20.1 BA: The void
“Alright you got her. C’mon don’t beat a User that’s already down!” Hara says, stepping out. Babda stops and turns towards her.
“So the little bug is still breathing,” he says.
“Oh I’m more than breathing. I’m fresher than a cold breeze on a hot summer day. Now come and get me!”
Hara leaps as the man shoots, and Maeven walks back to the assignees to sit down.
“What’d you tell her?” says Adi.
“Just watch.”
BRRR! goes the bullets.
“How many rounds you think that thing can shoot?” says Win, shoulders hunched like he’s bothered by the sound.
Maeven only looks at him and grins.
Immediately, Hara is bursting with power, her dodge bank filled in a fraction of a second. She sprints for him head-on, adjusting her course whenever a stream of bullets flies her way. She’s close now. Close enough to touch him.
Hara throws a punch.
They hear the sound of piercing metal. Babda stumbling back.
“No!” says Babda.
The assignees lean forward.
The Optimist hadn’t gone for the body. She’d gone for his weapon. The rotating barrel is now severely dented. Babda is pulling the strap off his chest to inspect the damage. That’s when Hara reaches for him, and he shoves the weapon to the ground and runs to the black cases.
He’s turned his back! “Rear naked!” Maeven yells.
Once Hara hears this she leaps onto his back. She wraps an arm around his neck, uses the other to squeeze tight.
Babda coughs. He falls to his knees and tries to reach for the lock.
“Pull the top arm way back, don’t let him reach it!” says Maeven.
“I’ll kill you!” Hara warns him.
He’s still trying to fight back. The User can’t reach for Hara’s arms so instead he’s trying to crawl to his cases.
Forrest covers his eyes. They all know it’s too far.
Finally, Babda collapses with a heavy thump. Face-first against the cement, dust puffing into the air.
It’s over.
The assignees walk up to the body. There’s a sense of detachment as they watch it, unmoving.
“You told her something didn’t you?” Adi says to Maeven. She probably noticed his sudden lapse of Will after his gun was dented.
“His Will is linked to the value of his weapon,” Maeven says. “Each subsequent weapon was worth more. That’s why he was getting stronger, he had a Condition for it. Damaging it ruined its market price.”
His Resonance is slowly fading.
Hara removes herself. “Thanks for the tip Riel. Boy am I glad I knew what a rear naked was.” Adi helps her up.
“Is he dead?” says Forrest.
“Yep,” says Hara, brushing her legs. “Choked the lights outta him. Sad to see it but he’s not a good guy.”
A final drop of Babda’s Will disperses from existence, and as soon as he leaves this world, Maeven is pulled back into the void.
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20.2 BA: Sheep
“You got more gummy worms?” asks Gunner.
“Nup,” says Callum.
“Man.” Gunner leans away from his scope. He has his VR jacket over his head to shield it from the sun. “Can you believe this? Finally in Al Suit and all we’ve done is eat shish kebabs and stand on a roof.”
“They were good shish kebabs,” says Callum.
“Would you rather die?” says Patrick, in the form of a beautiful Mortaresi woman.
“I’d rather have some gummy worms at least.”
“Then tell Callum to stop fisting it into his mouth like a barbarian.”
Callum leans over. “Hey, it was my MRE.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Stop fisting Callum,” Gunner says laughing. Callum always catches on. He raises his hands and snickers as he plays into the bit, “Sorry.”
They hear the sound of a rusty metal door swinging open, and their attention is diverted down below. Riel is walking out of the warehouse, followed by the rest of the assignees. She looks out of it. She’s walking ahead without saying anything, white smoke twirls from her skin.
The three of them head to the Lane below.
“What’s she doing?” Gunner asks Ina. Her face is bruised and there are bandages wrapped around her forearms. He fans the smoke from his eyes.
“This one made herself the Enforcer. She’s getting the merchants to surrender.”
“Ey, Maeven!” he shouts.
“I don’t think she can hear you.”
The Ocean leader makes her way up the strip, ignoring everyone. As they pass the market stands, the merchants freeze. White smoke passes their lips and their arms limp at their sides. The customers don’t question or cause a panic, they simply file out, taken over by some force Gunner doesn’t understand. Is this Will? This is more power than he could have ever imagined.
They walk down the entire length of the Black Lane, and the crowd departs through the corridors like mindless sheep, over to the next paddock. It’s so quiet compared to a few minutes ago. No rattling bullets. No yelling merchants. The shop owners remain still behind their stands, swaying like zombies.
When they reach the end. Life seems to blink back into Riel’s eyes. She faces the assignees.
“Ina,” she says, without looking at the Sand leader. “Captain Leichman will be here at 1200 hours. Wait for him while I’m passed out.”
“Passed out—”
Maeven collapses. Ina catches her by the shoulder.
