Thread:FleetCaptainT/@comment-27324808-20170514082334

Forty-six, continued

  A chill air and sloshing rain under a dark gray, overcast evening sky greeted Kate. She recognized the rolling hills of Avant Gardens but didn’t see any enemies at first, until she rounded a green mound to come face to face with a squadron of matte black colored Stromling Mechs and obsidian-armor clad Stromlings holding a variety of Nexus Force Faction weapons. She gasped when she recognized the Stromling that lead them, his rank identified by a blue sash, his face committed to her memory.

  It was Stromling Cyclone.

  “You’re a Stromling again.” Kate started.

  “Again?” Stromling Cyclone echoed. “Oh, right, you meant my infected half. They found my Imagination half and infected him too. Then we got merged and now I suppose you’ll try to smash me?”

  Kate held herself back from responding. Inwardly she wondered if she had the power to disinfect him. The only limit to her power seemed to be capacity, but there was a difference between normal Imagination and the Imagination used by disinfection kits. It had to go through some hoops to avoid smashing infected victims in ways she didn’t understand, yet. Better just use a disinfection kit. Rover had some that Edgar gave him.

  “We can save you.” Kate said.

  Stromling Cyclone shrugged. “It’s too late, I no longer want to be disinfected. I am fully subservient to the Maelstrom hive mind. Now you can join me willingly or you can make this difficult. Set to stun.” He waved a hand and the Obsidian Mechs aimed their cannons at her, stun charges loaded.

  “I thought your Darkitect wants us dead.” Kate retorted. She took a step back and the Stromlings followed.

  “There are dissenting forces at play.” Stromling Cyclone said. “Some, like my commander, believe our powers are too useful to waste, and the Darkitect has allowed him to try his way.”

  Another Stromling stepped forward, next to Stromling Cyclone. He was heavily infected but retained some facial features like a mustache. While the right half of his head had bony spikes growing from it, the other half had the start of a slick black comb-over, and he wore chain mail over ripped garb that was distinctively Limited Recruit in origin.

  “I don’t know you.” Kate said, puzzled.

  “I am Spakybob, right hand of the First Darkitect.” the leader identified himself. “What Cyclone told you is correct, I will accept your tergiversation and see that you are not excessively harmed in the transformation. It is a multi-stage process, infecting a Nexus Figure-”

  “Save it. I’ll never join you.” Kate cut him off.

  Spakybob nodded. “Then you will die.” The Stromling Mechs fired and Kate blocked the stun charges with a summoned shield. She nearly fell to one knee as her gut spasmed, a protest from her Creative Spark, evidently still strained from rebuilding Luke. She grit her teeth to hold in the pain and decided to only use conventional abilities going forward in this fight.

  The Obsidian Mechs reloaded with lethal charges this time, but then Stromling Cyclone ran toward her, hands raised. “This is what you could have become.” he said quickly, and then his forearms took on a metal glint and morphed into rocket launchers. She had no time to dodge or even see what hit her, they impacted with the center of her mass and it was several seconds before she hit the ground below her, and several more seconds before she stopped skidding. She sat up and her black Samurai breastplate fell off, cracked.

  She donned the alternate color version and guarded as Stromling Cyclone and Spakybob approached from well over a hundred feet away. Cyclone waved his hands, no longer rocket launchers, and a gust of wind lifted the entire Mech and Stromling division and carried them toward her.

  Three things happened at once. There was a crack of lightning and then an unverse rift opened up in front of Kate, and Intrepid fell out of it to land facedown in the mud. She noticed his left side was bandaged. At the same time a flurry of laser and bullet fire plinged off several of the Obsidian Stromlings, taking out some that were hit in the head.

  Kate turned to see Rover, Luke, Mara, and Jay and Katie running over from a nearby hill. Rover’s pistol was ever-firing and hit with almost perfect accuracy, while the Figdroids missed no mark, and Luke and Mara just kind of had their fingers taped on the triggers of their laser pistols and shot everywhere.

  “Deal with them!” Spakybob ordered the Mechs who aimed their cannons at Rover’s team. Jay and Katie grabbed the others and threw them back over the hillcrest before the cannonfire struck them, sending up clouds of dirt. When it cleared the Figdroids lay dazed and Kate nearly cried out. The Mechs continued firing, preventing the others from returning to fight.

  Then Spakybob and Stromling Cyclone turned their attention back to Kate. On the ground between them Intrepid groaned. Kate took a deep breath, knowing what she had to do, and used her powers to pull up a large mound of dirt and bury him with it, for his own protection. Then she drank a Sentinel Super Soda to keep her Creative Spark from complaining. She didn’t think the Stromlings noticed the injured Bat Lord.

