by Brett Baker
Watanabe smiled. “I’m your father. I will always come for you girls when you’re in trouble. I promise.”
And as Watanabe returned inside, neither he nor Rin caught a glimpse of the man wearing black blast armor perched several rooftops away with the large eye of burning black flame hovering above his head indicating a scrying spell of eldritch magic.
“Found you” the man said smiling as he ended his spell, stood, and then teleported away in a flash of burning black flames.
*******
Weill sat at his command and control station, typing into a holomenu as Lexi wandered up to him.
“What are you doing now?” Lexi asked.
“Updating my algorithm so we can build another simulation model and try to determine the horde’s next target” Weill answered.
“How do these simulations work?” Lexi asked. “How can they predict where the horde will attack next?”
“Well it’s all automated reasoning” Weill replied as he swiveled in his chair to face her. “The model uses mathematical logic to determine the next target by using pattern recognition and eliminating variables that have already been attacked. I expect the model can accurately predict Lord Morbane’s next target with a 92% rate of accuracy.
“Wow 92%?” Lexi repeated. “That’s pretty cool. How did you learn to do that?”
“It’s really not that hard once you understand the math and programming behind it” Weill said.
“I always liked science classes in school” Lexi responded. “Biology, chemistry, astronomy, physics, but I didn’t like the math.”
“That’s too bad” Weill replied. “Math is the gateway to understanding the multiverse. The physics of a planetary orbit, or the spin of a galaxy, they’re built on math. Whether you go left in this universe, or right in that one and the consequences of those choices all come down to math. For instance, in 70% of universes you go left and arrive at your destination, while in 30% of universes, you go right and an accident happens that puts you in the hospital. It’s all probability. I could build a model that could determine the number of universes in which you kiss me again, as opposed to universes in which you don’t.”
“If you have to write a model to figure that out, then I estimate that based on new information, the percentage of universes where I kiss you is now 0%”Lexi replied, shoving Weill playfully in the arm for that suggestion.
“Ouch!” Weill responded, laughing. “Probability, you are a cruel mistress!”
Lexi looked around the warehouse. “Where are Chatham, Blythe, and the rest of them?”
“Chatham’s got them tending to our surveillance drones out in the field” Weill replied. “Where is your father?”
“Upstairs” Lexi replied as she drew close.
Weill put his hand in the small of her back, and guided her into himself. Their lips joined in gentle embrace at first, then he pressed his lips into hers, as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
And once again, Lexi felt the kiss moving through her, as if her very soul was aflame with the passion of it.
As she pulled away she smiled and bit her lower lip, her brown eyes locked onto his aquamarine gaze.
“That was pretty great” she said.
“Yeah,” Weill responded. “I like kissing you. We should do it more often.”
“Definitely” Lexi replied.
*******
Rin still stood on the rooftop, her focus lingering on the memories of her past.
Then a portal of black fire thundered open behind her. Rin turned to find six men stepping out of the portal to face her, wearing black blast armor.
Five of them pulled out miniature crossbows and took aim.
“There’s no need for bloodshed” the 6th, a man with long dark hair said grinning at her smugly. “Let’s all go downstairs and meet the family shall we?”
Rin sprang into action, rushing toward them. The 5 men let loose with continuous streams of rapid-fire bolts. Rin sidestepped and weaved through them, closing the distance toward her opponents. She leapt forward into a flying kick, meaning to take off the first man’s head…
But suddenly, Rin stopped in mid-air. It was as if her forward momentum had suddenly dissipated. The 6th man stood holding his fist up. Waves of magical force radiated forth from it as he held Rin suspended in mid-air by the power of his spell.
Then with a flick of his wrist, he hurled Rin down to the rooftop, picked her up and hurled her down several more times until she passed out.
“Come,” he said as the entourage headed for the door that led downstairs. Using the same spell, he lifted Rin off the ground again, and brought her with them.
Downstairs, Blythe, Chatham, and the Sergeants had returned from the field, and were stowing their gear. Watanabe and Lexi had just come down to greet them when suddenly, the doors to the street began to shake, and vibrate, and suddenly exploded, flying inward and crashing into shelves packed with supplies.
