CUTIS
DEREK
Derek woke up when the screaming started.
It took him a minute to shake the sleep from his head, longer than usual. The interference from Butler's captured zombies made it hard to identify new ones, but he could hear them coming from the North, probably past NHQ. He glanced at the clock. It was six in the morning. Not that bad at all.
Derek shook Adam awake, who immediately jumped up and started getting ready. It was lucky he was even here. He had been going out with Lily most nights, doing who knew what. He only slept in their room about half the time.
They were ready in a few minutes, and when Derek opened the door Akane was waiting in her Minerva silk, looking frazzled. Ling, however, was nowhere to be found.
“Where's—”
Akane shook her head. “Don't know, don't care, let's go.” She headed for the elevators before he could say anything else.
He shrugged at Adam a little weakly. “She's never been a morning person.”
They went downstairs, collected Laura and the retinue, and headed north. Like last time, the van was mostly quiet. It was strange how empty it felt without one little fel who didn't even speak.
“We're going to have some help on this one,” Kelly said after a few minutes of driving. Derek noticed that she was scratching her fixer a little. “The General's hellions and the Hammer's Aesir will provide support.”
Derek was surprised. The two were hardly enemies, but they had never worked together either. “That's wonderful news. How'd they manage it?”
“The Big Boss managed to convince pretty much everyone last night that an alliance was the only hope for survival. This is a test run.”
Adam frowned a little. “Okay, now... the Aesir are giants, right?”
“The first giants, actually,” George said. “Though there is a little bit of argument on that.”
“Right. But I don't think I've heard of the hellions.”
Derek chuckled. “Even I know that. They're one of the first demon subcultures.” Adam stared blankly at him. “They're demon soldiers. Sargeras is in charge of... Laura, which Legion is he in charge of?”
“The Legion,” she said, without looking up from her phone. She seemed to be studying a map. “Also known as the Army. Their emblem is a red wasp.”
“Oh, right,” Derek muttered. “I forgot how unimaginative the General is.”
“And the Aesir?” Adam asked.
She just shrugged. “The standard mythological symbol. The threefold triangle, I think it's called.”
Adam frowned. “You mean a valknut?”
“Sure.”
“We're here,” Jarasax said as he pulled to a stop in front of a nondescript 'scraper. “Time to meet the neighbors. Watch your step, it's a little bit icy.”
They piled out into a small square already crowded with armed men, avoiding the patches of ice that had grown on the street overnight. On the left there was a Legion of demons, well-equipped with the latest anti-personnel weapons and with red wasps stitched on their shoulders or tattooed on their arms. On the right was a clan of giants, carrying oversized guns and emblazoned with the threefold triangle Laura had mentioned.
A hellion and an Aesir were arguing in the empty space between the two camps, next to a fountain. Derek walked up, with Laura following. Everyone else stayed behind to check their weapons and such.
“We can't send them in now,” the hellion was saying. “We don't even know what the screamers' power is. We need more intel.”
The Aesir—a Thor, if the hammer sigil on his shoulder was any indication—waved a massive hand airily. “We don't need them at all. Either send them in now and let them die, or force them to stay back. We don't need to change our strategy to match a bunch of crazy vampires.”
“What seems to be the problem here?” Derek asked.
Both leaders turned to look at him in surprise. It was the hellion who spoke. “You're the Paladins, I take it?”
Derek nodded. “I'll be personally leading a small strike force. This is Laura. She's strategy.”
The demon frowned. “Well, I'm not sure we need help...”
“You're arguing,” Derek pointed out. “That means you need help.”
He shrugged. “Fair enough.” He scratched near his large horns. “The problem is that a couple Canians have shown up, and we don't know quite what to do with them.”
Laura grimaced. “Who's leading them?”
The giant barked out a laugh. “Leading? Leading Canians? If that's your question, I'm not sure you should be in charge of strategy, little girl.”
She glared daggers at him, enough to make him swallow visibly.
“There's always a leader, Honored Titan,” she said calmly. “Even if it's just the one who happens to be in front. Where is the one who speaks for them?”
The giant pointed without saying a word.
“Thank you,” she said scathingly, and walked off in the direction he indicated—farther down the no-man's-land between the two armies. Derek nodded at the men and followed her.
