CHAPTER 15
OCTOBER 21ST, 12:31 P.M.
--TOMMY--
"How far out is this place!?"
Tommy, Boone, and Frank stood atop the silver, grooved roof of the speeding train. The rushing wind was almost deafening in their ears. Snow plastered on to them as they sped along the mountain side, with nothing but sky on the left, and nothing by the steep, white, rocky incline on the right. They crouched low and hung on as the train hustled down the tracks.
"Far enough that no one knows about it!" Frank yelled over the wind. Lucky for him, the weather wasn't as much of an issue compared to the others.
"Where is Leo and Laurel?!" Frank asked.
"You know as much as me!" Tommy said. "Supposedly their- "A hand suddenly breached through the ceiling and grabbed Tommy's ankle, yanking him down into the train cart and slamming him hard against the floor. Disoriented, he looked up to see his assailant: A figure wrapped in tattered, yellow biohazard bags. Underneath he wore a generic American military uniform: dark olive drab camo. It was when Tommy saw his face that everything changed. It was burned heavily. His lips were seared off, revealing his rows of teeth. His eye lids were also missing, leaving him permanently wide eyed. His head was split open, even through his skull, revealing a section of his brain, open to the outside elements. Jammed into the exposed part of brain and surrounded by loose stiches, dried blood, and scar tissue was a golden, shiny, engraved triangle. A piece of the key lodged into his brain. Despite the man's aliments, he wasn't unrecognizable. Thick, well-groomed beard, almost unnatural looking. For what parts of his head that were still intact were covered in healthy grey hair. An old man, but one who's age superseded his appearance. Like he had gone under the knife more than a few times to stay young.
"No fucking way." Tommy barely regained himself before the man grabbed him by the metal plates on his chest, lifting him effortlessly into the air and throwing him through the door in the back end of the cab. Tommy blasted through the metal partition and onto the small outside platform on the back of the train car. He grabbed onto the railing just before he flew out of reach, his body flying like a flag in the wind, holding on as the train continued ahead at full speed. Frank and Boone attempted to drop down on top of the man, but he reacted in time, catching them both by their throats. He chucked Boone off to the side, sending him crashing through rows of empty seats and into the corner of the cab. He then grabbed Frank with both hands, turning and launching him forward through the wall and into the next cab.
"Where the fuck are you guys?!" Tommy yelled, hoping Leo and Laurel would still be able to hear him.
"What's happening?" He heard Laurel's voice respond to him.
"He's fucking here. It's Regis."
"What did you just say?" Leo asked.
"Regis is on the fucking train," Tommy said as he pulled himself up, placing his feet back onto solid ground. "And he's got the piece stuck in his head!"
"Hold on! We're coming," Laurel said frantically.
Regis turned around, standing squared to Tommy about 20 feet away. His face seemed pained, but also lifeless. Regis wasn't in there anymore; the piece was keeping him alive. Tommy stepped back into the cab, his footsteps muffling over the red-carpet floor. Regis stood unwavering, watching.
"That's not you anymore, is it?!" Tommy yelled out. Regis didn't respond. "That's what I thought," Tommy said, quickly drawing the hand cannon from his holster. In the blink of an eye, he aimed at Regis and fired. The shockwave blasted out the windows and ripped the seats from the floors, smashing them against the walls. The weighted slug hit Regis square in the chest, catapulting him backwards, smashing through the doors of multiple cabs as he flew to the front of the train. Frank, just regaining his poise, ducked out of the way just in time as he zipped past.
"Is that Regis?" Boone asked as he climbed out of the rubble.
"Regis is dead," Tommy said. "The piece is keeping his body alive."
"He's just a vessel..." Boone said. "What the hell do we do now? We found the piece- "
"And now the train is taking us to the heart of the enemy," Tommy said.
"We have to get off."
"Regis is going to do everything he can to stay on. We must stop the train," Tommy clarified. "Frank!"
Frank started towards Tommy, clenching his fists as the grew, dusts and pebbles flaking off as they turned to stone.
