2044
Ally Fae
Ally woke with a start. Her eyes shot open, and her adrenaline spiked. Her breath caught in her throat, and she blinked trying to make sense of what she was seeing. The ground around her shook as the ringing in her ears immediately told her that something was terribly wrong. She got that far in her thoughts before the second explosion rang out. There was a silence in the world around her as everything seemed to inhale before it all rang out.
Laven screamed behind her and the world around her shook as half the library caved in—pages of burning books fluttered in the air and smoke started to bellow from the ensuing fires.. A cracking sound from above drew her attention. She saw a support beam bending down with one more crack as it began shooting down. Her eyes tracked the path and saw it was hurtling toward her. Her breath caught in her throat, and she moved without thinking.
Like a snake she leapt up to her feet and jumped up—not thinking of anything else but seeing Jace erupt from her like a spirit. And like an extension of her very body he leapt forward, carrying a firm metal lance in hand as he thrusted it upward. The tip of the spear bent the bar in two until it snapped, both pieces falling off to the sides.
Ally’s eyes darted and saw that the rightmost piece was headed toward where LUCAS was lying. His eyes were closed—it looked like he had been knocked back from the first explosion.
“Jace, the right one!” Ally thought, and he darted right—propelling off of the air as if there were a wall he was kicking off.
“On it!” He called back and grunted as he whipped the lance out like a whip. He held the end of it in a fierce grip as the end extended out—its shined metal glistening against the new light spilling in from the outside Its tip curled around of the beam and he yanked back on it enough that it pulled toward him—coming into contact and he vanished like a spread of vapor.
Ally was breathing heavily as she ran over toward Laven. Jace sprouted from her again and she cocked her head over toward LUCAS. “Help him out, I got her.” He nodded and he moved toward him.
“Hey, come on now, you gotta get up,” Ally said. She was holding Laven up to a sitting up position, her hair dropped down just barely touching the ground under them. From here it looked like she was resting, but Ally needed her up and she needed her so now. “Come on, wake up, we need to move...” Her eyelids started to flutter and then she started to come to.
“H...huh…?” She sputtered as her pupils dilated and started to focus.
“Okay, you’re good. You’re good,” Ally said, her tone was hurried, and she helped her stand to her feet. “There were explosions...I just woke up from the shaking and the sound.” Ally saw markings like filigree across her skin, fading and slightly pulsing with light. She looked behind her to Jace and LUCAS. He seemed to have woken up and was walking over toward the both of them, Jace faded as they approached.
“Quite the spectacle you have there,” LUCAS said, and then he turned to regard Jace, but he looked surprised when he wasn’t there. “Oh...and he’s gone.”
“He comes and he goes,” Ally said, finally helping Laven stand to her full height. “Helps me conserve energy when he can tuck back in. You okay, though?”
“Yeah, I think I’m fine. How about you? The both of you?”
“She just needs a second,” Ally said. “I’m fine. I managed to avoid the debris. Jace helped stop it when it was coming down.”
“Quite the marvel,” LUCAS said, staring up at the ceiling where the beam had broken off.
“Do you know...who’s out there?” Laven brought a hand up to her head and wincing. “I’m good, just a headache.”
“Lemme see,” LUCAS looked toward the gaping hole to the outside and stood still, his eyes focused and looked like camera lenses adjusting to different apertures. “Shit…” he muttered under his breath.
“Luke, what is it?” Laven asked.
He looked to her, and they shared a glance, and Laven’s face mirrored his. “You can’t mean…”
He nodded.
“What’s...who is it?” Ally asked.
“Quick, we need to get out of here if we can.” LUCAS began. “We have a...certain problem we were hoping to avoid.”
“I have some old colleagues who seem to be less than pleased with us,” Laven said. “We have reason to believe there was a traitor in our group. A mission we were on went haywire. But it’s possible our trying to leave the situation convinced them the same was true with us.”
Suddenly steps pounded on the floor below and a voice called out. “Hey! You two. No sudden movements!” It sounded like it came from a gruff male. “Bambo, eyes.” Ally saw the figure erupt from the doorway.
