GalvanGal pulled everyone into the cramped elevator to send them down the shaft. Being underground would shelter them from the dark storm, but an errant strike could destroy the exposed hoist.
She magnetized the elevator car in preparation for the moment the hoist was blown away. Rather than a grand explosion of onyx lightning, subtle slashes severed the car from the counterweight. She carried the car down as planned, but a new unease was carried with it.
The doors opened to a thousand lunging daggers that were crashed into the floor and held there by amethyst grips. The group stepped out into the tunnel to face the one who launched those daggers.
“Todd, what the hell is this?” asked Garrick.
“Tejieue must have reanimated corpses beforehand. I guess they don’t go away even if his own magic does,” said Todd.
“This guy has a demented sense of humor,” said Kenny.
“We know,” said Hannah and Aaliyah.
“Now don’t be like that,” said Angel, “A miracle is in front of you. Shouldn’t you be happy to see us again?”
“Most people aren’t happy to see ghosts,” said Captain Max Force as he scratched UnderDog’s neck, “I know I wouldn’t be.”
“Uncle prepares for everything,” said Four-Leaf, “there is no way you can win, so please surrender, for your sake.”
“Captain!” called out Kenny.
“I’m not your captain anymore. I’m just a corpse propped up by your enemy. I dont’ want to hurt you but I’m not in control. For both us, don’t hold back. The same goes for you, Garrick.”
“I won’t! That sicko won’t get away with this!”
“Sicko?” asked Angel, “Uncle brought him and UnderDog hear to help locate the hostage you guys took. Only villains attack innocent people, y’know.”
Angel’s smug satisfaction was cut by the echo of gunfire throughout the tunnel halls. With it came distant yelling and dozens of stomping boots. Four-Leaf grabbed his Angel’s shoulder to whisper into his ear.
“Todd, I thought this guy could only make three clones?” asked Garrick, “I’m looking at a whole lot more than that right now.”
“So it is your toy soldiers ambushing the Leaves in the tunnels,” said Angel, “Our lucky clover here was only limited by how painful it was to split his body. Now that he’s dead, he has no limit. I guess that makes him your Unlucky Clover.”
“Angel, that’s not catching on,” said Four-Leaf, “stop messing around and clear ‘em out for me. They are too small for me to use guns on and they are freezing the clones.”
“Can’t do that. My angel wings also got an upgrade, from iron to titanium. The strength and low conductivity it takes for the problem girl to pin them all down is costing her way more energy from her than she thought it would. It’s the only reason we aren’t smears on the floor yet. Besides, your clones are tying up their little ambush. But you can make more while you’re still here. With you, we have the advantage”
Angel was right. As part of the plan, Garrick took control of mechanical toy soldiers and outfitted them with miniature cryoweapons. They had been stuffed into the nooks and crannies throughout this underground complex to prepare for a dragged-out fight.
But those soldiers were now stuck in a skirmish against an army of clones. From the vents, around the machines, scuttling between boots, those soldiers valiantly fought and outmaneuvered the clones.
In this environment, against such small opponents amongst such delicate machinery and hostages, the clones had trouble fighting back. However, the mini-cryoguns were only meant to harass a human-sized target; they could not destroy clones on their own. Once the clones gave up on their guns and plasma carbines, and instead crushed and stomped the soldiers, defeat would be inevitable.
The source of the clones was right in front of them. It would not be enough just to prevent him from making more clones; to get rid of all the others, he needed to be killed. This was not a time for hesitation or mercy.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
UnderDog leaped forth at GalvanGal while Four-Leaf began to split apart. With her strength occupied holding down the titanium feathers, UnderDog’s physique was a match for hers. He landed on the arm meant to block his assault, only to jump back onto a wall and kick off it to sweep out her legs. Both on the ground now, he was able to strike her with his paws and barely held back from mauling her as he snarled and spat above the arms holding him back.
Angel aimed with a pistol, but blasts from Garrick’s gauntlets froze chunks of him. Undeterred, he fired off his shots at the vulnerable members but the bullets were blocked by a bubble of light. The bubble prevented them from being attacked, but it also prevented them from attacking as well, whether to help GalvanGal or to stop Four-Leaf. Each clone made came with the same rifle he carried.
“No good,” said Aaliyah, “They’re undead. They won’t react to normal attacks. I think we'll have to disintegrate them.”
“I know, I fought the undead before, even if they weren’t like these ones.”