"When there's an opening," Tommy said to Boone, "Get to the front of the train. Find the brake."
"What are you guys going to do?" Boone asked.
"We must hold until Leo and Laurel get here," Frank joined. Thudding vibrations shook the train. They turned towards the front to see the shell of Regis marching towards them.
"Let's get it on then," Tommy said, reloading another slug into the hand cannon. Regis continued his steady march. Tommy raised the gun, aiming it straight down the cabs at him. As soon as the barrel was level, Regis ducked low and bolted forward. Tommy just barely reacted in time to move, but still was clipped on his right hip as he was tackled, sending the hand cannon skidding along the floor to the back. Tommy quickly placed his left hand flat against the side of Regis' head and pushed in into the metal wall on his right, leaving a dent. Frank jumped in after, slamming his fist down into his back, laying him out flat.
"Boone! Go now!" Tommy yelled. Without hesitation, he took off towards the front of the train. With Frank's fist still planted into Regis' back, pinning him to the floor, Tommy got up and grabbed the hand cannon, aiming it at his head.
"No. Don't shoot him," Frank said.
"I don't know what to do here. We can't keep him alive."
"We can't destroy the piece."
"It can take it. It can take it," Tommy said as he moved the barrel closer.
"Wait! Don't risk it."
Regis suddenly elbowed Frank's wrist, knocking the hand off his back. Tommy fired but missed as Regis quickly moved out of the way, letting the slug fly by and blast a hole through the train. Regis grabbed Frank by his shoulders and swung him through the wall, sending him off the train and smashing into the mountain side.
"Shit Frank!" Tommy said while quickly holstering his gun. Before Regis had a chance to refocus himself, Tommy wrapped his right arm around his torso, lifting him up and throwing him to the floor. He stood over him, dropping to one knee as he threw a punch at his head. Regis reacted and grabbed his fist, holding it in place.
"Regis, let me help you here buddy," he said while trying to push his fist down. Tommy tried quickly reaching in with his left hand to grab the piece out of his head, but Regis blocked that too, squeezing his wrist and pushing back.
"Don't make me do this Regis," Tommy warned. "If there's any bit of you left in there that can hear me-" Regis threw a knee into Tommy's side but failed to move him. Tommy planted his calf over his chest, restraining him.
"So be it," Tommy said. The structure of his right forearm came loose. The once hard metal turned malleable as it shifted and slid around, reshaping into the barrel of a shotgun, with the muzzle just a few inches away from Regis' face. Without a second thought, Tommy fired. A puff of red mist sprayed into the air. The skin that was left on his face was blown off, but he remained. His face was now just a red, bony posterior with no eyes. Yet, the face still stayed locked on Tommy.
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"What the fuck is wrong with you."
Regis finally had enough, pushing Tommy off to the side and onto his back. He quickly got up, kneeling over Tommy winding up to strike down. Just as his fist was on the way down, an axe struck his side sending him flying up the cab and into the next one. Tommy, while still laying on the floor, looked to his right to see Leo standing in the back doorway. The white snowscape rushed behind him as the train still moved relentlessly, his half cape fluttering in the wind. Leo held out his hand, summoning the axe as it dislodged from Regis' ribcage and flew back to him.
"Nice of you to drop by," Tommy remarked.
"What's wrong with him?" Leo asked.
"The piece is reanimating him," Tommy said as he rose to his feet, reloading the hand cannon. At the same time, Regis was back standing as well, marching once again to fight. "I think the only way to stop him is to pull the piece out of his head."
"There's no controls!" Boone's voice suddenly intruded into their heads.
"The fuck does that mean?" Tommy asked.
"The front cab, it's empty. Gutted."
"I'll try something," Laurel butted in. Tommy looked out the left windows to see Laurel flying alongside the train a good distance away; her signature pink/blue magic propelling from her hands and feet. "But the train is moving too fast, I can't get a hold on it with anything. You guys need to find a way to slow it down."
Regis' pace never wavered; now just seconds away from them.
