Okay, so we're a bit behind schedule on this one...
A lot happened in my life between this issue and the
previous one (for one thing I got all nasty sick for a
while) not to mention this issue is a biggun'. I
look forward to Badger's control of the
rACCIES this year. Things sound interesting
already. =)
Thanks always to those who dropped a comment
in my direction, namely: Jamas Enright, Kelly Pekrul,
Rory Bryant, John Green, and Ben Rawluk.
Enjoy!
=========================================================================
DERELICT Press Presents
The thirty-fifth issue of
/~~\/~~\ {] /~~\ (^^^ || ***** /~~\
/ /\/\ \ [) ~\__ (^^ || ,' ~\__
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" Heroes "
Echo: Part 3 of 6
A psuedo-Acraphobe title
._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.'COVER`._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.
Nei kneels, head bowed, hair cut short. Her arms are lifted over her
head, a shorn braid of brown hair laying over her palms. The trenchcoat
of many patches has been laid across her shoulders like a cloak. The rest
of the cover is black, and when the light hits it just right a sphere run
through with gears and wires flickers into existence, printed in duller
ink.
)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
"Calm down, dammit, and concentrate," said Occultism Kid.
Allen snarled, but took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He
let the anger settle deeper within him, where it was less likely to break
his concentration.
Damn Paytan, anyway. How _dare_ she do this? She knew what kind
of risk she was taking. All this useless gesture did was put her in
danger --
"CONCENTRATE!" yelled Occultism Kid.
Allen nearly dropped the pendulum. Then he tightened the grip on
the chain, and let it sway gently to a stop. _He_ was going to find
Paytan, if it killed him. And he wouldn't have much of a chance of
finding her at all if he couldn't learn the trick Occultism Kid was
trying to teach him.
"Now then," said the trenchcoated mystic," Let your
consciousness expand. The pendulum will facilitate this."
Allen stared into the tiny gem set into the body of the pendulum,
and tried to do as he was asked. Behind him he could hear Brian talking
quietly to Savannah. The girl had returned to the vegetable-like state
she'd been in since Brittany's death, and was now staring intently at her
hand. She hadn't responded to anything Bryan had said to her during the
last half hour, but the boy kept on trying, to his credit.
It was strange, when the pendulum started to work. He could hear
someone walking down the corridor outside, faintly at first, then
stronger. Then down a floor, to the television in the rec.lounge. Outside
a bird sang. Beyond that, a few lone cars rumbled down the street in
front of the LNHHQ. And farther still, blurring sensations of people and
noises, a vast fabric that formed the city of Net.ropolis.
"Now," he heard Occultism Kid say, "Look for the holes, the rips."
Allen cast about for a moment, unsure of just what a rip looked
like. Then he found a worn spot in an alleyway near the edge of the city.
A hole in a small church downtown. When he drew back toward home, he
discovered that the fabric around the LNHHQ was practically nonexistent,
but for a few stray threads here and there.
He opened his eyes, and the sensations were gone. "I think I've
got it."
"Good." Occultism Kid sat back. "Paytan should be ripping the
dimensional barrier at a phenomenal rate, if her proclivities for
summoning demons are as you say. The Net.crominicon does strange things
to the fabric as well, though they aren't as obvious. You'll know them
when you see them."
"So we just go out... looking?" asked Bryan from where he sat.
"Pretty much," said Allen. He stood, tossed the pendulum in the
air and caught it. "We should be going. And thanks." He turned to
Occultism Kid, who dipped his head.
"Just get the Net.crominicon back before she gets too far with
it," he said. Allen nodded solemnly, and gripped the pendulum a little
tighter. He glanced impatiently at Bryan.
"Savannah?" said Bryan, "Look, we have to go now, right? Let's go
find Paytan."
Savannah clenched her hand, and slowly lifted her head. She
seemed empty, like she wasn't really seeing anything around her. Then her
gaze focused iron hard at something behind them.
"Um... guys?" came a voice from the door. They turned to see
Kyoko, smiling sheepishly as she stepped to one side. "There's someone
here to see you."
Behind her stood a girl, with a goldfish.
A single tear slid down Savannah's cheek.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Night. The hospital was small, sitting just at the edge of Paris
city limits. Very few patients ever stayed there. The building itself was
painted to resemble its neighbors. It blended in, and if you weren't from
the area you wouldn't even know it was a hospital. Even if you were from
the area, you wouldn't know who the hospital belonged to.
At the edges of the brickwork, in the tile patterns, even in the
design of the manager's business card lurked tiny stylized spiders.
Hidden but in plain view. As were all things owned by Skaine and
Skaine's followers.
Inside, the ward on the top floor was empty but for a single
patient. She lay twitching beneath a bleached white sheet, her eyelids
fluttering in painful, restless sleep. Around her hovered the faint smell
of burned flesh, and oddly enough, scorched electronics. Her bandages
were soaking through with blood and oil.
Her brown hair spread across the pillow around her like a
medieval halo, unevenly cut. As if something had torn it off, and she
hadn't touched it since then.
