THE HALCYON
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They ran through the tunnel with hands over their noses to block out the stench of the place. Each step they took sent murky water splashing, and sent monstrous rodents scurrying for safety. The torches they held cast their fleeting shadows onto the walls of the tunnel, all twelve of them.
From above them, a thunderous sound came, one that caused the entire tunnel to tremble. At once, they stopped running, staring upward with wary expressions on their faces as dust dropped from between the small cracks in the tunnel’s ceiling. They held their breaths and listened.
They heard distant gunfire, and loud yelling mixed in with the sound of wailing sirens. “It’s begun,” one of them spoke, her tone grim. Anthea: She was a girl with dirt blond hair, sunken blue eyes and a nasty burn on the left half of her face. She had a scarf around her neck, and wore a tattered black jacket over a white tank top, paired with dark trousers and black leather boots.
Around her waist, she had a utility belt of sorts with explosives and daggers attached to it and a bo staff in her left hand. On her right hand, she had some sort of techy gauntlet with a display that showed blinking dots and a radar.
“We need to move quickly.” she said, facing the others. “Remember Gramps’s instructions,” she continued. “Alpha group’s begun the distraction; it should lure all the forces away from Capital HQ so we can make our move.” She glanced at the screen on her gauntlet. “We’re only a few minutes away from the HQ now. Is everyone clear on what we’re supposed to do? Do I need to go over the plan again?”
“Nah, all good,” a boy answered, his eyes glowing a slight flaming orange. Smoke issued from his fingertips, and the smell of something burning filled the air. “I understand the plan just fine,” he growled.
Anthea looked at him and her expression softened. Gone was the hardened expression of a girl roped into warfare at an age far too little, of a child who’d lost everything far too early. Instead, the expression was of caring, of affection.
She smiled. “Okay, Dang,” she nodded. “Let’s keep moving.”
The group continued their sprint, moving powerfully and swiftly through the tunnel, doing their best to ignore the sound of the chaos ensuing on the surface, at all of the lives being sacrificed for their cause. Dang thought of the others who’d gone with Alpha squad to orchestrate the distraction.
Kyler Worthington. James Clemson. Maya Dawson.
There was a fairly strong chance he wouldn’t see any of them again. Even if they managed to survive up there; if this plan didn’t work out like it was supposed to, they would more than likely spend the rest of their lives in solitary confinement or be sent to the Dark Mines to slave away for an eternity.
Dang was certain of that. After all, he’d seen the same happen to others he cared about. That was all the more reason why it was of the utmost importance that this went exactly as planned. They couldn’t fail.
He couldn’t fail. Not again.
All of this, the war that had gone on a full decade between the Rebels and the Red Capital needed to end. And by his flame, he would end it.
He would end it all.
In that moment, even though he hadn’t intended to, he fired up. A jet of flames exploded from his feet, propelling him forward like a rocket, the wind generated by the speed with which he moved through the tunnel sending water spraying right in the faces of the others.
“Dang, wait!” Anthea yelled behind him.
But there was no stopping him once he’d gotten fired off like that. He reached their designated entry point, drew a deep breath and shot straight upward, slamming a foot into the ceiling of the tunnel and blasting straight through.
He emerged from the tunnel and into a bland room with gray walls and gray floors, dimly-lit chandeliers hanging from its domed ceilings. At the front center of the room was a long table around which six men in crimson cloaks were sat, all of whom were staring in his direction with looks of confusion on their faces, as though they were struggling to process where he’d come from.
In the middle center, only a few feet ahead of where Dang had emerged, was an odd machine that had glowing cables connected to it, pulsing with light, the cables running throughout the building and connecting to other stuff: The Harness.
Dang recognized it at once. It was how the Red Capital had so much power, harnessing the cosmic energy that had been left behind on their world after the incursion two years ago, an incursion that had laid ruin to almost everything. The Capital had promised to rebuild things, but in their greed, had chosen instead to put themselves at the top of the world, to control the resources left while everyone else in Ziggurat suffered and withered.
The confusion of the Crimson Cloaks only worsened in a few seconds when Anthea and the rest of the rebels emerged from the smoking hole Dang had left in the ground.
Anthea flipped her staff a few times in her hand, sparks of electricity flying from either end of it. Finally, she struck the staff against the ground and the entire building tremored, the lights that hung from the ceiling began flickering for a moment.
