The District Read online

  I'd pinpointed Ratticus' presence by a disruption of the local electrical grid, fortunately it seemed that Zora had not managed to extract or duplicate his powers.

  I brought the Graven in over top the building where he was imprisoned with a short range dimensional jump. We came in low, the dimensional wash sending a shimmer of color through the nearby buildings.

  Hot Stuff was the first out, igniting halfway to the roof. When she landed her temperatures were already so extreme she melted clear through the structure and Anna and the assault team followed her in.

  We were already taking fire. Gauss Cannons, they magnetically propelled rounds at high velocities. I had a few telekinetics aboard although if I'd known this would be the defenses I'd have gotten Jade onboard for assistance.

  My people were able to stop the rounds, but it was quickly consuming their power. They wouldn't be able to keep the ship shielded for long and once our shields were gone those rounds would chew through the Graven's light armor quickly.

  I took two cannon emplacements out with the Graven's main guns.

  It made sense that Zora had wanted Ratticus. If this was her preferred method of weaponry and she could manage to duplicate his power he would do a lot to enhance the destructive potential of cannons like these.

  Hot Stuff was being swarmed by heavily armored guards. Their armor must have been heat resistance, they were actually standing their ground long enough to fire their guns and when she drew close one even managed to land a punch on her jaw, for all his arm melted off afterward.

  Hot Stuff spit out blood, "Well my desire to burn this whole place up to the ground just went up."

  "You want to burn everything to the ground," Anna said as she sprayed a guard's helmet with a blast of acid, ducking beneath his swing at her and shoving the butt of her weapon into his visor. Weakened by the acid it exploded inward and he staggered back.

  "Usually," Hot Stuff agreed and threw a fireball down the hall to scatter an assemblage of scientists that were working to assemble some sort of turret.

  "Focus," I said through the comms to them. "Three doors down. Do try not to burn him alive."

  "Some guys like that kind of thing," Hot Stuff said as she made her way to the door in question and put a blazing fist through a security panel and then burning her way through the door.

  The door had a thick layer of mesh built into it, while I didn't have a science drone along I'd have to guess that it was highly conductive. They were probably holding Ratticus in a Faraday cage to help neutralize his abilities.

  It was smart of Zora, smarter than I liked.

  Hot Stuff finished melting through the door and stepped back.

  Ratticus was in the lab inside floating in a tube of bubbling fluid, a number of tubes extending into his flesh.

  "We allright breaking him out of this?" Anna asked.

  I was detecting several Wolf airships closing on the Gravens position and several flying platforms holding Gauss cannons approaching. Our welcome was quickly being worn out.

  "Given your lack of anything other than mindless destruction I don't think we have a choice," I said.

  Anna shrugged and gave the glass a blast of her acid gun. The material sizzled and bubbles before the tank exploded, Ratticus rolling out amid of a spray of glass shards.

  With her boosted strength Anna had no problem flinging him over one shoulder even while gripping the gun in her other hand.

  "We going for her core or getting out of here?" Anna asked.

  That was a good question. If her core were close it would still be worth the risk of going for it, which meant I was trying to figure out of it was.

  Given how built up and staffed Zora's district was it actually made the task easier. We'd already set off a lot of alarms and they were mostly headed in one direction. There was a communications hub in a tower on the perimeter of the districts central plaza.

  "Pull back," I said. A small force like this wasn't going to get there on foot.

  Hot Stuff moved to lead the way out and was blocked by a defense robot. Giant tanks adorned its back, frost coating them. The air around it was massively colder than room temperature.

  Hot Stuff through a blast of fire and the robot raised a gauntleted fist to spray a stream of super cooled gases that quickly neutralized it.

  "About damn time," Hot Stuff said rolling her shoulders. "I've been looking for a good fight."

  Hot Stuff was stronger, even with the limited data I had without a science drone I could tell that. It would also waste time for her to go toe to toe with it that we didn't have.

  One of the teams telekinetics used their ability to wrench the hoses out of the tanks even as one of the electrokinetics blasted the robots electrical system.

  It staggered back twitching madly and collapsed to the ground.

  "Okay, maybe you haven't figured this out yet but I'm a girl that really likes her climaxes and that was anti-climatic as fuck," Hot Stuff said.

  "Save it for the Wolf," Anna said.

  Hot Stuff seemed mollified for the moment, reducing the robot to a pool of molten metal as she stepped through its remains.

  29

  The team managed to get back to the Graven before reinforcements overwhelmed us and I jumped the ship back to safety. As triumphs went, it barely qualified.

  It was also mixed for even as we were accomplishing that mission Tara had vanished. I had the logs clearly documenting what had happened, at one moment she was secure in her quarters and the next she was gone with no traces of teleportation or invisibility.

  What there was, was a dimensional shift. Given she had been stuck in black and white I'd been monitoring her condition extra closely. Unfortunately I didn't have much doubt that meant Flicker had gotten a hold of her again.

  Tara knew that we'd rescued Sylax, something that still wasn't public knowledge. If Wolf learned of it I didn't doubt he'd throw everything he had to take me down. I'd become his first priority, which meant getting Tara back was mine.