The Canians was closer to the screamers than the demons and giants, but still far enough away so that they couldn't see the zombies from their position. They seemed to be mostly confined to a street about ninety degrees to the staging area, blocked in by a barricade of cars. That was also when he noticed that the streets were relatively undamaged. Even the intermittent patches of frost were undisturbed. Did that mean their power was something non-destructive, or had the screamers just not come this way yet?
Not important at the moment. The Canian leader was talking to someone, surrounded by perhaps two dozen of his men. The second man was clearly not a Canian. He didn't have daygoggles or a flamethrower, for one thing. He seemed mostly baseline, of some South American ethnicity Derek couldn't identify. He was arguing with the Canian pretty vehemently, but the pyro didn't seem all that concerned. As they got closer, the crowd parted to allow them through.
Derek blinked. “Flynn?”
He started. “Derek? Oh, of course you'd be here...”
“Yeah, but what about you? You're not a Canian.” It was a hard mistake to make. Canians were distinctive even compared to other vampires, and Flynn was clearly baseline.
Flynn just shrugged. “My roommate is.” He nodded his head at the pyrovamp he had been arguing with. “This is Guland.”
“Pleased to meet you, Honored Nightstalker,” Derek said diplomatically. “Are you the one who led these Canians here?”
He grinned around his cigar—a safe cig, if the smell was any indication—and nodded. “Meph didn't want to come down himself. The Nessians are getting violent again. So I called up a couple of my kithmates, and they called a few more, and...” He grinned a little wider. “Here we are.”
Laura didn't seem to care. “You need to stay back and wait for orders. You're upsetting the plan.”
Guland's fuel pack started to shriek as gas began to leak out. He reached back and adjusted a valve, quieting it, without even looking. “It's not our job to take part in any plans, Mrs. Paladin.” He hefted his flamer. “We're just here to burn things.”
“If you don't at least have some idea what you're getting into, you're just going to get killed or infected,” Flynn said. “Nobody's asking for you not to fight, just cooperate a little.”
One of the other Canians, a shorter white boy with smoke-stained skin, spat on the ground in disgust. He said a few sentences in Romanian that Derek didn't understand. Languages were Lizzy's department.
“He's right,” Guland said. “Worse, they'll probably throw us on a suicide mission. We're useful. Let us fight.”
“We're going to,” Laura said. “But you clearly don't want to die, right?”
His eyes narrowed. “That a threat, Mrs. Paladin?”
She met his gaze evenly. “Far from it, Honored Nightstalker. But right now you have two choices: You can rush the screamers in a kamikaze strike, or stay back with us and help us with building up our strategy. That way, when you do attack, you can be certain it's not a suicide mission.”
He shifted the cigar around again. “And if it is?”
Laura just shrugged. “Then you either take it, or you leave. Either way, you get to choose whether you live or die. No one can force you to do anything.” She smiled grimly. “But you won't be getting any support if you go in alone.”
The Noble—at least Derek thought he was at actual warlord level, it could be hard to tell—turned to the vampire who had spoken earlier. The other pyro shrugged in defeat. “Se pare de bun cu mine, domnule.”
Guland sighed. “Fine. Fine.” He raised his voice. “Everybody, back up! We're playing nice with the other kids on this one.”
The other vampires murmured in annoyance, but obeyed, holstering their flamers for the moment and returning to the demon and giant camps.
As they returned, the hellion raised an eyebrow. “That was fast. I figured it was a toss-up on whether they'd run off or you'd shoot them.”
“We didn't have enough ammo,” Derek quipped. “So we settled for recruiting them instead.”
“We have more ammo,” the Aesir grumbled, glaring at the pyros in annoyance. “If you need it.”
Derek smiled a little weakly. “I think we'll be fine.”
“Suit yourself. So what is the plan?”
“I'll go in first with two of the other Paladins.” Akane was already walking up... which was when Derek remembered Ling wasn't here. “Ah... one of the other Paladins. Laura will stay here and coordinate everyone. The others will act as a fireteam.”
“When you go in, be sure to call back with details on their powers as soon as possible,” Laura said. “We can't really do anything until we figure that out. Don't want a repeat of the bleeders.”
“MC,” Akane said. All these people she didn't know were clearly making her nervous, but Derek got the message and flipped out his phone.