Dang stepped forward with a growl, his hands engulfed in his flames now. “Weren’t expecting us, were you?”
“An ambush,” one of the Crimson Cloaks croaked, one that Dang recognized as the leader, Zaldur. He was a middle-aged man with dark gray hair tied back in a ponytail and eyes that matched. His nose was crooked, his lips thin, and his chin pointy. Of all the Cloaks at the table, only he donned an outfit that had golden trims and a runic symbol over his chest.
It helped a lot that he’d taken steps to make it so he could easily be identified as the Cloaks. It helped Dang know exactly who it was that he needed to kill first, to know whose life he had to snuff out so his vengeance could be complete.
“Shut down The Harness,” Anthea growled. “I will not ask again.”
“What is this?” Zaldur demanded, rising to his feet. “This is impossible. How could you have breached our defenses?”
“We’ve been tunneling for months and we had help from some of your men,” Anthea revealed. “Looks like it’s not just the Rebels who want you gone. Shut down The Harness now, Zaldur. I don’t want to have to kill you.”
Zaldur’s expression of confusion faded and was replaced by one of amusement. “I see,” he said softly. He glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the Cloaks. “Which one of you played a role in this treachery? Which one of you helped my daughter and her little rebellion sneak into my abode?”
“We all did,” one of the Cloaks answered, a brown-haired man with eyes that were fully white. His voice boomed throughout the HQ. “You’re going to damn us all with your use of The Harness. This was the only way for this to end. And we knew we wouldn’t be able to stop you on our own.”
“And you thought you would stand a better chance at victory by aligning with my daughter and her ragtag band of imbeciles and buffoons?” Zaldur snorted. He turned his focus back to Anthea. “I should have burned more than just half your face. Perhaps that would have dissuaded you from future insolence.”
“You killed my friends,” Dang stepped forward, the flames on his hands burning brighter, tears streaking down his cheeks, the heat he was generating began forming an aura around him. “You’ll burn for that.”
Zaldur regarded Dang for a moment. He looked toward him expressionlessly. “Sorry, am I supposed to know who you are?”
“Trust me,” Dang growled. “You will.”
Dang burst forward with speed, at the same time the other Crimson Cloaks blasted at Zaldur. Zaldur reacted to the blast from the Cloaks on instinct, extending a hand and putting up a shield to protect him from their attacks.
His shield, however, didn’t stop Dang. Dang slammed a fist into the shield, shattering it with a single blow, the resulting force sent Zaldur hurtling through the air.
Dang flew right after Zaldur, slamming a foot into the monarch’s stomach, and driving him straight into a wall. The wall cracked as Zaldur made impact with it, then Dang seized him by the foot and hurled him a great distance away.
Zaldur hit the ground and flipped over a few times before coming to a stop. He stopped, groaned, and glanced up to see one of the Crimson Cloaks already standing over him, about to drive a scepter straight into his skull.
Zaldur snapped his finger and fired off a blast of intense blue light. When the light vanished, so too had the Crimson Cloak who’d been about to kill him. Left where the Cloak had been standing, was nothing but ash and a smoking scepter.
Zaldur rose to his feet and pulled off his cloak, tossing it aside. Everyone’s expressions darkened, considering the sight they beheld was most unnatural.
Zaldur’s skin was cracked, with glowing blue lines running across in all directions, pulsing gently. At specific points, metal sort-of-hooks jutted out of his skin, hooks that looked like they must have been intended for connecting him to The Harness.
“What did you do?” Anthea queried, her voice coarse.
“You think I’d have access to the strongest weapon on our world and not improve myself with it?” Zaldur questioned, holding his arms out wide, an evil smile on his face. “Do you truly believe I did not foresee the arrival of a moment like this? Since my ascendancy, there’s been nothing but the whining of petulant morons who think they know better than I do…but that ends today. After you die here, I will crush your rebellion completely, I will lay waste to all of you. I will rebuild this world.”
“SHUT UP!” Dang roared, slamming headfirst into Zaldur, the impact sending Zaldur backward, his feet dragging against the ground.