  Going after Flicker again wouldn't just be a rescue mission. Crystal remained comatose and Sylax with her, given that it had only happened after Flicker's assault on her district I had to think it related.

  Last time the Graven had appeared in Flicker's skies she'd been prepared for an aerial assault and quickly forced our withdrawal. Now she'd had even more time to prepare which meant we needed a surprise. I thought I had one.

  The teleportation that rimmed the city had largely been used to transport troops away or bodies back to the battlefield. Technically they were under the control of the city head but given Mechos' ability to interface with the cities technology I thought he could size control and we could use one to get into the very heart of Flicker's district.

  I'd called together Mechos, Anna, Hot Stuff, and Jade to discuss the plan.

  I'd decided that Hot Stuff and Jade should use the portal with a number of fire drones and several of Jade's lieutenants. I didn't know if either of them could seize her core, if so that would be a great advantage but both were our strongest hitters. Put together they could inflict massive damage in even short period of time.

  "I like it," Jade said.

  "Burning stuff is fun," Hot Stuff agreed.

  That was a few that agreed, at least.

  "Are you sure you'll be able to get them out?" Anna asked.

  "Once connected the portal will hold steady for two way transit. They can walk back through," Mechos said.

  That was actually a bit of a concern. If they could return then Flicker could also launch a return through it. I was already building a number of fixed gun emplacements focused on the portal and setting up a drone perimeter.

  "Are you certain you'll be able to fix what is wrong with Tara even if we do manage to rescue her?" Mechos asked.

  That was a whole other question. I'd loaded Crystal and Sylax onto the Graven and stocked the vessel with a dozen of my science probes. Once the ground team had created a distraction we could jump the Graven in
. Anna could rescue Tara and I could hopefully figure out what was wrong with her and Crystal before we had to jump out.

  "There are no guarantees in SCIENCE, only the boundless challenge of the unknown. Still, I am a genius," I said.

  Looks were exchanged but nobody had poor judgment enough to challenge me.

  With the plan worked out it was time to execute.

  Mechos reached out to rest a hand on one of the teleportation portals. They had been dead since Sylax's capture, veins of red circuitry extended outward from his touch through polished grey metal and with a flare the portal came to life.

  Hot Stuff and my fire drones led the way followed by Jade and her lieutenants.

  It was a bit like a bomb going off. Jade roared as green energy pulsed around her and an entire block of bizarrely buildings rose into the sky before crashing to earth and shattering into rubble. Flaming rubble as Hot Stuff was not to be out done.

  The sky was filled with blobs of tangled wire that left their defensive positions to streak towards them.

  As distractions went they were all I could have hoped for and more. Seizing the core would be ideal but it wasn't actually the plan for the day.

  I engaged the dimensional drive and brought the Graven in. Given my awareness from my drones on the ground I was able to pick an empty part of the sky where the defenses were weak. As soon as we materialized I unleashed the science drones to fill the skies around us.

  Now that I had so many drones here I was also getting a read on Tara's location. I pinged it on a map for Anna who nodded curtly and blinked out of existence.

  Anna's ability to teleport short distances was pricey to use, but for something like a rescue operation it could also be powerful when we weren't just shooting our way in.

  We had to spend minutes in the sky. We were largely unmolested, while the occasional defensive blob of string drifted into range of my lasers for the most part they were furiously trying to kill the ground forces.

  It was enough. Anna materialized with with the still monochrome Tara.

  What had happened to her and Crystal were variations of the same thing. They'd both been rendered out of phase with our own reality, not as much as Flicker herself was and each in a way that obviously affected them differently.

  A variation in the dimensional drive bubble could resynchronize each individually, the computations were frightfully complex. It meant we had to stay in the skies for a whole additional thirty-six seconds.

  I signaled the ground forces to withdraw and engaged the jump engines.

  Reality warped and twisted around us once, twice, thrice in waves of rainbow power. The first time returned color to Tara's flesh. The second caused both Crystal and Sylax to awaken with a gasp.

  The third brought us home.

  30

  It was an odd celebration that took place after the rescue mission. All of my old crew were there, and Crystal and Sylax as well. In addition to them were the other refugees of various sorts, Magpie and her people and the Gobbles who somehow had grown to over three dozen in number and had perched themselves atop every surface to swat at those who passed. They and Sylax might have shared a personality.

  Still moods seemed more elevated than I might have expected, there was genuine good will in the air. Sylax wasn't always awful, for all that the woman enjoyed the suffering of others it seemed she also enjoyed a good glass of synthesized wine and dancing with Mechos.

  Several of the clones had decided to attend the celebration which meant that Anna's were everywhere. It wasn't hard to pick the real one, the clones were dressed in form fitting armor plating in red and black while Anna had me replicate one of her gowns.

  It was a bit of a game to see just how Sylax would respond. It didn't take long for her to saunter up and look Anna up and down.

  "You're overdressed pet. I'll allow it," Sylax said.

