Now, Las Vegas
The armor felt heavy on Cooper’s body. The helmet was suffocating. The motion of his steed as it thundered down the dark desert highway was nauseating.
He fought to keep his body upright. His hands clenched on the reins as his lifeline.
His failure replayed in his mind repeatedly as the Vow berated him for fleeing in fear.
It didn’t understand. He had no choice.
Vengeance was all that mattered.
He fled north of Vegas.
There was no way he could remain in the area after the fight he had.
He had tried to kill them.
The Furies and that woman.
If it hadn’t been for her he would’ve handled the Furies. The survivors that he had allowed to escape would’ve brought tales of his terror back to the others and their dread would have grown.
Now?
They had beaten him.
The others would hear of it and would lose just a little bit of that fear he had spent months cultivating in them.
Monsters and mutants occasionally came out of the darkness, but his steed kicked them away or was simply too fast.
Over a hundred miles eaten in a few hours.
He thought of what he needed to do next.
Find a safe place to rest.
Then find people to regain what he had expended in those caverns.
Perhaps he had generated enough dread in the bat people and the Golden Eagles he had left alive that it would flow back to him through the Vow.
He would find out later.
A loud bang shattered the calming clatter of his steed’s hooves on the asphalt.
Cooper felt something punch him in the chest and knock the wind out of him.
The next thing he felt was the impact as his back hit the road.
Sparks lit up the dark, moonless night as he skid to a halt.
Bleary eyes watched his steed rear up in front of him protectively until it vanished. As if if a giant hand had simply wiped it off the road.
A man floated out of the dark sky and came to a stop to hover over him.
The man pointed a smoking gun at Cooper. It was the most ridiculously over-sized revolver he had ever seen.
“As powerful as promised,” the man said. “Do you recognize me?”
Cooper struggled to catch his breath. Spikes of pain shot through his chest with each labored gasp.
Had the gun broken his ribs? Through his armor? His superhuman resistance to injury?
The man’s eyes narrowed. “I’d say you’ve got a few broken ribs and a bunch of cracked ones. Judging by the fist-sized dent in your chest plate.”
Cooper felt for it to confirm the man’s words. “I know who you are… Cal,” he rasped.
“You sound different. I mean, you’re wearing the armor, but it feels like I’m talking to the young man. It feels like you’re more the real you,” Cal said.
“There’s no difference.”
“Agree to disagree. You’ve got another thing sharing space in your mind or is it body or maybe the soul. It’s hard to tell with these things. Though, to be fair, it isn’t exactly a common occurrence. You’d be the second person I’ve encountered that’s got some kind of weird third party power enhancement bargain thing going. Symbiotic? Maybe… or not. Something tells me that I shouldn’t dig to deep unless I don’t care about the real you… which, maybe I don’t. You broke my love’s arm and nearly killed her and a trio of young women I’m sorta taking under my wing, so to speak.”
“They got in my way.”
“Yeah, because you went full murderhobo on the bat people and the Golden Eagles you brought with you. Backstabbing isn’t a good look. Tell me, why shouldn’t I just kill you now?”
“I don’t care what you want,” Cooper struggled to stand, “I won’t allow myself to fall until I’ve had my revenge.”
“Right… well, good thing the girls really worked you over. You’re very weak right now and so is the other thing you’ve got. I think I can do this now with a minimum of risk to myself and you,” Cal said.
“What are you talking about?”
Cooper blinked.
He wasn’t laying on the dark desert road anymore.
He was standing in the vegetable patch a few dozen yards away from his family’s farmhouse.
Goats bleated in alarm.
Chickens clucked frantically.
Dogs barked, then yelped, then nothing.
“Nononono,” he muttered.
He remembered this. Had seen it often in his sleep, but never quite so vividly as he did now.
He was there again, back in that terrible time, back in his old self.
Nearly a year, but a lifetime ago.
Smoke and blood.
Fear and terror.
He ran to his home.
Ran to a side window, peeking into the dining room.
He saw robed figures around the kitchen table hiding the person screaming and kicking as they chanted something in a foul-sounding language that touched him in all the wrong ways.
