Emptiness. Void. Ahiga found himself floating in a sea of gray nothingness.
No. He thought to himself. There’s…color over there. It’s…something. It’s moving towards me…or am I moving towards it? Being moved?
His mind remained foggy, the dot of color became a ribbon of light, and the ribbon of light became a serpent. A serpent whose form became clearer and yet seemed to be in a state of flux. Wide scales in a dazzling rainbow of shifting colors, a mane upon its neck that shifted from fur to feathers, four stubby legs that switched between those of a lion, to those of an eagle, to those of a crocodile, long whiskers like a catfish on its snout one moment, and whiskers like a cat the next. A head adorned with horns of lapis lazuli that changed to antlers of gold and back again, and a face like that of a crocodile that seemed…
Kind. He thought to himself looking into eyes colored a solid verdant green. Kind and truthful.
Then the dragon spoke.
Words boomed from the edges of the world and into Ahiga’s core reverberating and vibrating. Words were to what this was in the sense that the pile of droppings a lemur uses to mark its territory are words. They were meaning. Not filtered through vibrations in the air but meaning itself. Ahiga could feel that underneath everything was raw meaning like what he was feeling now.
Misbegotten celestial son, human boy. Two species in one. Created with purpose. Yet holding thine own’s fate. Choose well two-souled one.
Ahiga’s eyes opened, and he shot up out of his hospital bed in shock as the bright lights made his eyes water. He looked around in panic at first not recognizing the people around him. He slowly grasped to put names and faces together.
“Easy kid, you were out for nearly 48 hours.” Ahiga looked up to see Liban’s comforting smile and felt a little better. “You saved us back there with that…well we don’t quite know what you did.”
“I mean yeah he saved us but he also kind of caused us to be in danger in the first place, so I mean if you think about it, it kind of evens out.” Ricky said with a shrug before Yekaterina smacked him across the back of the head.
Ae-Cha stepped towards him and spoke up. “Ahiga while you have been unconscious, I have consulted various caudexes and tomes on your anomalous ability. I have been able to ascertain that those who are skilled in Atlas class magic, and natural born mags such as yourself, can in fact learn to fire projectiles of their own energy in combat.”
Ahiga nodded at Ae-Cha’s statement, relieved that he wouldn’t become an object of study. I want to earn respect for my actions, not because I’m some…oddity to be studied.
“However, I have found nothing about the specific…let’s call it an attack form…you did. Electromancy is of course a well-studied field of magic used by normal humans using spells and inherent mags alike, but it is not connected to Atlas magic. And in any case the post facto examination of the crimsonite corpses suggests that what you did was not electrical in nature. The crimsonites were burned from the inside-out and their essences were…well they weren’t. Demonic essence is used to create a crimsonite, ichor is its material manifestation, and it has to be cleaned up using lengthy purification rituals when they die. There was nothing left of it in the ones you killed.”
Ahiga blinked in surprise before dropping back down on the bed with a groan.
“Fuck. So, I’m going to be labeled an anomaly now.”
Liban nodded. “Hey, it’s not as bad as people say it is. Anomalous mags are highly valued in the BETSA. Your rank will stay the same, all that will change is your id.”
“That and the fact that Agent Cade has allowed me to call in Dr. Yisrael Rosenthal from the University of Esoteric Studies in New Judah to help study your recently gestated ability. He will accompany our squad on its next mission to take notes.” Ae-Cha added.
Ricky dramatically pulled out his phone and began typing. “Alright, I just looked him up and may I just say I approve of finally adding a silver fox to the team.”
Yekaterina leaned over Ricky’s phone to screen peak. “For once Ricky, I don’t think you deserve a smack across the head for that statement because daaammmn.”
“Hold on, wait up.” Ahiga said sitting back up. “We’re going on a mission? Where? When?”
“Up north to Efagsi. There was info that some little-known group wants to steal a powerful artifact from the Gateway City History Museum. The Spear Thrower of Nuuk the Warrior. We have to be there tomorrow before 12PM,” Liban said.
Ahiga began to pull himself out of bed despite the slight soreness in his ribs and stood up to face Liban. “Refresh my memory but why would the Spear Thrower of Nuuk the Warrior be dangerous? Like I get why it’s precious, but this seems like a job for the Efagsians.”
