CHAPTER THIRTY

DOPPELGANGERS VS CALTA

Calta had metal plates grafted onto parts of his body and whatever specific metal the plates were made out of appeared to be rather efficient at absorbing the impact of Tiger and Wombat’s blows. Wombat arced through the air and shot at Calta; his focus fixed on a gap in the back of Calta’s knees that didn’t look to be protected by any such metal plates. With Tiger attacking the monster head-on and occupying his attention, Wombat decided the sneak attack had to work.

As he got closer to the monster, the flames that engulfed his fists burned brighter and hotter, but they weren’t blue just yet. He pulled back a fist, ready to slam it into Calta’s knee. He got close enough and had been just about to land the strike when Calta spun around with unbelievable speed for a creature his size, and caught Wombat with a powerful blow straight to the face.

Wombat went hurtling uncontrollably through the air. He crashed straight through the window of a comic bookstore, and then through the wall, falling onto the other side of the street and rolling a few times before coming to a stop, right in front of incoming traffic.

The truck that’d been barreling down the street at about 70 miles an hour swerved sharply in a bid to avoid hitting Wombat. As a result, the vehicle crashed into a lamp pole which sent out dangerous sparks before it started to fall.

Wombat groaned and rubbed his jaw which hurt horribly after the blow from Calta. He heard panicked screams and looked in time to see the lamp pole leaning as if it was likely to fall on a group of kids running for their lives. In that instant, his pain seemed to vanish as adrenaline coursed through him. His eyes lit up a flaming orange and he shot off the ground, flying straight for the lamp pole and getting there just in time to catch and stop it from flattening anyone.

He held the pole up long enough for the kids to get clear and then tossed it aside. He dusted his hands then turned around. He could hear thunderous sounds in the distance and feel the reverberations of the battle going on between Tiger and Calta.

He saw every window on a skyscraper in the distance explode outward, and had been just about to go rejoin the fight when the explosion happened. It came from an abandoned pawn shop just down the street.

It’d been sudden and unexpected so it took him a moment to process. Once he’d had that moment though, he noticed a few people had gotten stuck under rubble from the explosion and shot toward them.

He landed straight into a sprint, and slid to his knees in front of an elderly woman who had a slab of concrete on her torso. He lifted the slab off with incredible ease and helped the woman to her feet.

“Are you okay?” he demanded.

“Yes,” they nodded, eyes wide with fear.

“Can you walk?”

They nodded again.

“Can you run?”

They nodded again.

“Good. Run.”

He helped the others who’d been pinned by the rubble and issued them the same directive. Run. They all obliged without an argument.

With the people looking to be in the clear, he turned to rejoin the fight against Calta. Then came the whirring sounds. The sounds came from the blown-up pawn shop, and there was something dark and eerie about them that sent a chill down his spine.

“Who’s there?” he demanded. He aimed a warning hand at the pawn shop, ready to blast at anything that popped out.

Seconds of silence went by, interrupted only by the sound of the ongoing battle between Tiger and Calta.

And then came the whirring again. This time, it was accompanied by something else. Purple lights glowed at him out of the burning building, and through the flame, he made out shapes. Silhouettes.

Another whirring sound, and then a blast hit him full square in the chest, sending him flying. He crashed into the side of a parked van, leaving a dent in it, and then dropped to the ground, falling face first. He hit the asphalt with a grunt.

Metallic sounds filled the air around him and with a scowl on his face, he pushed himself to his feet. His mouth hung open once he saw what was going on. Large murderbots stepped out of the flaming pawn shop, but there were others too. Some emerged from the ground, exploding out of the asphalt.

Others seemed to materialize out of nothing, hovering high in the air above him, purple eyes trained on him. As far as his eyes could see from his current position, the same thing seemed to be happening—murderbots emerging out of nowhere.

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In the distance, he saw a building go up in flames and heard screams echo through the air.

He raised a hand to his comms and pushed down. “Uhm, guys?” he gulped. “Uhh, it’s not looking too good right now. There’s—,”

“Murderbots,” Daedalus interrupted. “We know. We’re clearing through as many of them as we can and making our way to you guys. Entire city’s crawling with them.”

“They got a weak spot?” Wombat asked, rising into the air, staring down at the bots that surrounded him.

“Just hit them and hit them hard,” Dang instructed. “Seems to be doing the trick.”

“Alright, copy,” Wombat nodded. “I can do that. I’ll try to finish with these things quick and return to Calta.”

“No, leave Calta to us,” Daedalus said quickly. “We’ll make our way to him. Focus on the bots and evacuation. That goes for you too, Tiger.”

“Can’t talk right now,” Tiger said frantically. “But hurry up. I could use the help.”

“Don’t worry, just keep him busy a little longer,” Dante responded. “We’re pretty close to you now.”

***

Tiger flew straight at Calta, the monster leaping in their direction too, propelling himself off the ground with so much force that he might as well have been flying, the air whipping around him as he hurtled at them.