He strained to see who was on the table.
He had always regretted not learning which of his family had suffered in front of his very eyes as he did nothing.
He noticed then, late, as it had been before.
There was another figure standing off to the side.
Impossibly tall with long limbs and an alien grace as it leaned forward eagerly over the torture of his family member.
He couldn’t see the face, hidden as it was in a hooded void.
The screams became too much.
He ran, as he did then.
He ran away.
He ran through through the fields, through the woods.
He abandoned them all rather than die with them.
Days passed on heedless flight until a direction appeared in his thoughts.
Whispered words.
A promise of safety and when that wasn’t enough, a promise of vengeance.
To turn the fear and terror raging through him into power.
To make others feel as he did.
To take their dread and return it a hundred-fold.
Power enough to find the looming alien and his cultists.
To make them suffer as they had made his family and friends.
He returned to the farm many weeks later.
He was a changed man. Stronger, better armed.
There was nothing left besides burnt out ruins.
His entire community was gone.
No traces.
No trails.
Dread was now his fuel so he went off in search of it.
“Well… shit,” Cal said. “That was terrible. I feel for you and your family and friends.”
Cooper blinked.
What had just happened?
“Still no excuse for what you’ve done to other people. More than enough innocent and innocent-ish lives on your hands to damn you. My problem is that I don’t really want to play jury and executioner. Oh, judging is fine, since I can see the truth in your heart, mind and soul. There is no question on what you’ve done. It’s the other stuff that makes it messy. Plus, you’re after someone I’d like to deal with myself.”
“You know them? That tall one? He’s not human is he?”
“Oh yeah. You had the misfortune to encounter the Vitiator and his cabal of truly horrible people. Their magic centers on corruption and suffering.”
“Tell me!” Cooper hissed.
“You’re not in any position to demand things. I’m fifty-fifty on killing you right now. For the innocents you’ve hurt and will hurt.”
“I— I’ll make a deal! Whatever you want! Just tell me how to find this Vitiator and this cabal!”
“I don’t know, but you’ve given me the first hint. I might be able to track them down starting at your farm community.”
“I don’t care what you do to me. Just let me have my revenge first,” he pleaded.
Cal holstered his giant revolver. A frown crossed his face. “This Vow of yours… it requires you to farm dread from other people. That isn’t a sustainable way of living.”
“It’s all I have. It’s what I need to give everyone I ever cared about their peace. Sometimes, I can hear them screaming, begging to be set free. I know that those monsters somehow are still tormenting them.”
“Probable, but I can’t let you loose if you’re just going to hurt other people.”
“I won’t, at least, I’ll only hurt those that deserve it.”
“From one ethical dilemma to another,” Cal mused. “Okay… we have a common enemy. One that I’d rank higher than you on the harm to others scale. So, this is what’s going to happen. I’ll search for them and when I find them I’ll bring you with when I smash them.”
Cooper nodded. “Yeah, I—”
“I’m not done,” Cal held up a finger, “in exchange you’ll stop hurting innocent or otherwise decent people. I don’t care if you go after scum. You can Punisher your way across the land, but one innocent and I’ll do that thing I’d rather not,” he ran a finger across his throat.
“I’ll do anything for the chance to avenge them.”
“Then we have a deal. I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”
Cal disappeared into the night sky.
Cooper’s steed warily approached from the desert.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He climb to his feet with a groan and stifled a cry as his body rebelled against his effort to climb onto his steed’s back.
The monstrous horse knelt down to help.
Hope.
Strange as it sounded.
Cooper now had hope.
He now knew the identity of his sworn enemies.
Cal would find them for him.
Soon, he would make them pay.
He urged his steed north.
First, a place to rest.
Then, people that deserved him.
----------------------------------------
“You let him go?”
Jayde and Dayana moved a few steps away from Hayden, expecting the tell tale crackle of electricity that usually emanated from her body when she got angry.
Except, there was nothing.
Hayden knew she was empty.
For the first time in as long as she could remember there was no power coursing through her body.
“Weird…” Jayde muttered.