“MC? You've got something for us?”
“Not much, sorry. There were singers before, but they're out of sight now. And whatever spec the screamers have, it's not something flashy.”
Derek frowned. “Well, if we're lucky, we can still get to the singers. Akane and I will scout ahead, try and get more information.” That reminded him. “Oh, and call Ling for me, would you?”
“She's not there?” MC asked, incredulous. “Yeah, I'll ping her right now.”
“Thanks.” He hung up and turned to Akane. “Ready?”
She nodded, and off they went, with Akane conspicuously avoiding looking at Flynn. The barricade of cars was actually surprisingly difficult to bypass. Someone—the giants, probably—had physically thrown the vehicles together about three high until they blocked the entire way. Unless the screamers sensed enough people on the other side, they'd look for an easier path.
Luckily, they were smarter than the zombies. It took some doing, but they managed to clamber up to the top of the barrier and get a good look around.
The street that greeted them was surprisingly empty. Well, it was full enough by most normal standards, with more people milling around than you could count, but for screamers that was positively empty. Normally, the horde was so massive you couldn't even see the street beneath their feet.
It also became clear that whatever their power was, it wasn't directly dangerous. They were destroying everything in sight—bashing in windows, stomping on appliances and so forth, but they were doing it all with their bare hands. They didn't even have the intelligence to pick up weapons.
They were still screaming, of course, so Derek couldn't really say anything to Akane, but they both knew what to do. They knew what their power wasn't, it was time to figure out what it was.
They slid down on the zombie side of the barricade as quietly as possible, though with the toneless shrieking, Derek doubted it particularly mattered either way. There weren't any within twenty feet or so of the barrier, but they'd notice them once they started fighting.
Derek held his hand out to Akane, and she placed her Colt in it. True, he wasn't very good with guns, but he wasn't going to tackle a superpowered zombie until he had some idea of what it was capable of. So he squared his shoulders, planted his feet, and took aim using both hands to hold the gun.
Then he fired.
The closest screamer stumbled back, stunned, before regaining its balance and resuming its wordless chorus. Of course, now it was aware of them, as were a few more nearby ones. They rushed forward as one, their undulating pitch making it difficult to think.
Okay, they were bulletproof. But he couldn't tell how. They weren't morphers, like the biters. In the early dawn light, it was easy to tell that they at least looked normal. Was it possible they had some sort of ability that let them deflect the bullets? Metal control, or something?
That was something to think on later. For now, they had to run. They couldn't go back the way they came, since they'd just end up leading the horde past the barricade.
They ducked into a nearby 'scraper, jumping through the shattered ground-level window. The lowest store was just clothing, with all the racks knocked over and the shirts ripped up, but the next ones up were a few food places. That format popped up a lot, with food being cooked upstairs and eaten downstairs while people browsed.
They were ahead of the screamers for now, but Derek knew they'd catch up sooner or later. The way to prevent that was obvious. So as they reached the third floor, he tossed a grenade over his shoulder.
Akane glanced back as she heard the grenade bounce, cursed, and ran up the stairs at superspeed. He didn't know why she was so worried. It wasn't like it was a big grenade.
It exploded behind him a little too close for comfort, but he just popped a shield and didn't feel so much as a flash of heat. The zombies howled in outrage before reverting to their emotionless screams. It was only when he reached the fourth floor—where Akane was glaring at him—that he turned to look at his handiwork.
The entire stairwell was on fire.
Derek had intended for the grenade to take out a dozen steps or so. Just enough to make a hole too big for the screamers to jump over. But that was the problem with incendiaries: They rarely just burned what you wanted them to. The fact that this building wasn't quite up to code didn't help either.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
On the positive end of things, he could see a few zombies on fire, writhing in pain. So it seemed like the Canians would be useful after all.
“Should've at least used a frag,” Akane said.
Derek shrugged. “Probably. Too late now, though.” They needed to jump to the next 'scraper before the fire gutted this one completely. Fortunately, it was a relatively short building, at only ten stories. Unfortunately, that meant the next one over was too high to jump to.
The shortest adjacent building wasn't that high, only about fifteen stories, but that was still way too big a difference to jump. Even jumping down would have been a problem. But smoke was already billowing out of the stairwell, and this 'scraper wouldn't last much longer. Not to mention that the screamers might be attracted by the smoke. Were they smart enough to make that connection between smoke and people?
