NOW
“I have it!”
Cal was startled by the uncharacteristic exuberance in Adahn’s voice.
“You sure?”
“Yes,” Adahn said flatly.
“Nice job,” Cal grinned. “Let’s get out of here.”
Alert, unknown hostiles inbound. Transmitting live image. Unseen.
The image appeared on Cal’s face-plate.
“Maximum size,” Cal said.
Unseen had taken up a position near the entrance into the birthing creche facility. The hostiles moved quickly inside. They looked like Threnosh on a superficial level. Their movements were orderly and they were armed and armored. They weren’t like the corrupted.
They were bigger and stronger-looking than the Threnosh. Some had the same plain, gray skin tones, but others had shades of other colors mixed in.
The more he watched the more he realized that there was something off about them. Deformities? No, they were mutations. Tentacle limbs, claws and bladed hands, over-sized musculature, bone protrusions.
“That shit looks like chaos taint,” Cal whispered. “Fuck! I hope that isn’t a thing.” He couldn’t outright dismiss the possibility of something like that being real now.
“Honor, what do we do?”
Unseen, retreat to base camp. The rest of us are going to use, Cal’s eyes rapidly scanned the tactical map, alternate exit route 3. It’d force them to exit to the rear of the facility, but he didn’t want to fight until he knew what they were facing.
“Adahn has the information. He’s the VIP package now,” Cal said as they exited the control chamber.
PJ15 and Brightstrike nodded. They may not have understood the specific terminology, but they grasped the meaning.
The group ran. Stealth was no longer necessary. Cal in the lead, followed by Brightstrike guarding Adahn, with PJ15 bringing up the rear.
PJ15, you’re falling behind. We are not to engage unless absolutely necessary.
Acknowledged.
PJ15 increased their pace and pulled back to the group like a rubber band.
They crossed the floor of the facility. Cal recalled walking through a forest of sequoias back home. Nothing else called to mind the sense of immense size that the stalks of artificial womb pods gave him.
The sensors they had left along their way should’ve revealed the motion of the unknown hostiles pursuing them. He wasn’t surprised that the only thing on the tactical map was the team. It was obvious now that the enemy had some way of messing with their equipment.
Adahn, door.
Cal and Brightstrike took up cover positions, while PJ15 escorted Adahn.
The Threnosh's power armor’s glowing lines lit up as they held a hand over the control panel on the wall.
Cal made a note to talk to Adahn later and figure out if they could tone down the light show. It looked cool, but was a liability when they needed to be stealthy.
The door slid open with a soft hiss a few seconds later.
Cal moved smoothly. He scanned the next chamber in a split-second. It was clear. They moved faster now. They were getting closer to the exit.
A handful of doors, narrow corridors, more stalks full of pods and they just needed to cross one last expanse of open space to reach the exit.
They’d be exposed. There was no cover, but that also meant ambush wasn’t possible.
Cal signaled and the team sprinted across. They made it half way when a loud sound caused them to stumble. It was like every musician in an orchestra slipped at the same time. The discordant note was jarring in the silence.
The pressure on Cal’s telepathic shield spiked at the same time. The pain made his eyes water.
Something huge fell from above.
The team scattered as it landed with a thud in their midst. Huge, bare feet dented the metallic floor.
It, they, grinned at Cal. “I look forward to testing my strength against you.”
“Well… shit.” The behemoth looked like a Threnosh, except hulked out. Though the bones protruding from their Threnosh-style skintight suit reminded Cal more of Doomsday. “Sorry, but I’m not looking to reenact the death of superman.”
The behemoth looked quizzically at Cal. “I do not und—”
Cal moved quickly. He pulled the recoilless rifle from his back and sent a burst of projectiles into their face. “Back the way we came. Next exit route.”
The behemoth roared, but they were already running back the way they came.
The door loomed ahead.
“Adahn, open the door,” Cal said.