One of the windows was open just a crack, to let the cool night
air in. Slowly at first, but with increasing volume, wisps of smoke
began to drift through it and into the room. It drizzled down the wall
to pool on the floor in a puddle of neon green, the flow increasing until
smoke was waterfalling into the room. It roared up into a pillar and
coalesced into a horned creature with huge insect wings. It chittered,
and the girl jerked awake, her eyes wide.
The creature spread its wings like curtains to reveal Paytan,
leaning lightly against its chest, smiling. She smiled even wider when
she realized her presence was known.
She came slowly around the side of the bed and knelt so that she
was on level with the girl, staring into her eyes as they filled slowly
with tears. "Poor Nei," whispered Paytan. "So sad. The doctors can't
figure out what's wrong."
There are villains who are so far gone that when they smile, it
seems almost real. The emotion is there, the happiness, even as they mow
down everything in front of them. Paytan did not smile like this. Her
grin was plastered on, anger thrusting through the cracks like water
behind a dam.
She let Nei watch as she lifted a thick braid of brown hair into
view, laughing brokenly when the girl recognized it. She drew one long
strand from the braid, and held it so the tip danced across Nei's cheek.
Nei whimpered.
"Hush now," said Paytan softly, "Didn't you say that you didn't
want to do it?" Nei nodded jerkily, eyes rolling.
"Too late now." Paytan wrapped the strand around her two pointer
fingers, and snapped it.
Nei's right leg spasmed wildly and she screamed, the sound of
popping electrics filling the room. Paytan ran her fingers into what was
left of Nei's shorn hair, then clenched her hand.
"Kiddo, this is just the beginning." She dragged Nei viciously
off the bed. The girl's torso hit the ground first, then her legs, and
her scream broke off midway as she went limp. Paytan looked down at the
unconscious body with disgust then dragged her away from the bed.
Somewhere distant alarms began to sound, and the moth-demon stepped
forward and wrapped them both in its wings.
When the orderlies arrived all they found were wide streaks of
oil and blood across the floor, and a window opened just a crack, into
the night.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
"They're trying to kill me! If I'm all alone then they'll get me
for sure! They almost did before, and I know they're still out there,
they have to be -- "
"We don't have time for this."
Sarah Loman pleaded for her life on the floor of the LNHHQ.
It wasn't working.
"She can find someone else to cover her ass. Just leave her, and
let's get out of here," said one of the net.heroes, brown hair unbrushed,
a pendulum clenched tightly in one hand.
"No! No, please!" she cried, but he was already moving, glaring
at the other two people in the hallway with them. The other boy stood
slowly, a guilty look on his face as he helped his girlfriend to stand.
The two of them had been crouched out of the way of the argument since
the strange man in a trenchcoat had ushered everyone out of his room and
shut the door. The girl hadn't looked at Sarah since the first moment
they'd been in the room together. Sarah felt as if a great empty pit had
opened up in her stomach, and she was falling to her death. If they left
her here --
She threw herself at the boyfriend's legs and wrapped her arms
around his knees, nearly sending both of them tumbling to the ground. His
girlfriend jerked violently away from them both.
"If you leave me I'll die!" The sudden motion sent dull pain
running through the cut that ran from the side of her face all the way
down to her belly button. She'd gotten that when she ran home and found a
strange man in her living room, knife at the ready. She had fled the
house, and when that wasn't enough, the city itself. All the way to
Net.ropolis, because they wouldn't stop chasing her, and where else did
you go when you suddenly gained amazing powers, and people tried to kill
you?
And now not even Net.ropolis wanted her. The boyfriend tried to
step backward out of her grip, but she clung tight and they didn't go
anywhere. "They can find me anywhere. I kept running, and I kept hiding,
and they still _found_ me, every time!"
"Look," said the boyfriend, trying to make eye contact with her
and keep his balance at the same time. "You're in the headquarters for
the Legion of Net.Heroes. No one's going to be able to just... walk in
here and hurt you, okay?"
"But they can," she whispered, and felt the tears begin to roll
down her face. "They disguise themselves. They look like anybody, like
joggers or businessmen or once, this lady behind the check-out
counter..."
She felt his leg tense beneath her hands, his expression go dead.
"She'll be in just as much danger if we bring her with us," said
the other net.hero. "Paytan doesn't know who she is. She might not care,
if she starts flinging around spells."
The girlfriend took two steps down the hall, her feet hitting the
floor with twin slaps. She had her eyes closed, head down. "Enough," she
said, hair hanging down to cover her face. "Allen's right -- we don't
have the time. You know how Paytan is. We have to get to her before she
kills somebody."
Allen started walking again. But the boyfriend didn't move, and
Allen stopped and turned back. "No," said the boyfriend, "We can't."
Allen groaned in disgust.
"If we leave her here she'll die. It's not just some stupid
superhero group, it's the Reality.
"She's a handicap!"
"Allen, it's the Reality."
"That doesn't matter -- "
"They can get in here if they want, easy. It's not safe for her."
"So we take her outside and they shoot her in the head with a
long-range rifle! It doesn't matter either way."
"At least she's a moving target. And do you honestly think any of
the three of us is powerful enough to get to Paytan if she doesn't want
to be gotten to?"
