by Zack Archer
“The Morningstars are here!”
I spotted the touch-pad and reached out a hand when something gripped my wrist and yanked my arm back. It was a tendril of smoky light that had speared through the open balcony doors.
The tendril wrapped like a vine around my wrist with such force that it nearly cut the circulation off. I swung my other arm around and the same thing happened. I was kneeling on the ground, arms pinned behind my back.
I torqued my head up, struggling to break my bonds and that’s when she appeared.
Big Dread herself.
Floating out over the balcony.
She licked her ruby-red lips, flashing that switchblade smile of hers. Her eyes swung from Kree to me. I was still naked of course which made Big Dread smile even wider.
“Hope I haven’t interrupted anything special,” the villainess said.
“We were just finishing up,” I replied.
“Excellent. It’s always preferable to have a special memory before you cross over.”
I tried to break the tendrils, but could barely move my arms. Big Dread hovered over the balcony, drawing closer, her expression darkening. “I can’t believe you made it out of the Empty Quarter alive.”
“I don’t die easily,” I replied.
“Where is she?”
“Who?”
“Aurora, you lort!”
“How the hell would I know? She double-crossed me!”
“Liar,” Big Dread sneered, her voice dripping with disdain. “Tell true or I will snatch the light from your fucking eyes!”
“The word on the street is the Harbinger has her,” I croaked. “He’s got her inside that fortress of his.”
This seemed to surprise Big Dread. She paused and looked back over her shoulder as if trying to calculate exactly where the Harbinger’s lair might be. Kree used that moment of hesitation to grab the machine-pistol and empty it at Big Dread.
I couldn’t tell whether the bullets from Kree’s gun actually did any damage to Big Dread, but their explosive force whipsawed her back off the balcony.
She vanished from sight, and I climbed into my clothes and urged Kree to flee from the hideout, realizing that there were likely more of the bad guys outside and that we’d be trapped in the apartment if we stayed.
I couldn’t find my helmet, and there was no time to search for it, so we fled into the hallway, hoping like hell that we’d be able to reach the loop before somebody else came for us.
The nearby residents of the building were out in the hallway, shouting, pointing, as we pinballed through them.
I still had my Snout uniform on and when one of the residents eyeballed me warily, I pointed back and exclaimed that the Morningstars were on the way.
The residents freaked and we used the resulting chaos to slip into the loop.
The doors closed and Kree gripped her gun as we began corkscrewing down toward the ground.
“Who was that?” she asked.
“Big Dread.”
“Big…Dread? But she’s so small.”
“That’s what I said, but she punches above her weight.”
Kree’s nose scrunched up. “What does that mean?”
“It means we’re in deep shit.”
I pointed, and Kree looked up to see Big Dread zooming through the air. She was standing in such a way that she appeared to be sky-surfing, riding the wind down toward us. There was no way we’d be able to reach the ground before she reached us.
I watched the villainess call forth a ball of pure energy at the end of her right hand that burned so brightly, I had to divert my eyes.
“OUT! WE NEED TO GET OUT NOW!”
Kree slapped the loop’s control panel and we slammed to a stop. Big Dread hurled the energy ball at us as doors to the loop pinged open.
We threw ourselves forward, hooking a right down a corridor on the fifth floor of the building as the loop exploded behind us.
The blast wave from the explosion knocked us to the ground.
The building shuddered and a wall of heat buffeted us.
I half expected to see the other Morningstars appearing, ready to finish us off, but aside from a few startled residents, however, the corridor was empty. “We need to get down to the ground!” I shouted.
“That’s impossible now.”
“What about a staircase?”
Kree stopped and pointed. At the other end of the corridor was an entrance to what looked like a stairwell. Five Snouts guarded it, and there were five more appearing beyond them.
“We could attack,” Kree suggested.
“That would only make things worse.”
I cursed and kicked at the ground. “We’re trapped.”
A look of recognition washed over Kree. Her eyes hopped from me to her weapon. “I have an idea.”
She pulled me back down the corridor and then fired several shots into a door, before kicking the door open. We took cover inside, and I was grateful to see that the apartment was empty.
“Your idea involves us hiding in a room?”
She shook her head and pointed to the doors that led to the balcony.
“That’s a balcony.”
She smiled. “Nothing gets past you, Quincy.”
Taking my hand, she led me toward the doors which we pulled open. I quickly hazarded a look over the balcony and wished I hadn’t. I wasn’t a huge fan of heights, and the dizzying view caused my innards to churn.
Turning away from the balcony, I peered back at Kree. “Say something.”
“We’re going over the edge,” she replied.
“Say something else!”
The door to the apartment burst open and a phalanx of Snouts appeared. Before I could try and reason with them, Kree had squeezed a burst of fire from her gun, cutting all of them down but one. The remaining Snout, a human cop, stumbled out of the room, shrieking for help. Now we were truly fucked.
“Grab onto my back after I drop down,” she said.
“Are you insane?”
“There’s no time!” she answered.
She slipped gracefully over the edge of the balcony, hooking her long fingers onto the metal bar.
