Chapter Forty-Three

Li Mei kept screaming. The Type Forty-Two dragged itself around toward me. Toward Overclock.

I didn’t have the mana for this. I didn’t have the spells for this. If the android had anything left, it’d kill me for sure. I needed to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.

But if I ran, it’d finish off my teammates.

“Will-o’-the-Wisp!” The emptiness behind my stomach tore at me—like I hadn’t eaten in a week. But the blue fireball rolled toward the slowly-crawling android, swerving and lighting bits of driftwood ablaze. I followed it up with my last Blazing Light, and the mana bar in my optic augment ticked down to zero.

If I wanted any more magic, I’d have to pay for it myself.

What little Mack plating the android had left burned. The afternoon wind whipped sparks into the driftwood—here and there, it smoldered, filling the air with smoke. And through the embers and smog, the android pulled itself toward me. My spells couldn’t stop it.

But Overclock’s ridiculous war hammer lay in the dirt next to her.

I wrapped my fingers around its shaft, remembering the fight in the basement bathroom against the Type Ones without our spells and abilities. I hadn’t exactly handled the pipe well, but the war hammer? That felt…solid. Dependable.

Right.

At least, I told myself it did. Overclock and Li Mei depended on me. I was relying on myself. And least importantly, at the moment, SHOCKS was counting on me.

I ran toward the slowly-advancing android. The war hammer swung forward. And it crashed into the Type-Forty-Two’s armor. Again. And again. Until its last arm’s gears unthreaded, and it leaked fluid from its pneumatics. Until the plating around its chest had collapsed. And until its eyes stopped glowing.

Then I hit it more. I needed to know it was dead. It’d come back from the dead once, and I didn’t know if it had more lives in it.

I was still hitting it when the sound of screaming engines and thump-thump-thump of rotors filled the air. My fingers let go of the war hammer, and it clattered to the ground next to the Type Forty-Two’s remains.

The helicopter landed a few meters away from Overclock, and a quartet of HANAF soldiers piled out, followed by a handful of troops in white helmets with red crosses. They split between the three downed Magical Girls as I watched, breathing. My head pounded. I couldn’t think right, and everything felt blurry. I sat down next to the shattered, crushed android and watched its eyes for any flicker of light.

“Luciole, the evac chopper’s here,” Bentley said unnecessarily. “Your team’s safe, and you’re done here.”

“No, they’re not. Sam’s…gone.” I wanted to feel something about it. But the hollow feeling wouldn’t go away.

“Yeah, according to the manuals, there’s a whole bunch of stuff I can say to help you through it, and we’ll get there. But right now, we need to get you and that processing core out of here before the Macks try to get it back.”

Bentley was right. Even if I had nothing left to give, I still had a mission to do. I grabbed the android’s torso and started dragging it toward the helicopter.

“Miss?”

I turned slowly.

“Miss, we’re going to load your team.” One of the medical troops stood a meter away, maybe two. She held out a protein bar. “You’ve got classic MG hunger going and quite a few wounds, but we’ll take care of those on the way to Sanctuary.”

With a grunt, I tossed the android’s body into the helicopter and took the bar. Lemon pie flavored. I unwrapped it and took a hesitant bite. The flavor made me gag, but my body…or maybe the mana organs…screamed for more. I tore into it, devoured it, and started licking the wrapper.

“There are more on board, Miss. They have better flavors, too,” the HANAF medic smiled.

“Thanks.”

I waited while they loaded three gurneys; the first two with a stable but unconscious Overclock, the second surrounded by medics while Li Mei screamed and tried to push them away, and the third…covered up. I stared at the sheet hiding Sam’s body from view.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Alright, Miss, strap in. We’ve gotta get moving.”

When I didn’t move, the medic touched my back and gently guided me on board. The contrast felt strange; we’d been fighting for what felt like hours, ever since the shelter in the Prestige building. And now, to have such a light touch? It was too much. I felt tears running down my face as she sat me down and strapped me in next to Overclock. Then the helicopter started lifting off.

“Luciole, make sure they secure the Type Forty-Two,” Bentley said. “You probably didn’t destroy it too badly for Sanctuary to get it running again or at least to see what was happening inside it.”

“Alright, Bentley,” I groaned. Then I waved to a HANAF soldier until I had his attention. “Can you strap the Mack in, too? Our mission was to recover it.”