Dang moved quickly and launched another attack. This time, he swung a powerful kick. Zaldur, however, was prepared this time. A hand flew up to block the kick and the moment Dang’s foot connected with Zaldur’s hand, an incredible shockwave exploded, rippling throughout the HQ.
All of the windows and lights in the building shattered, and the force of the shockwave sent everyone flying off their feet with the exception of Dang, Anthea, and Zaldur himself who hadn’t even moved a single inch.
“You’re strong,” Zaldur commented, looking a little impressed.
His hand moved and Dang shot backward, away from Zaldur. He’d moved just in time too, since Zaldur fired an odd blast of light that would have sliced Dang in half if it’d made contact.
“You’re quick too,” Zaldur noticed. “Intelligent too, it would seem. Surely, you could have put your talents to better use. Why align with my pitiful daughter?”
“You took people I cared about,” Dang hissed.
“We’ve all lost people we care about,” Zaldur hissed. “That’s what makes men strong. It’s what makes men great. Loss is the source of motivation, and motivation births power.”
“I know,” Dang nodded. “Believe me, I do.”
“Well, show me your power then,” Zaldur cracked a wide smile. “And I’ll show you mine.”
Dang rubbed the back of his neck and then surged forward swinging his fists through the air right at Zaldur. He threw six consecutive blows in quick succession, although Zaldur managed to dodge all six of them.
The seventh hit landed, and it landed pretty hard. Dang had baited Zaldur with a feint and created an opening that he seized immediately, landing a powerful blow with a blast of flame exploding from his fist at the point of impact.
The explosion of flame knocked Zaldur backward, stunning him momentarily. Dang clapped his hands together and drew a deep breath, tapping deep into his reserves of power. His eyes glowed orange.
“Heavenly Combustion,” he said, and at once, the air around seemed to heat up and rather quickly too.
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Anthea’s eyes widened in awareness of what was coming, and she hastily struck her staff against the ground, creating a shield around herself and the other rebels, while the other Crimson Cloaks hastily shielded themselves, not that this was necessary. Dang’s focus was primarily on Zaldur, which meant the same would be true for his attacks.
Zaldur regained his balance, snarled at Dang and started to charge. He’d taken only a few steps forward when the explosion happened.
It was a chain of spontaneous combustions, triggered by Dang, a chain that went all the way to Zaldur, the air around him exploding. The force of the explosion sent Zaldur flying through the air, some blood spraying from his left arm and his back as he sailed through the air - the result of Dang’s critical hit.
Dust crumbled from the ceiling above. Anthea stared at Dang, eyes wide with awe, as though she hadn’t been expecting him to put up a good enough fight against Zaldur.
“Reinforcements are coming!” Charles, one of the rebels, yelled, pointing in the direction of the building’s open doors, at the horde of bots flying toward them, eyes glowing crimson as they approached.
“Go,” Anthea commanded the other rebels, and the Crimson Cloaks. “Hold them off. Stop them from getting in here. Dang and I will handle my father and his Harness.”
The others nodded and headed off in accordance with Anthea’s directive, leaving her and Dang in the building to deal with Zaldur, who was still laid on the ground, facing upward at the ceiling. Smoke issued from his skin and blood seeped out of the wound Dang had just dealt him.
But it was evident he was still alive. His smile said that much.
“Incredible,” Zaldur said, sounding oddly excited. “The power coursing through you, I didn’t think I’d ever experience something like that. I thought The Harness had made me a god, made me untouchable…but you’ve managed to touch my greatness and you managed to burn me. How?”
“I’ve lost a lot,” Dang answered. “And you said it yourself…loss is power.”
“Yes, it is,” Zaldur responded. And then he was gone. Just like that. One moment he’d been there, on the ground, and the next, nothing.
Dang froze, as did Anthea.
“What just happened?” Anthea queried; her voice filled with fear.
“I don’t kn–,” Dang was cut off as a crushing blow hit him in the stomach, delivered with such force that it knocked all of the wind right out of him, and caused the world to go black for a split second.
He heard Anthea scream his name, and then the next thing he knew, he was sailing through the air, right at a wall. He attempted to correct his course in midair by exploding flames from his feet and hands but it was no use.
Zaldur appeared right above him and slammed a foot into Dang from above, launching him at the ground.