I said a prayer and then grabbed the metal which was warm and oily. Holding onto it as hard as I could, I lowered myself over the edge of the balcony, fighting not to look down.
“Grab hold!” Kree commanded.
I grabbed her shoulders and then wrapped my arms around her chest, terrified that my extra weight would loosen her grip.
I was wrong.
Using her natural strength and the fleshy discs on her hands, Kree was able to maintain a tight grip with one hand. The other still clutched her machine-pistol, which she slid, barrel-first, down the side of her suit.
“We’re going down. Hold on!”
Kree measured her weight and then let go of the railing.
We hung there for a second or two, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I shrieked like a little girl.
Then we fell.
Straight down.
We hit a run of black pipe on the balcony below and Kree slapped her hands against it, stopping our descent.
There we were, a hundred and fifty feet off the ground, dangling like a pair of puppets.
I nearly fell from her back, wondering what the hell she was doing. Before I could utter a word, we were on the move again, sliding down the metal pipe like a firefighter slipping down a fire pole.
The wind whipped through my air as we passed the fourth floor, then the third.
Then I heard it.
A faraway sound, almost industrial.
The echo of metal grinding against metal.
“Don’t look, Quincy!”
“Don’t look down?”
“No, don’t look at what’s coming to attack us!”
My head snapped up and I caught sight of a reflection in the building’s windows. It was Big Dread and she was scything through the air, headed on a collision course with us.
One hand sti
ll wrapped around Kree, I swung around to fire a ball of energy at Big Dread, but I was a few seconds too late.
Big Dread slammed into me, plucking me off Kree like an eagle snatching a fish out of a river.
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Before I knew what was happening, she had me in a bear-hug, pinning my arms back, grinning lasciviously as we soared back up the building.
My world turned over, my equilibrium fucked and then our flight came to an end.
We were at the top of the building, perched on the tip of the metal spire I’d seen before, a perch that was barely three feet wide. Big Dread dropped me and I tottered, heart in my throat.
“Watch that first step, Quincy,” she said with a guttural laugh.
I wanted to fire a wall of raw energy into Big Dread, but I didn’t have a free hand. I was too busy clutching the spire, trying not to fall to my death as Big Dread hovered a few inches away, the air wavering behind her.
“Not so super after all,” she taunted.
“I never claimed to be like you.”
“You’re more like me than you realize.” She levered a finger under my chin to force my head up. “The Shadow Catchers weren’t the only ones watching you. I’ve had an eye on you for some time. I know who you are. An outcast just trying to fit in like the rest of us.”
“Somehow I don’t remember the freaks being the ones who administered the beatdowns.”
“We’re merely standing up for ourselves.”
“By killing people?”
Big Dread waved a hand. “Mistakes have been made—”
“That’s what you call the death of your father? A mistake?”
Her eyes shone with rage. “What do you know about my father?”
“I know you helped murder him.”
“And if I did?”
“For starters, that’s a pretty fucked up thing to do...”
“It’s of little moment in light of all the things he did to me and others. You have likely heard that he was a good ruler, maybe even that he was just. You have heard only one side of the story. The truth is he was a ruthless man, prone to anger, and fits of paranoia. The things he did to my mother and me…”
“Please don’t tell me you’re gonna justify blowing up the planet because you’ve got some serious daddy issues.”
A look of amusement creased her face. “Don’t bother yourself with what my plans for this planet are. The only thing you need to concern yourself with is right now. You need to decide whether you want to live to see another day.”
“What do you want from me?”
Big Dread grabbed my cheeks and squeezed them together so hard I thought she was going to press them into my teeth.
She leaned in tight to me, so close that I could feel her erect nipples pressing against my chest.
She reached out a finger, traced my lips and then smacked me in the mouth. Then she wrenched my head sideways so that I could see the tallest building in the city. A thick, vault-like structure, pewter gray, with several domes on the roof. The building was a good eight to ten blocks away from us.
“That’s his keep. That’s where the Harbinger dwells, his fortress. If what you say is true, that’s where the bitch is. That’s where he’s taken Aurora.”
“So go and get her back.”
“I can’t without a key,” she replied.
“Get a key then.”
Big Dread smiled. “You are the key. You’re the outsider, the one who’s helped turned much of our fair city upside down. The Harbinger knows who you are, you fool. I can use you to get through the doors and once we’re inside, I’ll take him down.”
“But you’re working with him aren’t you?”
“We used him to further our goals.”
“And now you’re going to kill him too?”
She grinned. “If need be.”
“What if he decides to do the same to you?”
Her smile wilted. “Time grows short, Quincy.”
“What do I get in return if I help you?” I asked, trying to buy some time.
“Everything that you see could be yours,” she replied. “If you go willingly, if you help us infiltrate his fortress, I’ll make this world bow down before you.” She smiled and drew close, her tongue darting against my ear. “Oh, the things I could show you, Quincy. Riches, power, bliss in perpetuity.”
She kissed me long and hard, ramming her tongue down my throat.
