by K. L. Lewis
“Are the Monumans still out there?” Mitch asked.
“I’m surprised those cavemen haven’t high tailed out of the country,” said Yue.
“They’re out there abducting people from what I’ve heard,” said Tyrone. “But they haven’t been so lucky.”
And with the Monumans being the new militants on the scene, crossfires became more frequent with the ones already established. A small niche of Parahuman Liberators lost a few members to them last week, and the HDF had the headache of dealing with yet another armed group of humans and parahumans. But what worried DeMarcus more was the Amalgam Concord. For the largest militant group, they had been quiet except for a few rare sightings near Monuman outposts, and that sent worries across the entire country.
He sighed. “It just keeps getting worse, doesn’t it?”
They entered the school, staring in awe at the larger rooms and floors. The directory fountains were wider, the Yard looked like the Rula Megaplaza’s bottom-floor food court, and the classrooms were a lot more spaced out with more holo-projectors. Come the lounge hour, there were a few old faces—while waiting for the rest of his friends under a solar tree, DeMarcus snuck a glance at Crystal and Alanya passing by, staring back at him in a way that seemed sincere. He paid them no mind, but that didn’t stop him from listening on their gossip.
“I’m surprised he’s alive after what happened,” Alanya whispered to Crystal.
“Me too,” said Crystal.
They were? If they were so kind now, why were they so spiteful beforehand? And how long would this façade of theirs last? The thought of it made him tense, but nowhere near as harsh as he tensed remembering that terrible day that was once just a thing of his nightmare.
“You okay, DeMarcus?” Yue asked, approaching him with Sarah.
DeMarcus took a deep breath, remembering the conversation between Keith and his grandfather about his mother. “Yeah. Just deep in thought,” He said with a smile, putting Yue aback with the sudden change of expression.
“Okay, now you’re weirding me out,” she said.
DeMarcus shrugged. “What? Can’t I keep my spirits up?”
The subject was dropped at the bell for their final class. DeMarcus and Sarah took their seats in their Calculus class with Crystal and Tina once again sitting across the steps. He noticed Crystal smiling at him, more warmly this time, but he barely make one back. As he scribbled the lecture notes in his tablet, he heard occasional whispers from Crystal and Tina.
“He seems okay,” said Crystal.
“I know,” said Tina. “I thought he died.”
Sarah snuck a glance at them from the corner of her eye. “Hmm, they’re actually concerned. I wonder how long this’ll last.” Then her ears perked up. “Hey, you noticed that Rafeal’s absent today?”
“Maybe he’s sick?” DeMarcus suggested. Or he probably skipped. He didn’t care either way given how smoothly today went. At the end of school, when the students rushed out of class and he and Sarah joined the rest of their friends outside, someone bumped into him on the way out of the gates. He turned to Crystal picking up her dropped tablet and drives. Feeling sorry, he reached down to help her. “Sorry about that,” he said, returning her tablet.
“No, it was my fault, I was in a hurry,” said Crystal.
“Seems like everyone’s in a hurry.”
She avoided his eyes as he handed her last file, then slowly looked back at him. “It’s…great that you’re alive.”
“Thanks?” He said, confused. His friends called for him, and he waved her goodbye on his way over. “I guess I’ll see you later?”
Her face was sullen and low as she waved back, and DeMarcus felt a need to go back and say something. But seeing her join her friends made him turn back around—he had no interest in their sassy remarks. He got enough of it already from his friends near the gates, who couldn’t help but poke at him once he reached them. “So, clearly you aren’t over her,” Mitch teased.
“What? Get off it,” said DeMarcus.
“On the bright side, at least I didn’t feel like punching her today,” said Yue.
“Look, she’s not in the mood right now,” said DeMarcus. And neither was he.
Tyrone changed the subject. “So, anyone up for the Rula? Anyone down for the Magnarink?”
“Let’s go!” DeMarcus shouted, speeding past the gates and shocking the guards.
Yue shook her head at Tyrone as they followed. “You just had to get him excited.”
