Mind Games Ch. 06

I hauled myself into the elevator and slammed down the button for Corporate. The elevator closed and I held up the communicator I had salvaged from the drone. The roar of gunfire that reached my ears was intense and made Jules hard to hear.

"We're only getting a third of the power needed!" he said. "And the Tesc are boiling out of every fucking hole in the wall! The turrets are going full tilt, and we're-" There was a roar of gunfire, getting louder, then softer. "And we're not going to hold out forever!"

"Warm up the portal," I said.

"You're not here-"

"It'll take extra time thanks to the lower power, right?" I asked. "Just fucking do it!"

The doors opened and I came into Corporate. I could hear rattling in the pipes. But I didn't give it any mind. I ran forward towards the flayed bodies that had been put up on the walls. Prison, huh? I leaped up, grabbing one of the spikes. I hauled back and managed to wrench it free with a grunt, and the corpse swung away from the wall, hideously red. It tore free from the other nails as I dropped down. It splatted and the pipes burst open as hundreds of Broodlings emerged from the darkness. They scuttled into the room with wild abandon.

I had to work faster.

I swung my shotgun around - not aiming at the Broodlings.

I aimed at the second flayed corpse.

I fired and took it in the shoulder. Flesh snapped and popped and tore and the body thumped to the ground, leaving only two solitary arms stuck to the wall. I managed to work another shotgun pump and blow another corpse - this one slumping in half - before the Broodlings were on me. They swarmed over my body and I felt teeth slamming into the nanite sheath surrounding my body. I screamed and thrashed - firing off lightning, but it did nothing to the massive swarm. Their teeth continued to bite and bite, and though they didn't tear my flesh, they left dozens of stinging bruises. I felt some scuttling against my face and struggled desperately.

The sound of the roar that chased them off was like the end of the world. The Broodlings tumbled away from my body, screeching. Several burst like hideous fruit, splattering me with their black blood. Then I was sitting up, blinking. The immense head of Leviathan looked down at me. His breath was warm on my body.

Unexpected, his voice rumbled in my mind.

I grinned. "The enemy of my enemy..." I paused. "F-Fucks my brains out. A-Apparently."

Not this time.

That great, warm mouth breathed on me again and I was reminded of that time, laying underneath his avatar, my body stretched deliciously. My eyes shuddered shut and I writhed and panted...and realized I had cum. From just the memory and his breath alone. Then he was stomping away, heading towards the elevator. It screeched as his arm tore out the innards, the cables snapping, the car tumbling down the shaft. Careless of the damage he was causing, the immense bulk of him slithered into the shaft and was gone.

I panted.

"Inconsiderate asshole," I snarled.

I grabbed my spacesuit helmet. Snapped it on. Stood up.

The huge windows in Corporate shattered quite nicely.

I tumbled outwards into space, buffeted by the air rushing past me. Station keeping jets flared and sputtered above and below my field of vision - but as I watched, I saw their flames were strangely thin and long. And as the exhaust spiraled away from the station, I saw it twisting and turning inconsistently, as if the very physics that they obeyed were breaking down. It clicked. What would smoke look like, if half of the smoke stopped moving because it had run out of time? It'd create strange, skittering, geometric clouds just like that.

The station was starting to slew slowly. I looked away from it and at the hellish planet that it orbited.

No.

Not hellish

Hell.

I kicked on the thrusters that I had used to repair the stationkeeping engine, shooting towards the physics lab ring of Virgil Station. My heart hammered as I heard the gunfire over my communicator - ringing in my ears. Jules voice, shouting. "Look out!"

I hit the accelerator harder. The airlock started to fill my vision. I spun around and decelerated equally as hard - but I had left it for too long. I slammed into the station hard enough to jar the air out of my lungs. I woofed against the helmet and almost cracked the faceplate against the metal of Virgil station. Only reflex kept me from spinning away and away and away from the station - my hand closing around the grasping bar above the airlock. I tapped at the door and the airlock cycled open. I started forward-

Run. The instinct was sudden and intense and set me thrusting forward as hard as I could. Even so, my foot was nearly smashed by the airlock door slamming shut while I was in the middle of it. I gasped loudly, looking around myself. Then it hit me. The Lightbringer had given me my access codes. I had freed him and now he wasn't interested in me fucking up his plans. But then the gravity of the station was on and the inner door opened. Air surrounded me now - and through that air, I could hear the screech of the Brood.