Ae-Cha stepped towards them. “The Spear Thrower of Nuuk is incredibly old and has accrued power through age and legend. It dates back to the days of the Cabotian Civilization that used to inhabit northern Canada and was used in the wars that ended the Age of the Hero Kings 12,000 years ago. No one knows how powerful it would be if used now. We should hope we don’t figure out.”
Ahiga nodded. “Alright. Now, is anyone hungry? Because I just slept for two days.”
……………………………………………………………………………………………….
The BETSA facility housed the entire team. Ahiga had heard the set up compared to a fire station. Most BETSA squad left base when a “fire” started somewhere, and between those times they stood alert. Ahiga remembered Jack once saying that in the army 90% of his time was spent killing the time, and the last 10% was killing time. He thought that metaphor apt for BETSA work as he made a sandwich in the community kitchen.
The kitchen faced the common area where Ricky hogged the couch watching something inevitably ignorant. Ahiga walked around the counter to see what looked like a baby duck doing a classic late-night interview with some celebrity on the tv.
“What the fuck are you watching?” He asked standing over Ricky.
Yekaterina shooshed him from her armchair. “It’s the Baby Duck Hour. It’s hilarious.”
Ricky sniffed and looked up from his crochet work. “It’s art Yekaterina.”
“Ok but what’s it like…about?” Ahiga continued.
“The Baby Duck interviews the people but is incredibly rude while doing so. It’s an exercise in absurdism.” Ricky responded.
“Its fun to watch while high.” Yekaterina answered before taking a hit from a bong. “Sides’ when’d you get all “cultured” Ricky. You spend all your time looking to plow.”
“I am a man of many layers Kat. Besides, chicks and dudes alike dig a cultured gentlemen.”
“You dropped mustard on your wool tube and shirt.” Yekaterina retorted with a giggle.
“Chicks dig mustard stains Kat.”
Ahiga sighed and sat down to watch tv with them.
………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Ahiga stood in the library that Ae-Cha had largely commandeered since the squad had been formed. He found the space slightly claustrophobic as the already small room was stuffed with well-organized books old and new alongside racks of scrolls.
“Do not be nervous Ahiga, Dr. Rosenthal is an expert in his field.” Ae-Cha said as she searched for a scroll.
“I don’t like being treated like a lab rat. I just want to move on from this.” Ahiga said with a shrug.
“Try to look on the bright side of things. You have a totally new part of yourself to explore, this is something to cherish and learn from, not reject.”
Ahiga thought about that. “I mean…it was pretty useful on the boat. And I suppose I will be more capable in combat with a ranged attack form. Still, mags are supposed to be one thing, we do one thing good without having to go through any of the spells or artifacts normal humans need to do magic, that’s what makes us what we are. I trained for one thing all my life Ae-Cha. And now I have to learn how to control this whole new ability that no one knows about and its…frustrating because I feel like I’m back to square one. Like all my work just got rebooted.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
Ae-Cha looked at him in the eyes. “I know how it feels to be scared of uncertainty. When I was little growing up in the Ryukyus, back when the Americans still ruled them, the laws around mags were different. The American government forced all mags to be registered so they could be monitored, enrolled in boarding schools, and drafted into the military at age 18. My parents learned I was psionic early on and told me never to show anyone. They said if I did the bad men would take me away from them and force me to fight. After the Great Rampage the Chinese came to the islands, and the rules changed. The new international treaty on using mags in the military was signed and I thought there was less to fear.
My parents, they wanted me to not be restricted in what I could do in life, they thought that being known as a mag would keep me from being able to do normal things. They wanted to protect me even when things changed, but in doing that they made me afraid of what I could do.
Then one day my neighbor was fixing his car when it fell on him. No one could lift it; he was going to die without help. I discovered that I could do things to help people when I lifted that car off of him with my telekinesis. My parents were so afraid of people knowing their daughter was a mag that they fled to Japan and I…I resented them for it. I still do. I went to America when I was 18 to study the esoteric arts, and I decided to join BETSA because I heard they helped people. Don’t be afraid of the unknown Ahiga, think about the ways you can help other people and love that you can do something special for the world.”
Ahiga nodded wiping the beginnings of a tear from his eye. “Thanks, Ae-Cha. That helps.” Ae-Cha smiled at him, he found it comforting.