“Roshe,” LUCAS said, turning to Laven.
Ally looked in his direction at the mention but stared at the man who looked like he’d come off a vicious hunt. He wore a look of tactical precision and carried a machete in his hand. “Jesus, what the hell are you doing here?” His posture softened the slightest and he lowered his arm. “Bambo, recall. Wrong duo.” His hand dropped and he looked off to the side and exhaled sharply.
“What’s going on…?” Ally asked.
The man—Roshe—turned toward them, a questioning look on his face. “Thought you were dead at the Kosunaga mission. Things went to shit when it fell. Blaise and Gavin went AWOL. Bambo and me were the only ones left and the caravan...well, that got shot up to shit.”
Laven seemed to soften as she stared at him. “You’re not chasing us as fugitives?”
Another look of confusion passed on his face, but then he shook his head. “Let’s talk somewhere not here, sound good?”
Ally turned to Laven, and she nodded her head. LUCAS still looked wary, but he looked to her and seemed to relax the smallest bit when he saw her look too. Roshe helped each of them out of the burning building. Thankfully the stairs toward the bottom were just near the exit on the ground level. They reconvened in a general store down the path of the main plaza outside of the glaring sun’s heat.
“I have to say I’m plenty surprised you made it out of there alive. I was impressed at the spectacle of the whole ordeal,” Roshe said. “Wished I could have been a part of the cause if I’m being honest.”
“Well let me tell you it was not as fun on the inside as it was on the outside,” Laven said. “So what happened back on base?”
Ally could tell she was fishing for information. She had questions of her own—and no shortage of them, but she felt it best she stay in the back and let things play out for now. The best thing she can do is rest and prepare for the situation should it go south.
“It really was as much of a meltdown on the outside. As soon as word hit that the building went down we were attacked by dragon.”
“Excuse me?” LUCAS asked. “You’re not serious, right?”
Roshe minded LUCAS with the same attitude he had previously—like he were some child that had no business meddling in adult business. He sighed and crossed his arms. “I was this close to getting it, too. Crimson scales and tail as long as the caravan itself.” He grit his teeth. “The second I connected I knew I could have torn it apart. But it started to burn the place to the ground. People started scattering. Bambo took shelter, and when it was done with its business Blaise was nowhere to be seen. Caravan itself is rubble now—we tried to fix what we could, save what we couldn’t.”
“You said Gavin was nowhere to be found either, you mean you didn’t meet up with him when he traveled back?” Laven asked.
Another confused look.
“He brought us back on bike. We stopped about an hour out—truth is, we believe someone sold us out inside. The Kosunaga brother in there knew we were coming—our location info was sabotaged.”
“What? What kind of spineless…”
“Honestly...we didn’t know who it could have been,” LUCAS said. “You were among the list of suspects so we couldn’t go back.”
“I don’t operate those machines,” Roshe spat. “Bambo ain’t our rat either, as far as I can tell I have been on the line with him since the mission started. I would have heard if he was feeding information.”
“I don’t like it, but we have to consider everyone not presently accounted for as such for a reason,” Roshe said. “Though I do admit to be taking a little offense to be suspected so easily from you,” Roshe eyed Laven.
She matched his look, “Can never tell in this day and age. Rather would be wrong than dead.”
“Fair enough,” he nodded. “It’s not too much offense. That kind of thing rolls off easier nowadays.”
“Where is this...Bambo you spoke of?” Ally broke her silence. Roshe looked at her and it took everything in her to not turn away.
“Who’s this, now? Taking up a spot of babysitting?” Roshe asked.
“You can ask me directly,” Ally said. “My name’s Ally.
“She’s from the past, if you can believe it,” Laven said. “And she’s got some tricks up her sleeve that you wouldn’t believe.”
He looked her over for a moment and then huffed. “I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ve learned underestimating kids is not a skill I adapt to well.” He looked to her with a humorous gaze, “Bambo is at a currently secure location. I’d tell you where, but he doesn’t provide me with that information. I typically don’t need to know so long as he scouts, but he’s perfectly fine and able to come out and join the conversation whenever he pleases.” He wasn’t speaking to her, but instead the question was posed to another—not in the room with them.
