Now

“They are Defective.”

Cal heard the clear hesitation in Prime Custodian 3’s voice even over the digital transmission. He narrowed his eyes at the full-sized projection of the prime as they stood, unnaturally still, next to his desk.

“You must really not like saying that word,” Cal said. “Is it a bad word? Cause in my language it isn’t… I mean it’s bad, but not vulgar.”

“The limitations of the spires’ universal translation system.” Prime Custodian 3 nodded. “I will explain. Defective, the word and all it represents, is anathema. We do not utter it unless absolutely necessary.”

“That seems like an oddly emotional viewpoint. Not one I’d expect from the Threnosh.”

“You are correct, Honor,” Prime Custodian 3 dipped their helmet-covered head ever so slightly. “However, in light of the need to provide you with full information as you requested, I have deemed it acceptable to speak the word freely.”

“Well, you’ve pretty much kept up your end of the deal in that regard. The thousands of pages on the Defectives,” Cal sighed, “that you’ve sent my way doesn’t leave me with much in the way of questions…”

“Except?”

Cal shook his head. “I suppose I’m surprised that you didn’t just… euthanize them as soon as their… defects… were discovered. I mean that would be the most coldly, logical course of action to take. Isn’t it?”

“Civilized Threnosh do not take other Threnosh life.”

“Every culture has good points and bad points,” Cal nodded.

“Then you have everything that you need?”

“Yup.”

“Very well. You have seven days to complete your proposal, which you will then advocate for in front of the Collective.”

Cal suppressed a smile. It seemed that some of his naming conventions were rubbing off on the prime. Although it was possible that the Threnosh was deliberately adopting Cal’s ways to continue building on their rapport. “Yeah, no problem.”

“Designation: Honor, I am beginning to doubt your understanding of the gravity of what stands before you.”

“Nope, I got it just fine.”

“But—”

“Relax, PC3,” Cal grinned at the projection. “All we have to do is convince what is essentially the entire ruling body of your people that our plan to turn these Defectives into an elite group of spawn zone clearers, incursion defenders, and all-around badasses as the first step in eventually defeating the assholes from the Dominion of Immortal Light and Joy is our only chance.”

“No, we must convince them that it has a non-insignificant percentage of success.”

“Well, seeing as how there isn’t a viable step two and onward yet, then that might be a tall task,” Cal said. “But, don’t you crease that perfectly smooth brow of yours yet. Seeing as how you don’t get much use out of these poor guys,” Cal gestured at the projection emanating from the surface of his desk, several dossiers arranged as if in an old file cabinet, “beyond cannon fodder. I don’t think it’ll be too difficult to sell your Collective on our plan. The Threnosh do have a need to have everything and everyone being of use for the good of all.”

“Agreed,” Prime Custodian 3 nodded right before their projection vanished.

Cal looked at the dense amount of information projected above his desk. Seven days. He had a week to get everything together. He figured he was doing a good thing in giving purpose to the purposeless. Although, would they thank him when they truly realized what the cost of that was going to be?

When the spires appeared in a world they did so randomly. At least that’s how it appeared to the inhabitants. They appeared in the wilderness, in the middle of civilization. In forests, displacing trees. Inside buildings, somehow seamlessly blending with them. At the bottom the ocean. On top of mountains. No one had yet penetrated whatever incomprehensible system governed the spires.

This one particular spire, or god hair in this particular world’s language wasn’t special in that it appeared in the middle of a volcano, which was actually a large caldera with a fairly sizable lake around the small mound which marked the location of the open shaft. In fact there were fifty-seven other spires in the general area surrounding the enormous volcano.

What made this one standout in this particular moment was the shimmer that appeared in front of it. In that instant reality rippled into a prism of many dozens of mirrored panes of glass that shifted in a dizzying array.

When it suddenly stopped a standing figure was visible.

It appeared unbothered by being inside a volcano. The tremendous heat and poisonous gasses did nothing to it. There was no labored breathing, nor visible sweat on its perfect alabaster skin.

It unfurled the broad, golden wings on its back before turning its eerily beautiful face to inspect its surroundings.

The cavern that the spire was located inside was enormous. The narrow shaft that lead to the surface was obscured by the gasses that drifted from the pools of boiling liquid scattered around. It would need to fly up to reach the exit.

It experimentally flapped its wings as it prepared to do just that when a small ball of fire impacted the rocky ground in front of it. The explosion threw it back several feet and left several bits of jagged rock embedded in its skin.