Dang hit the ground hard and with a gasp, feeling the wind knocked right out of him once more, but it was nothing compared to when Zaldur dropped right out of the air and landed hard on Dang’s chest, sending blood spraying from Dang’s mouth.
The world blurred for Dang as he felt himself go a little numb.
“LET HIM GO!” Anthea thundered, zipping through the air at lightning speed, a trail of electricity behind her.
She spun her staff as she approached and struck right at Zaldur’s chest with it. Lightning exploded from the tip of the staff that touched Zaldur, but he didn’t budge.
Instead, he smirked, reached out, grabbed the staff and with it, pulled Anthea in close before slamming his head against hers, the impact knocking her backward, sending her sliding across the ground.
Anthea growled and dug her feet into the ground to bring herself to a stop, then launched herself at her father once more. Zaldur charged up an orb of energy as she approached and once she was close enough, let loose.
The weight of the world seemed to come down on everyone in the room. A crushing weight that had Dang gritting his teeth, fists firmly clenched as he attempted to fight against it. However, Anthea managed to get out of the way in time, her entire form dissolved into electricity and shot upward, well out of harm’s way.
Zaldur’s attack hit the ground and consumed it, leaving behind a monstrous crater. He looked up and his expression became one of disappointment, disappointment that Anthea had survived his attack.
Anthea retaliated with one of hers. She aimed her hands at Zaldur. “Olympian Wrath!” she roared.
Sparks of electricity flew from her fingertips, starting out blue and then turning gold. She let loose a powerful blast that rained straight down at Zaldur.
Zaldur held up a hand and cast another shield. The blast hit his shield and he grunted, surprised by the weight the attack held, his knees almost buckling under it. Once the blast ceased, he prepared to launch a counterattack at Anthea but she wasn’t in the air above him anymore.
“What?”
Electricity sparked into existence right in front of him and his eyes went wide. He spun around, but far too late.
Anthea’s fist slammed into his stomach, landing with the sort of electrifying impact that caused Zaldur’s eyes to glaze over before the concussive impact of the punch sent him flying. Zaldur crashed into a wall and dropped to the ground.
He remained there, twitching ever so slightly, struggling to recover from Anthea’s Divergent Thunder Fist.
With Zaldur momentarily out, Anthea zipped toward Dang and helped him up. “Hey, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” Dang nodded, blinking his eyes hard in a bid to get his vision to refocus. “I’m good.”
Zaldur grunted as he began to stir again. Dang and Anthea looked in his direction, their faces turning grim at once.
Anthea held out a hand and summoned her staff back toward her. She prepared to go at Zaldur but Dang held out a hand and blocked her off.
He shook his head. “He’s mine.”
“Are you sure?” Anthea asked, looking a little concerned. “He could hurt you. He’s strong.”
“Nah,” Dang looked at her and smiled. “I’ll win. I’m stronger. Just focus on disabling The Harness, alright? I’ll take care of your dad.”
“Okay,” Anthea nodded. She took Dang’s hand in hers and squeezed tightly. “Don’t die.”
“I won’t,” Dang promised, his eyes glowing a light orange. “I swear he’ll die here. He’ll pay for everything he’s taken from me. From us.”
“Good,” Anthea said. “I trust you.”
And then she went in the direction of The Harness, leaving Dang staring down Zaldur who’d started to rise to his feet once more, his hands still quaking slightly.
“Incredible,” Zaldur said, his voice raspy now. “Her attack, her power…it’s incredible. And to think I’d always thought her a failure…well, she’s certainly done her best to prove me wrong.” Zaldur rose and turned to face Dang, his eyes glowing intensely. He pointed a finger at Dang. “How about you? Will you prove me w–,”
The air exploded right in front of Zaldur, cutting him off mid-sentence and staggering him back a few steps. Before he could recover, Dang was right in front of him, eyes glowing with rage, a flaming aura around him.
“Hellish Blizzard,” Dang spoke softly, a hand extended toward Zaldur.
Flames exploded out of his palm, whipping about rather violently and very quickly forming a flaming tornado around Zaldur, the intense heat scorching him from every direction as he spiraled through the tornado.
Zaldur fired off a pulse that eradicated the tornado and prepared to launch an attack straight down at Dang. But Dang wasn’t there anymore.
‘What?!” Zaldur’s face slacked with horror.