“Shut up, Dayana hissed.
“Why?” Hayden said.
Cal cleared his throat. “I’m not an executioner, nor am I a jailer.”
“I could’ve taken care of it if you brought him to me,” Hayden snarled. “You had him and just let him run into the night, what the fuck, man?”
“If I had done that then it wouldn’t have made any difference. I might as well have killed him myself. Otherwise… I’m not about to help you commit cold-blooded murder. There was also a mitigating circumstance that I wasn’t aware of,” Cal said calmly.
“I don’t care. Why should I stick to our deal when you’d screw me over like this?”
“Because, from a position of pure self-interest you need help. You’re out of juice right now. Gave it your all and you didn’t take the Dread Paladin out. The three of you would be dead if it wasn’t for Nila.”
“Yeah… and the dick broke her arm. That’s messed up that you’d let him go after that,” Jayde tried to help her friend, “er… that’s you not being a good partner. What’ll your baby think when he’s all grown up and he finds out that his daddy didn’t do crap when his mommy’s arm got broken.”
Dayana groaned.
“I— I don’t even want to answer that, but I will because it’s the polite thing to do. I explained it to Nila. She understands. Also… not our baby,” Cal sighed.
“You sure? He’s probably already imprinted on you guys. I’m just saying…” Jayde said.
Cal ignored the young woman. “Listen, Hayden… two things. One, the Dread Paladin isn’t exactly what he seems.” He explained what he had seen in the young man’s memories without mentioning how he had come by that information. “Look, I get it, you don’t care and I don’t blame you. The bad things that happened to him don’t excuse the bad things he inflicted on other people.
“You’re not making your case,” Hayden crossed her arms.
“Then, here’s two… the Dread Paladin and I have a common enemy. A real bad one.” He gave them a brief rundown of the Vitiator and the cabal, what they did in Los Angeles. How the former nearly killed his mother and cousin. “Perhaps Cooper can earn a measure of redemption through his vengeance on the Vitiator and the cabal. Best case scenario is that they destroy each other and are no longer our problems.”
“It won’t count if I don’t do it. I owe it to Kath.”
“I didn’t know Kath, but I’d ask you to think about what she’d want you to do. Not what you want, but what she’d tell you.”
Hayden glared at Cal in silence for a long time.
Long enough that Jayde wandered off to find the baby, while Dayana went to grab something out of the fridge to get away from the tension.
For his part, Cal kept calm eyes on Hayden.
“She’d want somebody to keep doing what she was doing.”
“Food and supplies for those that can’t afford it,” Cal nodded, “did I remember that right?”
“Our deal. I want to change it.”
Cal raised a brow.
“To make up for you letting him get away, you’ll need to give me more.”
“What would you like?”
“We can’t do what Kath and the Hearts were doing. Not when we’ll be training and working with you. It’s almost January, Texas is cold right now. Without them around to give them supplies, people are going hungry, freezing and sick. Almost three months of this winter. I can only imagine how they’ve had to sell themselves just to barely survive.”
“Unnecessary suffering when supplies are plentiful. It only takes the will to share.”
“That’s not how it used to be, so that’s not how they run things, cruel assholes,” Hayden sneered.
“So you want me to do what the Hearts did?”
“No. I know you can’t be stuck in one place and that’s only a temporary solution. I want a permanent solution from you,” Hayden took a deep breath, “those people… end their suffering. Give them the better life that you promised Prim and the other kids like her.”
“Oh… that’s all. I thought it was going to be something difficult,” Cal snorted. “Done.”
“What?” Hayden blinked. “Seriously?”
“Yeah…”
“Just like that?”
“Yeah. Obviously, the people you’re talking about have to decide on their own. I’ll move them to SoCal if the want. Won’t be nearly as cold. Plus, housing and anything else they’d need to live as comfortable a life as possible.”
“You won’t make them work?”
“They’re encouraged to contribute in the ways they desire. Maybe in what they’re good at or in their particular passion. Whatever they think is best.”
“What if they just want to sit around?”