“Outworld invader. I am Designation: Prime Integral Covenant 7. I hereby request that you return to your world. No further action will be taken upon your being with immediate compliance. Failure to comply will be met with appropriate action.”

The Threnosh was clad in skintight power armor. It was colored in a mixture of red, orange and yellow in a variety of shades. The helm was ringed in a crown of flames. Streaks of glowing light bloomed and dimmed as they ran along the surface of the armor. The patterns created called to mind the image of a roaring fire as it danced in the dark.

“Greetings from the Dominion of Immortal Light and Joy!” The invader’s voice was like the tinkling of chimes in the wind. “We are aware of your kind, prime. Such power held within the appearance of frailty. The wonders that they provide are so varied and mighty. To think that you, who appears as strong as the twigs on the ground, would challenge a hunter all alone.” It smiled. “Our purpose is manifold. We come to illuminate your world. We come to test your might. To find those worthy to join us. And of course to hunt those that prove themselves to be prey. But most of all, we, hunters, seek the one you call Honor.”

The squad of power armored Threnosh moved through the quiet forest. The only sounds were from their armored boots crunching on the undergrowth. The lack of animal noises was a sure sign that they were on the right track.

The spawn zone’s perimeter was attacked by a large group of invasive organisms the previous night. This meant that one of the organisms must’ve have evolved. It’d grown stronger, more intelligent, able to command others. The invasive species brought by the god hairs varied greatly, much in the same way that the species native to the world did. It was unfortunate that this particular spawn zone was home to an especially aggressive and large mammalian-reptilian hybrid.

The organism was a quadruped that had thick, plate-like scales over its vital regions and tough, wiry fur over the rest. It was gifted with many natural and deadly weapons. Including numerous blade-like teeth in its elongated muzzle and sharp, curved claws in its paws. It could sniff out a blood trail many days and many miles distant. Its black eyes could see in darkness.

Night had fallen when the squad reached the end of the trail. The cave’s opening gaped at them. It was like staring into a void. To fall in meant that there was no hope of finding your way back.

“Status?” The leader subvocalized into his helmet.

“Scans indicate that organisms entered the cave.”

The reply from the Threnosh in the front came back immediately.

“Organism capabilities indicate they are already aware of our presence. Silent communications directive rescinded.” The leader spoke in a soft voice. “The squad will form a firing line in front of the cave opening. Auxiliary 1 and Auxiliary 2 will enter the cave and drive organisms out of the cave.”

The Threnosh dubbed Auxiliary 1 frowned behind their darkened face-plate. They were getting tired of being treated as a disposable asset. If they were defective, less than the proper Threnosh then why did the god hair provide them such a unique and powerful suite of hardware and software that turned their baseline infantry trueskin into something much greater.

The anger that came along with such thoughts had been growing stronger with each task that Prime Custodian 3 had granted to them. It was getting more difficult to simply keep their mouth closed and comply with the orders that they were starting to believe were wrong.

They turned their head to locate the one dubbed Auxiliary 2. Another defective. That one had a trueskin that far surpassed the normal Threnosh soldier’s. It was truly unique.

They nodded to the other Threnosh, who returned the nod.

Auxiliary 1, they wanted to spit. They weren’t even granted a name to call their own. Just a placeholder for this one task. The next task they’d be called something else.

They checked their recoilless projectile weapon. The projection on their face-plate indicated that it was functioning within expected parameters. Its ammunition pod was full.

There were no more reasons left to stall. Auxiliary 1 subvocalized the command word to initialize the special combat sensor suite they obtained from the god hair and installed in their trueskin. Lines, numbers and words flashed across their vision. Too fast for the biological eye to follow, yet they somehow comprehended it all.

Without a word to the rest of the normal Threnosh they walked to the cave opening. Ahead of them Auxiliary 2 in their black-colored trueskin disappeared inside.

The pitch-black darkness of the cave was a small obstacle. One command and the landscape was rendered in clear fashion by an overlay in their face-plate. Auxiliary 2 was not in sight as expected, but their signal was displayed up ahead. Auxiliary 1 followed behind, weapon at the ready.

“Contact.” Auxiliary 2’s voice was almost eager in Auxiliary 1’s ears.

They rushed through the cave’s twisting tunnels to emerge in a larger chamber. Auxiliary 2 was engaged with a cluster of organisms in a tangle of snapping jaws and slashing claws. Organism blood flew liberally, drawn by the sharp blades and protrusions that covered much of Auxiliary 2’s trueskin.