They held out a hand, while PJ15 kept them from stumbling.
The door slid open only and disgorged what looked like an inky, black smoke. It quickly engulfed the entire space around the door.
The team slid to a stop. It wasn’t a good idea to run head long into an unnatural darkness without knowing what it contained.
Cal’s first thought was to sweep it away with his telekinesis. Too risky to open his mind to the same attack that had brought him low earlier in the week. He sprayed a burst from his rifle across the cloud.
“Sensors cannot penetrate,” PJ15 said.
Thudding steps behind them caused the floor to rumble.
“PJ15, Brightstrike, watch the cloud.” Cal turned around.
“Unworthy maneuver.”
Cal supposed he had found the answer to what was inside the birthing pods.
The behemoth stopped a dozen feet in front of Cal.
Despite the distance Cal still had to crane his neck back to look them in the eyes. An estimate of their physical measurements were projected into his face-plate by the program in their helmet. 2.591 meters, 453.125 kilograms. He did the conversion in his head. Eight and a half feet tall and about half a ton.
“My brood earned our mother’s blessing to face your challenge and you flee.”
“Okay… well, you didn’t actually issue a challenge. So…” Cal shrugged.
“I, Gyxdor, first among the first, speaker for my brood brothers and sisters. We challenge you to combat. The one that calls himself, Honor, and our obsolete forebears. We are what comes after. Rightful heirs of this world. Inheritors of all that you were.”
Two more appeared out of the darkness to flank Gyxdor. Their proportions were superior to the Threnosh. They were of similar height to Cal, though he outweighed them by a good fifty pounds. That suggested that they were his physical inferiors. One had several growths exposed through their suit, which covered every thing else, even their face. While the other was wearing tight shorts and nothing else. Every bit of their visible gray-green skin glistened.
“I have so many questions,” Cal said amiably. “You wouldn’t care to answer some of them before we get started?”
We’re going back to exit route 3. PJ15 you’re going to need to get all of us over them. Cal texted.
Acknowledged. I await your signal. PJ15.
“You may have killed scores of our lesser cousins. Though the Mother’s song has lifted them to heights unattainable on their own, they still originated from an obsolete people. You will find the true children of the Mother are your superior. Face your death at the hands of those that will inherit this world.”
“No thanks.” Cal switched the rifle to his left hand and sprayed it across the three. He stopped and focused fire on the one wearing shorts. Who goes into a fight half naked?
“I have been granted the name, Zeyt.” The one wearing shorts spat something at Cal.
Right, Cal remembered, individuals with special abilities did.
He held his rifle up to block the spittle. It sizzled and hissed as the caustic liquid ate away it. He threw it at a charging Gyxdor. “Now, PJ15.”
Tendrils emerged from PJ15 and wrapped around Cal and the other two members of the team. PJ15 jumped up into the air and reached their arms out toward the high ceiling. Their hands turned into tentacles that stretched out many meters to stick to the ceiling.
Cal laughed as they swung just out of reach of their enemies. He noted that the shorts-wearing one was unharmed, despite taking a bunch of projectiles center mass. The one with the growths suit was also unmarred. Gyxdor’s suit, on the other hand, had a bunch of holes.”
“Heads up. The two smaller ones look like they’ve got something that blocks projectiles,” Cal said as PJ15 deposited them on the ground several dozen feet away.
Cal grabbed a spare recoilless rifle from Adahn and emptied its magazine behind them while he urged his team forward.
Adahn opened the door before they reached it. They burst outside only to run into a mass of corrupted Threnosh. Except that wasn’t exactly right. These corrupted were even bigger and more deformed than the ones they had encountered earlier.
Once again the lure of his telekinetic powers called to Cal. He resisted it. Took out his ax and charged.
“PJ15, get Adahn out of here.”
Cal brought his ax down on a corrupted’s head. It sank in deeply before he felt bone break. Too deep.
“The fuck?”