The door to the library flew open nearly giving Ahiga a heart attack as a seven-foot-tall barrel-chested man with short hair and a long, curly, black beard with streaks of gray entered the room. Dr. Rosenthal had a twinkle in his eye and wore a tweed jacket and brown jeans that seemed too small for his muscular frame. He smiled brightly as he seemed to almost yell his words.
“Ae-Cha! My prize pupil! Is this the young man you were telling me about?”
Ae-Cha nodded, unphased by the loud entrance. “Yes Dr. Rosenthal. This is Ahiga-”
“Well, my boy it seems like you’ve given me a reason to go to Efagsi to watch you work! I never thought I’d have any reason to travel to that intellectually sterile nation of half-English stiff-lips but here we are! It’s not everyday you get to study a spontaneous mag trait generation! Especially of an ability unknown to modern arcanology!”
Ahiga stoked his left braid nervously. “Uh, yes. Happy to help?”
“Don’t worry I won’t drag your group behind! I can take of myself you see, even if I’m not a mag. I’ve studied various magics my whole career and I can do a little bit of a lot if you know what I mean.” Rosenthal said with a wink.
“Yes?” Ahiga answered tepidly.
“Wonderful! Now, can you show me the anomalous ability here?”
Ahiga stood in thought for a second. “I…don’t know how I did it in the first place. It just…happened.”
Rosenthal laughed. “Don’t worry about that! That’s common! Well, it’s common in these uncommon cases I should say. New mag abilities usually end up appearing under extreme stress. Think of it kind of like epigenetics except for the soul. The mystical “gene” wasn’t expressed until the environmental pressures were correct.”
Ahiga nodded again. “Yeah, that makes sense. So, to do it again I just have to be in combat right?”
Rosenthal somehow smiled even more. “You get it! And it looks like you’ll be doing that soon.”
Liban threw open the door. “Everyone get your shit together, we’re leaving for Efagsi in ten minutes.”
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Ahiga entered the hangar with Rosenthal and Ae-Cha and saw Kobold working on the helicopter. Kobold looked up and his face lit up with rage.
“Rosenthal you son of a bitch have you come to take another job from me!?”
Rosenthal went red with embarrassment. “Now Kobold, you just gave me the idea for that paper on the interaction of ghosts with tantric magic, you chose to claim-”
“It was my idea! You knew it! You didn’t give me credit and when I accused you of plagiarism you got me expelled from the bloody uni-”
Rosenthal spoke up. “I didn’t get you expelled, you embarrassed yourself by throwing a fit! I had nothing to do with it!”
“I outta kick your skinny ass Rose! To think I called you a friend!”
“Shut the hell up both of you! If neither of you can work together then I’ll kick both of you off this mission! Do you understand?!” Liban shouted sticking his head out of the helicopter window.
Both men nodded sullenly and walked into the helicopter.
Liban moved to face them all. “Alright team we got more news about who’s trying to steal the Spear Thrower of Nuuk. It’s a white supremacist group called Nordic Storm. They believe the ancient Cabotian civilization was made up of members of a primordial race of Nordics who ruled the entire area around the Artic Circle. It’s horseshit but they believe it. And because they believe it they want the Spear Thrower, they hope to awaken the Nordic spirit they believe dwells within and use it to reestablish Hyperborea. Obviously, they are not found of the First Nations and sasquatch clans who also claim the spear.”
“Wait, why do the First Nations and the sasquatch clans claim it?” Kobold asked.
“Because the spear was stolen back and forth over the centuries in ritualized warfare. So, the clans and Nations who claim it filed a joint lawsuit to get co-custody and take it back from the museum. The museum bought it from the “adventurer” Jean Pierre who stole it in 1897 from the Wisselwoot Clan of sasquatches.”
Ahiga frowned. He knew the Spear Thrower was stolen but…he felt wrong about keeping it in the hands of people with no right to it, even if he was keeping it away from even worse owners.
Liban noticed. “It’s for the courts to decide kid. We can’t get involved, normal humans don’t trust us, they haven’t for 20 years. We need to earn it back by being helpful where we’re needed and staying out of their affairs.”
Ahiga had heard the speech before. He’d heard it from foster parents, from school, from politicians, in BETSA training. He believed it too. Mags were a small minority, but they’d shown they could be dangerous, and could he begrudge normal humans for wanting reassurance that they wouldn’t get involved in their affairs? That a mag would never pull of another Great Ramage?
