by Jamie Hawke
“And that’s it?”
“Well…” She scrunched her nose, leaning in. “Ah, fine print. Gotta love that. My guess is—and mind you, it’s not always a straight translation—that the illusion does more than just make us look the part. We kind of… become the part.”
“Until I change us back, right?”
A worry came over her as if she hadn’t considered that, but said, “Yes.”
I didn’t want to argue, because this was the way forward. If it wasn’t a yes, we were royally screwed anyway. Faith was the best route here.
Without another thought to it, I selected the spot where she’d indicated. Unlike the normal illusions you didn’t feel, this time a coldness came over me. It was followed by a heavy feeling in my chest. My hands went clammy, and my eyes went wide so that suddenly I could see so much more in the darkness.
I turned to Twitch and she had that pale face, large black eyes with no whites to them staring back at me.
“Please tell me that’s you,” she said, her voice still close to hers but with an unexplained echo. I nodded, not wanting to hear my own voice like that yet. “Hey, at least you’re not all beat-up looking,” she added.
“I’m not sure humor will help us in a place like this.” I stopped at the corner, looking around for the best place to start. “It’s kind of finally settling in, what we just did.”
“Yeah, I’m reaching. Does your heart feel… kind of dead?”
“I hate this.”
“Let’s get it over with as fast as possible then,” she said, and strolled right out into the street.
I shuffled over to her, eyes searching the area for options. One of the Nihilists exited a building to our left, quickly turning down a side alley. The two we’d seen were still walking away from us up ahead, and there were echoing voices in the distance somewhere. No laughter, but the low chatter of some sort of social gathering.
A thud sounded in the distance, similar to that of a firework, but nothing lit up the sky.
“The question is,” I said, leaning over so my echo wouldn’t carry far, “where would they keep prisoners?”
“We need to ask someone.” She indicated an area that looked like a park, but instead of plants it had more twisted metal. A lone Nihilist sat there, moving a ball of purple light from one hand to the next.
“What’s he doing?”
“That seems to be their power,” she replied. “At least, here. I think when they travel, they take on different versions of themselves in a sense. Not sure why, but maybe that same power is what takes on the shadow attacks in our world.”
“Or they could have more than one power.”
As she started walking over, she said, “It’s hard to say.”
I didn’t like this idea one bit, but we were here, and the alternatives mostly involved wandering around until we found something. Another loud thud sounded, and the Nihilist looked up to the sky behind us, then his black eyes came to rest on me.
“Here to practice the arts, friend?” the Nihilist asked.
One of their kind referring to me as ‘friend’ rubbed me wrong, but I nodded and leaned up against the wall across from him, while Twitch stood nearby, hands behind her robes. Before I could get out an answer, Twitch cleared her throat and nodded.
“Soon we’ll take over the Citadel, then there won’t be any need for all this,” she said. “On that day, I hope to see one as skilled as yourself fighting at my side.”
“This little thing?” the Nihilist said, taking the ball of purple light and running it along his knuckles, then making it vanish. “A child’s trick, but I’ll be on the front lines, you can count on that.”
“There’s no battle as important,” I said, playing along to try and figure out what Twitch was trying to accomplish there.
“Soon, my friend,” he said, and reached out a pale, clammy hand.
When I hesitated, he looked at me with suspicion. I quickly grasped his hand, and he simply held it there, staring into my eyes.
“There’s something strange about you,” he said.
“I’ve been hearing that all my life,” I countered.
“Indeed?” The Nihilist turned to consider Twitch, seemed about ready to sound an alarm, but another boom sounded. He pointed as he released my hand. “Do you hear that?” In the silence, more distant thuds came, in rapid succession this time. “What you hear,” he explained, “is the fight that recently broke out in the great keep. We’ve all been warned to stay clear, except for the shadow forces.”
“Stay clear, why?” I asked.
“Outsiders,” he replied. “Odd, that you haven’t heard?”
“We had urgent matters to attend to,” Twitch interjected. “Just returned, you see.”
His round eyes found hers, skepticism plain on his face, and the purple ball returned. “You would be wise to follow orders. As much as you might want to get involved, it will only end badly for you. I’ve foreseen it.”
“We’ll take our chances,” I said.
“Me, I’ll be right here, waiting.” The Nihilist moved to one of the strange, metal sculptures, running his finger along the sharp edge of it. “It was our world too, after all. We have every right to it, every right to return to the old ways, our old forms.”
“We do,” I said in my most confident voice.
“And when we storm into their cities…” He faced me now, a smile forming, if you could call it that. His eyes didn’t change, but his mouth revealed sharp teeth. “I’ll eat the children first, then the women, then the elderly. All while their cowardly, defeated superheroes watch, helpless.”
What the fuck, was what I wanted to say. Instead, I punched him in the nose.
“Shit,” Twitch said, quickly going to one knee and pulling up pink screens where, I hoped, nobody would see them.
The Nihilist recovered, his hands shooting out so that purple light burst forth, and then Twitch swiped away her screens as the metal around the Nihilist shot out and around him, engulfing him until he was part of it. His dark eyes bulged as his face sank into the substance, his mouth already filled with shining, black metal as he tried to sound an alarm.