“Over here,” Dang growled, addressing Zaldur from above, the jets of flames exploding from his feet enough to keep him in the air.
Zaldur turned around and instinctively crossed his hands in front of himself to act as a shield. The shield wasn’t much use. Dang slammed a foot into Zaldur, the impact sending a shockwave rippling throughout the building.
Zaldur plummeted the ground and slammed into it hard, leaving behind a small crater, one that expanded when Dang came crashing out of the air and down onto Zaldur, repaying the favor from earlier.
Blood gushed out of Zaldur’s mouth once and then again when Dang stomped hard on his chest. Dang stepped off the beaten Crimson Cloak, seized him by his head, lifted him clean off the ground and then hurled him a great distance away. Zaldur hit the ground hard, rolled a few times and then came to a stop just a few feet away from Anthea and The Harness.
Anthea had the tip of her staff pressed against the force field that protected The Harness, gritting her teeth as she attempted to break past the barrier, sparks of blue electricity flying from her eyes and her fingertips as she did so.
Zaldur looked up, face bloodied and half-scorched, he let out a weak groan. He crawled in Anthea’s direction and extended a hand toward her. “Stop,” he croaked. “You don’t know what you’re doing. You’ll destroy us all.”
Anthea, not listening to her father, instead threw more effort into attempting to get past The Harness’ barrier, with wild sparks of electricity flying from her staff.
“NO!” Zaldur roared.
His hand glowed blue, as did his eyes as he prepared to launch an attack at her. One moment, his attack had been charging up in the palm of his hand.
The next, his hand had been severed, a smoking stub now in its place, and Zaldur was howling in incomprehensible agony.
A flaming boomerang arced through the air and returned to the person who’d thrown it. Dang caught the boomerang perfectly and then reabsorbed the flame into himself.
“How’s that coming along?” Dang asked Anthea, ignoring Zaldur’s bloodcurdling screams, walking toward her at The Harness.
“I could use some extra juice getting through this barrier,” Anthea answered through gritted teeth, beads of sweat trickling down the sides of her face. Clearly, getting through the barrier was a mountainous obstacle.
Dang placed a hand against the barrier, felt the warmth of it against his palm, the jolt of the strange energy that powered it. “Alright,” he nodded, his eyes taking on a powerful glow. Now that he’d gotten a good enough feel of the barrier’s energy, it wouldn’t be too hard to fire himself up enough to generate the amount of energy sufficient to counteract the barrier.
Steam issued from his hand as they glowed an intense orange, searing waves of heat visible in the air. He burned hotter and hotter still, upping the heat, giving it everything he could. Finally, the barrier started to fluctuate.
“Stop!” Zaldur cried out. “You don’t understand! You’ll kill us all!”
“Shut up!” Dang snarled, the flash of rage he experienced in that moment causing him to burn even hotter.
And then the barrier collapsed.
There was an explosion of pure energy, one that slammed into all of them without warning. Dang went flying, as did Anthea, the shock that rippled through the both of them unlike anything they’d ever felt before.
When Dang hit the ground, it felt more like his body had been dropped into a pool. He felt an odd pressure settle all over him and felt himself go a little cold. Just as quickly as that cold had settled, a weird warmth replaced it.
A sharp spike of pain hit him as images flashed through his head and in reaction, he yelled out loud, squeezing his eyes shut and clasping his hands over his head.
“You fools!” Zaldur roared. “I warned you!”
In the images that flashed through Dang’s head, he saw himself, countless times. Each image of himself he saw looked a little different. In some he looked a lot younger. In others, he was older.
In one, he was very different, with a solid chunk of his body made of an odd metal.
And then the images stopped.
He cracked his eyes open and found that the room was filled with a weird light now, one that pulsed different colors. The ground and the walls tremored and bits of the ceiling crumbled, unable to withstand this strange pressure.
Dang pushed himself to his feet slowly, a little disoriented from the explosion. He glanced in the direction of The Harness and his mouth dropped open at once.
The device was in flux, sending spurts of energy flying out every few seconds, pulsing rather dangerously. Each time it sent out a spurt of energy, the world seemed to glitch for a split moment, almost as if it were fracturing.
