by Riley Tune
The portal began to thunder now. The loud sound washed over him as the walls around him, still closing in, began to crackle with light. It was like watching lighting dance in a cloud. Hunter could feel his breathing in his chest now, as the portal began to violently shake.
He could have been imagining things but he felt like he heard a voice over the rumbles of the portal screaming out who fucked up? Hunter looked down beyond his feet once more, and this time instead of seeing an endless tunnel of green, he saw a light. “End of the line,” he said with a smile as he thought this entire ordeal was about to end.
In those moments of positive thinking, the walls closed in on him as he began to be violently slammed from side to side. He waved his arms and screamed as his worst fears were coming true. He was going to be dead in this damned green, fart- smelling tunnel. Alone and afraid. His body bounced more as he could feel the pressure squeezing on him, and then it was over.
The light consumed him as he bounced off the ground in comic fashion. Pain flooded his body as he began to groan, but before he could a hand was slapped over his mouth. It wasn’t a strong hand, and he could tell that if he wanted to, he could move it with ease. The hand wasn’t what concerned him. It was the bulging bright green eyes of Perkins, with a finger to her mouth that concerned him.
As he waited on the ground with Perkins kneeling near him to cover his mouth, he could feel sand or dirt under his hands. The ground, wherever he was, was soft to touch. He now knew why his impact on the ground wasn’t as painful as it could have been.
Then, for a moment he felt something. At least he thought he felt something. No, it couldn’t be. He didn’t want to over-imagine things, but Hunter could have sworn he felt the ground shake.
Despite the clear sign from Perkins, he still tried to speak, and as a result, Perkins applied more pressure to his mouth as her eyes glared at him. Hunter finally got the hint and looked around and could see the rest of his friends in a low position, too.
None of them were standing, and there was the sensation of the ground moving again. It was faint, but he knew he felt it. “Okay,” Perkins said in a low voice as she removed her hand and looked around. “I think we’re clear.” “Did anybody else feel the ground shake?” Hunter asked as he struggled to get to his feet.
He glanced at the ground around him and it all appeared to be sand. As if somebody had dropped him in the desert. “I did a little,” Flex said. Danielle simply shook her head but looked to Perkins for an answer all the same.
Perkins took in a deep breath but continued to look around. “That’s the least of our problems at the moment,” she said as she touched her back to make sure her twin blasters were still there. They were and for a second, she felt a little relief. A slight hint of comfort in the cluster of a mess she had landed in. Perkins nodded quickly. “They’re gone.” “Who?” Danielle asked as she began to look around. She had a hard time at hiding the excitement in her voice.
Deep down she thought a fight would be good. It was also night time wherever they were in this new world, and this only added to her eagerness. Danielle was an Icon the people of her world called a Two-Fold. Her powers would get amplified under certain conditions, and for her, that condition was night time. For as long as there was darkness around her, her energy blasts were amplified and could perform feats that weren’t available to her during the day. She could also hold her shadow form longer.
“The Warden’s Circle,” Perkins said. Hunter noticed two things. Firstly, he noticed that when Perkins spoke, she still did so in a whisper. He also noticed that while Danielle shared his expression of being confused at Perkins’ words, Flex didn’t. Instead, he clenched his jaw and balled his fists.
Hunter had seen this before. He knew when Flex went into hero mode. “Can you fill us in on what a Warden’s patch is?” Hunter said. “Circle,” Perkins replied. “Warden’s Circle. I will, but we need to get somewhere safe first.”
“This isn’t safe?” Danielle asked. “So, I’m going to go out on a limb and say this isn’t where you had set for us to land?” She had arrived at the correct conclusions before her male colleagues. “No. All of that power going off on the inside of the portal threw us off course.” Perkins eyed Hunter as she said these words.
“Sure. Blame me. Sorry if I lost my cool because the damn thing was closing on me. For Atlas’ sake, I was almost crushed.” Perkins shook her head. “Sorry. That’s my fault. I’m not a tech guru. I wasn’t able to repair the multibox to the levels needed to keep it open long enough.”