  "I think we're past doing that. You do too or you'd have torn this party apart," Anna said.

  Sylax smiled at that, "True. Although I haven't quite figured out if I truly think saving me balances the scales for our past."

  I took over one of the Anna clones to approach the table so that I could join the conversation myself, "You were trying to kill us at the time."

  "Did you have to make them look like me?" Anna said.

  "Few things are as intimidating in battle as a horde of grotesque monstrosities rushing towards you," I said.

  Sylax laughed, "Perhaps it is more fun to have you two together and there are no shortage of others we must harm."

  Sylax made a gesture with one hand and Crystal approached from the crowd as if summoned, which she probably was.

  "Nice party," Crystal said.

  "Compliment their hospitality later. Emma was loyal to you? Loyal to the cause of rescuing me?" Sylax asked.

  "Risked everything for it, although I think she was more interested in rescuing Anna than you," Crystal said.

  "Understandable," Sylax said and sipped at her wine before setting the glass aside. "Fine. We work with this group going forward. I always knew the Wolf was just waiting for his moment, still I had not expected him to be so bold or effective."

  "My district is really in ruins?" Crystal asked.

  I brought up a display for her and she looked over the screen.

  "You can rebuild," Anna said.

  "Of course I can. But my final defenses were strong," Crystal said.

  "Mine were every stronger," Sylax said. "The Wolf has gained a lot of power quickly. It is important to figure out how."

  "He unlocked his old form," Crystal said.

  "He also has spread the pyrokinetic upgrade to his forces without going through the typical means," I said.

  "You can do something like that," Sylax said with a pointed look towards the clone.

  "And obviously I didn't," I said.

  "He somehow acquired his own upgrade core. He must have," Crystal said.

  "One that would allow this degree of power so quickly? Unlikely. You know how long it took you," Sylax said.

  "He might have a core that allows him to mirror powers," Anna said.

  "Perhaps. If my power were mirrored it might have allowed him to unlock his old potential. Then he could have mirrored someones like Emma's to acquire new powers," Crystal said with her tone thoughtful.

  It was a disturbing idea. I hadn't encountered anything like the mirroring cores that they described. It seemed the sort of power that could be relatively useless in many situations but thoughtfully applied could be powerful indeed. Crystal's abilities with her upgrade core were far different than mine and both of ours different from Mechos. Mine focused upon research, testing, and then genetic sequencing. Crystal's seemed to focus on transformation of her subjects, and especially some degree of animal hybridization. Mechos on the other hand before he'd lost his core was all about implanting abilities in people by way of specialized implants.

  Individually our techniques all had their strengths and their weaknesses, but if one were able to pick and choose between them at will it might be possible to make creations more powerful than any of us had individually.

  "If he is. Is there anything we can do to fight him?" I asked.

  "Kill him quickly. If he is using a power like that intelligently then he is only going to keep getting stronger," Sylax said.

  "Your solution is aways to kill things quickly," Anna said.

  "Actually I usually prefer to let them suffer," Sylax said.

  "That much is true," Crystal said.

  As if we needed reminding, there were few secrets about who and what Sylax was.

  Crystal tilted her head, "Before we do that we need to retake my district. I've been trying to reestablish the direction. Your visual helped. I appear to have a timer running for having abandoned my district. I have six hours to reestablish dominance of my core or I yield to Flicker."

  That was interesting to know. You would think that running away from a district would be an automatic default but instead
it created a timer. Crystal's withdrawal had actually saved her from compulsion.

  It was a useful tidbit to remember, if trying to take someone down I needed to make sure I could defeat them and not allow them to flee.

  "That won't be a problem. Now that I'm awake I'm looking to stretch my muscles," Sylax said.

  "We just can't have a proper party," Anna said.

  "Oh pet. It's not a proper party unless somebody gets skinned. Just be delighted it won't be you, this time," Sylax said.

  "You really do have the worst taste in party games," Anna said.

  "You have no idea," Crystal said.

  31

  Clearing Crystal's timer was simplicity itself. Several golems had been left to guard the core, strangely twisted masses of copper wire. I jumped the Graven into the skies above and dropped off Sylax and Crystal.

  Sylax didn't even need a weapon, she tore the golems apart with a bare hands and with a look of glee upon her face.

  I picked up incoming dimensional drive signatures. There was no way those were friendly. I didn't even have time to issue a warning down below before I was jumping the Graven out. They would figure things out, the Graven wasn't prepared to go head to head with a fleet.

  Wolf airships, my long range sensors picked them up. They couldn't plan a jump that close on the fly like I could but give them time and they could manage the same trick. They'd known exactly where Crystal's core was and were waiting for their moment.

  Energy weapons lanced out from above and turned the ground molten. I knew that Sylax could survive that sort of fire, I'd done worse to her, I wasn't as certain about Crystal.

  When the maelstorm of energy faded it revealed Sylax shielding Crystal with her body, although both women appeared fine.

  Tremors shook the ground and crystalline towers erupted from the rubble. Crystal was starting to regrow her district, far faster than I'd have been able to build my own facilities.