  Kate turned and ran for the nearest hillcrest, and was almost up its slope when a bolt of lightning fell from the sky and froze her limbs like a tazer. She fell back and rolled into a ditch, barely able to twitch her fingers and her Creative Spark felt inaccessible, like a wall had been built between it and her thoughts, and then Spakybob put a boot on her back. Her helmet was yanked off and she felt the cold edge of a gun bite into the back of her head.

  There was a hesitation on the part of the gun’s wielder, since Kate hadn’t been smashed yet. She still couldn’t move so she mentally prepared herself for the end.

  “What are your orders?” Stromling Cyclone asked.

  “She is not worth the trouble.” Spakybob decided. “Kill her.”

  There was a bang and Kate felt like her lungs had been ripped from her body, followed by her heart, her bones, then the rest of her followed into some sort of dark abyss. Still her insides felt detached. This was the most painful way she’d ever smashed and her free-floating mind felt no gravitation to any Imagination source to rebuild at. This was probably permanent.

  It took a moment for her to realize she wasn’t smashed, just traveling through Unverse. The exit came so suddenly that she would have fallen if strong hands didn’t grip her around the shoulders. She was spun around dizzily to land sideways on something soft and cushioned?

  Kate blinked. The world still spun but she identified the color orange, reflecting off white wallpaper in a dimly lit room. The world stopped spinning and she turned her head upwards to see an electric chandelier on a wood panel ceiling. She took in her surroundings, half of a small square room with a coffee table, bulletin boards, and no windows, and she was on a couch in the room’s middle.

  She pushed herself off, then vertigo struck and she crumpled to the ground. While she squeezed her eyes shut, she heard two distinct voices that were familiar but also foreign, a man and another man. They were arguing.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “This is my secret base.”

  “What are you doing with her?”

  “She’s not your responsibility. Don’t you have teammates to take care of? Did you leave Luke and Mara to follow me?”

  “They can take of themselves.”

  “Don’t tell me you left them-”

  “They got out.”

  It was Intrepid and Cyclone, Kate realized. No, she corrected, Future Intrepid and Charles. When she trusted her brain not to turn to mush, she opened her eyes and stood up. She saw them in the other half of the room behind the couch, a satin beige sofa, standing at opposite walls. Future Intrepid was in a trench coat and Charles was in his rogue Space Marauder suit, blaster in hand and pointed at Intrepid.

  “Stop!” she shouted, and they both turned to her, as if they’d forgotten she was there. “What are you two doing?”

  “We’re saving you.” Intrepid said.

  “I saved your life.” Charles corrected. “He tagged along.”

  Kate glared in disbelief. The two were actually fighting over her. “Well I have to get back. My friends are hurt.” She thought of Intrepid – the one from her dimension – with the bandages. Were they covering an infection? She’d also seen Rover, Luke and Mara, and the Figdroids who got knocked out, but only them. Were the rest of their group alright?

  “It’s not safe.” both Charles and Intrepid said.

  “I know the Darkitect wants to kill me!” Kate screamed at them. “I know your Kate died in your dimension! But keeping me from doing my job, taking me from my friends who need my help, to ‘save me,’ that’s really immature, you know that? Grow up.”

  Charles stiffened and Intrepid looked at the floor. “I’ll take you back.” Future Intrepid said.

…

  Avant Gardens was a beautiful world even on a stormy night. Intrepid had landed there alright, but then someone threw a mound of dirt on him.

  By the time he dug himself out of it, he was surprised to still feel dirt flying in his face. Looking about, Intrepid saw he wasn’t the only thing digging himself out of the ground. Stromlings emerged from purple colored earth and a figure was crouched in front of him, hands to the ground, purple mist flowing from them.

  It was Stromling Cyclone, and he was infecting the ground himself. Putting his emotions aside, Intrepid summoned the multiblaster to his hand and prepared to fire. He’d already smashed an evil version of Red with it. If Stromling Cyclone was serving the Maelstrom he was too far gone.

  He must have sensed the threat since Stromling Cyclone spun around and a blast of lightning sent Intrepid soaring backwards for a long distance, and the multi blaster flew from his hand. He landed stunned and unable to move, and apparently not alone, since Ben’s face popped into view and he heard Evelyne shout, “Aiden!”

  “I go by Intrepid now,” Intrepid groaned, and then he heard Stromling Cyclone’s voice.

  “It’s time to complete your infection.” Cyclone stated and a Maelstrom fog filled the air. But instead of feeling his infection spread, Intrepid felt his Creative Spark surge and the infection weaken, since Ben had injected him with the shot of a disinfection kit. He broke free of the paralysis and held up evil Red’s multi blaster, but someone kicked it from his grasp. Someone behind him.

  Complete your infection.

  Intrepid froze, not from lightning, but from the terrible realization of Stromling Cyclone’s words. He had been talking about Evelyne.