Sarah looked up at Allen, into his calculating gaze. He glanced
at the goldfish bowl sitting on the floor, then back at her. "We don't
have time to babysit. Can you take care of yourself?"
No, she wanted so say. Did they think she'd come here because she
thought she could handle this kind of thing on her own? But she knew the
sort of look in his eyes, and what the right answer was. Sarah let go of
the boyfriend's leg and tried to sit up straighter.
"I can handle myself okay. You won't have to worry," she said,
looking him right in the eye. Just like lying to her parents about her
test scores in English. He stared at her for a moment more, then turned
and headed down the hall.
"Good thinking Bryan," he said. "There's a few things I need to
get. I'll meet you out by the hovercycle."
Sarah sighed in relief, then looked up at Bryan, hoping for a
smile. But he wasn't even looking at her. All of his attention was
directed at the blond girl who stood a few feet away with her eyes
closed. Without a word he went to her and took her hand in his own.
"It's okay Savannah, we're leaving now."
Savannah looked up at him. "I don't like this." She spoke softly,
but the amount of feeling in her voice made Sarah glance down,
embarrassed.
"It's just like -- look, if we don't bring her with us it'll be
the same as murder. It's the Reality. Both of us know how they can be,"
he said, and Savannah's shoulders seemed to buckle. The conversation was
clearly intended to be private, and Sarah did her best to make herself
invisible. Not that she really needed to -- neither of the net.heroes
acted like she was there.
Savannah straightened after a moment, giving Bryan's hand a
squeeze and then letting go. "It doesn't matter," she said. "We just need
to get moving. I'm not going to be too late again."
Then she was following Allen, down the hallway at a steady walk
with one hand brushing the wall. Sarah looked up just as Bryan glanced
back, and motioned for her to follow. Then he turned his back too, and
she was alone.
Sarah stood and brushed off her knees, then went to where the
fishbowl sat and lifted it up to look at the tiny goldfish burbling
inside. It had appeared, just showed up in the middle of class. She knew
things were different now. She had some kind of strange power, but she
still didn't know what was going on, or what was going to happen to her.
No one else seemed to care.
She wrapped her hands around the cool glass, and hugged the bowl
to her chest. She didn't want to go. Didn't even want to set foot outside
the building. But they'd leave her, and then she'd be alone here. For the
last few days she hadn't been able to think beyond staying alive, and now
there were too many questions, too many possibilities. The water sloshed
gently at the sides of the bowl as her arms shook. She turned, head down,
and scurried into the hallway after the net.heroes, toward the city and
any number of things that she didn't understand.
But inside the fear was growing, a pit inside her stomach large
enough to swallow her whole.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Kismet only had to glance at everyone once to figure out what was
going on. Allen, hands clenched, looking back and forth as if he could
hurry things along just by glaring at the universe. Bryan trying to
comfort Savannah, who was turned away from everyone, her eyes closed. A
young girl stood off to the side cradling a fishbowl. A replacement.
Kismet landed as softly as she could, just as Allen turned and
headed off in another direction. "There's too many of us to fit on the
bike," he said. "I'll go and pull the car around."
She nodded as he went by, and looked inquiringly at Savannah and
Bryan. "We are going after Paytan, correct?"
Savannah didn't answer. Bryan smiled weakly at her and nodded.
"We've got a way to track her now. You can follow us from the air,
right?"
"Yes. Are we going to fight her when we find her?"
Bryan looked at her curiously.
"It's what we've always done when we find anyone else we're
looking for," she explained. He shook his head and looked down at the
ground.
"I don't know. She seemed kind of crazy when we talked to her.
She's got these white doves, and the way she looked... We might have to -- "
"We're not fighting Paytan." Savannah thrust her arms out, as if
she could force the issue to drop with mere motion. Her voice was firm,
even if her eyes were still shut. "We're going to talk to her, and she's
going to be okay. She _has_ to talk to me."
As soon as she spoke Bryan was at her side, as if any motion on
her part might cause her to shatter. There was a fragility about her,
like Kismet had seen in the very old. Bryan was right to be worried.
"So, I should just follow above you, right?" she asked, trying to
change the subject. Bryan reserved one last worried glance for Savannah,
then reached down to a bag he'd left sitting on the steps.
"If Allen draws a bead on Paytan, you'll probably be able to get
where she is faster than us. Take one of these."
He tossed her a strange box with a smooth bendy stick poking out
of one of the ends. There were a bunch of buttons along one side. "Is
this a weapon?"
"No. Look." He held up an exact copy of the device she held in
her hand, and brought it to his mouth as he pressed in one of the
buttons. "Can you hear me?"
His voice came out of _her_ box. She nearly dropped it. "I read
about this! What button do I press?"
"The largest one."
She jammed her thumb onto it. "Like this?" Her voice came out of
Bryan's box. It was amazing. He nodded, and jammed the box into his back
pocket as Allen drove up. Leaving the car running, Allen climbed out and
motioned to them.
"Bryan, you're driving. I have to concentrate on the pendulum.
Savannah, you and the girl are in the back."
"No, I don't think that's such a good -- " began Bryan.
