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10.43

10.43

It was too soon and too quick, but the end arrived a few hours before dawn.

“This was a good idea, Boy. Your mom and I missed you.”

He had followed his dad outside with a bottle of some ancient scotch straight from Scotland apparently.

“Just a bit for you now, but you can take the bottle with you. Share it with your friends.”

“I missed you guys too. Um, can we talk mission stuff?”

“Do you feel that you need to beyond what we’ve been exchanging through the spires and the occasional mental report?”

“Hmm… I guess not… although… I’ve got some concerns about the people we’ve picked up along the way. They aren’t rangers too.”

“Same, but the reports from Galen, Alana and Dre said that even the ones safe for that recruitment aren’t going to want to leave your current Quest.”

“That’s true,” he sighed. “The leveling is too good for the under 30’s. They’ve been knocking 2, 3 levels down every month.”

“Access to encounter challenges and spawn zones along with a competent group around you will do that.”

“It’s the same with my friends. None of them are interested in pulling out. Another year of this and they’ll be scratching 40.”

“The hidden boost of doing everything deep within enemy territory where discovery means death or worse.” His dad sighed.

“Um, can you break it to mom that I can’t take the painting with me. I don’t want it to get destroyed or I might have to leave it behind.”

“Relax, I made that case to her already. We’ll be bringing it back home. What do you want me to do with it? Hang it up in your room? Store it? Make prints and start selling it?”

He regarded his dad with a flat stare before taking a swig of the scotch.

“You wouldn’t?”

“I’ve planted the seed in your mom.”

“Dad, don’t be gross.”

“Not like that. I mean, yeah, but—”

“Dude! Too much information! I’m an adult, but I still don’t want to hear that, c’mon!” He shuddered and not from the winter air and light snowfall.

His dad laughed. “She’s pondering a whole series of your life. A greatest hits, so to speak. One or two a year. Not necessarily for Christmas or Birthday gifts.”

“Well… she does seem very proud of it and it’s legitimately good, not that I know anything about paintings. I’m more of a miniature and plastic robot painter and I haven’t done one in years. So, I guess that’s fine,” he sighed, “if it makes her happy.”

“I will share your ringing endorsement.” His dad gazed at the dark sky. “You’re mom and I are spending Christmas in Manila. It’ll give me more time to work with Jennie. Your Aunt’s staying in California to hold it down in case of issues. Your uncle is bringing Lera. They’re going to try to bait the Wild Hunt tomorrow so we won’t have to think about an unpleasant Christmas surprise. Hmmm… what else? Oh, yeah… your uncle, aunt and cousins wanted to send you some, frankly, over-powered for Earth stuff from Fomrinay, but I told them to save it for when you could actually use them.”

“Are you sure?”

Cause that sounded really awesome.

“Sorry, Boy. It would be like ringing the dinner bell or throwing chum into the water even worse than you walking around with a Heddy masterwork.”

“Ah, too bad then. I’ll message them through the spires to thank them for thinking of me.”

Comfortable silence ensued as they passed the bottle back and forth for a time that passed all too quick.

His dad laid a hand on his shoulder.

“I guess it’s time for you and Kat to go.”

Razorwing stood like a silent statue nearby.

The robot horse had collected a heavy layer of powder.

“Don’t worry about detection. I’ll take care of it. No one will notice or pay attention. Hell, you guys can make a romantic snowy night ride out of it. Think of it as an extra Christmas present.”

“Thanks, Dad.” He reached out for a hug. “Merry Christmas! This was great. I really needed it. Give my love to everyone and tell them I can’t wait to see everyone next Christmas.”

“Hopefully sooner, but I will and don’t worry about anything. They understand. Your grandparents are actually still kind of mad at me about the whole thing. Which is fair cause I’m also kinda mad at myself.”

“Don’t be, Dad. This was my idea, remember?”

With that it was time to say bye to his mom, which, from experience, would take some time.

----------------------------------------

Southern California, February 2056

“Um… are you sure it’s safe?”

Clad in her special radiation suit, Lucy Vela fidgeted in the middle of a large room.

The walls, ceiling and floor were a dull gray that blended so seamlessly that trying to find where they joined was an exercise in vertigo.