A nervous sound erupted from the back of the store—like the clanging of silverware as it dropped from counter-top to floor.
“Aw, damn,” came Bambo’s voice from the back. A lanky man whose head seemed too tall to be as thin as it was. His eyes darted around the room to assess the people in front of him and they laid on Ally for longer than she cared for. “How’d you guess?”
“Heard your breathing back there.” Roshe said, leaning back against the counter top.
“Uh, Rodney Bambon, pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” he said to Ally and then found a spot in the circle, then turned to LUCAS and Laven. “We uh, thought you two died. Glad to see you’re not.”
“Yeah...you too Bam,” Laven said, cocking her head. “How’d you find us here, though?”
“Followed signs of heat. After the dragon wiped out the caravan we thought we were on Blaise’s trail. Figured he was the one who summoned it. I’ve always been vocal about not liking him.”
“Yes, we know,” Roshe said, very irritated at a clearly well-worn point. “We thought we were hot on his trail, ended up here and turns out we found you instead. So, he’s somewhere out there and we’re back to square one.”
“Well, I guess in that instance we could surely use the help in our efforts,” LUCAS said.
Ally could tell he was acting really strange about the whole situation, as if he wasn’t fully on board with having them along, but she saw him relax in himself and his shoulders slumped as he readied to continue.
“Of course you’re free to go on your own way if you want, but we do have a mission we’re working toward and are open for help.”
“Well, I would hope you’re asking instead of just talking, boy,” Roshe said. “Talking in riddles and circles is too tiring these days. If you have a job, then list it, and we’ll determine if we’re up for it.”
LUCAS looked to Laven and then over to Ally. In that moment she seemed to guess that he was asking her on her opinion wordlessly—and in that moment she thought on the two of them sitting in front of her.
She had hardly a full opinion on the two strangers that first came to her aide, how was she meant to feel on these two new strangers who had only until moments ago been suspected as being their enemy? The answer was that she didn’t know, but for the time being everything and everyone in this room seemed at some sort of inner peace. And was that not the goal she wished to find? It was true that she sought out the Creatures of the Night, but peace was always the treasure that lied at the end of the bridge.
It seemed for now that both of these goals lied with the two of her accomplices here, and it seemed likely that the brains and brawn alongside them could be a start in attaining those goals.
She nodded to LUCAS, her look was neutral, but her nod was firm. He looked back to her and bit his lip for but a moment, but then pressed on, turning back to Roshe.
“We’re on the hunt for some objects of great power. They’re the kind of objects that could ruin the world if used incorrectly, so before I tell you any more I am going to need your word that if we have you aboard that you don’t misuse them—as our purpose is to prevent them from coming to such a fate.”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Objects of immense power?” Roshe asked. “I’m afraid such a description is not unlike that of a fairy tale. Tell your story first then we’ll talk bargaining.”
And so, hesitantly, but pushing past his doubt, LUCAS did. He told Roshe and Bambo all about the fragments of the machine named ICARUS, and of the story of the Roulette Game for context of the powers that such objects could hold.
Ally listened intently to the story of the cycle that LUCAS had witnessed and re-witnessed through the eyes of his father, Abel Gray. She felt a deep sorrow for the boy he was modeled after and felt that sort of sorrow resonate deep within her.
When he had finished, Roshe and Bambo looked deep in their own thoughts for quite a time. “We’ll need to discuss this privately, I think,” Roshe said. “There is much to discuss, and I figure the each need to come to some sort of consensus.”
LUCAS nodded, “We can meet back up in a few once we’re finished and we can decide then.”
Roshe nodded, and the both of them stood to leave the building, leaving Ally, Laven, and Lucas to their lonesome inside the shop.
Ally sighed and turned toward the other two, “I know I’m out of my element here. I figure you two know more about them to be able to have a proper opinion on them. I’ll defer to your judgment.”
LUCAS shook his head, “I don’t have that much more experience than you, to be honest. But I don’t think that your feelings on it shouldn’t be considered.”