“None of that matters now,” Flex said in a low stern voice as he assumed control of the conversation. “You weren’t the one almost crushed,” Hunter tossed back at him. Flex ignored his remarks. “We need to get to your people. Are we even in the East Section?” Hunter grimaced. Despite being on the homeworld of his father, a place where he may still be considered royalty, Hunter knew nothing of Mo’eizus.
Not only did he know nothing, he never had an inkling of trying to learn of his world. Not really. Not once did he ask Perkins about anything. Clearly, as her new lover, Perkins had opened up to Flex about her world. Looking around though, Hunter felt that he still hadn’t missed much. This world looked like something out of a dystopian movie.
There was sand for as far as Hunter could see. Which wasn’t very far. The wind blowing was agitating the sand making it hard to see and the heat was almost unbearable. He couldn’t understand why there seemed to be so many empty buildings around them. Or at least what Hunter assumed were empty.
“I think so,” Perkins said. “Definitely the East Section. We just have to find our way to the Bravado base.” This portion did make sense to Hunter and Danielle. Perkins had told them about her group when she arrived a year ago. She and several others made up the rebel group of Bravado, but she never went into deep detail about why. She always just said they served the people. Hunter always meant to ask, but after a while, he just didn’t care anymore.
Perkins began to walk slowly, and Flex followed her. “Stay with me. It’s late, and the Warden’s Circle will be back shortly.” Hunter motioned for Danielle to move in front of him, as he brought up the rear. Even from the back, and with the sand blowing around them, Hunter could see the spiky blond hair of Perkins ahead of them.
He also noticed that she had lowered her goggles. Now it finally made sense to them all why she had them. This sand was messing with their vision, and they had to squint and dip their heads to see. Well, not all of them. Flex seemed utterly unbothered by the sand. One of the perks of being invulnerable to damage.
Perkins suddenly stopped and pulled her weapons from behind her. As she gripped her twin blasters, they came to life and emitted a faint blue glow that could be seen a few feet away. Hunter and Danielle made their way to stand beside her and Flex.
They all had been in enough fights to know something was up and had caused Perkins to pull her weapons out. Hunter and Flex both began to float in the air, as Danielle summoned her newly enhanced dark tendrils that were larger than that of those summoned back in the New Lords’ base.
“No powers.” Perkins hissed. “No flashy ones anyway. Only use physical- based powers. Anything else will make you stand out, and Wardens can track it.” Hunter took a breath as he dipped his head to avoid sand. Whatever these Wardens were, he was beginning to not like them.
Perkins pointed her pistols directly ahead of them. Slowly, a dark silhouette began to emerge from the sands. “How in Atlas’ name did you even see him?” Danielle asked. “It’s my spell,” Perkins replied . Danielle made a frown with her face that had nothing to do with the sand pelting across it.
“Her what?” Danielle asked. Perkins didn’t respond. “We don’t want trouble,” Perkins said as the figure hidden by the storming sands became larger. As it moved towards them, Hunter began to see that it wasn’t actually walking. Not in a normal way at any rate. It was more so, stumbling. Falling down, getting back up, moving from side to side. Like a drunk pe
rson.
Perkins noticed this too. “Please no. Nerf no,” she said as she swore. Before Flex could ask a question, the figure emerged from the hidden veil of the sands. Hunter’s face, along with the rest of his team, turned in disgust.
What lumbered towards them was a man. He was dressed in ragged clothes, much like the style Perkins had forced on them before they left. He had brown hair and a brown thick beard. Both were missing patches of hair, though.
As if on cue, portions of the hair just fell to the ground as the man moved closer. A dark, tar-like substance ran from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, and his eyes were yellow. “What’s, wrong with him?” Flex said slowly as he positioned himself between the man and the pistols of Perkins. “He’s in the final stages of the Curse of Varo,” Perkins said with a shaky voice.