"My name is _Sarah_," said the girl. She looked on the verge of
tears.
Allen looked like he was about to snap at her again, then he eyed
the goldfish bowl. "Okay... Sarah. Get in the back of the car," he said.
Her moment of courage spent, the girl scurried to the vehicle, shoulders
bowed. Bryan began to protest again, but Savannah touched his shoulder
and shook her head.
"We need to get moving," she said.
Kismet watched as Sarah opened the door to the backseat of
Allen's car, then paused and looked back at them all. Her posture was
broadcasting uncertainty and fear, and for a second Kismet saw herself in
the girl, crouched shivering on a ledge high above the people of
Net.ropolis.
"Wait." Kismet took the speaking box out of Bryan's pocket.
"You'll be to busy to talk with me. Someone else should do it." Everyone
looked at Savannah but Kismet, who met the frightened eyes of the girl
with the fishbowl. Slowly everyone turned to follow her gaze, and Sarah
winced backward.
"I can't," she whispered.
"It will give you something to do," said Kismet firmly, walking
over and pressing the device into the girl's hand. Kismet wanted to
comfort her, but the people here did not sing to each other and she could
think of nothing else but words. Bryan's device carried speech across the
distance, and maybe that would be enough.
Neither she nor the girl were net.heroes. It was obvious that
they weren't meant to be, either. As she took off, Kismet tried to think
of something she could say that would make things seem better. If she
could reach one other person, and take away the fear that had overwhelmed
her when she had first come to this strange wild place, then that would
be hero enough for her.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
What good were heroes, anyway?
None at all.
Nei kneeled in the corner of an abandoned warehouse, hands and
feet tied to a metal support beam behind her. The ropes were unnaturally
strong, so after a few hours of useless struggle she had given up to
watch oil and blood drip down her skin to pool on the dirty cement.
It came from everywhere, from tiny cuts in her arm, to a slash
down the side of her face deep enough that she could feel air brush
against some of her internal sensors. Her right leg was so wrecked she
didn't even know if it worked anymore. If nothing else, Paytan was
thorough.
She hurt all over. You deserve it, said a little voice inside
her. Maybe she did. Maybe the pain could balance the scales somehow,
clear away the sin. Nei wished something would.
A creaking noise came from the side of the warehouse, and a
moment later Paytan materialized out of the shadows. Her movements were
short and sharp, and when she dipped her head tangled hair obscured the
sullen neon green glow of her eyes. She dug around in her pockets and
came up with a small chunk of something white. Held it up for Nei to see,
smiling a viciously satisfied smile. A piece of chalk. Wordlessly, Paytan
turned away and began to draw a circle through the debris, pausing every
once in a while to mark down some strange symbols on either side of the
line.
Debris and trash was scattered everywhere on the cold floor, and
the metal was coated with large patches of rust that looked too much like
bloodstains. Every movement echoed softly through the dead air, and every
once in a while Nei could hear something far above them move and flutter.
A tiny white feather drifted down, settling gently into the swirls of red
and black liquid around her and falling beneath the surface without a
trace. Paytan kept working.
This was the same girl who had smiled, and held her hand out to
Nei after that bout of crying. The same girl Nei had saved, almost blown
her cover for, to hold that huge chunk of building up. Because that was
what heroes did. And more than anything else in the world, that was what
Nei wanted to be.
But she wasn't. Heroes didn't betray their friends, didn't run.
Didn't die in dark warehouses, too frightened to speak. They took it
stoically. But she wanted to _LIVE_.
What did that make her?
Weak. A day ago the sunlight had washed over her skin, gentle and
warm as she walked. The pain, sudden and intense, had dropped to the
sidewalk and into unconsciousness. From there, the hospital, night, the
warehouse. She hadn't known it was the last time she'd see the light.
She wished she could remember what the air had smelled like just before,
or the way the sky looked.
She couldn't help it. Tears began to roll down her face.
"Paytan!" she cried. The other girl didn't even turn around.
"You're going to help me fix things," said the other girl.
"Fix? What are -- "
"Brittany's dead," said Paytan.
Nei stopped. Somewhere deep inside she had made herself believe
that Brittany would escape somehow, that she'd manage to outsmart
everyone. Sadness broke over her, but began to recede as the full
implications of what Paytan had said washed over her. Paytan kept up the
methodical chalking, and Nei could feel panic begin to rise above the
pain. "I didn't do it! I was just -- "
"If you hadn't been there, they would never have caught us."
"There are thousands in Skaine's service. They would have caught
her eventually!"
"Then I'd have somebody else to blame, wouldn't I?" asked Paytan,
in a voice that tried so hard to be lighthearted it shook at the end. She
tossed the chalk over her shoulder and went to stand between Nei and the
circle. She lifted an old, old book from the ground at her feet, opened
it, and began to chant.
The shadows all over the warehouse began to shift back and forth.
The sound of wings filled the air, and a flock of doves flew from the
rafters, soared and danced around Paytan as she chanted, the alien words
warping the air around her. Nei watched, wide-eyed, and Paytan's voice
rang out, full of command and strength. But more than anything else it
brimmed over with anger, the emotion filling every phrase and biting
off the end of every word. Paytan grew louder, spoke faster, until she
screamed a wave of words into the air and the doves spun away from her
all at once.