“The chamber is completely sealed. Anti-radiation measures are layered around it. If they all somehow fail, I’m here,” Mr. Cruces said.

Well, his holographic projection did.

The real him was outside, probably in the control from where the trial run was going to be monitored.

“I know you’ve diligently studied everything I sent you. So, relax.”

Easy for him to say.

To avoid puking from nervousness as much as the vertigo, she focused on one of the human-sized devices arrayed around her. Specifically, the beeping light in the center of the large concave dish.

The latest batch had been made out of mythril that was further enchanted to withstand her radiation.

They had worked their way up the ladder in terms of materials.

Every metal or composite they had tried had invariably been destroyed.

Even Threnium, though it lasted much longer than the rest.

“Don’t bother ramping up,” Mr. Cruces said. “If the equipment can’t take it then I don’t want to waste your time.”

Again, easy for him to say.

She remembered the cost of the devices.

Mythril came from another world.

Fomrinay or something weird like that.

It had been very expensive to bring over.

“So many zeros…” she muttered.

“I told you don’t worry about that.”

“Okay. I’m ready whenever. Maybe?”

“We’re on your schedule.”

The projection vanished.

She opened her anti-radiation suit with a cybernetic thought.

The inside could absorb the radiation her body passively generated and released, but couldn’t handle one of her explosive releases.

The outside was made of Threnium and a few other composite materials. The former could take a lot, but would eventually fail, while the latter would be vaporized in seconds or less.

She waited for her suit to float out of door that opened seamlessly in the wall behind her.

Her bare skin glowed iridescent green like usual.

Only turning to its base light brown in the brief moments after she had dumped everything she had.

“Can I please get a countdown?”

10 seconds.

She saw the numbers tick down in her mind’s eye.

When zero hit she let everything out.

Later, she sat in a much thinner and lighter anti-radiation suit inside her custom made home in an out of the way corner of Mr. Cruces’ huge compound.

He sat across from her peeling oranges and piling them on a plate for her.

She idly wondered why he was using his hands.

“I washed them. And,” he wiggled his orange-stained fingers, “I even made sure to get under the nails.”

It was fine to her.

His nails always looked clean and trimmed.

Which, she had come to realize wasn’t the default.

She had learned a ton of inconsequential things like that after moving back into a human society after many years isolated in her old nuclear facility home.

“How are you feeling? Still nauseous?”

“No. I’m fine.”

Mostly.

Her limbs felt like her bones had been replaced with lead.

“So, that was a resounding success!” Mr. Cruces smiled. “The enchanted Mythril can, for all intents and purposes handle your radiation.”

“I haven’t had a chance to look at how the energy capture, conversion and transfer systems worked. Not that I’d understand all the numbers.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. You’ve been putting in the work. Just keep asking questions. The Threnosh don’t tend to get annoyed about that sort of thing. But, to answer your question. It’s all good! Radiation capture was at around 89%. At this stage conversion efficiency is irrelevant since the main goal is to keep the radiation from going into the environment. The physical systems are robust enough that we can move towards making them smaller. Then we can get the units mobile so they can move with you.” Mr. Cruces pulled another orange from the bag on the table. “Nervous? Remember, what I said. You can always back out.”

“No. I want to help.”

“This is already a huge help. My qualms aside about you acting as a power plant—”

“No. I want to do that. It’s the best use of my power. Plus it lets me see the real me. At least for a little.”

“Well… I personally think that’s a better thing than you in a war zone.”

“I can help there too.”

“That’s true, but radiation can be stripped from the land, eventually. You only have one life.”

“I know and I’m not going to change my mind.”

“Just as long as you remember that you can change your mind at any time. Even up to the last minute.”

----------------------------------------

Chicago, May, 2056

“They’re going to get through!”

“Why aren’t the protections working?”

“Where’s our back up!”

Angry and scared voices occasionally broke through the retorts of rapid gun fire and blasts of spells.

City Hall had been modified.

Thicker walls.

Bulletproof glass.

Titanium bars and blast doors.

Automatic turrets in the front lobby.

Magitech shields and modules that electrified surfaces or shot oil and fire.