“They can do that to. Though from what I’ve observed that gets old pretty fast. The lack of new television tends to encourage people to try out new things in between monster attacks… I’m kidding. The rangers do a pretty good job at keeping those on the outskirts of their territory.”
“Then we have a deal. But, I won’t ever let the Dread Paladin go. One day I will see him dead. Whether by my hand or this Vitiator’s.”
Hayden stomped out of the suite.
“So…” Dayana began from her spot on the couch, “you’re going to transplant a few hundred people?”
“Seems that way.”
“Yeah… how?”
“Flying convoy of buses. Unless I can find a 747 or something just as big,” Cal said lightly.
“The mayor is either going to be happy or pissed.”
“Well, that’s one thing that I don’t care about.”
“Cool, cool, cool,” Dayana slurped loudly. “What is this? Almost like green tea, but with milk?”
“That’s exactly what it is,” Cal frowned for a moment before smiling sadly. “You would’ve been what? Ten, eleven, when the spires appeared?”
“Something like that.”
“You never had boba?”
“Oh,” Dayana nodded with realization. “I vaguely remember hearing about it in school, but I never tried it. My family wasn’t into Asian stuff.”
“You probably would’ve given it a try once you got older and now, well, not a lot of opportunities unless you made it yourself or you knew someone that did. Assuming your community didn’t claim a tea shop.”
“Not sure, but probably not. Then again I don’t really spend much time in the city. Travel a lot with the Golden Eagles or we just roam around looking for monsters and mutant animals to kill.”
“You can try as many different flavors as they have down in the buffet or one of the restaurants.”
“So, boba? That’s the chewy balls?”
“I believe they are technically tapioca pearls.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“I think it’s a starch made out of a root. Not sure what kind of plant.”
“Useless information,” Dayana hopped to her feet. “This is kinda getting awkward, so I’ll be going. Thanks for everything and thanks for the future stuff.”
“Could you—”
“Jayde? Yeah, I’ll grab her and leave you to your fancy suite.”
“Didn’t each of you get your own suites in the other tower?”
“Yes and thank you for that. It is awesome. I sometimes sleep on the balcony and once I fell asleep in the hot tub. Never thought that be a thing. Probably shouldn’t get used to it, though.”
“Why not? This could be your base of operations.”
Dawning realization colored Dayana’s face. “Oh shit… really?”
“Maybe. I’m not going to have you working 24-7. There’ll be down time for relaxing, healing and training. Vegas isn’t too far from SoCal that it’ll be impossible to occasionally fly you guys back and forth.”
“Thank you, sir!” Dayana shook Cal’s hand excitedly.
He bid the two Furies goodbye and shut the front door before exhaling.
That had gone about as good as he could’ve hoped for.
He had taken a risk in letting the Dread Paladin go. It could’ve burnt bridges with Hayden. The other two weren’t as invested in revenge, but they would’ve done whatever the former wanted without question.
He walked through the suite and out onto the balcony.
“Jayde is fascinated with the baby. I’d say it’s pretty weird, but then I realize that she probably doesn’t get to interact with babies and small children,” Nila said.
“A reminder of the childhood that was stolen from her.”
“Are you saying that as a fact?”
“Surface thoughts. I wasn’t trying to read them, but the stronger ones tend to leak through my telepathic walls.”
Nila let the baby go and he staggered over toward Cal with a huge, wet smile on his fat-cheeked face.
He almost face planted twice before he practically lunged the last few steps into Cal’s arms.
The baby— toddler proceeded to blow spittle all over Cal’s face.
“Thank you for that,” he sat down next to Nila and let the toddler down to stagger like a drunken sailor back and forth in front of them. It was easy to let the little guy explore when one had telekinesis to save him from anything truly dangerous, like table corners. “You’re not mad right?”
“You mean because you let the guy that broke my arm go?”
“Yes, that.”
“I’m not, but he is,” Nila nodded at the toddler.
“All that happy laughter and gurgling really does convey his anger.”
“It’s how he shows it.”
“Seriously, though… you’re not mad, right?”
Nila sighed. “No… I get what you’re planning. And I’m trying not to take it personal. He did try to kill me, but he’s a crazed killer. That’s what they do. You sure there’s another entity involved?”