I pulled back. “You gonna be offended if I say you’re not my type, Enya?”
She reacted. “You know my name?”
“I know all about you, and I don’t cut deals with anybody who would murder her father.”
Anger flared in her eyes. “I could vaporize you.”
“You don’t scare me.”
“I should. I’m divine.”
“Is divine another word for ‘whore?’”
Big Dread’s face fell. In a blur of movement, she smashed my right hand so that I lost my grip on the spire. I dangled, holding on by two fingers on my left hand.
“There won’t be much left of you, Quincy,” she said, hovering around me. “Just a red smear on the ground.”
“It’s a shame,” I replied.
“What is?”
“The fact that you’d be smoking hot if you weren’t such a roaring bitch.”
She grabbed my arm and pulled me off of the spire and then let me go.
My arms and legs chopped the air as I fell over the side of the building, the ground rushing up to greet me when—
WHACK!
She reappeared and grabbed my arm. “I hope you didn’t soil yourself,” she snorted.
“Nope,” I said, watching us near the ground. “There are things worse than falling off a building.”
“Name some.”
“Getting blown up by rockets and missiles.”
Her mouth dropped open and I pointed toward the smoke-trail from a rocket that was whistling toward us. Splinter was standing on the back of a wave sled, holding a rocket launcher!
Big Dread cursed and let go of me, throwing up her hands as—
The rocket slammed into her with a percussive boom!
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The explosion flung us in different directions.
The propulsive force shoved me down to the left, and Big Dread hurtled to the right, crashing into the building, slamming through a set of windows, vanishing from sight.
Feet first, I fell straight down, screaming all the way.
Out the corner of my eye, there was movement.
Another wave sled.
I couldn’t see who was piloting it, but the craft was skimming the ground, moving so fast I could barely track it.
The ground was rushing up to greet me, but the wave sled was there a fraction before I face-planted and—
I landed in a heap in the back of the sled, slamming down so hard that I nearly left an imprint in the vessel’s rubberized flooring.
My protective suit and the Snout outfit cushioned the blow, but the air was still knocked out of me. Hands grabbed and turned me over and I looked up into the faces of Liberty, Lyric, and Kree.
“Perfect timing,” Liberty said with a grin.
They helped me sit up and Kree spun and fired off a burst from her gun at the figures racing across the street below.
A small army of Snouts along with The Showstopper, Dolly Dagger, and a dozen Fodder, general-purpose members of the Morningstars’ gang, was rampaging down the street, firing at us and the other wave sled that held Atlas, Splinter, and Kaptain Khaos.
“Yeah, so that just happened,” Lyric said, pointing to the bad guys. “The Snouts and the Morningstars have apparently decided to team up.”
“What do we do?” I asked.
“We get the fuck out of here, that’s what we do,” Lyric answered.
“HOLD ON!” Liberty shouted.
She slotted the sled’s controls and juiced the engines as we jolted off, climbing twenty feet into the air.
Kree knelt beside
me. “You’re okay?”
“Yeah, aside from possibly breaking every bone in my body and pissing my pants, I’m right as rain.”
She smiled and quickly kissed me on the cheek before helping me to my feet. I moved over to Lyric who was clutching a short-barreled assault rifle.
“What the hell happened to you guys?” I asked, holding onto the gunwale.
“We got ambushed down below,” Lyric replied. “A whole squad of Synths had us cornered before we fought our way out. Only good thing is we managed to extract some intel from one of the grunts.”
“About what?”
“Aurora. The Harbinger does indeed have her under lock and key in his main building.”
“What about the trap bottle?”
“Apparently he’s got that too.”
“Then we need to go and get them.”
“Yeah, sure, Quincy. We’ll just walk right into his compound and get them back like that,” Lyric said, snapping her fingers.
“Where’s Atlas?” I asked.
Lyric didn’t have an answer as the sound of Kree’s gun firing arrested my attention. I looked back to see her shooting at a pack of synthetic Snouts down below as Dolly Dagger flung a series of fireballs at us.
“Incoming!”
“Already on it!” Liberty replied. She swung the controls and the wave sled dove down toward the ground, shooting between a stand of trees as the fireballs slammed into the trunks, setting the trees on fire.
We buzzed over a park of some kind, a complex network of manmade waterfalls, fountains, and circular areas of grass that were fringed by statues. A crowd of city dwellers enjoying the sights ran for cover as the Morningstars continued to pour fire on us.
The air quickly filled with a blizzard of orange tracer-rounds fired from another wave sled piloted by Big Dread. How she’d managed to extricate herself from the building and commandeer a wave sled, I do not know, but there she was, relentlessly pursuing us. Her wave sled dipped and dove, appearing to be much faster than the one we were on.
Big Dread also loosed a series of energy balls that spiraled past us, obliterating whole sections of the park, shattering the statues, sending up geysers of water as the fountains blasted apart.
Liberty deftly maneuvered our sled, evading the fusillade of fire from our pursuers while nosing the sled down only to see the area up ahead of us swarming with several dozen Snouts who were readying heavy weaponry.