Defensive and offensive enchantments.

A golden blast of energy burned man-sized holes through walls and doors reinforced with metal and magic.

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The horde poured through them.

White fur stained pink with their victims and themselves.

They were called rabbit people, but Hammer never knew rabbits to have sharp teeth and blood-crazed eyes.

About the only thing that counted in her eyes were the floppy ears.

Nope.

Bunnies didn’t have razor-sharp claws nor a mindless hunger to murder and rape.

She stood like a lonely lighthouse against crashing waves.

Her dark brown skin’s metallic shine had been hidden beneath smeared blood, meat and fur.

She was practically naked.

Her clothing and armor long shredded in the fighting retreat through the streets.

Time and again the rabbit people had thrown themselves at her.

Clawing, biting, thrusting.

Time and again she broke their bones like toothpicks and crushed their bodies like grapes.

“Keep falling back!” Caleb barked. “Hammer! Get your Amazonian butt back!”

The old man had gone straight a long time ago.

Turned his gang into a militia.

Then into the Chicago Municipal Defenders.

The CMD had done good work with a proverbial hammer hanging over the heads at keeping proper peace within the walls and protecting from without.

It hadn’t been that hard thanks to the beneficial alliance with SoCal and Rayna’s Rangers.

However, Hammer knew that the real driver of the whole thing was Cal Cruces.

Which was why she was a little disappointed that the man wasn’t around when her home was falling to pieces.

Sure there was a world event.

Some kind of ancient evil coming out of a remote island in the India Ocean.

Begrudgingly, she ceded ground as traps and automated defenses erupted all around her.

Until, sudden silence filled the front lobby.

Piles of charred and oozing meat assaulted her senses.

“Cease fire! Check yourselves! Call out if you need medics! Weapons and ammo check! Reload turrets, re-fill mana!” Caleb called out.

She found him.

Old and gray and a lot more hunched.

A far cry from his big, strong prime.

“Get the comms back on line!”

“I’m trying Mayor, but they’re jamming us!”

“Even the new equipment?” Caleb bit back a curse.

“We need air support. What’re the rangers doing up there?”

“Harpies.”

Hammer had seen the aerial battle begin.

It had been the first salvo of the American assault.

They had bypassed the walls.

Despite magic protections a few golden portals had been able to open within city limits, behind the walls.

The rest had been shunted outside and last she knew those rabbit people and monsters where still dying in droves to the defenders and defenses on the walls.

All in all, they shouldn’t have been having as much trouble.

The mayor and the civilian leadership should’ve been safe-ish.

Their problem had been one man.

One demigod.

Ekraiades.

He had announced himself before disappearing in a blur.

They had no idea what he had planned at first.

It was only when it was too late that they had figured out he was running through the city to blow holes in every inhabited structure.

For all her strength, she could only protect one place at a time.

Caleb grunted.

“Yo, Hammer.”

“What?”

“You know where you should be.”

“Shit’ll fall apart worse without you guys using your Skills to keep people calm. I figure, I’m the only reason that demigod prick ain’t coming for you.”

“A lot more people hiding out at the arena.”

“Tch. I ain’t taking no orders from you.”

Caleb shrugged.

That was objective truth.

“Then, I guess we just gotta wait for Cruces—”

An explosion of wind like a sudden tornado threw everyone except her off their feet.

Some slammed into walls and furniture, triggering traps that killed those they had been meant to protect.

Others were pushed through bulletproof glass, shattered by the combination of the wind and their armored bodies.

From the sounds of the slavering rabbit horde outside the building, Hammer hoped that they were already dead.

She saw Caleb reaching out only for him to disappear into a bloody mist.

Sudden strikes clanged off her face and body.

Stinging pain lashed her from front to back.

“Waiting is a foolish game when I’m involved.”

Words whispered into her ears despite the swirling tornado trying to suck the air from her lungs.

Golden light seared her vision.

A hand pulled her off her feet.

It happened too fast for her to react.

From city hall lobby, through blood-drenched streets, up and over the wall.

Sand and pebbles sifted through her fingers as she failed to arrest the demigod dragging her toward the water.

Dry became wet.