“I think I’ll feel better then after hearing your thoughts. I’m not a very proactive person unless I know as much information as I can, unfortunately.”
Laven cocked her head, and she closed her eyes to think. “With everything that’s gone on, I’m inclined to believe them, but I’m also wary. There’s so much that we seem to not know. Of everything, I do think Blaise and Gavin have the highest scrutiny from me right now, and I do not doubt our decision to separate paths.”
“I do wonder where Gavin could have gone—it’s possible that he saw the site itself and booked it himself. But Blaise as the traitor makes a sort of sense…” LUCAS said. “They mentioned that dragon having crimson scales, didn’t they? Then that’s not the dragon we’re hunting down.”
“It’s...unsettling there’s more than one out there,” Ally said. “Those used to be creatures of myth and legend.”
“I wonder if it’s related to the Creatures of the Night?” Laven asked. “If that Sakonna took the shape of a dragon could they not all?”
Ally thought on it, but then shook her head. “I don’t know if it’s one of the others exactly. I know Sakonna takes the shape of a dragon, but Issachar—the next in line took the shape of a golden wolf. And Ormus—one of the oldest was like a large gecko. They seem to take the shape of a different creature.”
LUCAS then thought on the matter and nodded, “That sounds right. I can’t see any information on them, but the memories I have of past experience ring similar. That topic aside, it will be best for us to avoid having conflict with that creature. At least until we can come to some sort of agreement in how to take it down.”
“Roshe seemed eager to try that as soon as he was able,” Ally said. “How much of that is truth?”
“Roshe lived to conquer challenges. As long as I’ve known him he always prided himself on becoming stronger. Part of that pride is what made it easy to distrust him during our last mission. In finding the fragment of ICARUS we feared he would seek out the power for himself.”
“And so we await him to tell us if that is something he would search for?”
Laven shrugged. “That I fear would be too easy to ask for. If he truly did desire it, it would be the smart thing for him not to say so. I guess our choice becomes if we’re willing to take that risk. I know him to be a valiant warrior, and we would be better off with the extra manpower, but those same points I would use in urging us caution with lowering our guards so quickly.”
“It seems that in of itself is our answer, at least if we’re all in agreement?” LUCAS asked, looking from Laven to Ally.
“We’ve spoken about Roshe, but what of the other...Bambo was his name?” Ally asked.
Laven shook her head and waved a hand. “He’s plenty good in a backseat role. He’s not the person you trust in a fight to watch your back unless he has no skin in the game. He has a good heart and desire to see us safe, sure enough. But it’s pretty easy to see that he’s not got a sharp sense of social skills. For every reason to feel safe and confident of his tactical skills there is a regret in the interpersonal dynamics.” She turned to Ally, “I saw how he was looking at you. I’m afraid that he may be stuck on you.”
Ally sighed, shaking her head. “I’m not interested in anything of the sort. Especially now.”
She nodded in return, “I get it. He was stuck on me for a while. It is hard being the only girl that’s working so close to what the guild used to be. It’s a feeling I got out of the way quickly. I’m sure he would still be stuck on me if he thought he realistically had a chance. That would be my advice, if this is the decision we make.”
Ally nodded and felt that the advice rang true. She never really had experience with this sort of situation directly—but she wasn’t foreign to the looks of men. That was an unfortunate constant in any world. Before, she would hide away—within herself when confronted with unwanted attention.
It wasn’t until she had met Felix that she had started to appreciate the difference between attention that was wanted and attention that wasn’t.
But now that she sat here among the two here—two she realized she did want to consider partners. Two that seemed to consider her an equal and of equal consideration for something so important. Here, unwanted attention only picked at that part of her brain that wanted to retreat. And she was at odds with herself as it was the last thing she wanted to do now.
You simply have to be clear about how you feel. That is, if he truly is stuck on you. Quick, concise, and over.
She nodded, “I get you. I am okay if they join up. I think I can defend myself if need be.”
“Okay, and how about you Luke?” Laven turned from her to him.
He had a look of consternation on his face—like he were running the positives and negatives in an algorithm in his head. He leaned back against the counter and sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want the extra protection they can afford us. I just worry about how Roshe is going to react to the fragment.”