“I can jump that high,” Akane said, eyeing the distance. “But not while carrying you.”
Oh right, physics got a little bent when she activated her speed. Unfortunately, Derek's power was useless here.
He frowned. Well, his ability might work. He hadn't really thought about it, but his barriers could be either stable, floating in the air without moving, or mobile, and could be carried around. If he could use that...
He held out his hand and concentrated. He made the first shield about six inches wide and placed it face down a couple feet away from the edge and higher in the air. Then he made an identical one a few feet from that, and then another and another until he had a crude staircase up to the next roof. It looked good, but his reservoir was draining fast, and he wasn't even sure it would support his weight.
Akane stared at him. “Don't tell me—”
“Then I won't,” he said with a grin, and jumped onto the first shield.
It held, mostly, though he could only fit one foot on it. The small part of his mind that kept track of them noted that the shield was weakening rapidly. They wouldn't last more than a few seconds each.
It was difficult getting to the next one, and he was beginning to regret placing them so far apart. He had to stretch, balancing on one foot, until he could get his free leg up to the right level and leverage himself up. It got easier, but only barely.
He released each shield as he finished with it, lessening the rate his reservoir was draining, but he was still worried. Creating new shields cost more than maintaining existing ones, so he couldn't just start over when he was in the middle of it. He had to hurry.
He reached the next rooftop with maybe ten seconds to spare and had to resist the urge to collapse in the early morning sun. Straining the boundaries of his power was a workout, but not a physical one. It was a strange feeling.
As he was still catching his breath, a blur arched over the edge of the roof and landed a few feet away from him, throwing up a small cloud of dust and gravel. When the dust cleared Akane was there, none the worse for her experience, and glaring daggers at him.
“Couldn't you at least have tested that a little more?”
Derek bit back an angry retort. He got a bit defensive when he was questioned, but she hadn't meant much by it.
He flipped out his phone before he said anything he'd regret. “MC? We still don't know what the screamers can do, but they're bulletproof, and fire works on them. Tell Laura to send in the Canians.”
“Wait, Akane set another 'scraper on fire?”
Where the hell was she getting her information? There weren't any open-source cameras nearby. Well, it was possible that the shop owners had decided to give her full access to theirs. That happened sometimes.
“Well, kinda, but it wasn't quite on purpose.”
“Oh, that makes it so much better.”
“Hey, if you think you can do better than come down here yourself.”
There was a short pause. “Laura says figure out their specs, then fall back. She's sending in the Canians now. Try to stay out of their way.” She hung up.
Wonderful advice. Derek slipped his phone away with a sigh. They weren't even close to done here.
He spied a small plume of smoke from further to the west. That would be the pyrovamps, no doubt, coming at the screamers from a different side. He nodded to Akane, and they headed over to look, roofhopping to get there. Luckily these were close enough in height that they had ziplines and ladders set up, so they didn't have to try riskier methods again.
They didn't see any zombies as they traveled, but that made sense, with the Canians attracting so much attention. It also meant that they needed to get to them fast, before they were overrun.
They turned out to be holed up next to the second to last 'scraper on the street. It was some sort of gardening store, which was probably where they got all the sandbags they had piled in front of them as makeshift barricades. They had probably used one of the back doors as a shortcut into the street. If there was a more obvious way through—like a road unblocked by piled cars—the screamers would undoubtedly have found it first.
Of course they had chosen to set up next to the building. Any other group would have found it easier to set up inside, but these were Canians. Each and every one was equipped with some form of flamer, from the little Romanian guy and his pistol with incendiary bullets to Guland, with his massive fuel condenser and attached flamethrower.
Derek used his shield stair trick to walk down into the short alley between the two 'scrapers. Akane landed next to him, glaring, but he ignored her. It had worked, hadn't it? Besides, he was already getting better.
“Guland!” Derek called, walking forward. “Any news?”
He turned back and grinned before roasting a few more zombies, who ran off squealing in pain. “Not much. The fires are keeping 'em off us, but I don't think it's killing them.”
Taking a closer look, Derek realized he was right. The smoke they had spotted were the screamers themselves, but they weren't burning as much as they should. After a minute or two, the flames died and the screamer just came back for another run, usually with their burned clothing falling off. A few were staying down, sure, but not nearly enough.