They all turned as one to spot Lord Morbane hovering into the warehouse, his arms outstretched, and his head arched back. And as his gaze descended to meet them, he grinned at them like some homicidal madman.
“Did you really think you could hide from me consort?” Lord Morbane said as about a hundred hordlings appeared in force behind him, advancing slowly in as they growled and stamped at the ground.
Suddenly, they charged in as one. While Chatham and the rest grabbed for their weapons, Lexi summoned her telekinetic hammer, but it was Watanabe who came to the fore. Leaping up into the air, he came down with both his fists and the full force of his telekinesis, striking the floor in the midst of the horde. This created a shockwave that threw hordlings in every direction.
Lord Morbane erected a barrier of mystical energy before him that deflected two flying hordlings away from him, and he smiled. “Impressive!” he said, his eyes burning with greed and ambition.
Then, Lord Morbane’s entourage appeared on the staircase from the loft behind them with Rin’s unconscious body in tow. They hurled her down onto the floor before them.
“Surrender” Lord Morbane growled, his grin turning even more twisted and sinister. “Surrender, or I will have my way with her, and make you watch!”
“Like hell you will!” Watanabe shouted as he summoned a pair of telekinetic katanas into his grasp. He leapt for the Lord of Pandeamonium. With one slice of his blade, Watanabe cast down Lord Morbane’s mystical barrier. With his other blade, he thrust forward, continuing his momentum, the tip of his blade hungering for the left side of Lord Morbane’s chest.
Seeing his own doom before him, Lord Morbane desperately brought up his hand to block Watanabe’s telekinetic blade. The katana of golden energy sliced right through it, spearing the hordemaster’s palm.
Lord Morbane cried out as Watanabe brought forth his other blade and sliced his hand off at the wrist.
And as Lexi and the others set to work on killing hordlings, Watanabe pressed his advantage with strike after strike. The hordemaster was driven back with each attack. Lord Morbane fended off Watanabe’s blades, raising mystical barrier after mystical barrier to parry his blows, but he was desperate and on the defensive as he buried his severed wrist in the opposing armpit trying to slow the bleeding.
Chatham meanwhile, turned his hydrosilicate cannon on Lord Morbane’s entourage, covering 5 of the 6 of them head to toe with the stuff. It hardened over their skin in mere moments. Only the spellcaster who’d captured Rin was able to erect a mystical barrier, which prevented his being doused.
Lexi meanwhile, spun on the balls of her feet. She swung her hammer around her and sending multiple hordlings flying while Garret, Hastings, Thackeray, Blythe, and Weill all blasted unceasingly.
With a sudden push spell, Lord Morbane knocked Watanabe backwards off his feet. Lord Morbane’s pride was wounded, and his mana starting to run low. His feet lowered to the street, where he stood, his severed wrist still tucked under his arm, and his shoulders slumping like a man exhausted. His
gaze remained locked on Watanabe as he climbed back up to his feet, his telekinetic katanas dissolving away.
“You come uninvited into my house and you threaten my family” Watanabe growled. “I’ve killed for less than that.”
Lord Morbane nodded. “I can see now how you have survived on the run for so long.” Then his wicked smile returned. “But don’t think I’m done just yet.”
Inside, the spellcaster on the stairs launched a volley of black energy at Chatham. The captain leapt aside into a roll, tossed away his hydrosilicate cannon, and drew a pair of blaster pistols from the back of his belt, returning fire in one fast, smooth, practiced action. The spellcaster threw up a pair of mystical barriers, which deflected the attacks. Reaching out, he closed his hand into a fist, taking ahold of Chatham mystically, and lifting him into the air as he hurled him back into the wall.
His ears ringing from the impact, the Captain staggered forward a few steps, the world spinning around him for a moment. The spellcaster flew up into the air above him, his hands crackling with black lightning as Chatham’s senses started to return.