But we shouldn’t have to reassure them twenty years later. When does it end? He tried to shake the intrusive thought out of his head. That way of thinking leads to joining the Guild. Nip it in the bud.
He tried to focus on the scenery below as they passed the vast prairie and began to fly over the taiga. Time rolled on as Yekaterina and Ricky took turns trying to hit on Rosenthal to the man’s obvious obliviousness and Kobold seethed in his chair palpably. Then he saw a glitter on the horizon.
Rosenthal leaned next to him. “That’s the Northwest Passage. Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Ahiga had to admit it was a gorgeous sight, a narrow band of ocean flanked by unending taiga. As they swung east, he saw a large strip of buildings and docks on the horizon.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Gateway City.” Rosenthal said. “A classic construction of 17th century architecture turned into suburbs an Get’a’burgers. People say it’s progress, I ask them what its progressing towards.”
“That’s deep dog. Can I steal that for my memoirs?” Ricky asked.
The helicopter flew over office buildings, warehouses, parks, and suburbs before landing on the roof of the museum.
Ricky sniffed. “The place has rancid vibes, but I dig the industrial gothic architecture.”
Ahiga assumed that was the word for all the concrete arches and steel goblins. He wasn’t impressed.
As they disembarked from the helicopter a portly little white man came running towards them across the roof in distress.
“What are you doing!? The situation is already resolved! Did you not hear the news!? We need you to clear the roof for high class visitors coming for a private tour later today! Go on and get out already!”
Ahiga immediately felt something was off about the man. Ricky walked up and punched at the man to be only for his fist to pass through air and the man to blow away into the wind.
Ae-Cha looked surprised. “How did you know he was a mist apparition Ricky?”
Ricky looked confused and stroked his stubble. “A what?”
“Fuck,” Liban said, “I just got word on my earpiece that the terrorists have taken hostages, including some protesters who came to demand the spear thrower back. Looks like we’re going to need to do an impromptu rescue.”
“None of these kids have done a rescue before!” Kobold blurted out.
“First time for everything.” Liban said with a shrug. “Ae-Cha astral project into the building and figure out the best place for Kobold to drop us in.”
“On it cap’n.” Ae-Cha said just before she sat down and rolled her eyes over in her head until they were white.
Yekaterina grimaced. “Astral projection is gross.”
Ae-Cha’s body shook, and her pupils rolled back to their normal place. “The best place to drop in is thirty meters southwest of our current position. There’s a mechanical maintenance room for the elevators that is unguarded. Kobold, you need to make the hole roughly one meter across and make the drop silent.”
Kobold saluted and went to the suggested position. He got down on his knees and put his hands on the ground as the rest of them followed. A perfect circle of roof one meter wide turned into fine dust and crumbled into a dark pit below.
Liban dropped in first as quiet as a mouse. Kobold followed, then Ae-Cha, then Ricky, then Yekaterina, then Ahiga, then Rosenthal. As Ahiga entered the room he blinked several times to adjust his eyes to the darkness, he had greater light sensitivity than non-Atlas mags or normal humans. He was comforted by the fact that that ability was rare, but known, in Atlas mags.
Liban put his ear to the door and looked at Ae-Cha. Her eyes glazed over for a few seconds and when she came back to her body, she gave a thumbs up. Kobold approached the aluminum door and at a touch it turned into fine dust. Ahiga headed out of the room behind Liban and looked around silently seeing an empty hallway of classical art. Liban moved to the stairway at the end of the hallway and looked down before turning his head back to Ahiga and giving a thumbs up.
The group moved down the stairs painstakingly carefully before entering what appeared to be an exhibit based around knights and medieval warfare. A faint footstep came from behind the group. Ahiga sensed he was being watched and spun around as quickly as he could. A pump action shotgun floated in the air behind them and was trained on the back most group member, Rosenthal. A shot rang out.
Rosenthal fell face forward and Ahiga launched himself at the shotgun in a rage only to fly through thin air and into a display case full of daggers. Glass and daggers came down upon him and as he gained his bearings and looked up, he saw the group distracted by a mobile suit of knight’s armor attacking them from the front while the shotgun wielder shot at Liban.
Liban staggered back but stayed on his feet thanks to his combat gear. He then launched a fireball at the shotgun, only for the shot to fly through thin air and smash into a wall. Fire alarms and sprinklers went off adding another element of chaos. Ahiga hoisted himself up and quickly noticed the water bending around a human shape. He grabbed a dagger and tossed it into the center of the mass with as much strength as he could and saw it become lodged in thin air.
