling as to what they may have in mind.

  The next vision shows me what’s happening on a giant beach near a gorgeous ocean.

  People wearing tactical gear and holding automatic weapons are standing next to Dr. Hekima and staring at the gate that materialized in front of them.

  “I’ll make sure they can’t see you,” Dr. Hekima says. “Fire on my command.”

  The rest of the vision shows me just how dangerous an illusionist can be.

  As Tartarus’s spawn pour out of the gate, Hekima hits them with an arc of his energy, and from there, they indeed act as if the armed-to-the-teeth people don’t exist.

  “Now,” Hekima says when a few seconds pass without anyone else coming out of the gate.

  The soldiers open fire.

  Tartarus’s children just stand there and take it. Hekima must block the sound of the shooting, as well as the sight of their fallen brethren.

  In a couple of minutes, the battle—or rather, the execution—is over.

  If you forget what Tartarus and his gang came to this world to do, that almost seems unsporting.

  Stepping over the dead bodies, Hekima walks into the gate alone—which probably means his allies were humans from this world who can’t enter Cognizant gates.

  The next vision is almost identical to the previous one, except it’s Jaylen who hides a whole army with his illusionist powers.

  Only his hatred for this lot makes Jaylen put a macabre twist on the whole process.

  He must be showing his enemies some kind of an illusion that makes them fight each other—which they do viciously at the same time as they get riddled with bullets.

  In the next vision, Lucretia pierces an invader’s heart with her rapier. To her right, a familiar sex-bombshell of a woman beheads another with a sword.

  Is that Pamela Anderson’s sister? But no. This is Lola, a nymph who was in some sort of sex-addiction-based relationship with Kit.

  A howl makes everyone look to the left.

  It’s a pack of werewolves, their maws foaming and their roaring so loud it makes the nonexistent hair stand up on the nape of my nonexistent neck.

  I recognize three of them. The biggest is Obo, the guy who attacked me in the hotel. A slightly smaller specimen is Eduardo, the alpha of the New York pack who helped Nero in the war on the dragon world. And the smallest of the three—but still on par with the rest of the pack—is Marius, Nostradamus’s “service animal.”

  Ignoring pathetic energy-sucking attempts coming from Tartarus’s people, the werewolves rip into their ranks and tear them into bite-sized shreds.

  Lola, Lucretia, and everyone else watch the massacre in shocked fascination.

  When it all stops, all but Marius turn back into naked men and women, then walk determinedly toward the gate.

  “You have some serious issues,” Lucretia says to Marius when he passes by her. “When all of this is over, maybe I can give you a few therapy sessions?”

  Marius bobs his furry head, then steps into the gate—and the rest of them follow.

  A group of tanks meet Tartarus’s minions in the next vision, where a gate opens next to what looks like an old junkyard.

  A dozen armor-piercing rounds later, only the tanks remain.

  In the following vision, the gate opens in a desert, and as soon as Tartarus’s people exit, a ballistic missile hits the spot, wiping them all out.

  Special Forces soldiers attack Tartarus’s spawn who gated into what looks like a military base. Supporting them is another Cognizant who helped Nero overthrow the usurper, a woman who can control animals—in this case, a huge cloud of crow-like birds.

  Once they win, she walks into the gate.

  Another group of human soldiers handles a gate that opens in what looks like this world’s rip-off of Jerusalem. With them is the elf-like guy who helped Nero the other day.

  The soldiers and the elf decimate the startled newcomers gating in, and the elf jumps into the gate.

  In the next vision, the fighting is done mostly by the members of the New York Council.

  I spot Tatum—the succubus who spoke up during a recent meeting—using her “charms” on the invaders. Left dazed and decidedly horny, they’re easy pickings for Albina, the Councilor who can dissolve matter with white streams of energy.

  Before long, there are no more enemies left, and the Cognizant jump into the gate.

  In the next vision, I spot Claudia, Nero’s sister. She turns into her dragon form, which is almost as huge as that of Nero.

  Aww, how cute. Even as a dragon, she has the cloud-shaped birthmark on her cheek.

  Claudia’s allies know the score. They run away from the gate as she takes to the air and breathes fire at Tartarus’s children before they can even think about sucking anyone’s energy.

  A second later, it’s all over. The gate is now surrounded by melted bones and scorched earth.

  Landing and turning back into a gorgeous woman, Claudia steps into the gate.

  The next fight is happening in the giant train station where Lilith and I stepped out of the hub.