With a gunshot crack a wild pole of light shot into the
warehouse.
It was like standing at the foot of a waterfall, the roar of the
light loud enough to shake the very walls. It lit up the whole building,
the shadows dancing wildly as the intensity of the light fluxed and
wavered.
Paytan set the book down, then turned and walked toward Nei,
stopping inches from her so that she towered over the other girl, the
light sending her shadows flashing back and forth before her. Nei looked
up at her.
"I thought you were a hero," she whispered.
"_Brittany_ was the hero," hissed Paytan. "SHE dragged me into
this, SHE kept us going, SHE died. I'm not anything!" She knelt in the
bloody oil and dirt, and Nei jerked backward. Paytan took Nei's face in
her hands, fingers gentle as feathers. "And you are even less," she
whispered, then spoke a few guttural words that Nei didn't understand,
stood and walked away.
Off to the side was something Nei had taken for a pile of trash,
but Paytan went to it, kicked some piece of metal aside with a clang, and
sat down on top of it. Her own ramshackle throne. She drew a knee up to
her chest and let the other leg hang, swinging idly back and forth.
Nei watched her, eyes wide. There was nothing she could say. She
felt the tears continue down her face, her nose so stuffed and running
that she had to breathe through her mouth. Paytan smiled sweetly at her,
then let the expression fall away.
"Now then," whispered the sorceress, voice soft but echoing into
the farthest corners of the warehouse nonetheless. She took Nei's braid
and pulled two more hairs from it. Nei felt her whole body tense up,
waiting for the pain to start again. She could feel the fear begin to
coalesce at the back of her throat, uncontrollable. If Paytan hurt her
again, broke something important, once she started screaming Nei didn't
think she'd be able to stop. But all Paytan did was knot the hairs around
the pointer and index fingers of her left hand, one each. She laid her
hand gently on a long wooden pole that jutted out horizontally from
junkpile.
Paytan muttered another word or two, and the ropes fell away from
Nei's wrists and ankles. Then she jerked her left hand up so that only
her first two fingers still touched the wood.
Nei shrieked as her legs stiffened and forced her upward until
she was standing. She hadn't done anything. She hadn't even thought about
standing -- Paytan lifted up one finger, and moved it forward a few
inches.
Nei took a step forward.
Paytan's laughter echoed against the walls, fierce and heartless,
at the expression on Nei's face. "I need a heart to finish this," she
called out, "And I figured yours wasn't doing the world any good!"
Nei tried to run, tried to do anything, but nothing worked. Her
limbs wouldn't respond, and for a sudden sickening second she was living
seven years ago, when the car had come around the corner too fast and
suddenly she was in the air, couldn't feel her arms, couldn't feel her
legs, everything was black --
She used the only thing Paytan had left untouched, her voice, and
screamed. She threw everything she had into it, and for a second she was
louder than the breach of light, than her past.
But her throat ran dry and Paytan walked her forward three more
steps, smiling in anticipation the entire way.
Nei could feel the heat as she neared the circle, drying the
streaks of blood into patches of brown all along her body. Couldn't the
universe care for her just once?
By now she was looking at the floor, as if by blocking Paytan and
the column of roaring light from her sight she could wipe them from
existence. Paytan forced her forward another two steps, and Nei could
feel oil from her ruined leg running onto her foot, between her toes,
slick on the pavement.
She knew other people had been blessed. The blind child who could
one day see, the pauper who bought a lottery ticket... never her. Since
the day the car hit, snapped her spine in two like a toothpick. Since the
Skainites saved her, let her walk again, only to show her the devil's
deal she had become a part of. Since Brittany had died. Not once, not
once. Paytan walked her hand forward, and Nei's legs followed suit. Her
hair fluttered all around her, tossed by the force of the column of
light.
Then she was at the edge of the pit, centimeters from it with the
wash of power an inch away from her face. Just once, a break, please,
PLEASE. The smell of the air, warmth, feel of the sun, God just once and
her parents didn't even know she was ALIVE --
No next step came. Nei's eyes were closed, every muscle she could
control as tense as piano wire. But for the sound of magic rushing
through it, the warehouse was silent. Then a sob echoed through the air,
and Nei looked up.
Paytan was crying.
The pillar roared at their side, hungry and unmoved. But the
sorceress just watched her, both their faces stained with tears. Paytan
looked away first, and with a sound like her chest was tearing in two
Paytan curled over her stomach, and let go of the spell.
Nei felt her limbs shudder. She moved an arm first, then a leg.
She was free. Paytan huddled on her throne of junk, her arms wrapped
around her stomach as she rocked back and forth, crying like she'd just
lost her parents. Or her best friend.
Nei closed her eyes, and looked away. Sheer, mindless relief
poured over her like an ocean. The sound of the cascade seemed muted now,
distant. Paytan sobbed once, and the muffled cry echoed into the
warehouse and died away. She sobbed again.