DeMarcus stood at the corner and waited before crossing the street. They passed a few blasted buildings and detoured away from the construction zones, making a few turns toward the battered Megaplaza. It was a wonder how it was still standing out of all the places struck from the Monuman attack, with the soldiers standing ready for them to show up again.
Inside its surviving parts was a lot of heavy traffic, and not just the extra security. A fashion event was stationed by the southern entrance, where men and women walked the stage and dazzled the crowd with their outfits.
Sarah couldn’t keep her eyes off the human woman wearing a semi-formal sapphire dress with emerald sleeves flowing around her arms. “I like that outfit,” she said.
“Would look great at a dance,” Yue added.
“Boring!” said DeMarcus. He went to the nearby pretzel shop and purchased two pretzels before returning to the group. They stared at him as he munched on his food.
“You eat like a pig sometimes,” said Yue, reaching for a piece of pretzel.
DeMarcus yanked away. “Mine!”
Yue crossed her arms and glared at him, sparking a chuckle from DeMarcus as he offered a piece. “Jerk,” she muttered.
“You know you love me,” DeMarcus teased.
They navigated through the crowds for the Magna-rink, which also survived the monuman’s assault. Unfortunately, it had too many people already skating around, leaving them to lounge around the food court.
“Well this was bust. What now?” Mitch asked.
“We could check out the new Coalesce social shops nearby,” said Yue, browsing on her OmniMorph. “Says they’re making a new Magnarink near the edge of the lakes. Although it is near the Eastern Ruins.”
“Is that where the Monuman’s are?” DeMarcus asked.
“No, they’re concentrated in the Northern Ruins,” said Tyrone. “Speaking of which, Grandpa said he and Dad were gonna travel around to help deal with Monuman attacks.”
“But what about our training sessions?” Sarah asked. “Do we have to wait until he comes back?”
“Either LaBelle or Mironov will watch over the place before one of them gets deployed elsewhere,” Tyrone answered.
“Good,” said DeMarcus. “Don’t wanna get sloppy over the months. Let’s go check out these new Coalesce shops.”
They rose from their seats, recycled their trash, and left through the megaplaza’s eastern entrance. The skies turned dim as the sun set over the horizon, and the lampposts shined a bright blue around the Coalesce-built mini marts and restaurants near the ruins. Hard to believe this city was still on edge, but the moment was peaceful until it was ruined by the sight of Rafeal, Vearez, and Chris sitting around one of the restaurants.
“Hey, look who’s here,” Chris pointed.
“The runt and his crew,” said Rafeal.
DeMarcus turned to the three. “Oh, go choke on a—”
Sarah covered his mouth. “DeMarcus, no.”
DeMarcus grumbled and scowled at Rafeal’s grinning face, but he heeded Sarah’s words and ignored Rafeal until they walked out of sight. That was one mess they didn’t have to deal with right now.
“So, we doin’ anything else this weekend?” Tyrone asked.
“How about we…we…” DeMarcus heart thumped in his chest, and his tail stiffened at the sight of a woman standing at the edge of a rooftop on an abandoned building.
Wearing a pale yellow and white exo-suit, with four red eyes on her mask, the sight of her made hi
s mind flip over whether she was the one who attacked him in the city. A human woman walked out beside her, one with short black hair like that Amalgam member, Fara Torres. It was hard to see from the distance, and indeed the sight made DeMarcus second-guess himself as the black-haired human stepped away from the rooftop, and the woman in the pale exo-suit launched off the roof and vanished like vapor in the air.
“DeMarcus?” Sarah asked. “What’s wrong?”
DeMarcus blinked and squinted, wondering if his eyes were fooling him. He did see that. Did the soldiers? If not, would they believe him if he told them?
At the very least his friends ought to know. “I thought I saw one of those masked women again,” he pointed.
Tyrone glanced at the empty rooftops in the distance, but DeMarcus was confident Tyrone believed him this time. “Which one?” Ty asked. “The guys who tried to kill you or the ones that saved you back at the British Isles?”