“That is a concern, I think—”
She trailed off as the door opened up and Bambo walked in alongside Roshe. Ally adjusted herself in her seat and she looked like the sunlight spilled into the room.
“So we’ve come to a consensus,” Roshe said, stopping short and crossing his arms. Bambo walked in almost toppling over himself.
“And what is your determination?” LUCAS asked.
“Well,” Roshe began, inspecting the tips of his fingernails as if they held the key to his interest, “With the knowledge of you having something of great import, I probably would have sought to make it an asset of my own. Bambo dissuaded me, however.”
The group shifted to look at Bambo, who looked plenty nervous to have the focus on him. “I...I have a device here that senses electromagnetic signals. I use it when I’m r-running recon. I can use it to screen for any explosives or other dangers when I’m casing an area. I did notice a strong—very strong signal coming from the room you guys were found in. “
“Reason why I scoped out with the explosives on the building was because we had decided to disrupt those signals if possible,” Roshe said.
“Of course,” Laven said. She clicked her tongue and crossed her arms.
“She knows ‘em,” Roshe said. “They’re bombs first and foremost of course. But they have a core that...well, Bambo can explain em better than I can,” he waves toward him.
“They release a pulse of electromagnetic waves upon detonation after the explosive impact to short out any electronics in the vicinity. The plan was to dissuade whoever was inside from setting off the tools they had—if we had sent off explosives toward them I tend to notice that people with bombs aren’t so quick to set off their own charges if they’re taken by surprise by charges of our own. That way we can control the blasts and the amount of structure that is damaged.”
“I recall the strategy well,” Laven said. “Then when you have them...us in that case—surprised, you can sweep in and settle the situation on cleanup.”
“Precisely,” Roshe said. “However, that is not what happened, as we all know.”
“The signal remained as strong as ever on my end after the charges went off. So, that said to me that the object—whatever it was—was not electrical in nature. And since we have not yet seen this mysterious item it is then easy to assume it is not a weapon,” Bambo said.
“Which means…” Roshe joined back in, “that is probably not something I would pine over. So, I recognize that you would have reason to not trust me with that information if it were something you believe I couldn’t be trusted with.”
LUCAS in particular regarded this with a particular level of thought.
“So…” he took a deep breath, almost as if it pained him to consider the following, “I am open to talking about what you have and seeing where you’re going. I am a pretty easy person to read, I understand this, but I also know that I was most comfortable when we were all supporting the guild. It’s a tough world out here and one man can hardly make a dent into it much less grow by himself.”
“That’s the most I’ve heard you talk about yourself since I’ve known you,” Laven said.
He stared at her, “Don’t get used to it.”
LUCAS nodded and brought an arm up to the pack on his back. “Okay, well, we talked and agreed that it would be good to work in tandem. And if I’m being honest, how you would react to the item was the biggest point of contention, because I do say this—it is extremely powerful, but it has the potential to cause a lot of undue suffering.” He swiveled the pack around and unzipped the top zipper. He reached a hand inside the pack and didn’t even need to look inside to grasp the small object held within.
He pulled his hand out of the pack and Roshe and Bambo leaned forward to get a closer look at the black diamond-shaped stone inside the palm of his hand.
It shone with a reflective glaze and LUCAS could feel the energy pooling out of it like any other. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
“This is the thing that you were all so worked up about?” Roshe chuckled. “Looks no bigger than a skip-rock.”
“It’s a fragment to a machine. And even more so it’s a fragment to a fragment. This piece specifically has been split into three. Obviously we have the one here, but we were tracking down the other two before you met up with us. The machine it goes to is named ICARUS. It at one point housed the entirety of all human knowledge within its walls. It is important that beings known as the Creatures of the Night do not get their hands on the pieces of ICARUS as it is their desire to use the machine to remake the world—destroy everything that currently exists to return the earth to what it used to be—before the collapse, before our time, before any of us were ever alive.”
“And this...fragment here. What good is it to us as it is now?”