The demons.

The hammering of the auto-turrets was a ferocious undercurrent to the sound of screeching demons. I leaped through the door as fast as I could, rolling and coming up onto the balls of my feet - the door slamming shut behind me. I looked around the corridor, trying to place where the central chamber would be compared to me. I was pretty sure I knew the way, but I stopped myself as I saw that I was standing right next to a security station. I oohed softly.

My palm pressed to the keypad and I fired off an immense jolt of electrical energy into it. The door sprang open with a squealing growl, hydraulic fluid dripping from the upper edge of the door frame. I stepped under the droplets and grinned slowly as I looked around the room. The security forces had been overwhelmed too fast to bring out all of their guns. There was an armor locker, which I smashed open with the same brute force electrical overload I had used before. I strapped the green carapace chest on, snapped on the gauntlets. It socketed on and around my spacesuit armor, and made me feel less...exposed.

Less naked.

I whistled slowly as I pulled out the underslung plasma cannon that was contained in the Riot Response Kit.

"TemplarSoft doesn't fuck around," I whispered, tapping on the weapon and checking the battery. The battery glowed red. A Tesc power source. An infinite power source. I grinned wickedly. "Groovy."

I walked out of the armory and down the corridor. The plasma cannon was heavy in my arms. Comforting. I followed the sound of violence and came on a pocket of demons rushing towards the fray. They were all Warrior Brood, their bodies sleek and black carapaces, their tails swishing from side to side. I thumbed on the plasma cannon's safty and felt it whirr. A glowing reticule projected before my face thanks to some rather handy holographics and I leveled it on the demon in the lead. I pulled back on the trigger and the upper barrel on the plasma cannon let loose with a torrent of purple-white energy. It flew in a perfectly straight line, hit the Warrior Brood in the side, and caused it to pop like a balloon. Keeping the trigger depressed, I swept the beam around - and saw that it dragged like a stream of water. The Brood skittered, backpedaling, almost comically trying to back away from the stream, but they failed to move in time.

Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

I grinned. "I like it."

I stepped around the last corner and came to the sea of violence that swarmed around the auto-turrets. The portal stood in the center of the room, crackling and swirling with energy. I let loose with a stream of plasma, sweeping it back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Tesc by the dozens exploded into sprays of gore, and several larger ones turned to face me. The huge beasts looked like they had been augmented by a mad cyberneticist - rocket launchers attached to their shoulders. I swept the beam along their heads, then dropped the plasma cannon to roll away from the return fire from the survivor. The rockets smashed into the ground.

The actual explosions were fairly small, but shrapnel bounced off my green armor with a sound not unlike hail. I struggled to my feet just as three warrior bane leaped on me. Their claws dug into my armor with snarling, screeching sounds. But nothing got through. I grabbed one by the bony hips, throwing him at another, then blasted the third with lightning. I drew my pistol one handed and my shotgun with the other, sprinting forward. I leaped onto a pile of corpses as the demons surrounded me.

"Come get some!" I snarled.

I unloaded an entire magazine into one demon's chest and head, then fired off the shotgun at another. He splattered and the big fucker shouldered his way forward. His rockets were still reloading or regrowing or something. I tossed my pistol aside, cocked the shotgun, then leaped forward. I landed on the shoulders of one of the other smaller demons, then sprang up and landed on the big fucker's back. I pumped a round of buckshot into his head. He staggered, groaning, reaching up towards me with both hands. I fired again and this time his head exploded like an overripe melon.

As he toppled, I reached down and yanked the implanted rocket launcher free, my arm straining with the effort. I held the gory, dripping piece of cybernetics in my hand and sprang off the big fucker as he face-planted onto the ground. Well, bleeding neck stump planted.

Demons massed before me.

I held the rocket launcher up and surged it with a tiny jolt of electricity. I hit something I was supposed too, because the rocket shot out of it, a jet of superheated gas blasting the demon behind me square in the face. The rocket plunged into a terrified looking warrior's chest, then sent him rocketing backwards into a mass of his friends before the warhead went off. I lifted an arm to shield my face from the splatter.