Tiger clenched a fist firmly and concentrated on the air around them. They drew all of the air into a concentrated point at the center of their fist, compressing it as much as they possibly could. It was a new attack; one they hadn’t yet used in practical combat but that they’d worked on during all of those training sessions.

Tiger had no idea how efficient it would be, but it was the only trick up their sleeve that they hadn’t yet tried out on Calta. Considering all they needed to do was buy some time until the doppelgangers arrived, now seemed like a good enough time as any to pull off the attack.

They soared toward Calta, the two of them only a few seconds away from collision now. They continued to concentrate the wind as they went and just when Calta was in front of them, they struck, delivering a swift blow straight into Calta’s side, finding a spot that wasn’t metal-plated. At first, the blow must have seemed like a tame one since Calta showed no reaction to it.

And then she willed all of the wind she’d compressed to explode.

“Compression Hit!” they yelled.

The wind exploded from their fist with intense force, sending a massive shock through both herself and Calta and sending out a massive shockwave that hit all of the nearby buildings, causing glass to explode outward and fall to the ground in a shower.

Spit flew from Calta’s mouth, his eyes widening in surprise at the impact of that blow.

The force sent him flying, flipping over uncontrollably as he went. A smile formed on Tiger’s face and they held up both hands, her eyes beginning to glow. They manifested two powerful wind vortexes and thrusted her hands forward in Calta’s direction, sending the vortexes right at him.

The vortexes spun toward him, sucking in vehicles and garbage cans as they went, as well as pulling up water hydrants. The two vortexes converged on Calta, engulfing him wholly, and they heard a roar escape him from within the chaos.

Tiger surged forward, right at the vortex, slipping into it. For anyone else, merely attempting this would have been suicide. But Tiger could nullify the effects of wind pressure on themself and select others, and in an instance like this, it provided the opportunity to execute one of their favorite moves.

Slipstream Dance.

They spotted Calta spinning around uncontrollably within the vortex, the vehicles that had been sucked into it slamming into him a few times. A grin formed on Tiger’s face and she shot at him, hitting him with another Compression Hit, delivering this blow straight to his face.

Calta roared and spun to grab Tiger, but they’d already slipped back into the wall of the vortex. Another car slammed into Calta, flipping him over. Tiger emerged again, hitting him with three consecutive Compression Hits this time. Before Calta could retaliate, they’d remerged with the vortex wall, content to observe until there was another prime opportunity to catch Calta off guard.

Another car hit Calta and Tiger surged forward to attack yet again. This time though, Calta bellowed with rage, and slammed his fists together. A brilliant purple pulse of energy exploded upon this impact, and Tiger saw it coming too late. They got caught in the pulse’s blast radius and a sharp, unpleasant shock hit every nerve of their body, the impact sent her hurtling through the air.

Tiger slammed into the asphalt of the street below with enough force to leave a crack in it. She bounced flipped a handful of times before coming to a stop against the side of a brick building. A wet sensation on their nose was an indicator that that attack had done some considerable damage to them.

They attempted to get back on their feet but whatever Calta’s pulse blast had been, it’d made it so their body was refusing to heed their commands.

A groan escaped them as they stared in Calta’s direction. The vortex had dispersed now, and all of the cars that had been sucked into it were now flying in every direction, some of them crashing right back down to the street, others crashing into the sides or tops of buildings.

One car was shooting right at Tiger, and with insane speed too. Their eyes widened and they attempted to summon a wall of wind to deflect the incoming vehicle, but their body refused to obey them.

‘COME ON!’ Tiger thought frantically, eyes wide with fear.

Still, the wall of wind refused to materialize. And the car continued to hurtle right at them.

Resigned to their fate, they slowly drew their eyes shut, taking in one final deep breath.

I’m sorry, Daniel. I should have been stronger.

And then came a loud, earsplitting sound, one that seemed to jolt sensation back into Tiger’s body, startling their eyes open.

The car was on the ground now, split in half. Standing right in front of them, intense blue aura engulfing him, was Dang.

He looked back at them, eyes glowing blue. “You okay?”

Tiger nodded. “Yeah.”

“Go join Wombat,” he instructed, before turning his gaze back to Calta, the monster already advancing in their direction. “We’ll take this from here.”

From above her came a glow of orange and she glanced upward to see Dante, hovering, coming to a slow landing, on Dang’s left.

The air to Dang’s right shimmered, and Daedalus materialized out of nothingness, his body pulsing with blue lines of energy.

Calta stopped at the sight of Daedalus. A grin formed on the monster’s face. “Ha! I was wondering when you’d arrive! We didn’t get to finish our little tango last time. Ready to pick up right where we left off?”

“I’m only going to tell you this once,” Daedalus growled. “Walk away, Calta.”

“No can do,” Calta sneered.

Daedalus sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Then you’ll die.”