  Something whipped past them, cutting through the air and knocking Intrepid and Ben to the ground, but not stunning them. Looking up, Intrepid saw Stromling Cyclone on the ground, motionless. He spun around and saw Evelyne knocked down as well, and beyond them stood a Bat Lord. Future Intrepid. He swung around, shield and staff in hand, but the weapon fell with a thud to the wet ground when they both stared stricken at Evelyne.

  The stun from Future Intrepid’s shield slam wore off and both Evelyne and Stromling Cyclone got up. Then twin bolts of lightning sent Future Intrepid flying into the sky.

  “Evelyne!” Intrepid shouted, but she stared down at him impassively, any semblance of her personality vanished, replaced with the mindlessness of a Stromling. Her blue eyes shone completely red. He reached a hand out to Ben. “The disinfection kit. Give it to me.”

  “It won’t work.” Stromling Cyclone said. “She has no Creative Spark. She never did.”

  “Neither do you anymore.” another voice said, and Intrepid and Ben turned to see Kate, one side of her face glowing red from flames dancing around the blade of her katana, the other side glowing blue from a conjured orb of Imagination energy hovering in her left palm.

  She threw the orb straight at them. Intrepid felt its power immediately, its nourishment to his Creative Spark, but he shouted, “No!” and spread his arms as if to catch it all from striking Evelyne. Stromling Cyclone was, unfortunately for him, between Intrepid and Kate, so there was nothing to shield him from the full blast of pure Imagination striking him, and his shout mirrored Intrepid’s as his Stromling body was vaporized.

  Then another Stromling teleported next to Kate and kicked her behind the knees. She crumpled to the ground and he disappeared.

  Intrepid spun around. “Evelyne!” he repeated, facing the Maelstrom minifigure.

  She was not alone. Standing behind her was the Stromling, and Intrepid recognized him. They had met briefly two and a half years ago, before Cyclone and Kate were lost, before Elistra, before everything. In Intrepid’s dimension, this Stromling had been killed, but he wasn’t always a Stromling. He had been turned too far and in the end his friend had to slay him. Everyone made sacrifices in that battle against the Darkitect, everyone except Intrepid it would seem. His turn for tragedy came later, and it was his turn again now.

  “Spakybob.” Intrepid said, throwing his armor off and holding his hands up in surrender. Intrepid knew this Spakybob was from the Maelstrom Dimension, and like Demonstrait, he was not completely mindless, not like other Stromlings. “I’m begging you, don’t do this. Release her and take me instead.”

  “Didn’t our Rowana tell you?” Spakybob asked.

  “Rowhowhat?” Intrepid shook his head, not recognizing the name.

  “Right, you know her as Red.” Spakybob amended, but he didn’t let go of Evelyne. He clicked his tongue disapprovingly. “Kate should not have killed our new Maelstrom Cyclone, he would have been more merciful with you then I will be now.”

  Intrepid shook his head. “Please-” he repeated.

  “Didn’t Rowana tell you that you were useless to us as a Stromling?” Spakybob continued. “Before you killed her in cold blood? Now you realize the idiocy of your proposition.  On the contrary, our Rowana Talmid was of much use to us, she was one of the First Darkitect’s favorite servants, and valuable too. She will be missed, but you will never be.”

  A blaster appeared in Spakybob’s hand and he pointed it at Evelyne’s head. “And neither will this Stromling.”

  Then Spakybob and his weapon disappeared into an Unverse jump that drowned out the sound of the weapon firing, to reappear behind Intrepid, but Intrepid could only stare straight ahead as Evelyne’s Stromling visage faltered and the glow in her eyes dimmed.

  “You took someone very important from us.” Spakybob breathed in Intrepid’s ear. The blaster was on his temple. “Now, you will pay the price-”

  He was cut off by the shriek of a blaster shot into the back of his head by Ben. Spakybob grunted, but like Demonstrait he was a Stromling dexterous in self-preservation, and he jumped into an unverse rift to escape. Intrepid no longer felt the gun on his head and he ran towards Evelyne, shouting her name, just as she fell to the ground.

  Her blues eyes stared aimlessly at the sky above them. She hadn’t been smashed but the Maelstrom was removed from her body. So was her life.

  Thunder crashed and Intrepid saw red. Evelyne’s body shook in his arms as his whole body trembled with anger, hate. He’d done the best to put his anger away, after what he’d seen on Elistra, back when it threatened to destroy him, but it was happening all over again. The name Tiberius flashed in his mind, and in a flash Intrepid was no longer on Avant Gardens but careening through unverse, to a location he didn’t know. But in that destination he would find the man who had the answers, the man who worked with Maelstrom, the man who’s fault it was that Evelyne had died again.

  He wanted to kill Tiberius.

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