His eyes focused on the spellcaster as he instantly snapped off a shot with one of his pistols, shooting the spellcaster through his forehead. The spellcaster fell back to the ground, landing in the midst of the raging horde. They all turned on his fallen form, ravenously tearing him limb from limb.
Watanabe reached out and took hold of Lord Morbane intending to crush him with the full force of his mind. The hordemaster had prepared a spell beforehand, however, which allowed him to counter this. It became a battle of wills as Lord Morbane fought against Watanabe’s crushing power.
But Watanabe was far more powerful here than the hordemaster. Had he wished to, Watanabe could eventually wear his opponent down and crush him. But no, that would be too easy. Just as he was about to break Lord Morbane’s resistance, he thrust forward with his mind. The mental shove knocked the hordemaster back off his feet, much the same as Lord Morbane had done to him earlier with his push spell.
The fight inside was a slaughter. Hordelings fell everywhere as Chatham, Weill, Blythe, Garret, Hastings, Thackeray, and Lexi thinned their ranks with blow after inevitable blow.
Lord Morbane got to his feet and looked inside the warehouse. His horde dwindling, his entourage eliminated from the fight, and with Watanabe advancing on him again, he knew there was no way he would win this battle. He could summon the full fury of the horde, but in that small space inside the warehouse they would be at a disadvantage. Left with only one option, the Lord of Pandemonium cried out in frustration; then disappeared in a flash of black flame.
Lexi fought over the unconscious form of her sister, felling hordeling after hordeling with mighty swings of her hammer until finally there were none left.
“How is she?” Watanabe asked as he came back inside.
Lexi’s telekinetic hammer dissolved away in her hands, and she dropped to her knees beside her fallen sister and checked her pulse. “Still unconscious” she replied, “but otherwise okay, I think.”
Then suddenly Thackeray grabbed Lexi around the waist, pinning her arms to her body and pulling her away from Rin. Garret threw down his hydrosilicate cannon and drew his blaster pistol, turning it on Blythe and Weill. At the same time, Hastings came up behind Watanabe and pistol whipped him across the back of the head.
Watanabe fell to the floor, his head feeling like it had been cracked open like a coconut.
“Lexi!” Weill cried as Chatham came over and stood before him and Blythe. “What are you doing Chatham?”
“I told you to stay out of this, kid” Chatham replied as Hastings went over, and placed his blaster pistol against Rin’s skull, wordlessly gaining Lexi’s cooperation.
“Don’t get involved, I said” Chatham continued. “‘These aren’t girls, they’re assets; valuable assets,’ I said. But you didn’t listen.”
Then Chatham drew a knife from his belt, and walked over straddling Watanabe’s writhing form. He Dropped to his knees on top of him, and raised the knife up to strike.
“Why?” Blythe asked. “Why are you doing this?”
“I have my orders,” Chatham replied. He brought the knife plunging down, but Watanabe grabbed his wrists, applying what strength he could against him in his injured state before the blade could pierce him.
“Dad! No!” Lexi cried, struggling against Thackeray’s hold but to no avail while Hastings picked up Rin’s unconscious body.
Maybe it was Chatham’s superior leverage, or maybe it was the blow that Watanabe had taken to the back of the head, but Chatham slowly pushed the knife down with a strength that defied description until it sunk into the flesh on the left side of Watanabe’s chest, and then penetrated into his heart. Blood spread quickly, and leaving the knife in Watanabe’s chest, Chatham climbed off him.
“It’s too bad neither of you could be trusted” Chatham replied as he grabbed an incendiary grenade, and tossed it over to the medical supplies, where it went off with a loud pop, burning them up in mere moments. Then he took a portable teleporter off his belt and tossed it down. Hastings took Rin through, and Thackeray dragged Lexi through, kicking, and screaming, and crying. Chatham smiled as he continued, “Consider this your discharge, Lieutenants. Garret, you know what to do” he said as he stepped through the teleporter and was gone.
“Sorry it has to be this way” Garret said to Weill and Blythe. “But orders are orders.” The sergeant took aim. Weill and Blythe were sure this was the end. They were both going to die. Then suddenly and from out of nowhere, a discarded Hydrosilicate Cannon struck Garret in the back of the head, and he fell unconscious.