He pulled the ax head out of the corrupted as its body sank to the ground. Another corrupted reached out for him. He ducked under the arm and grabbed it. He swung the corrupted around as a bludgeon. It was surprisingly heavy, but not enough to give him a hard time. As he smashed other corrupted his mind was going into overdrive.
My ax went through about a foot and half of its head before I hit the skull. Their flesh feels softer than it should, Cal thought. “Hmm… meatsuits?” He’d need to peel one open and he didn’t have the time for that at the moment. Plus he really didn’t want to do that. He’d have to order one of the others to do it later.
“Honor, I am unable to comply.”
Cal saw that PJ15 was backed up near the facility’s wall, protecting Adahn. The Threnosh had multiple tendrils whipping out at the corrupted. One hand was transformed into a long, sharp blade, while the other was a tentacle with a spiked club at the end.
There was a flash of yellow light that drew Cal’s attention. Brightstrike lived up to their chosen name.
A sword of hard light slashed through a corrupted’s thick arm. Their armor flashed where another corrupted struck them on the back. The Threnosh didn’t budge. They spun and lopped the corrupted’s head off in one smooth motion.
Brightstrike dashed through the mass of corrupted. Cutting and slashing as they passed. Light flared whenever one of the corrupted managed to land a hit on their power armor, but as of yet it didn’t seem to affect the Threnosh.
“Damn it, they’re being careless,” Cal said.
Brightstrike’s power armor had several small shield projectors that when combined with a unique software system that tracked incoming attacks allowed it to project hard light shields just long and strong enough to nullify the specific attack. Their shields didn’t need to be constantly on, which meant less energy usage.
“Brightstrike, you can’t keep taking hits,” Cal said into the comms.
“I have located the hostile responsible for these enhanced corrupted. Moving to engage and eliminate,” Brightstrike said flatly.
Cal cursed. The Threnosh’s inability to feel fear was going to prove useful to the overall team goal, but they were putting themselves in near certain mortal danger.
“Honor, I require assistance,” PJ15 said.
Cal was torn in two directions. It wasn’t a difficult decision. Adahn had the information in their power armor. Their survival and escape was critical.
He jumped up into the air and crashed into the mass of corrupted surrounding PJ15 and Adahn. His body was a weapon. He crushed a corrupted’s spine. Then slammed his ax into another.
These corrupted were stronger and tougher than the normal kind, but they were like ants to him. Extremely big ants that still took time to dispatch. Without his telepathy and telekinesis he was reduced to a single target damage dealer. He was taking too long.
Cal’s sudden appearance in their midst drew the corrupted’s attentions away from PJ15 and the cowering Adahn.
“Thank you, Honor,” PJ15 said.
“Just get Adahn out of here. I’ll get Brightstrike. Don’t wait for us,” Cal said.
The tendrils across PJ15’s back wrapped Adahn up and they jumped. They cleared a good fifty feet off the ground. Hands and feet stuck fast to the birthing creche facility’s wall. They looked down once then climbed.
They had left just in time.
The wall of the facility exploded outward.
Cal and the corrupted were scattered all over the place by the gray-skinned behemoth that had plowed right through the metallic wall.
Cal shook his head to clear the ringing. Threnosh materials were superior to the equivalent human ones. He didn’t doubt that a birthing creche facility was probably the most important structure to the Threnosh. They’d use their best in its construction.
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Gyxdor ran right through something like a vault door in one of those super secret bunkers meant to protect rich people in the event of nuclear war. Except the wall was orders of magnitude stronger.
“Well… shit.”
“Enough of this! You will face me!”
“Hold on,” Cal held up a hand, “three on one doesn’t seem… honorable.” Make them mad, get their focus on that instead of how to win the fight.
By the look of rage on Gyxdor’s face it was working.
“We are Inheritors. We do not perform disgraceful tricks. You will face me.”
“What about those two?” Cal pointed at the one in shorts and the one with growths.