And then he was gone.
“That’s… twisted,” I said.
“It’s good to have my powers back,” she replied, then pointed in the direction of the large keep the Nihilist had mentioned. “At least we got our intel before you decided to lose your cool.”
“The fucker was talking about eating us. Well, supers.”
“Which includes us,” she pointed out. “I’m not saying he didn’t deserve what he got. They all do if that’s their intention for us. But… we might want to proceed with caution.”
The road to the keep was a wide one, but soon we saw a line of cloaked figures ahead, so darted off of the road into an alley. We followed the alley around to a point behind a building that allowed us to see both the guards and the keep beyond.
“Well this is a pickle,” I said.
She looked at me, then to see if I was somehow referring to my cock, and then shook her head. “Where’s the pickle?”
“I… it’s a saying. Back home, when you’re in a tight spot. You know, not sure how you’ll get out.”
“Like a pickle in a jar?” she asked. “So we’re the pickles?”
I frowned. “Is it really important?” We turned back to the task at hand, but now she had my mind spinning. “Maybe it’s more about how pickle jars can be impossible to get open? You know, no matter how hard you try, you can’t get it open. So… maybe it’s more like the saying should be ‘Well, this is a pickle jar of a problem,’ but that doesn’t work so well.”
She shrugged. “Supers don’t tend to have problems with pickle jars.”
“Oh? Then what makes it hard to get out?”
“The way it’s all slippery,” she answered. “You know, you try to get it, and it keeps slithering away, back into the jar.”
I chuckled, took her by the hand, and said, “How are we
going to get this pickle?”
“My thought,” Twitch said, nodding to the guards, “is that we get in there by pretending to be one of them, the guards, or the shadow forces he mentioned.”
I nodded, about to question exactly how we’d go about that, when a figure appeared on the wall ahead, silhouetted against one of the red streams of gases in the sky. Judging by the fluffy tail, ears, and unkempt hair, it was Charm.
“What the…?” I stared, totally caught off guard by that.
She was running along the wall, the sounds of shouting following, and then a blast of purple light shot out, nearly hitting her. Her arms flailed wildly and she looked like she was going to fall, but then a second figure appeared, grabbing her hand and throwing a burst of gold light back in the opposite direction. As we watched, a figure with glowing wings jutted into the air and blasts of gold light exploded into the night, followed by shouts and screams.
A cloud appeared coming at the figures, with more blasts of purple coming from it heading right for Charm. Blue energy shields flew up and I could see the silhouette of a head moving along the wall.
The guards were apparently distracted by this too, and when an alarm sounded from the keep two seconds later, they took off running for it.
“She has friends,” Twitch said, beaming. “And this is our chance.”
We were up, darting forward, right past where the guards had been moments ago. We overtook one, and I grabbed him by the head as we went, slamming him face-first into the stone walkway, and then I was up and running again with barely a break in my pace. A glance back showed his limp form, and when the next one turned to say something, she apparently saw this and was about to ask what happened when Twitch slid her hand in the air, a pink screen flashing in and out of existence, and then the female Nihilist was falling into the ground, stones quickly filling in on top of her.
“You’re fucking scary,” I said as I ran closer to her, wanting to ensure we weren’t separated.
“Slamming that guy with your strength probably killed him,” she countered. “I’m worse here?”
“Yes, because she didn’t even have a fighting chance. I’m like the knife you bring to the fight.”
“And I’m like the gun?” she asked.
“You’re like the eight-megaton warhead,” I replied, watching as the remaining guards turned a corner that led them to the sound of the alarm. More explosions went off, and I couldn’t see any sign of Charm now, but could see the tower where we’d last seen her.
Instead of following the guards, we broke off to our left, scaling the wall into a courtyard, and made for where we thought Charm might be. The fighting we heard meant all the guards must’ve been occupied, because we didn’t run into any. Soon we’d climbed up the side of one of the walls and managed to get in by breaking a window.
We were in the castle. Now it was all about finding my lady.
17
The inside of the keep gave me the feeling of old games I’d played that were set in castles where I spent many hours defeating vampires. Only, here there were strange, glowing lights, the occasional hand-sensor on a door, and other more technologically advanced gadgets that I don’t imagine they had in the games I’d played.
We worked our way along hallways that would’ve been pitch black if not for our Nihilist eyes, and then into rooms with crazy holo-displays that were nearly blinding. In one, there was a holographic image of a tall Nihilist in flowing robes, rippling as if the wind were blowing from the front, and he had his hands outstretched, his head raised as he spoke.
“The time to retake our world is upon us. The evil forces that compelled us to go into exile many years ago will fall at our hands, suffer under the power we pull from the other dimension. When we’ve finished with them, not a single light-eye will breathe again. It is a long journey to their lands, but we are close… growing ever closer. You have served us well as scouting parties, and when we arrive, you will be rewarded. You will lead our forces into battle, and when it is over, be given positions of great respect.”