DeMarcus shrugged. “I…don’t know.” His stomach burned and growled, catching the ears of his friends.
“Dude, you’re still hungry?” Mitch asked.
DeMarcus chuckled. “Hey, I can’t help it!”
Tyrone pointed at a convenient store across the street past the glowing signs of the Coalesce Emergency Clinic. “We can get something over there.”
They crossed the street, stepping over the small piles of rubble toward the store. It looked empty inside, but the door was still open. They walked in, grabbed their snacks, and waited at the register. But the absolute silence gave an eerie feeling that the place was abandoned.
“Hello?” DeMarcus called over the counter. There was no response. “Where’s the cashier?”
“Maybe they’re on break?” Yue suggested.
Mitch looked around the counter, spotting a bell beside the register, and reached over to press it. “Maybe this’ll call them.”
“Mitch, wait!” Tyrone shouted.
But Mitch already pressed it, and the floor opened under his feet, sending him tumbling down an incline below. Everyone looked down into a dark, quiet passage, hearing a few groans from Mitch.
“Mitch? You okay?” Yue asked.
“I’m fine,” Mitch responded. “A little sore though. What the hell kinda bell does that?”
“Hang on, we’ll come get you,” said Sarah.
Everyone descended the incline after Mitch—everyone except DeMarcus, who remained at the counter. He knew better than to venture into unknown places, but the thought of his friends in trouble made it difficult to stay. He grumbled on his way down the incline, reaching everyone at the bottom checking in on Mitch, who was still dazed from his fall.
Mitch recovered and his eyes widened at the corridor around them. A room sat beside them with data pads, computers, and projections of fluids floating on the table. He stood on his feet. “Whoa! Check this stuff out! This must be their lower section or something?”
Everyone followed him as he went into the room, browsing the items on the table. They weren’t anything a normal store contained, more like a laboratory with these vials all around.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be messing with this stuff,” DeMarcus cautioned.
But his voice was too low as they continued looking. DeMarcus leaned on the counter and waited, his arm bumping a plastic jar filled with a strange rust-red fluid. His eyes flashed wide at the bolded words on the label: RED PHOENIX.
“No freaking way,” DeMarcus mumbled. A tablet and a vial case sat beside the jar, with the tablet opening the same file he read back at the British Isles.
This was what the Monumans attacked the city for. This was the stuff his killers were after, and it was the very thing he lost his mother over that forced him to live this new life. Reading the tablet and matching the image of the vials on the screen, he opened a case of vials filled with the same substance. Something didn’t seem right—what kind of store has a top-secret project like this hidden underneath? Much less a high-tech laboratory?
With his friends distracted with the other equipment, DeMarcus quietly pocketed the vial case. Then his stomach jumped at the faint clacking sound from the halls. There was a low growl at the door, and DeMarcus turned to a grey, dog-like polypet standing in the middle. A PK9?
“Uh…guys?” DeMarcus said to his friends.
Everyone turned to the PK9, which let out a loud bark as it pounced. The gang scattered as it landed on the table, knocking over the vials and tablets as it chased them around. They ran back into the corridor, away from the echoing footsteps and approaching flashlights beaming from the intersection.
“Who’s there?” asked a man.
DeMarcus led the gang back to the incline as the PK9 kept chase. But the incline rose back to the ceiling, stranding them with the polypet and the people following its barks. The PK9 crept toward the gang as they backed toward the wall, shuddering as the footsteps clapped closer.
Yue pointed them into a nearby storage room to hide. “In here!”
Everyone rushed in and closed the door before the PK9 pounced and slammed its head against the surface. Hiding behind the tables, shelves, and lockers, they gasped as the polypet scratched at the door.
“What was that thing?” Sarah asked.
“It looked like a PK9,” DeMarcus answered.
“Didn’t they stop making those?” Yue asked.
They did. But what was more concerning to DeMarcus were the black, blue, and blood-red flags he noticed draping over the walls, each with five yellow bars in an A-shaped insignia at the center.