He saluted—I’d forgotten about being a Second Lieutenant—and wrestled the hunk of metal, Mack plating, and leaking black fluid into a seat, then buckled it up. “Anything else, Miss?”

“No. Thank you.” I was already drifting off as I watched the helicopter’s downdraft ripple Sooke’s harbor water. The aircraft rose in a burst of misty vapor. Then, Sooke’s towers and the Prestige building faded into the distance. I stared off toward the far-off mountains to the south and at the waves below. My eyelids shut, then opened. Then they shut again.

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Victoria was burning.

The helicopter kept high over the city, but the acrid scent of burning buildings woke me up. I struggled to get to my feet—the odor almost matched the flames that’d killed Sam. The straps kept me in my seat, and a hand on my shoulder pushed me back down.

“It’s okay, Luciole, you’re safe. Everyone’s safe,” Bentley said. I looked out the helicopter’s open side, not believing him, but he kept talking. “I know it looks bad, but the south and west coasts are mostly clear, and three strike teams are securing the capitol building and downtown. Important locations you’ll be interested in.

“Saxe Point Memorial Hospital took a Class Four directly, but its patients were all sheltered, so your friend is safe. We don’t think there were any casualties. Duncan avoided all but a few minor Emergences. West End High isn’t any worse off than it already was. And—”

“Where are we going, Bentley?”

“SHOCKS headquarters on Sanctuary has the best medical care, with Saxe Point leveled, and they want the android anyways, so we’re all getting off there. That Type Forty-Two? That’s an amazing recovery on your part. The lab boys think they might be able to get it talking again. If they can, we might finally learn something about the Emergence machines, beyond that they want to kill us and that they show up out of nowhere. Even if not, the processing core could give us some of those insights.”

“That’s great, Bentley,” I mumbled. I didn’t care about his ramblings; he seemed to figure that out because the next thing he said felt totally unrelated.

“Oh, you leveled up twice for your quests.”

Mission Menu

Mission

Difficulty

Status

Rewards

Security Patrol

Challenging

Complete?

2 Exp., 1 point in Vit.

Assault Whiffen Spit

Overwhelming

Complete?

2 Exp., 1 Sigil

Critical! Rescue the Magical Girl

Unknown

Complete?

1 Exp., 1 Sigil

I blinked at the mission menu, not to make it disappear, but just because I didn’t care much about it. The helicopter dipped. When it stabilized, the medic who’d held me down started cleaning the burns from the Type Forty-Two’s Flame Arrows. The Easy-Cheeze stung, and so did whatever the clear junk she sprayed over it.

“I’m going to complete these quests for you, okay, Luciole?”

“Sure.”

Level Up! Congratulations!

You have reached Level Eleven! Consult your operator for help assigning points to your statistics.

You have reached Level Twelve! Consult your operator for help assigning points to your statistics.

“That’s six stat points and a pair of sigils, plus the point in Vitality. Do you want to spend them now?”

“No, not really, Bentley. I just want to sleep.” I grabbed a cherry-flavored protein bar and started munching on it. “And eat some real food when I wake up. Can you leave me alone for a while? At least until I’m back in the room? You can be here, but don’t talk for a bit.”

Bentley paused for a second. I could almost feel him wanting to say something. “Yeah. I’ll talk to you soon.”

And then it was silent. Or as quiet as a helicopter roaring over an active battlefield while medics tried to keep two people alive could be.

The helicopter circled the Sanctuary’s grounded bulk twice before it was cleared to land, allowing me to see everything. Most of Haven didn’t look as bad as Victoria. Like Bentley said, Duncan and the other northern districts looked almost intact, and even Saanich didn’t look too bad.

Then the chopper touched down on the rooftop landing pads. Four crews were already waiting for it, and before I could unbuckle, they’d wheeled Li Mei and Overclock toward the elevator. The medic motioned for me to go next, so I unbuckled and moved stiffly toward the door. I almost asked Bentley why I was stiff—the nanites should have helped with that—but it had to be because of how badly I’d taxed myself. It didn’t feel painful, like what happened after West End. Just…incredibly tight.

Sam left next, heading into another elevator, and a moment later, the last crew pushed a cart with the Type Forty-Two past me. The helicopter spooled up and took off, and I was alone.

I took the elevator down, walked to our empty suite, and transformed back into the clothes I’d been wearing before Sooke. Before the briefing. And then I collapsed into my bed. Bentley tried to say something, but I was already gone.