Auxiliary 1 had seen it many times, but they still found it unbelievable. The way that Auxiliary 2’s armor drank in the blood defied rational explanation.

As they fought Auxiliary 2 grew stronger and faster. The organisms tore and bit into their armor, but the damage repaired itself as long as the blood kept flowing into it.

A warning suddenly chimed for Auxiliary 1. It was somehow both visual and auditory. They couldn’t explain how it worked. It told them to dive to the right and so they did.

An organism snapped its jaws with a loud clap in the spot that Auxiliary 1 was just standing in.

They brought their weapon to bear on the organism, but the ghostly image of the organism in their face-plate suddenly jumped at them. Thought the actual organism was still crouched in front of them. The instructions in their face-plate told them to fall onto their back. As they did so the organism finally jumped. The physical one followed the ghostly one that preceded it by a split second. A bright red line projected into their face-plate predicted the organism’s path. Auxiliary 1 brought his weapon in line and squeezed the trigger.

The loud bangs created by the small projectiles breaking the air was accompanied by a pained whine from the organism. It fell into an unmoving heap just a few feet beyond the supine Auxiliary 1.

Everything happened in a less than a second. The visual instructions were accompanied by verbal instructions that were given in Auxiliary 1’s own voice. It was chaotic and it should’ve been impossible to follow, but somehow they were able to do it with unconscious ease.

They rose to their feet and scanned the surrounding area for more threats.

“Clear,” Auxiliary 2 said from amid the torn and gutted corpses of several organisms.

Auxiliary 1 was glad for the darkness concealing the true nature of the bloody mess that covered Auxiliary 2.

They were about to give the order to continue the search for the alpha organism, when a loud roar shook the cavern.

It found them instead.

Then

“They’re breaking through the barricade!”

“I can see that, Olo.”

“What do we do, Gene?”

“I’m thinking, Bastien…”

“You need to think faster cause we’re about to be the main course at a gremlin party,” Johnny snapped. “Shit balls!”

The middle section of the makeshift barricade of fencing, random furniture, and other detritus suddenly buckled and collapsed inward.

Johnny, the rogue, sucked in a deep breath and held it as he moved to the side, out of the way of the incoming group of human-sized gremlins.

“Olo, get their attention. Bastien back him up, Johnny—” Gene looked around, but was unable to spot his friend, despite the fact that he was clearly edging around to the flank of the approaching monsters. “Damn it! Where’d he go?”

“On me!” Olo banged his dented metal bat on his riot shield.

The monsters immediately charged at him.

“Damn, damn, damn… too much,” Gene said. He clutched his machete in his right hand tighter, while he splayed the fingers of his left hand out and pointed them at the gremlins. “Magic Missile!” Two glowing, marble-sized orbs appeared at the tips of his fingers before zooming away.

The projectiles curved around Olo to strike at the two front-most gremlins. The monsters screeched before falling to the street with two smoking holes in the middle of their chests.

The next rank of the charging gremlins stumbled over the corpses, which gave Olo and Bastien an opening to attack.

“Power Strike!” Olo swung his bat down in a one-handed overhead smash. A gremlin’s head exploded like an overripe watermelon.

Bastien stepped in with a wild two-handed swing with his ax handle. The blow took a gremlin in the side with a crunch and knocked it to the street with shattered ribs.

Unfortunately the teen left his back exposed.

A gremlin snarled as it leapt for Bastien with outstretched claws.

“Shield Bash!” Olo slammed his riot shield into the gremlin, saving his friend.

“Magic Missile!”

Two more gremlins fell to the street with smoking holes.

The teenage team of self-professed adventurers suddenly found themselves with a momentary respite. Against even their expectations they successfully defeated their first group of actual monsters all on their own. The gremlins from the high school spawn point were roughly human-sized. They were leagues beyond the tiny gremlins that haunted the shadows and the mutant squirrels and birds they were used to fighting. More importantly, they did it on their own. No support from any one else in the watch or from one of the Cruces brothers. Although to be more accurate it was the other way around. Team F.C.W.R. was the one to normally provide support.

“That’s it, I’m out,” Gene huffed as he rushed forward to join his friends on the front line.

“I’ve got one more in me,” Olo took a deep breath as he turned his head toward Gene.

It was a rookie mistake. One should never take their eyes off the enemy, especially in the middle of a battle.

A gremlin had slipped in behind the rest of its brethren and hung back, waiting for just this opening. Silently, like a serpent, it leapt at Olo’s exposed backside.