  Colton—the “runt” from the tribe of giants—is holding two of Tartarus’s henchmen in his enormous hands. Then he slams their heads together, crushing them like pumpkins.

  Nearby is Ariel, proudly wearing her sleek and sexy Sugar Glider suit.

  She punches one enemy in the eye. The guy flies up three feet, then crash-lands on the ground and doesn’t move.

  Pulling out a gun, Ariel unloads it into another guy, then throws her army knife into the chest of yet another.

  Three more of Tartarus
’s spawn surround her before she can reload her gun. Two begin to steal her energy, while the third—a huge dude—hits her in the face.

  The pain and the energy drain make Ariel stumble, which lets the bigger attacker sweep her legs.

  Ariel falls down, hits her head on the granite floor of the station, and passes out.

  This makes it official.

  The energy suck does make people more prone to getting knocked out. Ariel is too tough to let a few blows impact her like that otherwise.

  Seeing her fall, the energy suckers turn their focus to Colton, but the one who punched Ariel in the face isn’t done with her.

  He begins kicking Ariel’s unconscious body, over and over.

  Even with her TV-boosted super-strength, his blows are breaking her bones, I can tell.

  Suddenly, a stream of golden energy shoots from the back of the station and into Ariel’s unmoving body.

  I follow the arc to the caster and recognize her instantly. It’s Isis, the healer on Nero’s payroll.

  The healing energy does its trick right away. Ariel opens her eyes and catches the foot of her attacker before it can deliver the next blow.

  With a vicious twist, Ariel breaks the guy’s ankle and leaps to her feet.

  The guy screams bloody murder, but not for long. Ariel whacks him in the temple so hard his skull visibly cracks, like an eggshell.

  That has to be the TV-boost. She was always strong but not that strong.

  Ariel then gets revenge on the two energy suckers who got her into that precarious situation. After making quick work of them, she helps Colton and the rest kill off the remainder.

  Enemies wiped out, my roommate and her allies step into the gate.

  Unlike my earlier visions, this one doesn’t end here, but follows Ariel to her destination.

  Very interesting.

  I’m finally going to see what all those people entering the gates are up to.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Ariel exits in a world with two suns in the sky, each smaller than normal. Patches of snow and short grass cover the tundra-like landscape, and there’s no sign of civilization in sight.

  An army greets Ariel, one that consists of pretty much everyone from my other visions but also some players I haven’t seen yet, like the squadrons of centaurs, cockatrices, and giants—all of whom look familiar, probably because they’d been Nero’s allies in his quest to win back his world.

  Ariel looks all of them over. Then her gaze falls on a group of so-called strongmen, who are wearing very little clothing and looking a lot like the cast of 300.

  Ariel smiles appreciatively and yells something to them in what sounds like Greek.

  Did she just catcall a bunch of dudes? It wouldn’t surprise me if she did.

  The cast of 300 collectively flex a bunch of muscles and grin at Ariel, then reply in the same language.

  “Hey,” Felix says from behind her. “How is life as a superheroine?”

  “Dude, stop cockblocking me,” Ariel says, turning to him. “I was hoping to get a date, but now they’ll think I’m into robots.”

  “Are these guys the same type of Cognizant as you?” Felix asks as he examines the warriors’ perfect abs and other symmetrical attributes.

  “That they are,” Ariel says, looking back at the group longingly. “They will be very helpful when it comes to killing the rest of Tartarus’s people.”

  Felix raises his suit’s faceplate, revealing a serious expression underneath. “We’re not going to kill all of them,” he says. “Some will turn off their glamour—or whatever it’s called—and hide among the humans. More importantly, we’re not here to commit genocide. At least I’m not.”

  Ariel rips her gaze away from the strongmen eye candy and raises her perfect eyebrow at Felix. “Did you miss the part about breeding pits?” she asks. “Why would we want to leave any of these bastards alive?”

  “Look, I’m all for freeing the prisoners from those pits,” Felix says. “That’s why I’m here. But, if any of Tartarus’s people surrender, they get to live. Nero said so himself.”

  “Sasha is making Nero go soft. Why do this? What will stop these guys from building up forces and attacking us again one day?”

  “Maybe Nero knows history,” Felix says. “What you suggest was almost done to the dragons at some point. In any case, the earth movers from the eighties’ world are with us for a reason. They will cause the ground to swallow the gates leading to and from this world. That way, since all of the Tartarus-bred teleporters are now dead, no one will be causing trouble outside this world ever again.”