Aaliyah dropped the bubble around them but Max rolled forward away from the bubble she tried to bring up around him. With knife and pistol in his hands, he closed the distance to get in the midst of the group.
Aaliyah wrapped herself in a bubble that caught a bullet for her, leaving the other three against Max. Max deftly maneuvered between them, slashing and shooting to keep three opponents on the defensive within these tight confines. As long as they were distracted, Four-Leaf could continue to build the advantage.
Despite what was said earlier, Kenny and Garrick could not help but hesitate when confronted with a friendly face. Todd, however, had no such qualms when faced with a hated enemy. In that one lapse of attention, Todd’s palm reached Max’s stomach with a burst of flame. The hole was dry, more like shattered tinder than a flesh wound. That sight was the confirmation necessary to prove that the forms attacking them were no longer human, just monsters.
While the hole wouldn’t affect an undead, Max’s reflexes from living the normalcy of the old world got the better of him, unlike Angel who had faith in his necromancy. Garrick and Kenny got ahold of his arms. He tried to kick Todd but that leg was blown off. Todd reached up the hole he made to torch Max to ashes from the inside.
The flames within spewed up from Max’s mouth before they ripped out more holes along his body. Garrick and Kenny kept their eyes closed until they felt the arms detach from the torso disintegrating and opened their eyes to see the legs fall.
Hannah headbutted UnderDog and rolled over to pin him to the ground. She followed Todd’s lead, and filled his insides with lighting while smashing him into the ground over and over, cracking it with eruptions of electricity each time. The amps kept increasing as ravenous voltage coursed through UnderDog, rapidly tearing him apart until he crumbled into ash.
“You guys are ruthless. Oh well, Leaves, put 'em down.”
Down the tunnel they were caught in were bodies layered on top of each other in a phalanx of rifles. In unison, two dozen guns were unloaded onto a GalvanGal and a shield of light. With her guard up, GalvanGal marched through the relentless hailstorm to boulder into the pile of bodies. While she managed to crush a few clones that dissipated under her weight, she faced dozens more barrels, with new clones still being split off.
The clones threw themselves against her seemingly unbreakable defenses. These expendable proxies were heedless no matter how much her fists burst them or her lightning ruptured them. Some of the clones maintained suppression on Aaliyah's bubble. The ones that were dispersed in the rest of the complex were returning, and some of them had plasma guns that they fired through their comrades.
That a river could carve a mountain was a hard lesson she learned in California, but this dreaded plasma was flowing lava upon her Sparking Shimmy. Globs of plasma stuck to the bubble in a similarly greedy fashion. This couldn’t be allowed to continue; the source had to be snuffed out before they were.
GalvanGal rammed through the clones to pin down the original as he was half-through another split. Just as with UnderDog, she overloaded his body with electricity while hammering him into the floor. Between the titanium feathers, circuit tango, and her attacks to destroy Four-Leaf, she had little energy left to defend her own body. As sturdy as she was built, the bullets and plasma that passed through her personal barrier still bruised and singed her skin. But Four-Leaves had to be destroyed first. A grown man had more volume to cover than a dog. No matter how much the clones layed into her, she continued to hold him down as electricity devoured him from the inside.
The noise of gunfire in such an enclosed space drowned out whatever warning the others tried to give her. Still, the sudden surge of energy in the air caught her attention. It was the familiar scent of plasma at an unfamiliar intensity.
A plasma cannon that was already fired. She stood up to catch more of it, but still, it splattered across the tunnel, devouring even Four-Leaves and the Angel. The walls of the bubble were retreated from as they too were brought to ruin.
It was only a short distance, but Garrick, Aaliyah, Kenny, and Todd were all a marsh of molten blood away from GalvanGal. It was only a short time, but they had all been forced to fight against those they once knew and to watch them die a second death.
The only reprieve that could spared was that the clones in the rest of the tunnels dissipated with the death of their master, allowing Garrick to call back his remaining toy soldiers. GalvanGal groaned in agony as she pulled herself out of, and desperately pushed off, the burning plasma, but at least she was alive. If Aaliyah healed her, then she could get back on her feet.
A thud from the roof of the elevator caught everyone’s attention. The tearing of metal that precipitated another thud made their blood run cold.
From the elevator, between GalvanGal and the rest of the group, stepped The Gator, armed with crescent axe and three moon sword, both carved from midnight.