He ran to the dagger, but it came out of its resting spot with a horrible sound of rending flesh and was tossed at his face. Ahiga dodged the sloppy throw but took a second to notice the shotgun laying on the ground abandoned. He located the area of warped water again and ran towards it. He was prepared to deliver a blow strong enough to kill an ox only to be sent sprawling to the side by a blow from a steel fist to the side of the head.
Ahiga touched his temple to discover blood coming from the side of his head. He looked up to see the animated knight armor being attacked by Ae-Cha using a telekinetically controlled mace to distract it while Kobold tried to sneak around and transmute it. He scanned his eyes across the room trying to find the invisible attacker only to notice a third attacker fighting with Ricky, Liban, and Yekaterina. The attacker looked like a green, humanoid, configuration of mist with four red points of light for eyes and arms ending in curved metallic blades.
Mist warrior. He remembered the name from BETSA training. That’s a moderately hard creature to summon and bind. They have good human wizard or summoning mag here then.
He jumped to his feet and noticed Rosenthal was up and showed no sign of having been shot. He was however obviously in duress as his arms pried at an area of air in front of his throat and his face turned reddish-purple. Ahiga ran behind Rosenthal and grabbed at an area where water slid through the air over an invisible surface. He felt what he thought was Kevlar and pulled hard only to hear the sound of unzipping and looked up to see Rosenthal now able to touch his own neck.
Fucker took off the vest. He thought looking at the area of distorted water flow now in front of him. He lunged forward with a low punch, but the figure dodged and tried to sweep his leg. He countered by jumping into the air and tried to bring a fist down on the invisible leg only to crush a tile under his fist. He felt a strong blow, eminently enhanced somehow, strike the back of his head before he rolled and turned back towards the enemy with a roundhouse kick. Once again his leg went flying through the air and he heard footsteps peeling away behind him and turned around to face the shotgun once more.
Rosenthal pulled a revolver out of his pocket and shot at the air right above the shotgun eliciting a grunt of pain and causing the gun to swing sideways and fire into a cabinet filled with gauntlets. Ahiga saw the shotgun lift and fire into Rosenthal again, but the large man only grunted, and the shot gun was dropped to the floor. The figure ran towards a stand of swords with Rosenthal in pursuit. Ahiga ran forward, grabbed the dagger from earlier off the floor, and headed towards the invisible figure who seemed to be warding off Rosenthal with wild swings of a Burgundian knight’s sword. Ahiga jumped at the figure who oriented his sword towards him only for Ahiga to knock the sword to the side, breaking his dagger in the process.
Ahiga finally got his hands on the figure, he felt wet human skin only for a jolt of electricity to travel up his side. He was frozen in pain for a second, long enough for the figure to pick him up into the air and swing him down into the ground. He hit the floor hard. Air came out of his lungs, and he rolled to dodge a stomp that shattered tiles while Rosenthal punched at the figure only to be grabbed by the arm and swung against the wall hard enough to collapse a section of drywalling. Ahiga stood up despite the pain in his sides and head and picked up a handful of shattered glass which he crushed further in his left palm. The figure swung at his head, he dodged and smacked his palmful of glass across where he thought the figure’s face was.
He finally elicited a scream of pain and saw the figure’s thrashing via the wild swinging of water droplets in the air. He reached out, felt what seemed to be a jaw, reached back further with his left hand, and felt wet hair. He twisted the head hard. A solid snap rang out like a green sapling breaking. A person seemed to suddenly blink into existence as a thirty-something man with dark hair bound in a ponytail, destroyed eyes, and copious rune and cross tattoos on the shaved sides of his head fell to the floor dead.
“Fuck.” Ahiga wheezed feeling a ringing pain in his head.
The man wore black pants with knee and shoulder pads and had a white shirt with colored square patches sown into it. Ahiga also noticed odd black gloves on his hands. Rosenthal knelt beside the cadaver.
“Invisibility potion, I’m guessing the enhanced strength comes from either extensive Atlas magic training, or potions, he’s also got electric stun gloves and a Mahdi-style faith shirt enchanted to turn bullets into water. Heh.”
“What’s funny about that?” Ahiga asked.