The demons were backing away from me. Blood dripped from my body and I laughed shakily.

"What...are...you?"

The Lightbringer stepped out from the mass of demons - all of them backing away from him, bowing respectfully. Behind me, I heard Jules and the others gasp in shock. Jules, his body covered with tiny scratches, a pistol in his hands, called out to me.

"Who the fuck is that, Beatrice!?"

The Lightbringer spread his hands wide, flicking his fingers. The demons continued to back away from him, bowing low, their foreheads scraping against the ground. He ignored Jules as the quiet whirring of the portal became the loudest sound in the room. I panted softly, breathing in. Breathing out. I thought back to the earliest moment I could really remember. Not the boat. Not the ritual chamber. Not the chanting robed corporate wage slaves. Not even the coldness of cryosleep. It was the moment after, staggering out into the corridor.

It was that strange voice I had heard, echoing in my mind.

I remembered those words and I smiled. I lifted my head and felt an utter lightness filling my whole being. I knew what I was. I knew what I was supposed to do. And I knew how to do it. I looked right into the Lightbringer's eyes.

"I'm good enough," I said, quietly. "I'll do. Until someone better is found."

The Lightbringer's face twisted with rage. His suit was fraying and a darkness swirled around his body - an infinite blackness and a twisting, crackling aura of spite. I could almost see wings unfolding behind him.

"Good enough won't stop me," he snarled.

"You're right, Lucy," I said, casually. "But he will."

The Lightbringer turned right before Leviathan, emerging from the elevator tube with a squeal of bending metal, smashed into him. The Lightbringer had changed utterly in that moment. There was something huge and spined and black, hissing and roaring. Claws slashed into Leviathan and black blood went flying. Then Levithan's mouth opened wide and a searing red light burst from between his jaws. I staggered away from the flames as the Lightbrighter struck back hard enough to send the flames flying out in every direction. Demons screeched and ran for cover.

I staggered back into Jules hands. He didn't look away from the titanic struggle as the two creatures older than time and greater than humanity slashed and bit and struck. The Lightbringer was smashed into the wall, denting it outwards. Hissing, screeching air roared past him as I realized they were about to breach the walls.

Virgil Station shuddered. The portal behind me cracked and a bright blue light poured from it.

"Jules!"

Tracy screamed it at us - and we both turned.

The portal was opened and showed a large city street. Cars had stopped and people were running from it. I could see the gleam of the Golden Gate bridge between the bright, smooth faces of the buildings. Several humans with more guts than common sense were holding up their phones, filming the portal. Tracy and Amanda and Marisa were already rushing through. Jules dragged me towards it.

I could smell the sweat sea breeze.

Leviathan unleashed another blast of torrential, hellish energy. The searing light cast Jules face in molten iron. But even through that freakish coloring, I could see the concern in his eyes.

"We have to go now!" he shouted.

My hand went to my belly.

I am making a choice multifaceted.

Leviathan's voice echoed in my mind.

I smiled at Jules. I shook my head.

"No..." he whispered. He grabbed my wrist and tried to tug me forward. The depressurization alarms were going insane. I mouthed a single word at him. Sorry. Then I socked him in the jaw hard enough to send him staggering backwards, through the portal. He scrambled up, helped to his feet by several police officers. I lifted my hand...and touched my index finger to my thumb and grinned.

It was going to be okay.

Then I shot the portal's power cables. They sparked, crackled, and the portal shut down with a squeal of doomed souls. Behind me, I saw Leviathan and the Lightbringer going tumbling out into space. The air had vented out of a hole so massive that the wind had barely tugged at my sleeves. I snapped on my spacesuit helmet, clicking it into place. The station was starting to spin now and I sat down, my back resting against the portal. Every rotation made Hell come closer and closer and closer.

I grinned.

A short life, I thought.