“Watch ou—!”

Olo turned at Gene’s warning, but he was too slow.

“Backstab!”

An explosion of blood erupted from the gremlin’s back. The teens were drenched, none more than Johnny, who the others suddenly noticed standing next to the dead monster, his machete plunged into it.

Johnny took in deep breaths. “Man… almost… passed… need… hold… breath.”

“Nice save, bro!” Olo clapped him on the back.

“You can’t just disappear on me,” Gene said.

Johnny shrugged, his breathing finally under control. “Sorry, reflex, it worked out anyways.”

“I need to call out the fight plan.”

“Chill out, my dude. You were gonna tell me to vanish and look for stabby, stabby ops.”

“Man, that’s so weird that you’re not actually invisible. I can’t get over how we just forget that your there, even if we’re looking at you,” Bastien said.

“It helps that it’s such a crazy situation. Hard to pay attention,” Johnny said.

Gene looked like he was going to argue further when a loud screech filled the night air.

“Oh shit! The breach!”

As one the teens turned to look at the hole in the barricade. There on the other side where dozens more of the human-sized gremlins visible under the flickering street lights.

“What do we do now?” Johnny turned to Gene.

“I’m out of spells.”

“I can do one more skill before I’m wiped,” Olo said.

“Tactical withdrawal?” Bastien said hopefully as he edged away from the barricade.

Before Gene could reply the monsters charged.

The teens screamed out in rather high-pitched voices. They’d deny it later, but a pair of witnesses would confirm it to the delight of the others in the watch.

A loud shout accompanied by a shadow of something passing overhead shook the teens.

The figure, a smallish woman carrying an enormous hunk of metal that she called a shield landed in front of the gremlins and set about smashing them.

The gremlins focused all their attention on the woman, but she was too fast and too strong for them.

“Good job, kids!”

The teens turned around to find the speaker grinning widely at them.

“Nice teamwork, very brave, but Nila’s got this covered. Why don’t you head back to base. Too dangerous to stay on the barricades without skills and magic. And Bastien, there’s some people that could use your healing prayers.”

“We can still help,” Gene said.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you got a good amount of Universal Points for killing the initial breachers all by yourselves. Rest, recover,” Cal smiled. “Because this is just the beginning.”

“It got Andre!”

“Shut up! Keep running.”

The two young men ran through the streets and alleys accompanied only by the sounds of their frantic breaths and the pounding of their shoes on pavement. They ran for ten minutes until they came to a fenced in apartment complex with another pair of hard-eyed young men standing guard with baseball bats in their hands.

“The fuck got you two shittin’ yo pants.” One of the guards said.

“We got to see, Magnum… something got Andre and it’s chasing us.”

The guards looked down the way the two young men came from.

“Yo’ these fools be trippin’,” The guard shared a laugh with his partner. “Whatever, the boss is out makin’ the rounds. He’s gonna slap the shit out of you when he gets back.”

The two young men decided to make their way to their apartment. One that they shared with a dozen others like them. The actual owners were long dead, going by the mostly eaten corpses they had to clean out in those first terrible days after the world changed and monsters became real.

Once the door shut one rounded on the other. “I thought you did that woody skin thing on him!”

“It’s Barkskin, that voice said it was a spell.”

“Dog, magic bullshit, that ain’t real.”

“Nah, the spell says it makes your skin as strong as like a tree.”

“That thing tore Andre in half! That don’t sound as strong as a tree.” The young man spat. “What we gonna do? Andre was carrying the stuff, Magnum’s gonna tear us a new one.”

“Nah we jus—”

An ear piercing scream penetrated the thin walls of the apartment. Followed by another, then another. The two young men looked at each other with wide eyes. They looked to the door. It burst open and they didn’t have to worry about Magnum any longer. They didn’t have to worry about anything ever again.

It killed, because it had to. There was an ever present hunger that gnawed at the very pit of its stomach. Whenever it had changed into, what it was now the hunger remained and grew and grew until it was forced to satiate it. It would change back to what, to who it once was. Beginning the cycle again.

And so it hunted to feed. Up until this moment it had only went after animals and monsters, not the two-legged ones that for some reason it had shied away from. Except this time it was different. The one that it had tracked down such a great distance beyond the place that it felt secure in was different. It had sensed something else within that one individual. An idea that to consume this prey would grant it more than just sustenance, but also power.

To think that it was only defending its territory when it lashed out reflexively and tore that first one to pieces. Now that it had discovered its new truth there was no going back. It would prey on the soft two-legged ones. Its hunger had been inflamed and there was no dousing such a powerful fire.