Rosenthal lifted his tweed shirt to show a white shirt with colored patches underneath. “I’m happy to say mine is powered by faith in a different god than their pastiche of a fictional race god.” Ahiga smiled before remembering the other events in the room.
He looked up to see the knight dissolving into a puddle of mercury while the mist warrior was still in play, albeit looking smaller with two of its eye-lights missing. Liban hosed it with fire and Yekaterina pushed it from behind with a wind blast while Ricky shot out another eye with an oversized handgun. Ahiga bent down, picked up a dagger, and aimed at the nearest eye. He threw as hard as he could. He missed.
“Practice makes perfect my boy,” Rosenthal said before firing with his large silver revolver and scoring a direct hit on the last eye. “Go in peace my gaseous friend. You knew not what evil you were chained to."
The mist warrior dissolved; its blades clattered to the floor. Ahiga walked across the room towards Liban and the others.
“We have to move everyone. The hostages are in the Spear Thrower of Nuuk the Hero exhibit. There’s twenty-seven of them and four terrorists.” Liban lead the way and they followed.
The team went down a hallway holding artifacts and trophies from Efagsi’s colonial past as Britain’s route to Asia. Swords from Inuit warriors, whalebone armor, Cree bows, Metis fur caps, shamanic drums, a totem pole, muskets, and a sasquatch scalp. Ahiga felt like throwing up. The area reeked to him. He felt like he couldn’t breathe until they entered the exhibit on trade with Asia.
Liban held up his hand. “The Spear Thrower display chamber is up next. The terrorists are claiming over telecommunications that they want to parley. They want us to send one of our people in.”
Ahiga stepped forward. “Let me do this Liban.”
Liban shook his head. “You have the minimum of training in diplomacy, there is no logical reason to-”
“Please, Liban. I need to do this.” Liban looked skeptical, but he also seemed to be thoughtful.
“None of you have much training, Kobold would logically be the best choice, but he’s the least diplomatic and the least able to defend himself if things go south.”
“I resent that remark!” Kobold responded.
“Ricky is too crass, they won’t respect Yekaterina or even fear her, same with Ae-Cha. I’m at the rock bottom of their racial hierarchy, Rosenthal is-”
“A Jew. The thing they hate most in the world.” Rosenthal finished for Liban who nodded.
Liban looked back at Ahiga and nodded somberly. “Go. But I don’t like this.”
Ahiga went. He walked down the hallway and into a large, round, open room. A large statue of Nuuk stood in the center of the room. A bold-faced Native man in a mammoth-skin parka holding his spear thrower high with his right hand and with his left hand atop the head of his legendary pet cave lion.
“Well, well, well. They sent a savage to negotiate.” A tall, smooth-shaven, blond man in camouflaged combat gear leaped off the Nuuk statue. Ahiga noticed the Spear Thrower of Nuuk the Hero in his belt.
Ahiga then noticed the hostages in a corner being watched over by a short, skinny, chinless teen with an assault rifle. He noticed a sasquatch among the hostages whose had obviously been hit in the face several times. He turned as he caught the sound of a boot shifting on tile on the upper floor and looked to see a tall, wide, bearded man with a sniper rifle looking down his scope at him from across the railing. He looked directly up at the glass dome functioning as the ceiling of the room and noticed a long, skinny man in tight leather clothes wearing a gas mask and clinging to the ceiling by his fingertips and bare feet.
Four enemies. He thought to himself. I could probably take all these chumps at once if not for the hostages. His eyes swung back to the hostages, and he noticed an elderly man in shamanic garb among the crowd. Their eyes met. He felt the inkling of an idea.
“You hear me boy? You people are never good at listening. You looking at your witch doctor there? You know he says Nuuk was a fucking Indian? Horseshit.” The leader spat on the ground and reached behind his back to produce a spear thrower. “Nuuk was a great Nordic king who slayed thousands of Asians, your ancestors, and thousands of those rag-skinned motherfuckers.” He pointed at the sasquatch.
“I’m not here to debate history with you. We want the hostages, and we want the spear thrower. In return you’ll get to spend the rest of your life in prison instead of dying here.” Ahiga hardened his eyes and stance.
“What the fuck makes you think you can make demands of me you little shit!? I have the goddamn spear thrower of Nuuk! Soon Hyperborea will be restored, and the boreal lands will be inhabited by pure Nordics purged of degeneracy and ready for the return of our future chosen king! People repentant and loyal to Odin-Jehovah!”