Thought came hard on the heels of the feeling, however, and Nei
realized exactly what Paytan's kindness meant, for the future and them
both. The two of them, failures at everything that had ever really
mattered to them. Nei looked down at her hands, then up at the horned
sorceress. At least Paytan had not killed a friend. She couldn't even
kill someone who betrayed her, thought Nei bitterly. But Nei could. Nei
had, like the screwed up heartless machine she was. Outside the sun
shone, but in here the only light came from the spell, uncompleted. Also
a failure. From beneath the sound of crying, beneath the relentless rush
of power coming up from the floor, came the faintest rasp of air being
drawn into lungs as Nei took in a breath. She felt the air pour into her,
as long and full as she could hold. Within it lurked the smell of drying
sweat, the weird tang of sorcery that hung over the rusted metal
and dirt scents. Nei opened her eyes and stared into the light rushing
mere inches from her face. Let out the breath.
And took a step forward.
Paytan and Nei screamed at the same time, the pillar flaring
bright enough to blind, as the spell finished itself.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
It was late afternoon when the pendulum went crazy beneath
Allen's hand.
He had been sitting crosslegged in the front passenger seat,
motionless for hours as Bryan made random turns through the city.
Savannah and Sarah hadn't spoken since they'd gotten in the car. Then the
pendulum had jerked as if someone had pulled a string, swinging out almost
parallel to the ground.
"RIGHT!" shouted Allen, and lost his concentration. Bryan, on
edge enough as it was, nearly swung the car into a telephone pole in his
eagerness to comply. He spared an angry glare for Allen as he pulled the
car straight and headed for the nearest intersection. Allen didn't even
notice, cursing in the passenger seat with his eyes closed, trying to get
back into the trance.
"Sarah! Tell Kismet to head -- " he opened his eyes and looked
out of the car at the sun, then toward the place the pendulum had been
drawn. "East! Tell her to go east! Whatever Paytan just did ripped a huge
chunk out of reality."
Static crackled in the back seat as Sarah activated the
walkie-talkie. Bryan swung the car into the turn and gunned the engines.
A few minutes of tense, high-speed driving followed, interrupted when
Kismet's voice crackled into the car.
"It's in the middle of a group of large metal buildings. There's
one, with some kind of strange light inside it -- " Her voice dissolved
into static as a flare of light washed over the industrial area just
ahead of them.
The pendulum nearly jerked out of Allen's hand.
"Hello?" Sarah yelled into the walkie-talkie. "Are you alright?"
She got nothing but white noise. Bryan floored it.
The car hurtled between two warehouses, screeching around a
corner and nearly hitting a third as Bryan turned and headed toward the
source of the flare of light. In seconds the day was back to normal, and
the flare was gone.
The walkie-talkie came to life. "Hello!?" shouted Kismet. "Is
anyone there!?"
"Are you okay?" asked Sarah.
"I'm fine. I'm up high, though. Having trouble seeing. I'll come
down as soon as my eyes clear."
"Okay." Sarah glanced up nervously, but no one offered her any
guidance. "Just, uh, do that." She nearly slammed her head into the back
of the driver's seat as Bryan hit the breaks. The car screeched to a halt
at what was clearly the place.
The warehouse itself was untouched, but for meters in all
directions the dust and debris had been blown away from it, as if a
massive gust of wind had blown out between the cracks in the siding.
Allen was out of the car before it even stopped.
Sarah had her door open when he turned to her. "I need you to put
a shield up around us when we get inside," he said, in the kind of voice
that brooked no argument.
She looked at him as if he'd grown another head.
Anger flashed across his face, wiped away in an instant. "Can you
at least sense what's in there? Are there any traps?"
She glanced toward the building, then back at him. Her eyes
filled with tears.
"Just stay behind us." Disgusted, Allen turned away. Sarah looked
at Savannah pleadingly as the other girl got out of the car.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I wish I could be more useful. It's just
I was sitting in math class, and it was like, this fish just showed up --"
"His name is Binky," said Savannah, the words bursting out of her
as if she couldn't contain them any longer, "and he's a cosmic power."
Her voice shook at the end.
"What?"
"You're his Avatar. All his power is at your fingertips."
"How do you -- "
For the first time since they'd met, Savannah looked her in the
eye. A blaze of intense steel grey, like a knife cutting into her heart.
Sarah barely suppressed a cry, and slammed her eyes shut, covered them
with her hands. The walkie-talkie clattered to the ground. She heard
Savannah go on, talking softly.
"Brittany was my cousin, and my best friend. You're here because
she isn't, not any more. And every time I look at you I see _her_ for
just a second. I'm sorry Sarah, but if you want a confidant go talk to
Bryan. You are nothing but a reminder of everything I've been trying to
forget."
"Savannah!" Bryan's shout came from the door of the warehouse,
and Savannah turned away without a word, breaking into an awkward run.
Sarah watched her go, the blond girl with a rifle slung over her
shoulder. Then she stooped to pick up the walkie-talkie and leaned back
into the car to pull out the fishbowl. Inside the tiny goldfish burbled,
emotionless.