But overall, I was happy with it. Even if I had never gotten a chance to save a single Tesc hybrid. I looked to the side and checked - and saw that Daniella had been left behind. She was glaring daggers at me. I flipped her off, then closed my eyes and readied myself for the burning heat of reentry. Something darted past me and I felt myself jerked aside. My head smashed against the inside of my helmet and I groaned. By the time I blinked away the white fog, I was already kilometers away from Virgil Station. The roughly pyramidal shape of the station was tumbling, tumbling, tumbling.

I was held against something vast and black and warm. Wings beat above my head - despite the fact we were in a fucking vacuum.

The station drew a searing hot streak underneath us. I watched it, not caring that it left behind a white smear that left my eyes burning with pain. Then the brightness was overwhelming. I whooped inside of my helmet, tasting blood dripping from my nose.

Virgil Station had smashed into the vast plains of Hell like the fight of a furious God. The station - easily more than half a million tons of steel and ceramics and plastic and electrical cabling and fucked up scientific equipment - had to have been going terminal velocity. I knew enough about physics to know that that was really going to ruin a load of peoples days. And as my vision cleared, I could see the vast swelling bloom of light and color. The racing edges of the firestorms were followed by the smoke and dust kicked up, blotting out the ground underneath my feet.

I grinned.

"Whose the Lightbringer now?" I muttered.

We sailed down - slower by far than Virgil Station. And so, there was no searing heat. No crisping, burning reentry. Instead, there was just a slow, settling fatigue. I was becoming aware of how long I had gone without sleep, without food. Without fucking water. Adrenaline seeped out of my body and I let myself simply be held like a limp rag. Those huge, beating wings started to make sound as an actual atmosphere surrounded us. Then we were through the clouds, soaring over plains of flames - open, crackling rents in the earth that filled the air with soot. The horizon glowed with the firestorms from Virgil's impacts.

Then we were landed - the ground underneath suddenly transformed into an obsidian black field. The arm holding me up let me go and I gasped as I fell to my hands and knees. I groaned and let myself roll onto my side. I rolled onto my back and saw that I was laying on the parapet of a massive tower. A castle, timeless and yet somehow ancient, loomed out of the hellscape and I was sprawled on the roof with Leviathan.

The immense dragon leaned forward and licked at his claws. Tasting the blood dripping from them.

I pushed myself to a seated position.

"I don't suppose," I said, my voice raspy. "You have anything to eat."

###

Beatrice Montenegro lounged in her bed, silken sheets draped about her as she listened to her Muse.

[And,] the voice - cool and sexless and modulated in a way designed by expert AI programmers to be utterly relaxing - said. [That is the rest of your personal correspondence for the day. Do you wish a news feed as well?]

Beatrice sighed and flicked her finger. An augmented reality window pane that showed her the camera feed on one of her brother's parties skidded out of her field of view. She was trying to not feel jealous. But it was so hard. Her brother wasn't just using the funds that father had left him and the company that mother had left him. He was using them to throw parties that the elite were going to be talking about for months. Gene-sequenced extinct tigers? How gauche. She looked at the point of light that represented her Muse and nodded.

[Firstly, the Eastern Bloc has withdrawn forces from-]

"Skip," Beatrice said, closing her eyes.

[Secondly, the Virgil Station Oversight Comity has found several quite damning pieces of evidence against TemplarSoft's CEO and board of directors. The United Nations has opened up an inquest and there are rumors that they might be facing actual charges.]

That made Beatrice stand up and start towards the bathroom. She needed to splash water in her face - to stop herself from shuddering convulsively. The only good thing about that whole horrid business was that whatever had taken the station hadn't left enough evidence on her. The evidence brought by that awful doctor-

[Doctor Jules V. Delacroix,] her muse said.

"Right," she muttered as she rubbed the water into her face. "That awful doctor might have taken the corporation down, but at least he-"

She stopped.

Her reflection was smirking at her.

Beatrice stood stock still, her eyes wide as saucers. Her reflection wasn't just smirking. It was also subtly and grossly different in a dozen different ways. Thin scars seamed several parts of her otherwise naked body. Her breasts were slightly larger. Her eyes were...warmer than hers. Playful, even. The reflection then held up a piece of paper - the words written with the too-careful strokes of someone deliberately writing backwards, the tiny errors created by this making them look odd...but still readable.