Hunter remembered that Perkins had told them the curse was more so a disease or plague, and not a literal curse, but clearly, the name had stuck. She never went into more detail on the subject. As he looked at the man, Hunter could see why. “Usually the rage has consumed them by now, though.” As the words left her mouth Perkins flinched as the man screamed and leapt towards them.
Spirals of black sludge poured from the man’s mouth as his scream sounded like it had a gurgle to it. Two things happened at once. Hunter called upon a force field, and as the pale blue orb of energy surrounded him, Danielle, and Perkins, Flex grabbed the attacking man by the throat. He then flew several feet in the air and flung him back down to the sand below. The man was thrown by Flex with such force that the whirling sands around them dispersed as he passed.
Hunter, still inside his force field with the girls, made it grow even larger so they could have room to move. Perkins, guns still drawn, looked at the man. He was still breathing, but barely. Then it came to her, but it was too late. They had used their powers. The flight alone wouldn’t have been bad, but the force field that was still around them may as well had been a beacon. “Hunter, the force field,” Perkins said loudly. “They can sense power.”
Hunter didn’t ask questions. He had trained enough in his time to know when to shut up and go with the flow of things. He could tell from the tone she used, this was the time. Instead, he canceled the force field. As soon as he did, he let out a scream and dropped to the ground. One by one they all fell in agony. “What is,” Danielle tried to get the words out but instead began to scream as her question faded away.
Hunter couldn’t move. The pain had consumed his entire body. It was as if something was exploding below the surface of his skin and was savagely looking for a way out. Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped. With it, so did their screams.
Breathing hard, Flex was the first to stand. “What was that?,” he asked through broken breaths as he pulled Perkins up. “Warden,” Perkins said through heavy breathing. “Pain Conduit,” she continued as she looked around frantically, and then her entire being became consumed with fear as she looked up and saw him standing on a slight sand hill a few feet away.
“It’s too late,” Perkins said as she pulled her blasters from the sand. “The Warden’s Circle is here.” As she said these words, Hunter looked in the direction that Perkins had her twin blasters pointed. He could barely even see anything, and then it happened.
The sand itself seemed to come alive. The swirling sands and the sand- covered ground began to part with force, as if two large unseen hands had separated them. At the end of this newly formed path was a tall slender, something.
Hunter didn’t want to call it a man, though. It had a man’s figure, but none of the features. Before he could fully figure out what he was looking at, another figure appeared. This figure was almost as tall, but flaunted the curves of a woman. With this figure, the pain came again, and as his pain seemed to multiply, he fell to his knees. The last thing he saw was Flex charging forward, as the energy bolts from Perkins’ blaster covered the area.
CHAPTER 9:
WARDEN’S CIRCLE
T hat was the good thing about Flex being so durable. As he moved through the air several energy bolts from Perkins’ blasters collided with and bounced off his skin. He didn’t even bat an eye as it happened. For that matter, neither did Perkins.
Flex balled his fist tight as he moved towards the man standing on the hill of sand. As he got closer, he realized what he was looking at only had the form of a man. He could see that the creature was dressed in a black suit that appeared to be made out of leather and that instead of skin, the creature was metallic.
The face had no eyes, nose, or mouth. Just a rounded head composed of metal that reflected its surroundings. “You picked the wrong team to ambush,” Flex said as he drew back a fist. He hadn’t yet noticed that Perkins had stopped shooting and that the bolts of energy were no long surrounding him.
As Flex threw his punch, he lifted off the ground at the same time, using his own momentum from flying to put some extra force behind a punch that could already destroy a mountain. He was close now, so close that he could even see the second figure. A figure that clearly was female in some sort of armor.
As far as he knew, she was the enemy, female or not. He had known plenty of Icons back in his own dimension that were killed or severely hurt because they underestimated, or went easy on a villain just because of their gender. A mistake he never made. Having a sister as powerful and deranged as Zeva made sure of that.
Flex screamed as he sent a punch flying, but the scream wasn’t of his own power. Something had exploded in him with enough force to send the flying hero crashing to the ground. Flex rolled around and gripped at his own head, clawing at the sides of his ears as if he was trying to dig down to remove the pain.