The fucker was running on water!

“I could kill you, but I have commands to follow.”

Ekraiades ran in a circle.

“This should keep you occupied. Reconsider whom you serve. You’ll get one chance… if you can hold your breath long enough, that is.”

She had no choice but to endure.

Until the vise-like hold on her ankle released.

The sun and sky spun.

Lake Michigan caught her in a wet embrace.

----------------------------------------

Washington, D.C., June 2056

“Mr. Finley? What a pleasant surprise!” Mr. Ham greeted him.

He clocked the pistol in a holster on the man’s waist.

Mrs. Ham was standing further back a slight step from cover behind a corner, but with clear line of sight past Mr. Ham, who smartly hugged one wall.

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Ham. I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”

“Would you like to come in?”

“I’m armed and willing to divest myself. You can see the pistol. And I have several knives.”

Mr. Ham hesitated.

“No, that’s alright. We trust you.” Mrs. Ham left her corner leaving an old M4 carbine propped up against the wall.

Safety engaged, the voice in his head said.

“I won’t be long. I have a lot of students, well, former students to visit.”

“Avery’s napping right now.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I, uh, have a gift for her, well, for all my students. May I?”

They nodded, confusion writ in the wrinkle to their brows and a slight narrowing of their eyes.

Mr. Ham kept his hand close to the pistol.

“I’m going to cast a spell, so please don’t be alarmed.”

He pulled a wrapped box from his dimensional storage to his palm.

Followed by a thin booklet.

“Explanations and instructions are in this.” He handed the booklet to Mrs. Ham. “To simplify things… it’s a mana stone.”

“Oh, thank you! I’m sure she’ll love it even though she already has one. You’re her favorite teacher, after all.”

He smiled.

“You mean her only one.”

2 years had gone by with Avery in his class.

If the priority was the children’s growth then he would have kept them for as long as they would’ve had him, notwithstanding the truth to his purpose there.

However, politics had reared its always ugly face.

His students outstripped all other classes.

Other, better connected teachers had desired to hitch their names to the rising prodigies.

Thus, his class had been divided up for the next school year among those teachers that had given the best bribes or had connections to the people in charge of the magic school system.

It had angered him on principle, but that was tempered by the truth.

All he could do for his students now was to give them a chance when things in the city inevitably fell apart.

“It’s a mana stone, but a lot better than what she already has. It’s set in a chain, but any jeweler can change that to something she’d like more. It’s a bit too large for a ring, but a bracelet or choker would be fine.”

“What makes it better?”

“We can read this, Dear,” Mrs. Ham waved the booklet in her husbands face. “Mr. Finley has other students to visit. We shouldn’t keep him.”

“Efficiency and storage capacity. It recharges faster and easier for the mage-type refilling it. So, you can expect to pay less for their services. That means it’ll also pull ambient mana from the environment exponentially better than what you can buy easily from all the available markets. I recommend keeping it on Avery’s person as much as possible. It’ll grow with her better and faster that way.”

“Are you sure you can’t stay for at least a drink? Perhaps a slice of cake. I made a pretty good red velvet. Homemade cream cheese frosting. Homemade everything, actually!” Mr. Ham’s hand no longer hovered near the pistol grip. “Or maybe a drink? My wife made a great strawberry lemonade the other day.”

“The cake’s much better.” Mrs. Ham touched her husband’s arm.

He hoped that they would be smart if— when— the time came.

“I remember the coffee cake you brought for the end of year class brunch, so I’m tempted, but I have a lot of stops to make today. I’m sure we’ll run into each other at the school. Maybe, bring some red velvet cake to one of the bake sales?”

“I will make a note to do exactly that,” Mr. Ham said.

“Oh, don’t bother,” Mrs. Ham said. “We have your address. We’ll send you a fresh cake and a fresh batch of lemonade. How does that sound?”

“I don’t want to impose, but that sounds good.”

He bid them good day with the knowledge that he wasn’t likely to ever see them or their daughter again.

You have gone beyond and risked much to—

“No, I haven’t. Going beyond is taking them out of this place right now.”