LUCAS looked upon it, and then looked back up to Roshe. “For you, probably not much. I don’t mean that just to convince you it’s not work taking. But I genuinely do not believe it would benefit you in one way or the other outside of putting a very large target on your back for the Creatures of the Night. It holds immense power within, but unless you had some way to mine or use that energy, it sits here as but a simple stone.”
“But the Kosunaga pair managed to find a way?” He questioned.
“They did, yes. It was used as a fuel source to power their factory—replacing dozens and dozens of electrical generators. The amount of work that went on in that building because of this little thing here powering it all...it’s astounding. The power it has inside is immense, as I said. The thing is, we don’t really want to advertise that we have it. That would invite no short order of problems to come our way.”
“Okay, I think I am sufficiently convinced I wouldn’t need to fight you for this little power rock, but I’m sure you have some ability to channel its power within yourself? I feel I should be in the know in case the situation comes up where should you turn on me I can know if I stand a reasonable chance.”
It was a weird question, but one he hadn’t really thought of. Ally looked at the pair of them as a quiet descended on the both of them—and the rest watching by proxy.
“I haven’t tried,” he said. “I probably could, but I do not know what it would do and hope I do not have to find out unless it’s an emergency.”
“That is a fair answer, if not frustrating from my end, but I do understand. So, fair folk. We travel the country looking for these power cells of sorts and...then what? Would we not be making it easy for these night crawlers to come and ambush us once we have gathered them all in one place?”
“My goal is to exterminate them,” LUCAS said, cleanly.
“We each...have reasons for hunting them down,” Ally said. “Namely, a dragon not unlike the one you saw burning down the caravan.”
“You saying that’s one of those creatures you’re hunting down?” His eyes seemed to glow with excitement.
Ally shook her head, “Not exactly. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some crossover.”
“All right, well, seeing as our options right now are extremely limited, I don't see why we shouldn’t pair up. Eh, Bambo?”
Again the focus shifted to Bambo, and he nodded shyly. He was sweating slightly but it was enough for him to wipe his forehead. “Y-Yeah.”
“Okay, that sounds good. Well, we were actually going to be moving onward toward the east. We’ve quite a ways walk toward our next destination—we were headed to the mountainous west. The coast held the other two fragments of this here,” he waved the fragment in his hand. “And...well, we can tell you that story along the way.”
“Walk?” Bambo asked, nervous. “Oh...no, we won’t have to walk. We secured some of the airbikes from the caravan.”
LUCAS and Laven looked to one another. “Oh, really?”
“Yeah, we won’t need to walk all that way. Although, our fuel isn’t unlimited,” Roshe said, eyeing the fragment. “I figure...we might be seeing that object there put to use sooner than you might think.”
LUCAS’s gaze traveled from Roshe and then to the fragment and he thought for a moment. Was that truly a smart move to make?
They would certainly light up any sort of energy tracker in the area—and any sort of creature that could sense these waves like he could would smell them out from miles away...but then again, he didn’t know if there were creatures out there even more sensitive than him who could merely do so even if they weren’t using it. In that case…
“Sure,” LUCAS said. “But sparingly so. We’ll use it only as a last resort, we’ll use the fuel first.”
Roshe offered a smile and then stood to his feet. He stretched for but a moment and then nodded at the three of them. “Well, I say we start out on the road, then. Sun is out in the open and it’s red rays are going to start cooking the ground soon. I’d like to be away from here when that happens.”
And so they went. Ally hung to the back, but close enough to not be left behind. She noticed Bambo’s gaze hold on her longer than everyone else’s. She shuddered when she was sure nobody could see, but she looked up toward Laven and thought that she was right. Now wasn’t a good time, but she assured herself that she would speak to Bambo when the tension of the current moment had faded.
“Good on you for speaking your mind,” Jace said in the back of hers. It was a reassuring thought.
“I’m trying,” she thought back.
“Seems like you’re making quite a lot of new friends.”
“I wouldn’t say that, but I would like to surround myself with people. I am tired of being alone,” Ally said.
“I hear you. Take care, I’m going to rest a bit.”
“Thank you Jace, for everything.”
“Thank yourself.”