“Zeyt will not interfere.” Gyxdor pointed at the bright flash of yellow light a short distance away. “Your Brightstrike is already battling Hylhon. While, Tylox,” they pointed at the one with the growths, “will join Brynax against your PJ15 and Adahn.”
Tylox turned and looked up toward the roof of the facility.
Cal could see that his guys were almost at the top. He readied his ax for whatever trick was coming.
He definitely didn’t expect the enormous growth on Tylox’s back to crack open and reveal what looked like the back of a huge beetle. It practically covered their entire back. Wings emerged and buzzed as they slowly rose up after the Threnosh.
“Oh no… not happening.” Cal threw his ax at Tylox.
A glob of spit engulfed it mid-flight. The ax disintegrated before it reached Tylox.
Zeyt smiled at Cal. Caustic liquid dribbled out of their mouth. The drops that hit the ground sizzled as they ate through the metallic material.
PJ15, Adahn. You’ve got one coming up behind you, got some kind of insect-based abilities and I think the one that was responsible for the black cloud is also after you. Don’t stop to fight. Escape is still the priority. Cal sent.
Acknowledged. PJ15.
Cal sized up the behemoth.
This was a fight he couldn’t win straight up. No mind powers. No weapons left aside from small ones that relied on his telekinesis to be effective.
Did he risk opening up? Was it a moot point to protect his mind while his body got smashed? Of course he could just make a break for it. Grab Brightstrike on the way out and lead these super powered versions of the Threnosh away from the others.
“Fine. Let’s go, you big bastard.”
Cal dashed forward low to the ground.
Gyxdor punched down. The behemoth was surprisingly quick.
Cal had to lean his whole body to the side to avoid a fist and arm the size of a tree trunk. It took all the power out of the punch he landed in Gyxdor’s gut. That’s what he told himself when the behemoth didn’t even react. It reminded him of punching a steel plate.
He punched up right under Gyxdor’s chin.
The behemoth’s head snapped back. They came right back with a sweep of their arm.
Cal just barely jumped back out its considerable reach.
That was too close.
It seemed that their speed and quickness were well matched. Unfortunately for Cal, Gyxdor was as strong and durable as they looked, which was to say that they had the edge. The only question was if it was insurmountable.
Good thing Cal wasn’t planning on sticking around.
Gyxdor sneered down at Cal. “Was that the limit of your strength? I had hoped for a greater challenge. The Mother holds you in such esteem. Why?”
Cal smiled and tapped a finger to his temple. Then he pointed at Gyxdor’s feet. Right where he had left a couple of grenades.
He was already running away when the grenades exploded and stunned Gyxdor.
No matter how big and strong you were a couple of grenades at point-blank range was enough of a distraction to buy a couple of seconds.
Which was all Cal needed.
He plowed right through the enhanced corrupted surrounding Brightstrike. The corrupted’s greater mass wasn’t enough to overcome a super strong body ramming into them at fifty miles an hour.
Cal slid to a stop near Brightstrike. He punched and threw corrupted around in a frenzy born of desperation. They didn’t have much time.
Brightstrike’s hard light sword had been replaced by a long-handled ax, swung in wide arcs to keep the corrupted at bay. The Threnosh had visible damage on their power armor. Cal had arrived just in time.
“The hostile eluded me. I saw them touching corrupted and turning them into these larger versions. It appeared as if the unknown hostile was somehow generating or stimulating flesh to grow over their bodies.”
“Right, a problem for later. We need to get out of here.” Cal looked back and saw Gyxdor running. “Sorry about this, but you can’t keep up.” He grabbed Brightstrike and threw them over his shoulder like a sack of rice. “Turn of the light show.”
Brightstrike’s hard light weapon winked out of existence.
Cal took off as fast as he could run, while desperately looking at the tactical map in his face-plate for an escape route.
“What about the others?”