Then it all came together: the attack in the city two years ago, the pursuers who tried to kill him, Red Phoenix, and the mention of Fara Torres being said to have it. LaBelle mentioned another militant group hidden in the city, and it was clear who: The Amalgam Concord.
“Guys,” he whispered, “this is the Amalgam Concord’s base!”
Everyone’s eyes bulged, and they crouched further in their hiding spots as the footsteps reached the door. DeMarcus took a deep breath and peeked around the shelf as a tanned male parahuman entered with the PK9. The polypet kept watch as the militant dropped his visor over his eyes. “I know you’re here,” he said, swiveling his rifle around. “Come out with your hands up!”
“Wait!” cried Mitch. DeMarcus watched the man shift toward Mitch walking out with his hands trembling in the air. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know this was your place.”
DeMarcus groaned. What the hell was Mitch doing?
“What’s a kid doing down here?” the militant asked. “Never mind, just get out here.”
Mitch flinched at the growling PK9 and the militant pointing his rifle at the door. Someone had to act, now! Seeing a stun baton lying on the table beside him, DeMarcus snatched it up and rushed behind the militant, slamming the baton at their head, and knocking them out with a jolt of electricity.
The PK9 pounced, pinning him to the ground with its claws scratching his arm and snapping its jaws at the baton DeMarcus used to keep it at bay. Ty, Sarah, and Yue rushed and pulled at the polypet’s tail, giving DeMarcus a quick second to shock it with the baton. DeMarcus covered his chest to keep his heart from jumping out as he caught his breath, only for it to race once again as more footsteps pattered outside.
A woman’s voice called from the corridor. “Hey! What happened?”
Great, more of these thugs.
“Everyone, hide!” DeMarcus said as he hid behind the door.
Everyone returned to their hiding spots, with DeMarcus readying the baton tight in his hands as he stood in wait at the door. A pale human entered the room, flashing the light on her rifle, and gasping at her comrade and the PK9 lying on the floor. “Crap, we’ve got a breach!”
Before she reached for her radio, DeMarcus shot out and shocked her unconscious with the baton. The woman fell to the ground, and the gang gathered around the militants.
“Wow, she’s out cold,” said Mitch.
Yue scowled toward DeMarcus. “What the hell were you thinking?” She scolded i
n a whisper. “One of us could’ve been killed!”
“We wouldn’t be in this mess if we stayed the hell away from it in the first place!” DeMarcus rebuked, keeping his voice low.
“Look, it’s my fault, I’m sorry!” whispered Mitch.
“We just need to get out of here,” said Tyrone.
“Yeah, and how do we do that?” Yue sassed. “The way back out just closed on us!”
DeMarcus wondered the same thing, and remembered his mother’s words echoing in his mind, “Defend yourself—it may not be easy, and it might not be nice, but you have to learn and adapt.”
It made him think of all the grim moments his life that he overcame, and how this was just another struggle among many. For better or worse, it was time to do it again.
He turned to the militant’s gun, a flat, thin rifle with a large disc in the center. His friends gasped as he grabbed the weapon, and looted ammo from the bodies. The weapon was lighter than he expected, not that it eased him on what he was about to use it for.
“DeMarcus,” Sarah whispered, “what are you doing?”
“Getting ready,” he answered as he loaded the gun and hooked the electric baton to his belt. He took the other militant’s rifle, along with their pistols and ammo, and slid them over to his friends. “Take those. We won’t have a chance without it.”
Sarah was hesitant to touch them. “DeMarcus, you sure about this?”
“I know what you’re thinking,” DeMarcus answered. “But if we want to get out, we have to fight our way through. Otherwise, we’re dead.”
With those grim words, Yue immediately went for the rifle and Tyrone grabbed the pistol. “I always figured there was more to you, DeMarcus,” Tyrone said. “But damn if this isn’t something else.” He examined the white, ball-shaped bullets in the magazines. “What kind of bullets are these?”
“Who cares? They’re our ticket out of here,” said Yue.
As they pocketed the ammo and grenades, a woman’s voice spoke from the human militant’s radio. “A-1 to B-2, report.”