Situation remains in stasis until the ritual focus is found. Perhaps, effort on your part—

“Someone else is on that. He’s proven more effective than I have and is much stealthier. You don’t really think me poking around with magic could’ve remained unnoticed this whole time?”

The silence was answer enough.

----------------------------------------

Washington, D.C., August, 2056

Hot, sweltering, humid, whatever.

She didn’t care.

Environmental concerns didn’t matter if it wasn’t something like Antarctica, the top of Mt. Everest or the inside of a volcano.

On top of the unpleasantness, the night was bloody.

Red-tinged shadows writhed as if they lived.

The face of the moon seemed to drip with ichor.

At first, they had fought.

Then they ran.

At the last, they begged.

And now?

They posed.

Well, she posed them.

A general and his wealthy friends, which included high ranking Cabal members of the lust variety.

“You’re still here?”

Too white teeth in a too wide smile split the hooded void.

“Leave,” she said flatly.

She turned away.

She had forgotten for a moment.

Never innocents.

They were never, would never be on her list of approved targets.

However, the terrified survivors of the general’s depraved party presented a problem.

They needed to be not anywhere in the vicinity of the mansion when the soldiers arrived.

It didn’t take a smart person to understand that their survival wouldn’t be seen as a positive by the soldiers.

Interrogation, torture and a quick death was the upside for the young men and women, boys and girls.

The downside was more of what they had been subjected to.

She supposed for some of them, that would just be business as usual.

“Leave or you will die!” she snarled.

Not with any truth to it, but they didn’t know that, nor could they tell even if they hadn’t already been traumatized beyond what any human should be subjected to.

A throat cleared.

She felt a slight touch around her wrists, like a hand lightly preparing to seize them in an iron grip.

Ether.

Wispy like smoke…

Or the fog.

“Little boy. You’ve improved in the years since we last practiced.”

The throat cleared again.

“Greetings strange hooded person whom I don’t know.”

“Neither of us should be here.”

“A coincidental patrol of Mist Spekters happens to be on its way and—”

Silence.

The little boy grown into a tall young man stood like a statue.

That didn’t bode well.

She prepared to abandon her arrangement in favor of flight.

Doing so would stick in the slasher’s craw like a stray fish bone, but needs must and such.

“I— It’s moving this way?” He blinked like a dumb animal. The kind that thought only of chewing grass all day.

“What?”

“You know what I’m looking for here, right?”

All pretense had vanished.

“Yes, broadly speaking.”

“Well, I’ve been catching glimpses all year. Moving around all over the place. But always vanishing in and out of my notice before disappearing for good before the next time I happen to randomly catch it. I caught it a few hours ago and I’ve been trying to follow it, which led me to this neighborhood. I sensed your domain and I thought I needed to warn you.”

“Perhaps a trap has been set unintentionally? By whom? Is the question.”

“I’ve got theories and I don’t like going for it blind. We’ve only got one shot… probably.”

She regarded the young man that she definitely didn’t know since he had been a toddler.

Ironically enough, he had been there at the beginning of her present path.

“Did you know it was the taking of several Cabal members like these that led me to your father?”

“Yes. And you tried to murder him and my mom and possibly me.”

“Agreed on the former two, but I’m not sure about the latter. I preferred those capable of fighting in those days.”

“Shit! It’s gone again!”

“The trap is set. If not for us, then for this mysterious presence leading you around by the nose.”

“No way! Help me with them!” He gestured at the huddled survivors.

She froze, bristling involuntarily.

It wasn’t clear, but it looked like hazy figures in the fog that she had just noticed filling the huge living room were picking up the nearly catatonic people.

“I can’t carry them all. Just help me bring them outside to the street. The Mist Spekters will be there and we can say that we saw them running out screaming about bloody shadows and shit. Just down to the gate, then you can leave.”

She lifted three people like half empty sacks of rice.

One under each arm and one across her shoulders.

“They’re dead anyways, you know? After what they’ve seen. What’s been to done to them.”

“We’ll get them out to my dad. They’ll be in California within the hour.”

Helping the people wouldn’t get her anything in slasher, but it would in her other class.

There was also the standing order to help the little boy when possible.

Thus, she carried the limp sacks of blood and meat outside the dripping mansion.