“PJ15 and Adahn are on their own for now. Unseen should be in the clear.” It bothered Cal that he couldn’t do anything more for his team. It was up to them.
A sudden thought struck him.
There was no pressure on his telepathic shield.
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PJ15 leapt over the south side of the birthing creche facility. They shifted their right arm into a tentacle that latched onto the edge of the roof. They quickly descended to the limit of their tentacle. They relinquished their hold and pulled the tentacle back. They fell freely for a split-second as they transitioned their other arm into a tentacle and stuck it to the wall.
They noticed an inky blackness slowly spreading below them. Their sensors returned no information. It was as if the black cloud didn’t exist. PJ15’s eyes told them otherwise. They felt their power armor bristle. It, too, felt that the sensors were mistaken.
The cloud had spread out to cover close to fifty meters from the edge of the wall. They had no idea how high it was, but they were going to fall into it soon.
“Adahn, I will throw you clear off the cloud. Do not wait for me. Follow the exit plan at all haste.”
“… acknowledged.”
PJ15 turned their back to the wall. The tendrils wrapped around Adahn threw them free. They hit the ground in a roll. Their power armor did enough to protect them from the hard landing.
PJ15 had a quick glimpse of Adahn running away before the blackness swallowed them.
There was nothing in the cloud. They saw nothing, smelled nothing. They couldn’t even feel their feet on the ground. It was complete sensory deprivation that even affected their power armor’s sensors.
There was only one thing to do. PJ15 willed the tendrils on their back to lash around them wildly. They turned their hands into long tentacles and whipped them around. They turned the open spaces on their power armor’s surface into sharp spines.
They had oriented themselves along the escape route before they fell into the black cloud. So, they started running, one foot after the other. It was hard to know if they were actually doing what they intended since they had been deprived of every physical sensation.
They couldn’t feel their feet on the ground. They couldn’t tell if their wild flailing was striking whatever was likely lurking within the cloud.
Time lost meaning. They felt like they had been running for only a few seconds. Or hours. And everything in between.
Were they moving faster than the cloud was expanding? What if they weren’t?
They had to try something else. Adahn was helpless. They needed to ensure that their teammate escaped with the vital information. They took a running leap and transformed the bottom of their boots into jets. They willed them to ignite. There was no sensory feedback. They had to believe that it was working as they willed.
They retracted the tendrils on their back to replace them with a pair of broad, smooth, manta ray-like wings.
The seconds felt like hours then back to seconds.
PJ15 willed their flight to continue. The black cloud’s effect made it impossible to tell if they were doing what they thought they were.
Doubt started to creep in when all of their senses suddenly hit them like a projectile to the face.
PJ15 found themselves in the air. Above the black cloud. They looked around wildly. They had veered off their intended course by a wide margin. Adahn was in the distance.
They looked back. A figure was flying after them on buzzing wings. Down on the ground at the edge of the black cloud another figure stood and stared at them.
PJ15 angled themselves toward Adahn. They willed their boot jets to fire. They couldn’t maintain their flight for long and they needed to conserve their energy. Off in the distance, along their line of retreat they had spotted movement.
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Unseen kept still and silent. The movement locking feature in their power armor made it possible. Otherwise their nervousness would have led to fidgeting, which in turn would’ve revealed their position against the wall near the largest concentration of corrupted that were laying in wait.
The corrupted had prepared an ambush for Adahn and PJ15 along their line of retreat out of the city section.
Unseen had stumbled upon it by accident. The only thing that saved them was that they were invisible at the time. Unfortunately, invisibility drained more energy than their camouflage mode. Movement while in camouflage wasn’t as impenetrable as invisibility.
The Threnosh had been forced to stop and when they realized what the corrupted had intended their goal changed from escape to aiding Adahn’s escape.
The information Adahn held was the key to this entire task.
Unseen kept an eye on the tactical map.
PJ15 and Adahn were swiftly approaching.