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20.3 BA: Footsteps
Their leader Maeven Riel was very organised. She arranged for Captain Leichman to arrive in Al Suit at 1200, along with three other companies. Now that the Ammunition merchants and guards have surrendered to the law enforcement by Will, they had to do something with the organisation’s abandoned supply of weapons; take them out, throw them in a big hole and blow them up. This was delegated to the hands of Beach Company, Seagull Company and Crab Company, who took the remainder of the Black Lane mission out of their hands.
For the meantime, Adi from Sand Company has tracked a scent, and they’ve decided to hop back in their Humvees and follow where Babda’s been over the past two days while they still have the chance. Gunner’s at the wheel again, this time following Sand. Adi’s Will ability has taken them far out of Al Suit, further north.
Forrest glances at Maeven as she leans against the window. Her eyes are closed and her mouth hangs open just a little bit. Being the Contract Enforcer must have been really hard. She hasn’t moved for hours.
Amazing.
The sheer breadth of Will. Forrest hardly seems to fathom it.
There’s something different about Will Users. They’re not afraid of being themselves. They take in the world like they’ve already mastered it, made it theirs, and it feels like nothing can get in their way or scare them.
“Win,” says Forrest. “What do you think of Maeven?”
Win glances up from his sketchbook. “She’s…smart.”
“I think she’s cool,” says Forrest. He ruffles his hair.
“Did she end up killing Babda?” says Gunner.
“No. Ina and Hara did it,” says Forrest.
“Oh. I thought she was going to do it. I heard she got Ina in like uh—what’s it called—heel hike or somethin’. It was in one of the leader briefings.”
“A heel hook?” says Callum. “Ouch.”
“Vic told me they were sparring.”
“If she was the Enforcer though. I don’t think she can just butt in,” says Callum.
“Is it?” says Gunner, before looking back at the road.
Forrest heard about that too. The assignees from Sand and Sky wonder about how strong she is because she’s from the academy everyone knows about. Maeven always struck him as strong from the very beginning. She was calm like she had gone through things. He liked that assuredness. Solid as a rock.
“I wonder if I should learn Will after all,” Forrest says, kicking his feet.
Nobody entertains the thought.
“What would you do Gunner? If you had Will?” he asks.
“I like laying brick,” he says. “And ain’t nothing wrong.”
Forrest stares at the console. Gunner is always so sure of himself. The idea of becoming a Will User has plagued him ever since Maeven told him he might be able to cultivate it.
But Will Users are…violent.
He sighs. Win flips a page.
“Would my father approve? Maybe,” Forrest muses. “Would my mother approve? Perhaps. Would my siblings approve? Probably not—”
“Why do you care?” says Win.
“Because I am the eldest,” says Forrest.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Because I need to take care of them. That’s what you do when you’re the eldest sibling.” Strange. Maybe it’s a UL mentality. “Mum always told me to set a good example. My brothers and my sisters are walking over my footsteps.”
“Was it a good example when you left them and joined the Reserve?” The assignee’s eyes never leave the paper.
Forrest sinks, hands at his lap. “I guess…not.” He looks up at the windshield. There’s a sand mound arching across the horizon ahead. “I only wanted to see what was out there,” he says.
When he first learnt about the Voluntary Reserve—a little brochure stand at the Pellston Regional Airport during one of their trips for the sanctuary—he perked at the possibility. He slipped a copy into his backpack and researched it as soon as he got home. Strangely, he felt it was just as important, like helping his sister with homework or carrying the baskets for grandmother at the fruit market, to join The Reserve and see what it’s all about. He doesn’t really know how else to describe the feeling.
They drive for a long time. Callum gets the radio to work, so he and Gunner sing old United Land songs into the afternoon. Forrest slathers more ointment on his arms. The itch is starting to bother him more and his mother’s voice creeps into his mind every time he scratches, telling him to stop.
The Humvee is slowing down. Gunner is pushing on the breaks. Ahead, Sand Company appeared to have stopped.
“What are they doing?” asks Forrest.
“I don’t know,” says Gunner. He ducks out the window.
The Sand assignees are getting out of their vehicle and walking towards something ahead. Talking.
Ocean exits.
“Sand Company! Ocean Company!”
They realise what’s happened once they venture up the road and spot some familiar faces. It’s Victor and the rest of Sky Company, standing by their Humvee.
“What are you guys doing here?” says Victor.
“We should be asking you that,” says Ina.
“Why, we’re on our mission to hunt down Rich! Congratulations on your mission, by the way. Heard it went well.” says Victor.
“Rich, the logistics guy? That’s where we’re going?” questions Adi.
“That’s where we’re going!” says Victor, smiling. “What happened to Maeven?”
Ina tells him, “She’s just...knocked out.”
“Gosh. That’s no good.” Victor Stendahl then glances down the long road. “You guys want to come? Unless you have something better to do no harm in a little backup.”
Adi leans over to Ina. “I think we’re going the same way anyway,” she says.
Ina answers, “Sure.”
So with that, the three companies head back to their vehicles. Onward to Rich, Forrest supposes with a little tingle in his nerves. He hopes it goes just as smooth as the last. Fighting Users, as he hasn’t been surprised to figure out for himself, seems utterly out of his league.