“This doesn't make sense,” Derek said. “You been able to tell what their power is?”
“Nope. They've just been rushing us, as you can see.” He let out another burst from his flamethrower. It was one of the saner, long-range types, which actually fired streams of burning liquid a few hundred yards. Some of the Canians insisted on using short-range versions, which just coughed out clouds of incendiary mist. It could be helpful at times, but it was usually more dangerous to its user.
“I can check,” Akane whispered. “Quick.”
Derek thought about it for a moment. That was probably the best idea, since it would let her get a good slow-motion look at what they were doing, but it was hard to tell. What if they had some weird power that screwed with inertia or whatever, and forced her speed to backfire? Except that wouldn't have helped them against the fire...
Bah. They needed intel. He nodded to her, and she blurred off.
“Hold your fire,” Guland called to his men. “Don't hit the paladin.”
They didn't stop entirely, of course—Akane wouldn't be able to hold off even a tenth of the screamers by herself—but they did clearly make an effort to avoid the area she was running around. It was hard to tell what was going on, since mostly it just looked like she was running up to them and blurring away without doing anything, but Derek trusted her enough to know better.
She repeated the pattern nearly a dozen times—move in at normal speed, move out at super speed—before she sped back to Derek's side, and the Canians resumed shooting everything in sight as opposed to merely most everything.
Derek raised an eyebrow at her.
“Skin,” she said with a shrug. “They harden their skin.”
Derek blinked. “Enough to deflect bullets?”
“Enough to deflect my sword.”
That was actually more impressive. They hadn't gotten around to actually testing it in a lab or anything, but it was pretty clear that at full speed her blade had far more force behind it than most firearms. If these screamers were that tough, they had a real problem on their hands.
“What about their reservoirs? Were you able to deplete them?”
She shook her head. “But they can't be very deep. Mine isn't.”
That seemed to be the way powers worked. It was give and take. If you wanted more power, you got a smaller reservoir. If you wanted a bigger reservoir, you got less power. That was the trap Laura had fallen in. She wanted—or had been given—the power to detect lies all the time. So she ended up with a very weak power that she could use literally every second of the day. Worse yet, it didn't seem to improve with use, unlike the rest of the Paladins. It was still as useless as it was the first day they got them.
With such a strong power, these... skins had to be burning through their reservoirs quickly. The only problem was they were retreating when that happened, so they didn't get a chance to inflict real damage on them.
“We need to focus fire on one at a time,” Derek said to Guland. “We should be able to outlast their power pretty easily.”
He nodded. Derek doubted he understood everything they were talking about with the powers, but at least he realized they knew more than him on this subject. “We just need to wait for Adonides. We'll want everyone for this.”
That's when Derek noticed the Romanian vampire from earlier was missing. He frowned. “Where is he? It's not like there's anywhere to go.”
Guland just shrugged.
Derek sighed. “Fine. I'm going to call MC. One second.”
She answered immediately. “Derek? Jig back nowlike.”
“Uh... what?”
“The horns and hammers have gone out, plugging each other in the byway. Hell's gonna fin, they can spawn mooks faster. Bathory either which.”
Derek did not spend enough time on the internet for this. “Just... calm down and speak English.”
There was a brief pause where he could imagine her taking a deep breath. “Warfield shot Johnsson, then the Aesir started shooting the hellions. You need to come back ASAP. You're the only one who might be able to stop this.”
Derek cursed. “What's Laura saying?”
“I don't know. She shot Warfield in the chest and is trying to hold everyone apart, but not much luck there.”
Derek glanced around. The Canians were holding pretty well, and now that they knew how to defeat the screamers, they should be able to last. “Okay, we're coming back.”
He turned to Guland. “The hellions and Aesir have gone crazy. Don't do anything yet, just hold the line.”
Guland nodded. “Simple enough. We'll call if something goes sideways.”
Derek patted him on the shoulder as they left. He was a good man, despite being a pyromaniac. Derek would be really upset if he got turned.
Derek and Akane got back to the staging ground faster by dodging through the 'scraper the vampires had come through, but it wasn't fast enough.