Sounded like he was saying he’d put them on the front lines. Sure, give the living wealth, if there were any left living among them after it was finished. I almost felt sorry for these poor bastards, if not for the fact that they wanted to eat our faces off.
It wasn’t until we were almost in the room that we noticed the other Nihilists bent over, faces to the ground in supplication. Not so nihilistic, apparently, these Nihilists.
Twitch took me gently by the arm, pulling back out of there. With each step, I was sure they’d pop up and come after us or yell at us for not bowing too, but then we were out of the room, heading in a different direction. Damn, I wished I had some way of communicating with Charm to find out exactly where she was. Now that we had the ship and were forming a real team, that was definitely something we’d have to get on to.
We did, however, have superpowers, which got me thinking. I scanned, my screen showing various Nihilists nearby, labeling them as such and even saying where they were on a scale of power and rank in their militaristic culture. Useful, perhaps, but not what I was looking for.
“You okay?” Twitch said, unable to see my screen but watching me move my head about to scan.
“Checking for where Charm is,” I said. “Problem is, it only scans so far.”
She nodded, then said, “Let me try.” With her pink screens, she amplified my search so that suddenly I could see at least a hundred more Nihilist locations, but nothing else. At first. As I scanned up and to my left, there was a brief blip—Special Powers: Foresight, Shields. Notes: With the Citadel. That’s all I saw, and then it was gone, out of range. Not her, but if there was a normal super there, it could be related.
“That way,” I said, explaining what I saw as we made for some stairs and worked our way up.
“Wait, so it actually said she’s with the Citadel?” Twitch asked, confused.
“That’s right. Meaning something’s happening, something big. We need to find out what.”
She looked excited as she agreed.
Soon we were two levels up and I saw more info screens popping up. One said there was someone with the ability to make replicas of herself and do poison, another able to fly, and her powers simply said, “Divinity,” which made me very curious.
Finally, as we ran out onto an external bridge that led us to a stairway on the next tower over, I saw the one I was looking for. Since I knew her, it had more information: Charm. Loyal Lover, sexy as hell. Special Powers: Charms, Claws, Strength. Notes: Taken by Nihilist. It hadn’t said that last time I’d scanned her, so I had to wonder if this system adapted to me. Apparently, it did.
“It’s her,” I said, then turned to Twitch and let my power scan her, curious to see if it had changed, too. It said: Twitch. Lady on the streets, freak in the sheets. I stopped reading there, trying not to laugh.
She eyed me, and said, “Focus. But tell me later what the hell’s so funny.”
I agreed, and we charged for the stairs, letting my scanner screens fade now, as they were close enough to where I wasn’t worried. Except that, as soon as the scanner screen started to go, new Nihilist ones popped up, and purple beams blasted out at us.
Twitch threw me sideways and swiped her hand. A flash of pink screen, and then there was a shield in front of us that exploded on impact. She pushed up against the wall and fidgeted with a new screen, this one cutting into the wall behind us to make new stairs up.
“Go!” she said, keeping the screen at her side. “It takes a lot of focus to keep it going.”
“Meaning I might get swallowed up by the building if you get distracted?” I asked over my shoulder as I ran up the new stairs.
“Exactly, so stop talking!”
More purple blasts went by, followed by rings of golden light that appeared overhead, spreading out and then returning. I frowned, curious, and then had to look away as a blast like a solar flare lit up the sky. Heat spread out and we ducked, the stairs flic
kering, and I thought I was about to be suffocated by stone.
“Stay with it!” I shouted to Twitch, turning back to see that she was actually losing her balance. When I grabbed her by the ‘fake’ robes, I pulled her back and the stairs stabilized.
“That’s them,” she said, nodding. “I’m certain of it.”
“The ones with the Citadel?”
She nodded, and we turned back to continue our ascent. I came up to the top to see a Nihilist just starting to inspect the stairs, likely wondering if he was insane or if they’d always been there.
Imagine his surprise when I came bounding up, leaped, and slammed him in the face with my fist. A second later, he was falling back down the stairs over Twitch’s head. As she joined me, the stairs closed back up, and he was gone. A glance over showed a smoking rooftop nearby, a group of shadowed figures leaping over the side to the next one over.
“After them,” I said, my scanner confirming that it was, indeed, Charm and a few others.
We ran, my head thudding the closer we got. They were there, about thirty feet out, and then suddenly I was one with the night sky, flickering forward as clouds formed around me, and I landed at the edge of the rooftop where we’d seen them go, no idea what had just happened.
Twitch appeared a second later, materializing from a cloud, and I realized we’d traveled as the Nihilists do. This was getting too weird, but before I could comment on it, a sound from below pulled my attention.
I turned and looked down, and my heart leaped at one of the best sights I’d seen in some time. Charm stood there, on the alert, looking sexy as hell with her ass all pushed out in her squatting fight stance.
At last, we were about to be together again.
18
“Charm!” I shouted, and leaped from the wall, landing right behind her with a grin.
She spun and lashed out, a man charging up beside her with a fist that seemed to be burning. Wait, that wasn’t just any man, I realized while still trying to process why they were attacking me. That was my brother, Drew!