On the other end of the fight, Hunter had gathered himself and was helping Danielle and Perkins to their feet. “Shit’s hitting the fan, Perkins,” he said as he waited for her response. This phrase was one that he had coined in training. Each member of the team knew to use it if something serious was going on, and that they needed explanations and plans fast. Flex’s only rule for the phrase was that it was to be used only in severe cases.
“Warden’s Circle,” Perkins replied as she removed her goggles. Her vivid green eyes had a glow to them that neither Danielle or Hunter had ever seen before over the last year. “They came to play, too,” Danielle said as black energy consumed her arms all the way up to her shoulder. Hunter’s eyes turned blue. “So, did we,” he said as he lifted in the air.
“We can’t take them head on with the Pain Conduit still there. Her ability allows her to target pain receptors in the brain to control as she wishes. We’re only talking and standing now because it’s usually hard to use on multiple targets for a long period of time.” Perkins looked at Flex, still on the ground in agony.
“All of her power is focused on Flex now, and for an Icon that isn’t used to feeling pain…,” Perkins stopped talking suddenly. “Where are the other two?” Danielle looked at Perkins' eyes wide, and before Hunter could reply, another slender figure fell from the sky with a sword longer than a broomstick. Hunter, Perkins, and Danielle scattered as the sword came inches away from slicing through Hunter.
“Shit,” Hunter screamed as he rolled on the ground, looked up and released the energy he had in his eyes. The sword-wielding man did several backflips and landed on the ground in a perfectly balanced form.
From where Hunter was positioned on the ground, he had a good view of their newest attacker. While he was thin, he wasn’t as thin as the creature in black had been. Thick plates of body armor covered his skin, and a helmet with visor hid his face. The sword in his hand was so large that a person with enhanced strength would have to use two hands to wield it, yet the attacker twirled the sword in one hand with ease.
As the sword twirled, it sliced through the air with a hissing sound. Each movement seemed to be more fluid than the last, and combined with how easily he dodged Hunter’s attack, suggested a form of enhanced reflexes. Hunter wouldn’t have believed it possible to maneuver with su
ch grace while holding a weapon of that size and being covered in protective gear.
Before he could go on the attack, a larger male in the same armor stepped out of the nothingness holding a gun that Perkins would envy and began to unleash rounds of red energy. Despite being dressed in the same armor this attacker with the gun was massive in size. His height and width dwarfed their other attackers, and the gun he used was the size of a small human.
Instinct took over, and with both hands held up, Hunter created a force field around the three of them. “We have to take out the girl,” Perkins said. “She hasn’t relaxed her power on Flex, so she must know how strong he is.” “What about thing one and thing two?” Danielle asked as she looked at the red energy bouncing off of the force field.
“I’ll handle them, You two stop the girl,” Hunter said as his eyes flashed blue, and he began to rise from the ground and hover in the air. He tried to keep the thoughts of possible failure out of his mind. Danielle looked at him, flexing his powers and she bit her lip. “Atlas, you’re so hot right now,” and she finished her words off by smacking him on the butt. “Say the word, boo,” she said as her darkness faded away from her arms. “That bitch is mine,” Danielle said with a grin that seemed out of place in their current situation.
“Be careful,” Hunter said as he floated above them. Neither girl said anything. Perkins aimed her blasters, and Danielle nodded. “Three,” Hunter said as more and more bolts of red energy peppered his force field. “Two.” The sword- carrying attacker leaped and attacked the force field now with such power that it made Hunter grit his teeth.
When the attacker saw no damage had been done by his sword, he looked at the force field and touched it with his fingers. This bothered Hunter. Their attacker was taking time to learn. Under normal circumstances Hunter would applaud the man with the sword, but now it made him seem all the more menacing. The man also seemed utterly immune to the red energy being blasted by his larger colleague. “One,” Hunter screamed as he retracted his force field from Perkins and Danielle.