Ahiga watched the man reach a high fit of disassociation. He smelled his joy and glanced at the spear thrower before raising an eyebrow.
“Where’s your dart?”
The leader looked confused. “What?”
“Where’s the spear for the thrower. Do…do you know how an atlatl works?”
The man’s face blanched. “It…it’ll still work! It’s magic!”
Ahiga put his face in his hands and began to laugh hysterically. “Jeeesssusss! You people are fucking stupid! You’re evil sure, but you’re also fucking dumb. Alright…alright. Tell you what.” He turned his head to the teen holding the hostages. “You, hold old are you kid?”
The teen turned red. “I’m sixteen. But I’m still a warrior for the white race!”
“Yeah sure, whatever. What’s your chucklefuck leader to you? He talk you into this over the internet or some shit?”
The leader flustered. “Don’t talk to him Reginald! You are a warrior! He’s using Indian mind tricks on you!”
Reginald turned redder. “He…he taught me the truth!”
Ahiga sighed. “Look kid, I’ll cut you some slack now, drop the gun and I’ll let you live.”
The teen’s hands trembled. “I…I have hostages!”
“Yeah, and if you shoot them that’ll just piss me off more. Us BETSA agents, well we are allowed a certain margin of error in missions.” Ahiga shared the briefest of glances with the shaman who nodded ever so slightly, following what he was doing. “I’ll be sad that you killed them, but I’ve seen it before,” the chinless youth swallowed, “but if you do it, well, you’ll die. And it won’t be a happy or quick death either.”
“Don’t listen to him Reginald you fucking sissy!” The leader yelled at the young terrorist with a crack of desperation in his voice.
“Kid, I’ll tear you apart. No mercy. I’m an Atlas, I broke your super strong friend’s neck back there like he was a chump bitch and shit on his corpse for a lark. I’ll tear your rib cage open with my bare hands and take a bite out of your kidney in front of your face. Look at my eyes, I’ll do it, I’m fucking crazy!”
The teenager soiled his pants and dropped his assault rifle to the ground before crouching into a ball and weeping. “Please don’t kill me! Oh god don’t kill me! AHHH!!!”
The leader’s jaw dropped. “Shoot the Indian bastard Bernard!”
Ahiga whipped his head out of position in a blur and felt a gust of wind pass his face as the sound of a gunshot reverberated through the room. Ahiga whipped his head again to look at the large, beaded man and began to run towards the balcony. The gun failed to move fast enough and Ahiga leaped 15 feet to land on the balcony next to the sniper. The sniper dropped his rifle and reached for a pistol until the top of his head blew off. Ahiga looked down below and across the room to see the sasquatch holding the young terrorist’s assault rifle as hostages flowed out of the room through the exit.
Ahiga leaped back down to the ground floor and ran towards the leaders who stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled in a panic. The man in leather hit the floor in front of Ahiga with a solid thud. Ahiga stood in front of what looked like a corpse with its head twisted at a wrong angle before the body sat up ramrod straight and twisted its head back into place. Its right arm rapidly shot out at an unnaturally twisted angle and the hand spun around in a blur before falling to the floor revealing a nozzle on the inside of its wrist.
Ahiga leaped to the side as a spurt of flame shot into the space he once stood in. He ran a wide circle around the creature while the jet of flame from its arm followed close behind. Its other arm twisted the mouth off of its gas mask and a swarm of black insects emerged and began to pursue Ahiga. As they got closer, he saw they were locusts with scorpion tails, hoofs on their feet, and the heads of lions.
He swatted at them, but they were too numerous, stingers found flesh while the lion heads bit him and attacked him with balls of fire from their mouths. His clothes began to smoke, the air smelled of sulfur, and he felt every sting as if it had its own form of agony, one cold, one hot, one like acid.
“Thought you were so fucking smart didn’t you asshole! Well savage cunning can never defeat a white man’s ingenu-”
The leader stopped talking as several bullets entered his side. The sasquatch leaned against the wall in the corner of the room. Ahiga felt thankful even as the insects continued their assault despite the fact that kept crushing one after another. The flames stopped coming from the creature’s open wrist.