She watched the fish for a moment, and thought of running. Maybe
she would be safer wandering the streets of Net.ropolis. She pulled back
and stood up, looking down the empty road, then at the warehouse towering
over her. The net.heroes were inside. After a moment, she took a deep
breath, and headed after them.
The warehouse was a wreck. Clearly the building hadn't been used
for any legitimate purpose in a while, what with the rust and the trash
scattered everywhere. But a huge circle of white chalk dominated the
pavement, and within it the floor was as clean as the day the cement had
first been laid. Except for a twisted and charred pile of what looked to
have been metal at the very center. The room smelled chemical.
Sarah glanced nervously at the shadows, but it looked like they
were alone. Allen threw a rock into the circle, and nothing happened.
Savannah stuck the butt of the rifle in, then stepped after it. Bryan
was pacing the perimeter of the area.
Sarah stole a little closer to the circle. She didn't feel safe
away from everyone.
"What do you think it is?" called Allen as Savannah reached the
metal. She shrugged and kneeled to get a closer look while he circled
around the edge of the chalk circle, heading for a large pile of trash at
the other end.
"I don't know yet," she said. Her eyes narrowed. "Whatever it
was, it was complicated. It looks like something melted it. Intense heat,
probably. Some kind of machine?"
"Do you think Paytan did this?" he asked. He picked up a piece of
junk, examined it, tossed it away.
"I don't know. It was sorcerous, anyway."
"Uh oh," said Allen, just as Savannah's eyes narrowed even
further, and she reached out to brush her fingers across the metal. Bryan
looked up suddenly, toward the far wall of the warehouse.
"Guys?" he asked. "Do you hear something?"
But Savannah was watching Allen, who stooped down to pick up
something off the floor. It was a braid, thick brown hair. Savannah's
eyes widened in recognition, and she looked down at the metal that lay at
her feet. Sarah realized with a sick feeling that it looked like a metal
skeleton, twisted all out of shape...
"Oh God," whispered Savannah. "Paytan."
The walkie-talkie crackled to life in Sarah's hands.
"Hello? There's something coming toward you, fast," came Kismet's
voice, scratchy but understandable. "Several large things, there's
some people with them -- wait! I see the doves, they're a mile or so
to the south and heading away!"
With a shattering crash, half of the east wall of the warehouse
buckled to admit a wash of sunlight and two huge mecha.
Shots rang out even before the dust cleared.
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Paytan crouched in the shadows of a bridge railing, hiding from
the sun. The Net.crominicon was cradled in her shaking hands, but the
ivory and metal globe lay untouched on the pavement before her.
It was a pure white, as if the ivory had been cut from an
elephant's tusk only days ago. But the iron that ran through it in a
mazelike web of non-working gears and purposeless switches was so rusted
over that it was mostly red. Paytan had carried it this far, clutched it
in one hand and the book in the other as she ran like a hunted deer from
the warehouse. Now she looked at it, sitting just beyond the shadows she
had curled into, lit by the sun. She couldn't bear to touch it.
The first artifact.
She wanted to lash out at it, stomp on it until there was nothing
but white and red powder ground into the pavement. Beneath her she could
hear the water rushing by. Maybe if she just dropped it over, if Hell
didn't realize that she'd been summoning things again, then she could go
back.
Go back to what? Bitterness washed over her. To nothing. Nei was
_dead_. Just like Brittany. How could she have... how could _anyone_...
She hung her head in her hands. God, she was turning into a monster.
She'd been so angry she was blind. She had almost -- and someone had died
anyway.
Murderer.
Paytan sobbed, and one hand came up to trace the curve of the
ram's horn that curled back from her temples.
In the end Nei had _chosen_, had taken that step --
She lunged out and grabbed the artifact in one of her hands, held
it shaking in front of neon green eyes. "She died for you," she whispered
to the unresponsive sphere.
She stood and leaned over the railing of the bridge. A tiny
droplet fell from the stone and plunged down into the water beneath her.
For a split second ripples moved over the water, then they were gone.
Like any death. In the end nothing mattered. Now, or twenty years from
now, they were all just tiny things falling too fast toward something too
big to comprehend.
Brittany stood, and without a word walked out to the mecha.
Completely unarmed.
They had sacrificed. Both of them. And now she was ready to turn
tail and run like a coward. Paytan's eyes narrowed. She clutched the
artifact to her chest and held her other hand out over the water, palm
open and facing downward. The water rippled again, and took on the
faintest of neon green glows. The surface bowed, then bent upward.
A tiny drop of water rose up into the air.
It would never matter to the universe which way the water fell.
Whether someone was alive or dead. But it mattered to her. Paytan thrust
her hand out and closed it around the droplet, clenching so tight that
her knuckles whitened and her nails nearly cut into her palms. Screw the
universe.
Nei and Brittany had made their choices. And she had made hers.
Behind her came a familiar click, click, click of nails against
pavement, and the coo of a dove. Paytan closed her eyes and smiled before
she turned and found her hounds sitting patiently, smiling wide doggie
grins. She smeared the water across the surface of the artifact until the
rust gleamed blood red in the later afternoon light, then looked into the
eager eyes of the demons. The other four artifacts would be easier to
get.