They wanted to warn them, but they didn’t want to risk revealing their position by sending a message. Now that they knew they were facing an intelligent enemy it wasn’t impossible that they had the ability to intercept signals. Indeed, that would perhaps explain why the corrupted, at times, were able to conceal their presence from their sensor scans and attempts at surveillance.
A thought occurred to Unseen.
PJ15 and Adahn were privy to the same tactical map. The two should be aware of their stationary position. That should give them pause.
Unseen. What is your status? Adahn.
The subtlest frown slowly marred Unseen’s smooth brow. They didn’t dare answer. They watched the corrupted for a change. There was nothing.
Unseen? We are approaching your position. Please respond. Adahn.
The corrupted near Unseen stirred. Their heads turned in unison to a single directions. As if leaning their ear to listen to someone shouting from a long distance away.
Unseen thought a very un Threnosh-like curse word toward Adahn.
Cease communications. PJ15.
While the words were welcome. It appeared that they were too late. Several corrupted abandoned their posts and began to move around in what looked like a search pattern to Unseen.
The corrupted moved closer to Unseen’s location.
Adahn and PJ15 moved closer to them all.
Beware. Ambush.
Unseen sent the message at the same time that they threw several grenades out. One flew into the midst of the largest concentration of corrupted. One went to the left and one went to the right.
The explosions tore apart a handful of corrupted and drew the attention of them all away from Unseen as they slipped back down a narrow street. They dropped their camouflage to allow their energy to regenerate as much as possible.
I am heading to your position. Unseen.
Together they stood a better chance at coming up with a plan to get the information Adahn carried back to base camp.
----------------------------------------
There was a loud thud somewhere behind them.
Cal couldn’t look back without slowing down or risking a trip to the ground. Hitting the ground at nearly eighty miles an hour wouldn’t be good for his passenger.
“Hey, Brightstrike. Is the huge guy still there?”
“Yes.”
The enormous Gyxdor covered hundreds of yards with each super jump. It allowed them to keep pace with Cal. He didn’t see that coming when he had sprinted away into the dark city streets. At least they were empty. It allowed him to go all out without having to worry too much about obstacles.
“We have outpaced the rest of the hostiles. Only the large one remains close. Let us fight and defeat them,” Brightstrike said.
“How are your barriers doing? Energy recharged? Undamaged?”
“My trueskin has enough energy for my weaponry.”
“Not answering the questions. Sure, if I had full access to my abilities. They wouldn’t be a huge problem.” Cal wondered about that. There was still zero pressure on his telepathic shield. The imaginary sphere around his mind was practically pristine. They had moved further away in the opposite direction from their base camp. Perhaps he was now outside of the range of whatever had affected his mental powers before.
Cal watched the tactical map with one eye, while the other looked ahead.
“Maybe if we get to a transport landing zone,” Cal mused. An emergency evac was an option. “Anything from base camp?”
“Negative. There is no response,” Brightstrike said.
“I think it’s pretty obvious they’re jamming us somehow.”
“Yet the tactical map is unaffected.”
“Maybe they can’t affect that.”
“Do you intend to run away further into the city’s depths?”
“I’m working on a plan.”
“Do we not risk encountering hostiles? There is only one hostile with eyes on us. If we defeat them quickly then we can return to one of our alternate exit routes.”
“Not happening,” Cal said flatly. “The big guy can’t actually catch us. So, we’re going to keep running until I come with something.”
“Acknowledged.”
Their enemy had other ideas. From the minute Cal and his team had set foot in Orchestral Meridian their hidden enemy had been several steps ahead. They had planted seeds many months ago and they decided that the time to harvest the fruits was drawing near.
Corrupted loomed ahead of Cal and Brightstrike. The normal kind. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them gathered across the street and on top of the buildings.
Cal skidded to a stop. The soles of their boots screeched and smoked. Brightstrike was jostled as they almost flew off Cal’s shoulders. He grabbed on to the Threnosh at the last moment.