“Yup… so many stupid entities. And they’re all dubious at best, evil at worst.”
“Dubious? Which one?”
“Whatever Fin’s got in his chest. It’s not outright malicious, as far as I can tell. The Dread Paladin’s is definitely on the negative side of the scale.”
“It feeds on fear, terror and dread,” Nila snorted.
“I know… no shit.”
“Language!” Nila smacked Cal’s arm.
“He won’t remember,” he sighed.
“Yes, he will. They’re minds are malleable and easily influenced at this age.”
“How’s the arm?”
Nila held up her left arm in it’s sling.
“Don’t move it!”
“It’s not even a real cast. You just used rulers and bandages.”
“Still.”
“You’re the one that said it’s not that bad. Threnosh armor took most of it. Though I’m surprised he got through.”
“I told you he had some monstrous physical strength. He must’ve caught you clean.”
“Yeah, I messed up the block. Didn’t deflect enough.”
“At least it’s only a partial break and you heal faster than a normal human even without a healing spell. You sure you don’t want me to get one of the Golden Eagles Mages to speed it up. We can ask Jayde once she’s recovered from healing the others.”
“Nah. I don’t want to owe them and she needs to focus on them. It should be good in a couple of weeks.”
“Well, no fighting for you.”
“Or diaper duty…”
Cal’s eyes narrowed.
“You can’t expect me to change his diapers with one hand.”
“That’s not going to be a problem since I have to take him with me to San Antonio in a few weeks. It’s going to be a bit more complicated than I had initially planned.” He explained the nature of the amended agreement with Hayden. “You can stay here. Heal up, relax. Keep an eye on the Golden Eagles.”
“I don’t like the idea of you and the baby going off on your own. Who’s going to take care of him when you’re doing your thing?”
“Prim’s coming with me. A guy shows up and asks kids to come with him to a new, better home? That’s just creepy. Prim’s going to be doing the asking. She can babysit if I need to convince the leadership to not cause problems.”
“What about the Furies…”
“Dayana and Jayde can stay here if they want to. I need to bring Hayden. She’ll need to do her own convincing. Plus Elliott and a few of the Golden Eagles. I’ll need him to speak to their boss about our deals.”
“Just going to fly everyone?”
“It’s the fastest way. It took them weeks to travel by land. I can get there in like an hour,” he scoffed.
“What about superpower opsec?”
“We’re making deals. I have to be a bit more open with what I can do, so they see the advantages of sticking to them. Anyways, I’ll get the people that want to come with. Fly them here to pick you up, then to SoCal for a little bit as I make sure everyone gets settled properly then back on the road. I want to get on the Vitiator’s trail and that Meat Parade thing,” he grimaced, “sounds… not good. Although, that Church of Eternal Joy thing needs to be number one on my list of things to deal with,” he sighed. “Not looking forward to that one, but… yeah, needs to go to the top of the list. Damn it.”
“Hmm…”
“What?”
“And you’re going to leave me in SoCal, while you hunt terrible things with the baby? While you investigate Zalthyss? The one that ate your fingers?”
“Yeah, okay, it sounds really irresponsible of me, when you put it that way, but what else can I do? I promised my brother. The little guy stays within a few miles of me at all times.”
“The Vitiator is serious. You need more people with you. Especially if he’s rebuilt his cabal. And that is going to include me. Remember, I’m not leaving your side so easily this time. We’ve lost years of time together. None of that anymore.” Nila grabbed Cal in a tight embrace before kissing him hard on the lips.
The toddler laughed.
They pulled apart a moment later.
Somewhat embarrassed.
“He won’t remember,” Nila grinned sheepishly.
“If you say so,” Cal smiled as he rose.
“Where are you going?”
“The spire. I need to fill Rayna in on the what I found out.”
“Okay, tell her and your mom I said ‘hi’. Oh, you want buffet dinner? We’ll meet you there?”
“Sure, that sounds good.”
“I’ll ask the girls if they want to come.”
“Good idea. It’ll give us a chance to start planning for the trip.”