She knelt down. "Where?" she asked. "Did you find the others?
Where are they?"
-=ð=- -=ð=-
Bryan heard Sarah scream first. Her wail cut through the air like
a siren, then went raw and cut off entirely. Bullets cracked off the
cement nearby, and he threw himself to the ground and rolled, grabbing
for a piece of trash as he went.
He ended up with a crushed can and curled his fingers around it,
charging it up as fast as he could. The dust was still too thick to see
through.
He was suddenly certain that Sarah was dead, that he'd been wrong
to convince Allen that she should come along. He had known it would be
dangerous, and that Savannah would be hurt by her presence. He had known
and done it anyway, because the memory of Jenna still came over him every
day and he didn't think he'd be able to stand it if the Reality took
someone else and he did nothing to stop it.
He threw himself to his feet and charged across the open space. A
human figure showed dimly through the dust, and he was almost upon it
before he realized it wasn't anyone he knew.
A man in a jogging suit turned and saw him, then frowned and
lifted a gun to point at him. The foot soldiers must have come in right
after the mecha cleared the way. A bolt shot past from off to the left,
landing dead center in the guy's forehead. Stunned, the man crumpled to
the ground. A gust of wind came through the huge hole in the wall, and
Bryan spotted Savannah standing at the center of the chalk circle, feet
placed widely apart, head cocked over the rifle that lay gently across
her shoulder.
She waved at him with one hand, and he heard her click the rifle
from stun into bullets with the other. The barrel moved a few inches,
then three shots rang out.
Behind him he heard one of the two mecha crash to the pavement.
Then another gust of wind washed the rest of the dust away, and
suddenly he saw Sarah was directly in front of him. She was standing with
her shoulders hunched, arms curled tightly around the fishbowl. She
watched wide-eyed and unmoving as a woman came toward her with a knife.
"Hey!" shouted Bryan. The woman turned her attention toward him
as he skidded to a stop in front of Sarah. They watched each other for a
moment, and off to his right he heard one of the mecha's machine guns go
off.
"You're the Reality, aren't you?" he asked. The woman nodded, but
her eyes were shadowed. "I've been looking for you."
"Well, you've found us," she said.
"I'm going to destroy you, you know. To the very last person."
The can was glowing by now, hot enough that he could feel the skin on his
hand begin to tighten and burn. She laughed.
"You're too late for that. Should have started sooner -- " in
mid-sentence she tried to dart by him, the knife heading right for Sarah.
The can slammed into her midsection, just beneath the ribcage,
and went off. She sailed back, tumbled across the cement, leaving a
streak of blood behind her. Bryan felt his stomach drop. He hadn't meant
to charge it so strongly, hadn't meant --
But Sarah was screaming again, and Bryan turned just in time to
see the last mech aiming right at her. He took a step toward her, reached
out, but Allen was already there.
The net.hero tackled her and the bullets whined by them. Bryan
dropped to the ground as well, just in time to hear Allen yell.
"Are all avatars of Binky selected for their stupidity!?" he
screamed, and pushed Sarah down hard enough to knock her head into the
cement. "STAY DOWN!"
Then the light dimmed for a brief moment, as another mecha came
in through the hole in the wall.
Bryan and Allen looked at Savannah at the same moment. She was
still focused on the first mecha, taking aim. She didn't even see them.
Allen let go of Sarah and stood up, starting into a run. Bryan just
propped himself up in both arms and _yelled_.
"SAVANNAH! GET DOWN!"
She closed her eyes and went limp where she stood. A hail of
bullets howled over her, and she rolled into cover behind the pile of
junk next to the chalk circle.
The two mecha turned toward Bryan and Allen.
With a curious sound, massive holes appeared in the face plate of
the newcomer. The mecha began to topple. Before it even hit the ground
the last one was enveloped in flames. It exploded, the force of the blast
sending Allen to the ground and making Bryan glad he was already down.
Three people that looked like normal citizens of Net.ropolis froze, then
sprinted for the hole in the wall. A bullet took one in the back before
he reached it, but the other two escaped into the sunlight.
For a second everything was silent.
Then a small woman with hair so dark brown it was almost black
dropped silently out of the rafters and onto the floor. She wore a pair
of old jeans and a baggy sweatshirt. Bryan wouldn't have given her a
second glance on the street, and for a second he thought she was some
renegade member of the Reality. But there was something in the way she
breathed, the way she raked her gaze over the remnants of the warehouse,
that seemed colder than anything he'd ever seen in the agents of the
Reality. There wasn't any mercy in her.
"Finally," she said. "Now hand over the Avatar."
Allen rolled to his feet. "Who are you?"
"Brittany's aunt."
________________________________________________________________________
Binky, Kismet, Out-of-It Lass, Perdition, Sarah Loman, Explosion Boy,
copyright Jennifer Whitson, 1995. Allen is Jamas Enright's. Occultism Kid
is Josh Guerink's. Both are used with permission.
Next Issue:
Viveka. Last seen during the Family Reunion arc, and she was a
tough customer then. What's she up to now?
Paytan's got the first of the five artifacts she needs, and
things really start to gear up...
========================================================================