Some distance from him and much closer to The Harness was Anthea, both her hands shielding her face. Electricity crackled around her but there was something different now. Two things actually. Her electricity was shifting between purple and gold, something he’d never quite seen her do before and he got the idea that it was The Harness doing that, not her.
The other thing off about Anthea was that she had blue lines of light spreading across her, lines that looked a lot more like cracks.
“What’s happening?!” Dang demanded, looking in Zaldur’s direction.
The beaten man was back on his feet now and had backed off into a corner, a fearful expression on his face.
“I warned you!” he yelled back. “The barrier wasn’t to keep people from touching The Harness! It was to keep The Harness from touching us! The energy it generates, it’s nothing you’ve ever dealt with before. If we don’t contain it, it’ll consume everything.”
“Well, how do we contain it?!” Dang demanded.
“The same way you uncontained it, you idiot,” Zaldur hissed angrily. “You have to contain it with enough energy to counteract what it’s giving off.”
“That’s impossible!” Anthea yelled.
Dang stared down at his hands, then Zaldur, then at The Harness. Enough energy to counteract the device. He wasn’t sure how much energy it would take but he knew that if he was going to come remotely close to that, he would need to go critical.
The last time that had happened…
He shook his head and clenched his fists firmly. No, he couldn’t think about that. He had to do this, right there, right then. He started to walk forward, right in the direction of The Harness, steam issuing from his skin as he got closer and closer to the thing.
He stopped first by Anthea and helped her to her feet. “Go,” he instructed her, speaking softly, a certain somberness to his expression. “I don’t know if this will work so you need to get the others clear.”
“If this doesn’t work, it won’t matter how far away you get them, that device will consume everything,” Zaldur said. “Ironic, isn’t it? You came all the way here to stop me, the supposed big bad, the antagonist of your pitiful existence…and now you’re the reason everyone will burn, the reason why our world will cease. Who’s the vill–,”
The air exploded right in front of Zaldur, slamming him into a wall. He slumped to the ground and remained there, unconscious.
“He’s right,” Anthea said, staring down at her hands, at the blue lines that had spread across it. “The energy coming from that thing. It’s not like anything I’ve touched before. If it can’t be contained…we’re all going to die.”
“I know,” Dang nodded. “But I can contain it.”
Anthea stared at him with an incredulous expression on her face. “Are you out of your mind? You can’t. The mere effort alone will kill you.”
“Better my life than the rest of the world’s, right?” Dang smiled sadly. He brushed a hand across her cheek, his eyes stinging and rapidly welling up with tears. When he spoke again, there was a slight crack in his voice. “If I survive this, I uh, I’d like for us to–,”
“Survive,” Anthea said, squeezing his hand. “Don’t you dare die.”
“I’ll try my best,” Dang grinned. “Now go. Get out of here. I don’t want you here for what comes next, I won’t be able to stop my flames from burning you.”
Anthea nodded, then turned on her heels and shot off in a streak of lightning, shooting right out of the building. Once her lightning trail had vanished from view, Dang sighed and focused his attention on the pulsing harness, at the energy it still spurted out.
“Alright,” he rubbed his hands together. “Here goes nothing.”
He thrust his hands at the air and flames exploded right out of his body, rapidly encircling both him and The Harness, forming a sort of flaming orb-like cage. The Harness spurted out energy then, and it blasted straight through the orb.
Dang gritted his teeth, aware he would need a lot more than that. He closed his eyes gently and reached deep into his reserves of power, reaching deep into his core where his flames burned hottest.
He drew a deep breath. “Dante’s Inferno,” he said softly.
And hell exploded right out of him. Flames of all colors–white, purple, black, crimson, green. It all exploded right out of him and added to the intense power of the cage he’d put up around The Harness.
When The Harness spurted energy this time, the cage managed to contain it.
“Good,” Dang said through gritted teeth. “The others will be safe. This only needs to end with me.”
The Harness spurted out several more blasts, all of which were contained within the cage. And then the device started to go critical, all of a sudden beginning to quake, spurting out blasts that were different colored.
Dang knew at once that the thing was about to blow.
A smile crept onto his face, and his eyes twinkled with satisfaction for what was probably going to be the last time.
“Live well, Anthea,” he whispered to no one but himself. “We have our victory now.”
The Harness made an odd whirring sound, and then the entire world went white around him.
And then it was nothing but darkness.