"Try to get a hold of him," Leo said. "I'll slice out the piece." A translucent, gold shimmering figure of Leo appeared out in front of him. It moved into the motion of a punch and slid across the floor, like it was being propelled over a plane of ice. A line of other duplicates trailed behind it from its speed as it reached Regis, landing its conjured fist into his face. Right at the moment the duplicate made contact, Leo suddenly launched forward and appeared exactly where it had just disappeared, like it was copying his movements before he actually did them. Now standing over Regis, Leo lifted the axe up above his head and chopped downwards, missing as he rolled out of the way and struck his side, sending him across the cab. Tommy ran up from behind him, kicking low at his knees to immobilize him. This missed as well, as Regis quickly sidestep and drove his shoulder into Tommy. He managed to stay upright, his feet scraping against the floor as Regis continued to push his body into his abdomen.
"He's too fast!" Tommy yelled at Leo. "Swing at his legs!" He instructed as he held a firm headlock with his right arm. As Leo pried himself off the side wall and approached, Regis swiped the hand cannon out of Tommy's holster, aiming it across his body with his left hand and firing. Just before it hit him, Leo put up the axe. The slug struck the broad side of the blade, saving him from damage but launching him airborne and through the wall, free falling through the Himalayan sky.
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LAUREL
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Laurel tried once again to attach tethers on the train, only for it to snap before it could take place. It was moving too fast for her to get any kind of grasp on it with her magic. She continued her strafing alongside it but kept a sizeable distance. It would be easier to control if she could see more of the train.
"The train is moving too fast; I can't get a hold on it with anything. You guys need to find a way to slow it down.," she said. She looked up and down the cabs, up and down the track, looking for something that she could use to her advantage. A few miles ahead, just barely visible through snow in the air was a tunnel carved through the mountain. She thought about collapsing it, but that would be one hard way to stop the train, and not safe for the rest of the guys on board. The side of one of the cabs suddenly busted open, interrupting her thoughts. Leo came flying out of it like he was shot out of a cannon but was plummeting fast.
"Oh my god, Leo!" she yelled. With his axe still in his right hand, he reached up with his left, creating a duplicate and gripping tightly on both their forearms. Another after another appeared, all locking arms, creating a chain that was climbing up to Laurel. She picked up his idea, reaching out and grabbing onto the duplicates hand at the top of the chain. Despite being translucent, only identifiable by the ambient gold outline, it looked like Leo. She clutched onto the hand that felt like solid air as the pendulum hit its equilibrium and swung backwards behind Laurel.
"Throw me back!" he yelled. Once Leo had fully swung behind her and was static in the air for a moment, Laurel threw her arm forward as hard as she could. Leo let go when he swung back forward; the duplicates disappearing as he flew headfirst back towards the train.
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TOMMY
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Tommy tumbled across the carpet before he finally was able to stop himself. Sitting on one knee, he looked up at the red skull with a golden ornament stomping towards him. It may not be Regis anymore, but he was getting angry.
"What did Rayshe do to you buddy?" Tommy said exasperated. His approach was halted when beams of energy struck his back, making him lurch forward. Boone stood behind him, having now just joined the fight after going for the brakes proved to be a dead end. Regis stood now at a crossroads: Tommy and Boone were positioned on either side of him. He looked back and forth, somehow still able to see all this time even without eyes.
"Which one of us you want first, huh?" Tommy quipped. Right after he finished his sentence, Regis was speared by Leo, who blasted through the left wall of the cab like a bullet, striking Regis square in the chest with his shoulder. He was slammed into the adjacent wall so hard that part of his back was sticking outside the train. Just his head, arms, legs, and some of his chest was inside, like he was in a pillory.
"Hold him down!" Leo yelled, standing up and putting his foot on Regis' shoulder. Tommy and Boone rushed over, keeping his arms pinned back while he squirmed and grunted against them. Leo chopped the axe down into his head, earning the first notion that he could feel pain as he snarled. Leo continued to push down, trying to get the blade down into his brain and underneath the piece, but the contents of Regis' head were proving tougher than he expected. He put his left hand on the back of the counterweight, trying to push the blade down through his skull.