The creature walked towards him. “You thought he was in charge?” Its voice sounded like it came from a grainy radio and the accent sounded like German through a funhouse mirror. “I’m in charge. Those degenerates were useful. Now they’re not.” Several bullets struck the chest of the creature and made a sound like wood being hit with a hammer. “I’ll kill you later you later, beast.” It said cocking its head to the sasquatch. “As for you young Indian, well it’s a waste that you weren’t Nordic. You’re a better warrior than many in the master race. But now I end your gene line.”
The creature reached its intact hand out to Ahiga as needles slid out of its fingertips. Ahiga fell to his knees in pain even as he continued to kill the hell locusts. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the shaman silently walk to the atlatl unnoticed. He saw the team entering the room and all of them moving to attack. He saw the man he thought the terrorist’s leader…still breathing. Whispering to himself though bubbles of blood.
“Expendable? Rot in hell you rotten ass puppet.” His hands gripped a detonator.
Ahiga held out his hands and closed his eyes. He felt something emanate from him, he opened his eyes a second later to see ruin and wreckage all around him, but he was safe. He looked over and saw the shaman sitting on the floor with the Spear Thrower of Nuuk nowhere to be seen, and he finally noticed the bubble of green light surrounding him and warping out of shape to cover the shaman like an amoeba splitting. He remembered the locusts but looked down to see them on the floor twitching in apparent agony, and across the room their master lay broken and scorched, and still writhing.
Yekaterina slid beside him as the bubble he had created dissolved into nothingness. “Ahiga! Are you all right?”
He shook his head. “I need a doctor, and some damn pain killers.”
……………………………………………………………
“It’s fucked up that the Spear Thrower was destroyed when that psycho blew himself up.”
Ahiga nodded at Liban as he sat up in the ambulance. Enchanted anti-venom went into his veins, the nurses had to use special titanium needles to pierce his skin. It had gotten stronger after the explosion.
“Hey, you know you have another new ability now.” Rosenthal chimed in. “I’m jealous kid. You really are something special.” He smiled then winced as the stitches in his forehead strained.
“Yeah, that green forcefield thing you made, that was incredible. Can’t believe you got that shaman in there too. That guy is brave, crazy, but brave.” Liban smiled faintly.
“All the hostages got out ok?” Ahiga asked.
“Yeah kid. That sasquatch guy was the only injured one. He was beaten on the face a bit and took some minor shrapnel to the back exiting the room with the baby racist draped over his shoulder. Crazy. That kid was willing to kill him, and he was willing to die to save him. I wouldn’t have done it. Maybe I’m a worse man for it, but I won’t pretend to be better than I am.” Liban shook his head.
Ahiga nodded. A better man. Was I a better man today? He remembered the shaman hiding the Spear Thrower of Nuuk in his cloak just before the Nordics erstwhile leader detonated his suicide vest. He remembered being the first to say it was totally destroyed and telling the cop who wanted to search the shaman that he wouldn’t have him harass a traumatized man on his watch.
It helped that they had been in front of news cameras. It helped that there was a lot of debris to sift through in the former Spear Thrower of Nuuk the Hero exhibit. Yeah. I did good today. He thought to himself.
“That fucking puppet…that thing is creepy. I saw them wheel it out of there still screaming even though it had half its body blown off, vowing vengeance or some shit. Ae-Cha called it a limberjack, said it’s a soul bonded to a puppet through blood magic. That motherfucker could have served Von Liechtenstein back in the day, that’s fucked up to think about. It’s bad enough that there’s the Nordic Pride guys under Antarctica. But racist, immortal, blood-magic puppets? I hate every word that.” Liban shivered.
Rosenthal nodded. “It seems like we fight the same battles over and over. But we have to focus on the good we do. You saved lives with your quick-thinking young Ahiga. Remember that, take pride in it. You earned it.”
Liban nodded alongside Rosenthal. “You did good today.”
Ahiga smiled, he felt pride in Liban’s words despite his pain. He felt swelling in his chest when Liban smiled at him. He then felt a twinge of embarrassment at the feelings rising in him.
Nothing’s ever simple. He thought to himself.
“What do you want to do when we get back to base kid?”
Kiss you. Ahiga thought to himself before pushing that thought as far out of his mind as possible.
He thought about something else. “Probably just watch the Baby Duck Hour for a while and chill.” He laid back on the ambulance gurney. “Then I’ll have to start learning how to control these new abilities” He turned to face Rosenthal. “And maybe start learning to throw knives.”