The place was a warzone. Both sides had already set up primitive fortifications, and were unloading cases of ammunition at each other. The hellions were mostly using assault rifles, while the Aesir were using large gatling guns, and a few were scrounging up missile launchers. There didn't seem to be very many casualties. There weren't that many corpses, at least. Derek spotted the Aesir leader in the center no-man's-land, minus a head. Some ten yards away the retinue, along with Adam and Flynn, were protecting Laura.
Derek summoned a large shield and ran over, skidding to a stop next to the upended car they were hiding behind. No one shot him in the process, which he took as a good sign. It seemed like both sides retained the presence of mind not to just shoot everything in sight.
“What the hell happened?” he hissed, as Akane blurred in next to him. “I thought everything was going fine.”
“The hellion just pulled out a shotgun and blew the Aesir's head off,” Laura said, confusion in her eyes. “It was the strangest thing. It was like he wasn't even aware he was doing it.”
Huh. “The Composer can control screamers, right? Maybe he suppressed it for long enough to get into a good position, or something?”
George shuddered. “That's not a fun thought.”
“And not something we can deal with right now,” Adam said. “What's the plan?”
Before Derek could answer, his phone rang. Not MC's tone, just his default old-fashioned telephone ring. He picked it up, confused. “Hello?”
“Paladin?” Guland's panicked voice said. “Adonides went crazy! He started shooting everyone just as the screamers rushed us! We're falling back, but we do not have the zombies contained.”
Derek cursed. “Belay that. You'll just be fuel on the fire over here. Can you find a redoubt?”
“Negative. We had to dump most of our flamers, we're just running now. If we try and hold them, we'll be slaughtered.”
Derek lowered the phone to explain the situation to the others, when he noticed that Laura was already on hers. Apparently MC had hooked her into the conversation. He put the phone back to his ear just as she started talking. “Fall back to the staging area. We need all of them in one place.”
“Fair enough, Mrs. Paladin. Can you cover us as we come in?”
She glanced around. “Doubtful. Just get as close to us as you can. We'll be at the south end. Derek will shield you as you cross.” She hung up.
“Wait,” Kelly said with a frown, “why do you want us to cross to the other side? We're safe enough here, and the screamers might convince the hellions and Aesir to pull their heads out of their asses.”
“It won't,” Laura said firmly. “You can count on that. And we need them all in one place.”
What did that mean? Well, Derek doubted she'd tell him, so he just nodded as if he understood. She was better at strategy than him. “Is everyone ready? I can shield us, but you need to stay as close to me as possible.”
Akane blurred off ahead—one less person to worry about—and the rest nodded. Jarasax and George looked worried, but Kelly, Adam, and Laura seemed to have confidence in Derek's abilities. Well, he didn't think Kelly did, but she was ready for whatever came regardless.
“Let's go,” he said decisively, and they went.
They ran headfirst into the hail of gunfire, Laura and Derek in the middle of the press of people. He raised a full shield immediately, but he could feel his reservoir depleting far too quickly for his taste. It was about a fifty yard run. Their only hope was that both sides realized shooting them would bring the full might of Necessarius down on their heads.
Luck seemed with them, and the hail lessened until only a few misfires here and there plinked against Derek's barrier. He still urged his friends on faster. He didn't really want to find out what would happen if it failed.
Akane waved to them from behind the van, and they joined her just moments before the shield died.
“They're crazy,” she said. “Saw their eyes. Blank, dead. Don't know what they're doing.”
Laura frowned. “All of them?”
Akane shook her head. “No. But a few leaders.”
Laura sighed deeply. “Some sort of mind control. Wonderful. Not unexpected, but still.” MC called, and she picked up quickly. “Yes? Good, perfect. What about the Canians? Good, wait until they reach us.” She hung up and turned to Derek. “The pyromaniacs will be here soon. Get ready to shield them.”
He frowned at her. “What are you planning?”
“Just get ready to shield them.”
This did not bode well, but he had little choice. The Canians were rounding the corner, and the crazed demons and giants were already opening fire on them. At least they were clustered together, which made it easier to fit a barrier around them. But there were still almost a dozen—including an unconscious one Guland was carrying, which Derek assumed was Adonides—and unlike before the gunfire wasn't slowing down. He didn't know if he could hold it.
“George, Adam. Lay down some suppression fire,” Laura ordered tersely.