"Fucking push, Leo!" Boone clamored.
"I'm trying!" he responded. He wiggled the axe, trying to shimmy it down deeper, but it seemed like it was pushing back. Regis freed his arms from Tommy and Boone's grasp and reached up to his head, clawing and scraping at the axe.
"It's no use," Tommy said while loading a round into the hand cannon.
"No!" Leo yelled. "That'll shatter the piece!"
"He seemed to be just fine when I shot him earlier!"
Boone reached over and helped push the axe in with one hand, while blasting it with energy with the other. The metal heated up; smoke began to billow out from the crevice of Regis' head. He growled out in pain even louder as he frantically tried to get a grip on the axe. Tommy joined in pushing as well, pressing his foot against Regis' skinless face. The three of them strained; their arms grew tired as they pushed harder but made little progress. The lights on the train flickered and exploded as Boone siphoned its power.
"Laurel! Get in here!" Leo yelled. Tommy took his hands off the axe and grabbed the piece, trying to yank it out himself. Regis turned his attention to Tommy, squeezing his hand, making his fingers press together. Suddenly, all went dark. The train entered the carved tunnel, and with the lights busted, it was pitch black. Soon after, all that could be heard besides the movement over the tracks was Leo bumping into the wall. Tommy activated his night vision to see Regis gone; out the hole he was sitting in.
"I can't see shit," Boone said. Echoing footsteps pounded on the roof of the cab.
"On the roof!" Leo yelled, winding up to swing his axe vertically. Before he could strike the metal, a boulder grabbed from the mountain tunnel crashed down right over top of him. His axe stuck into its face, holding it in the air. The weight bore down on him as he dropped to a knee, using both his hands to keep it up. The sound of Regis sticking his hand up and collecting stone from the tunnel above him could be heard reverberating.
"I'm fine, get behind him!" Leo commanded.
"I got him right here," Tommy said, aiming the hand cannon at the roof. He fired, breaching the ceiling where Regis should have been standing, but nobody was there.
"We can't let him stay up there," Boone said, getting ready to climb up using the new hole Tommy made. It was then that a flash of pink and blue glowed through the tunnel and Regis crashed through the ceiling a few cabs ahead. Leo lifted the boulder up, still lodged in his axe and threw it backwards into the next car, blasting through the partitions in its way and falling through the floor, breaking off that car and all the other ones behind it. They looked down the rows through the darkness the best they could; all that could be seen was more flashes of the same colors flying around, and Regis getting thrashed. They rushed forward, running down the aisle that split the rows of seats through the cars. Eventually, they reached the car to find the ceiling completely torn off, and Laurel standing on the back edge, orchestrating her magic.
"Laurel!" Tommy yelled. She looked down at him. "Rip out the piece!" She acknowledged, suspending Regis in the air, attaching tethers to his arms, and connecting them to the tops of the walls.
"Help me!" she yelled. The three of them ran to Regis, pulling him down, stretching his arms even more than they already were. Leo jammed the axe back into his head like before, Boone grabbed at the piece, and Tommy kept Regis held down, so they had more leverage to pull up. Pink magic swirled Regis' head as Laurel went pulling as well. He screamed agonizingly as they worked to remove his life support. Eventually, the train made it through the tunnel, and the light returned. Laurel stopped, distracted by what she could now see ahead.
"Frank?" she questioned.
Tommy heard her remark as he looked up at her, seeing her confused expression.
"Keep pulling!" he said to the others as he went up to the next train car, climbing onto the roof. The sunlight beamed especially bright after wallowing in the darkness of the tunnel. When he arrived, through the whipping winds and passing snowflakes he saw what Rayshe had been hiding all this time. A massive, ironclad, and concrete structure, surrounded by a perimeter wall. It had one main central building with smokestacks billowing out through the snowy air. Built into the side of a mountain, the train was the only way into the place. And standing in that way, in the middle of the tracks, was a massive figure made of stone.
"He did it again."