Weill and Blythe looked over, and found Watanabe, bleeding from his wound as he lay with his hand outstretched toward them, and then he too fell into unconsciousness. With the corner of the warehouse now on fire, the two Lieutenants ran over to him.
“We’ve got to move him!” Blythe said.
“He’s already lost a lot of blood, and I have no supplies to patch him up” Weill replied. “If we move him, he might bleed out!”
“When the fire reaches those weapons racks, or my demolitions table, this whole place is going to go up! We’ve got to get him out of here or he’ll die! Come on!” Blythe and Weill both grabbed Watanabe under an arm and dragged him out into the street and away from the scene.
*******
The dimensional portal in Torvix’s hidden warehouse and nearly a hundred other locations like it all opened as a continuous stream of marching, fully armed soldiers of the Army of Order came pouring out like a flood.
Before long, Torvix’s forces had reached several hundred thousand, and they waited in strategic locations around the world, ready to strike.
Then a holomessage appeared before every person on the planet, translated instantly into every language.
“This is Prince Torvix of the Court of Order” Torvix began. “Your world is in peril. The Courts of Chaos have targeted your entire reality for destruction. So we have come to fight them on your behalf. Join us in our fight. Join us to protect your world, your universe, your very existence. Together we can purge your world of the horde and any other forces the Courts of Chaos send. Or oppose us and we will destroy you. Either way, your world now belongs to the Court of Order.”
*******
Cassandra sat in near darkness in a drug-induced haze. From her dining room table, she could see a strange light coming from the kitchen, which her brain registered, but she thought nothing of it. Strange things passing before her eyes were a common occurrence for Cassandra these days. But then a familiar face came into view.
She had brown eyes, and long brown hair, which she wore in twintails, and although she was strangely dressed in a very revealing black armored halter and a black armored thong, Cassandra barely noticed these things in her drugged state. As this familiar guest emerged into Cassandra’s field of vision, Cassandra became overjoyed at the sight of her.
“Lexi?” Cassandra sai
d as she got to her feet, went over and wrapped her arms around her tightly.
“My baby!” Cassandra cried, “You’ve come home!”
“Actually she’s my baby” an all-too familiar voice said from nearby. Cassandra was puzzled because the voice she heard was her own. Looking over toward the entrance to the kitchen, Cassandra spotted a woman that appeared to be her, wearing elegant black robes decked with intricately ornate golden ornamentation, and a horned crown of some strange black metal.
“Wha?... I… Who are you?” Cassandra asked in a disbelieving tone.
The woman shook her head. “Such an ignorant question. I’m you of course!”
Then with a sudden swift movement, the woman seemed to form a sword out of the shadows in the room, and she lunged forward, plunging the sword through Cassandra’s torso.
In shock, and sudden burning pain, Cassandra slumped and fell to the floor, her mouth trying to form words, and her eyes struggling to focus as the woman came and stood over her, with an amused look on her face. At last, she drew the shadowy blade out of her, and as Cassandra’s blood flowed forth freely, the life left her eyes.
Like a ghost, her spirit rose out of her body as if it were some glowing diaphanous specter, and flew over to the woman, who consumed it through her eyes, nose, and mouth.
Suddenly seeming stronger and more vibrant, the woman turned to her daughter, who was the spitting image of Lexi, and smiled.
“Go” Queen Milandra began. “Find your other-dimensional duplicate, and her sister… and kill them both.”
“With pleasure my queen” Princess Milaina replied, dropping to one knee briefly in a pose of supplicant obedience before rising and leaving the house.
The woman meanwhile returned her gaze to the fallen form of her other-dimensional duplicate and allowed herself a wicked smile of indulgence. “Now to leave our message for Watanabe” she began as she dropped to her haunches beside Cassandra’s corpse, and dipped her fingers into her wound.
When her grisly work was done, the queen of Pandaemonium, this other Cassandra looked up at the wall and nodded in satisfaction.