They obeyed, their guns distracting their erstwhile allies long enough to let the Canians survive the run. A few rounds hit the van, but they mostly left them alone. Shooting them had made them angry, but they still weren't stupid enough to really put in the effort to attack Necessarius and the Paladins.
It turned out to be mostly unnecessary anyway, since the screamers followed close behind. The hellions and Aesir ignored the pyros in favor of the more dangerous and easier to hit target in front of them. The zombies didn't seem to be taking much damage, but they were slowed.
Derek's barrier fell almost thirty seconds before the Canians reached them, but luckily no one noticed fast enough to take advantage. “Paladin!” Guland cried, throwing the Romanian vampire to the ground roughly. A few of his men were injured, but none serious. “Burning blood, what is going on here? Why are they still shooting each other?”
“We'll explain later,” Laura cut in before Derek could respond. She turned to him. “How's your reservoir?”
“Filling quickly,” he said. “Why?”
“Let me know the second it's full,” she said, not answering his question. She pulled out her phone. “MC, what's the timing? Good. We just need a few minutes.” She huddled closer to Derek. “Everyone crowd in close. We all need to be covered by the shield.”
Well, he had figured out that she needed his power, but he still didn't know precisely for what. Judging from Laura's side of the conversation with MC, reinforcements were coming, and they were the distraction. Fair enough, but he'd have liked a better explanation from her.
“I'm not sure about this,” George said. He was on his hands and knees, and still taking up the most space. But they'd be fine. The eight Canians that were left didn't seem to have a problem literally piling on top of each other, so everyone was mostly within Derek's area of effect. It would be a big shield though, and he wasn't sure how long he could hold it. Hopefully they wouldn't shoot at them too much.
“Isn't there a better way to do this?” Derek said. Adonides, still unconscious, drooled on his foot a little.
“Yes,” Laura said tiredly. “But there's no time, and the van's not reliable. Start the shield the second you hear whistling.”
He frowned. “Wait, whistling? What are you—”
But she was already on her phone again. “MC, go for it.”
He heard a shrill whistling, coming from almost directly above them. He put up his barrier as fast as he could, covering the retinue, the Canians, and of course all four of the Paladins.
Then the sky fell.
Bombs rained down, exploding shortly before they hit the ground, creating massive clouds of dust and fire. Nearly a dozen in all, on the entire square. Derek could hear the bombers overhead, and they clearly didn't have time to sort out friend from foe. They did seem to be concentrating away from the shield, but even though nothing hit within a dozen yards, the collateral damage could have easily killed them.
After a minute or two, it stopped, and Derek lowered his shield with a sigh. “All right, first we need to see if any demons or giants survived—”
He heard the whistle again, and he only barely got his shield up in time.
More bombs fell. How many, he had no idea. A hundred, a thousand, it all blurred together as his brain got played like a drum. Dust and ash flew everywhere, until the outside of his barrier was completely black.
His shield failed, but the barrage continued. Nothing landed on them, but the chunks of flying concrete dislodged by the assault were dangerous enough. He couldn't see anything. He could feel dust scraping at his eyelids and didn't dare open them. He already had a few injuries—cuts on his left side, and a bruise where something large had hit him in the shoulder.
After what felt like an eternity, the world stopped shaking. He opened his eyes with difficulty, the caked dust and shattered asphalt trying to hold them closed.
There wasn't much left. The square was completely destroyed, the entire street pulverized. Most of the surrounding 'scrapers were on fire or crumbling to the ground, and at least one was already flattened.
Derek turned and saw that Laura was trying to talk to him. His ears were still ringing, so he couldn't hear her, but she seemed to be trying to justify her actions. He turned away. He wasn't interested in her excuses.
There was some movement in the demon and giant camps, but not much. A few of them had apparently had the presence of mind to hide under sandbags or other cover. It didn't seem to have done them much good.
Derek saw someone standing up, and felt a shred of hope—until he saw that the person was between the two camps, where the screamers had been.
The zombie stumbled a little, clearly injured, but tried to drag himself forward anyway. More rose, trying to do the same. It was unclear how many had survived, but far more than hellions or Aesir. Had this all been for nothing? This entire exercise, a complete waste?
Derek groaned as something else occurred to him.
They still didn't know where Ling was.