Tasìa felt along the window panels to test how much support they could give her.
The frame that kept them seamlessly in place was quite solid, but the glass wasn't something she should be walking on unless she was doing so ever so delicately in ballerina slippers.
She kneeled down with her feet pressed in catty-corner fashion to check her ammo as she switched out another moon clip. She had only two clips left for the .357 and four spring-gripped teflonrazor clips for the .22.
The latter rounds she brought specifically for the phase cats if she were to run into them again. The design of the round gave a momentous thrust forward on contact that made up for the slow velocity of the low caliber in impact.
Though comparable to a 10mm in the devastation of its impact in some cases, however, the mass density of a target was the determining factor of how effectively the specialized round dispersed compared to a higher caliber, or higher velocity round.
Even so, she was much better positioned than on her previous encounter.
Her current load-out was sufficient for her needs, but a stretch if there proved to be more than the two phase beasts out there, and the one remaining drone that she was aware.
A few other weapons were lying around the mansion with the closest being the 9 mm pistol on the patio landing just down below her where Martine dropped his weapon when she shot him. The combat shotgun that Don Javierra, Ria's husband, used to kill himself was likely her best option if she could get to it. The last weapon of which she was aware was the specialty EMP blunderbust on the grounds near the patio.
The drone creatures seemed to have no special defensive protection built into them like the phase cats did so she did not feel that it would be necessary to scrounge for the later weapon.
Of course, if everything cleared out, enemies and EMS, the Petite Démon of Theft was going to grab everything not bolted down in the mansion before she skadaddled.
The plan wasn't originally on her itinerary but, damn it, with all the extra troubles befallen her, and the extra time her Registered Investigator status gave her, now it was.
She considered her other ammo options.
She saw a couple of clips on the patio beside the 9 mm earlier but did not notice any shotgun shells that were stored in the safe room. If so, they were kept stored away in the lockers inside the room.
That tactical calculation made, Tasìa stood and surveyed the grounds of the manse.
The phase cats were no longer visible. She had not a single doubt that they were still there. It was only her heightened state of awareness that had elapsed.
Just then ... something?
Just then, again ... or, is it the absence of something?
Tasìa gripped her weapon tight.
It occurred once more, and this time she deduced what was happening. The birds that chirped so spritely behind her from their perches in the nearby copse of trees and bushes went suddenly quiet.
As she concentrated on their sound, the scene behind her unfolded and became revealed.
The birds sang brightly and intensely into her right ear, and then in her left ear, and, once again, the singing was muffled.
The drone was zigzagging as it hovered behind her. It not only became invisible through spectrum manipulation, but it became inaudible as well.
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Tasìa clinched her gut, spun around, and aimed dead center where the sound was muffled.
As the first bullet propelled forward, she began to see the drone as an inverse soundscape.
A negative noise that disturbed the peace too much to be mistaken for mere silence.
She heard two tentacles shifting closer to her. Their approach was too indistinct to her senses to dodge them.
Before she could fathom their trajectory, the third bullet caught the center mass of the drone and it exploded.
A dozen or more flashbangs lobbed in long arcs around the damaged drone. It became visible, as were the tentacles that now latched on to her ankles.
The tentacles shriveled just as those on the first phase drone she destroyed did. Before she could revel in a tactical victory, the tentacles died as they constricted around her ankles. Pinched tight against her Achilles, Tasìa lost balance.
The flashbangs shrieked in a disorienting harmony.
She had to turn her head away in a violent jerk with her eyes squeezed shut to avoid going blind. There was no way to avoid losing her balance and keeping her eyesight intact.
The Modality ramped up, and fear instantly set into her as she turned around in a futile attempt to recover her balance. Her feet gave out on her.
The gun flipped up out of her hands.
I'm going straight through that window pane.
This is not happening!
The moment collapsed into the next. Then time seemed to stop. She was held suspended above the window pane with her chest leaning downward.
The Modality spoke:
- Imagine the glass as an evenly distributed grid.
Blue lines formed vertically and horizontally along its surface.
- Stretch your arms up as far as they will reach. Grip your hands into tiger claws.
The next split instance passed and it allowed her to raise her arms into position.
Perception of time passing halted once more.
- Bend your elbows towards the glass pane. Arch your back as if you are about to dive into water.
She did as she was told as that next instance unfolded. She became aware of the presence of another drone shifting out of phase space.
She did not let it disturb her. In the context of the Here and Now, it was not her immediate threat.
- Our goal is to glide downwards, then in a swoop that will allow us to roll back upwards, we rock in a see-saw motion that will disperse the maximum kinetic potentiate to soften our blow upon the windowpane surface.
Tasìa had a revelation about what she was being asked.
Breakdancing?
- Yes. If you execute it flawlessly, you won't even damage the surface of the pane.
She danced folk and ballet. The dance style wasn't a part of her world milieu.
- You have intuited enough of what you have absorbed from second-hand sources to know what to do. Shut off your brain, right now, del Alma-Gris, or it will get you killed with those festering doubts boiling up to the surface.
The Modality was correct. She used the next instance to adjust her negative mentality.
In the next instance, she was the instance. Tasia dived down in a roll. The phase drone was swooping from above her.
The tips of her fingers made contact first, but she avoided the application of pressure. Her digits, palms, wrists, forearms, elbows, and then as her breast made contact in turn, she thrust her body up using the muscles in her shoulders and back.
The Rugar Vaquero .357 revolver was in free fall. She grabbed it out of the air, twisted her torso around, and planted the other three shots dead center into the carapace of the advancing phase drone.
It jerked away from her and sputtered a blue ooze just before it exploded.
Tasìa once more squeezed her eyes tight as she anticipated what would happen next when she heard the familiar 'swoosh, swoosh' sound of the grenades being lobbed.
She needed to roll on the surface once more, but this time beginning with the balls of her heels instead of her fingertips. A much trickier maneuver.
As Tasìa prepped her body for it, she became aware of the absence of sound coming from her right. The birds were once more muffled.
Damn it in all of the Seven Hells Lady Lilith reigns!
Her curse was not based upon the official doctrine of either the Anewed or the Old Church, but, instead, an old children's story her well-traveled grandmother liked to tell her.
The Modality spoked.
- This phase-drone is the last one. And for that reason, we need to let it carry out its plan. Kick your legs up.
But, I will knock me fool head into the window!
- Trust! It will reveal its purpose.
Tasìa stretched her legs out and raised them. A pair of tentacles grabbed both of them by the ankles. As she expected, she became insubstantial, and when she opened her eyes, she saw she was merely a haze of blue glowing material dragged along with the drone, itself.
The phase drone took her down through the windowpane and into the wide hall below without damaging anything in its wake even as they passed through many objects.
Chandeliers, rails, paintings, cabinets, vases, all of which they seamlessly passed without a trace of interaction.
Although she was being dragged behind the phase drone, now held by all eight tentacles, Tasìa felt not a bump nor a scratch, though she was predisposed to flinch and shut her eyes tight with everything they passed through.