Cal frantically scanned the tactical map for another way. He took off to the right. There was a large area that was comprised of single-story buildings. He jumped up and took to the rooftops.
The chase continued.
Corrupted started appearing all around them. It seemed random at first. The monsters appeared in the distance. It gave Cal enough time to calculate an alternate rout. All the while, Gyxdor was an ever present harrier a few hundred yards behind.
They had covered several miles on a winding, twisting run through the city when Cal finally realized that they were being herded. He felt the pit in his stomach grow when he realized that they’d made their way back to the south side of the birthing creche facility. That they were running parallel close to exit route 3. That when he zoomed the tactical map out he saw the white dots representing PJ15, Unseen and Adahn stationary near the route that led out of this city section to the next.
Status report? Cal sent the message out.
There was no response for several long seconds.
Currently engaged with hostiles. Adahn.
“Damn it!” Cal snapped.
Things were falling apart. Adahn should’ve been long gone by now.
Cal felt everything he had been trying to keep contained rise to the surface. A mixture of frustration and anger boiled into a rage that for some reason he didn’t want to control any longer. A part of him screamed to stop and think for a second. The rest of him thought otherwise.
If something out there wanted to challenge his mental prowess then so be it. He would give them a fight.
“Hang on Brightstrike. I’m done putting up with this bullshit.”
Cal dropped the telepathic shield. He took off into the air. Telekinetically-powered flight had him and his passenger across the few miles to the rest of their team in what felt like a few blinks of the eye.
He landed amidst a group of corrupted in front of a large building. He scattered them across the street with an explosion of pent up telekinetic force. Their bodies were pulverized.
PJ15 was at the door into the building, while Unseen and Adahn were at the window openings a level above. Recoilless rifles pointed at the street.
Cal had to move fast. Despite his bravado and the thrill of unleashing his full powers he wasn’t a complete idiot. He could’ve been seconds away from another debilitating attack on his precious brain.
“Time to get out of here.”
Cal led the way. His team ran close behind him while he plowed through the corrupted with his telekinesis. The monsters didn’t see it coming. One second they were charging. Eager for blood. The next an invisible force rammed into them. Bones broke and organs liquefied as they were callously swept to the side of the street like so much refuse.
The way was clear. Cal felt a wave of relief flood him.
Then his vision exploded into bright light as an overwhelming lance of pain struck right through his brain.
An enormous shadow passed over the team accompanied by a gust of wind.
Cal blinked away the tears. A plane? Impossible for their location in the city. And he barely felt the wind.
His eyes were drawn down the street. There was a figure standing there. Big, tall, but thin. It was hard to focus with the throbbing pain in his head. The way his vision swam.
“A woman…” Cal whispered.
The figure appeared as an impossibly tall woman, cloaked and hooded. It, she, stood as still as a statue in her terrible majesty. Attractive and repulsive at the same time. Regal, imperious and in complete control. These sensations flooded Cal’s thoughts as music. Instruments he couldn’t name. Ones he recognized, more that he didn’t. A song, a symphony, an entire damned orchestra.
It invaded his mind. He felt it becoming part of him. He was becoming part of it. It was his greatest fear when it came to connecting too deeply with his telepathy.
“… impossible.”
Cal tried to cling to his thoughts. Tried to pull his telepathic shield up. The discordant noise drowned his efforts.
“Run…” Cal whispered.
Somehow the Threnosh heard and understood.
He had one last thought to accompany his cry of sheer rage and fear.
Why must it always end in pain and blood?
Cal charged the cloaked woman. His eyes blazed with sparkling light like never before. The air around his fists and arms appeared to twist and coil with barely restrained power.
A single word seemed to drift through the still air. The barest of whispers, but audible to all.
Mother.
The fruits of their labor had just ripened. It was time to pluck them. To savor them for eternity.