  “Fine,” Ariel grumbles. “All I can say is that these assholes are lucky I’m not the one in charge. I would’ve eliminated them completely.”

  “Well, your bloodthirsty wish might still happen naturally,” Felix says. “Without access to other worlds, they’ll need to learn how to drain energy from humans in a sustainable manner, like vampires do. If they fail, they’ll run out of humans and die out.”

  “Which would suck for the humans,” Ariel says.

  “Again, we don’t have a way to separate humans from these guys, so we either kill everyone on the planet or just free the Cognizant from the breeding pits and leave. At least under the latter plan, the humans have a chance.”

  “Maybe the humans will wipe them out,” Ariel says. “Genocides are common in their history, so why not do a helpful one this time?”

  “Remind me never to get on your bad side.” Felix lowers the robot suit’s faceplate.

  “I don’t have a bad side.” Ariel makes a tight ponytail and stretches a few times. “Come on, the march is about to begin.”

  A new vision starts—still on the two-sun planet.

  This new location looks a lot like the prior one. I don’t think they walked far. The only difference is there’s a castle in the far distance.

  Oh, and the army.

  Two armies, if you count Ariel and her allies.

  The forces stand opposite each other on the plateau, with Tartarus’s spawn closer to the distant castle.

  “That’s a whole world worth of energy suckers?” Felix mumbles through his suit visor. “I thought there’d be more.”

  “I bet most of Tartarus’s forces died in the attack on the eighties’ world,” Ariel says, glaring at the enemy army. “These are probably guards who were left to make sure the poor wretches from the breeding pits don’t escape.”

  “If that’s true, feel free to kill them all without regret,” Felix says.

  “Oh, I plan to.” Ariel cracks her knuckles.

  With a war cry, Tartarus’s army runs at them.

  With a much louder and fiercer answering cry, the centaurs, the cockatrices, and the giants rush forward, with the rest of the Cognizant on their heels.

  The armies clash.

  Tartarus’s people suffer horrific casualties and begin to retreat.

  For some reason, our guys let them, which turns out to be a bad idea, as Tartarus’s spawn start sucking energy from them from afar.

  Very soon, Felix, Ariel, the giants, the centaurs, and the rest are on their knees, grunting in pain.

  Which is when I realize why they let the retreat happen.

  It wasn’t a mistake, after all.

  A dragon roar shakes the ground everyone is standing on.

  As the bad guys look up, they see Claudia and a whole sky full of dragons.

  “Yeah!” Ariel yells excitedly. “This is going to really hurt.”

  The dragons must’ve practiced this next maneuver. Before the spawn can switch their energy-sucking attention to the sky, they swoop down as one and cover the ground with dragon breath, leaving behind nothing but ashes.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The visions finally stop.

  I’m back in the arcade, killing Nero.

  Tartarus is still sucking energy from me and Lilith and is killing the last of our vampire allies.

  On her end, Lilith is fighting the last of
Tartarus’s henchmen.

  Damn it.

  All those visions, and I still have no idea how I can turn this situation around.

  I attempt a return to Headspace, but it doesn’t work on the first, second, or third attempt.

  That’s it. I must be out of seer juice.

  Ugh. Why did my luck help me get all those visions?

  Initially, I thought it would show me a way out. But now I wonder if the goal of the visions was to let me die knowing that my friends will at least win their part of the fight, and Earth will survive. Nero was right on that score. Even if Tartarus wins here, he won’t have an army to rely on and is therefore unlikely to attack Earth anytime soon.

  But no.

  There had to be a vision in that bunch I could use.

  Somehow.

  Then I recall something.

  Yes. It could work. But what are the chances?

  I guess I’m about to find out.

  I bring myself into the probability manipulation state of mind, but this time, I focus only on the unlikely scenario that I just thought of.

  A single strand shows up. A familiar one—as thick as a redwood tree trunk.

  Crap. This proves this idea is unlikely indeed.

  But I still have to make it work. There’s no other option.

  Wishing I could control my body enough to at least grit my teeth, I metaphysically grasp for the strand—only to have it slip through my metaphysical fingers.

  Oh no, you don’t.

  I grab for it again.

  The stupid strand eludes me once more.

  “I’m the most powerful probability manipulator on this planet,” I tell the strand and try to make myself believe it. “If anyone can make this happen, it’s me.”