Despite its full belly it still hungered. Fortunately there were dozens of prey just within reach. It could hear them, smell them, sense them.

Somewhere inside, buried deep beneath everything of its being was the sound of soft sobbing.

Cal moved through the Holiday Inn lobby with his telepathy stretching out as far as he could manage. The blood stains smeared on the walls and the occasional body part on the floor wasn’t what he had been hoping to find. He sensed nothing, not with his superior hearing, nor with his telepathy. He decided to head down the corridor on the right to begin checking the rooms. His shoes made a sick squelching sound. He looked down and noticed that the carpet was soaked with blood.

“I should be in the lead. You’re stepping all over evidence.”

“Like I said before, it’s safest for you if I’m in front, Detective Ordonez,” Cal sighed, “besides there’s plenty of evidence.” He gestured at the bloody mess all around them.

“Right,” Detective Ordonez said. “You’ve got some magic from those pillars.” The arched brow on her angry face made it clear what she thought of that.

“The spires and yeah, something like that.”

“Whatever, man. You just get out of my way when I say so or you might get a load in your back.”

Cal eyed the black shotgun in the detective’s hands. Pump action, 12 gauge, 870 if he guessed correctly. Standard police issue. This surviving group of the Sacramento PD got lucky that they had a gunsmith to make their ammunition. Just like the guy his own group had tracked down and freed from what was left of the biker gang that ran with the late, unlamented Jay and the einherjar. He still hadn’t figured out why cartridges from before the spires didn’t work. It took someone with the gunsmith class to unload the powder in the case, refill it and then re-seat the bullet to get functional rounds. Anyone else that tried the same exact method only yielded duds.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Cal ground out through grit teeth.

The detective invited herself along on this mission that Cal had decided to undertake for what remained of the state government. He was trying to build good will and get the Universal Points for what was looking like a stronger sort of monster. He’d planned to do it solo, but with the tag-a-long he was going to have to be careful to avoid revealing too much of his abilities. Trust wasn’t something he was going to blindly extend.

Each room on the first two floors yielded much the same as the hotel lobby. Blood stains, signs of struggle and the occasional stray body part, a hand, a piece of leg or worse.

By the time they reached the third floor, both Cal and the detective were looking a lot paler.

“Jesus Christ… I’ve seen what those monsters can do, but this is something else,” Detective Ordonez said.

“Your boss said that you were using this place to house… refugees… from outside your claimed territory?”

“Yeah.”

“I noticed when I stepped in that the building wasn’t claimed.”

“We weren’t ready to take on the secret boss to take the place over completely,” Detective Ordonez spat. “I can’t believe I’m saying shit like that with a straight face. Magic fucking bullshit!”

“Dangerous to put people into a place where monsters can spawn.”

“Lanterns kept it mostly safe. We patrolled it and people can handle the little ones just fine on their own now.”

Cal nodded and kept silent as they checked the rest of the third floor.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Detective Ordonez said as they stepped into the last room.

It was a two-bedroom suite, living room, full kitchen. It was nice, aside from the bloody mess.

“Care to elaborate?”

“I met the guy assigned to this room. Said he had something called an enhanced body. More of that magic bull—”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, you’re a skeptic,” Cal resisted the urge to peak into the detective’s thoughts. “You haven’t gone into one of the spires, have you?”

“No way, man. I’m not getting mixed up with that shit.”

“You know you might get abilities that’ll help keep you alive and help you keep others alive,” Cal said flatly.

“I’m plenty good enough with this.” Detective Ordonez nodded to her shotgun.

“Bullets work on the lower level monsters, but there are worse ones out there.”

“Uh huh.” Detective Ordonez wasn’t convinced. “Anyways, I figured the guy was full of shit, but he showed off at the station gym and started curling hundred pound dumbbells like nothing.”

“And?” Cal was getting impatient. He couldn’t pick anything up with his telepathy. He was getting better at picking up traces of emotions, feelings and impressions. Violent events left especially noticeable marks that he could sense, which was why it was baffling that he wasn’t getting anything. The physical signs of slaughter were everywhere, yet he got nothing.

“Him and his family got this suite in exchange for him signing up. Skinny dude, looked like an accountant, yet he was treated like a number one draft pick. What I’m saying is that I’m not seeing anything of him putting up any sort of a fight.” Detective Ordonez looked around the suite. “This all looks one-sided, just like the rest of the hotel. It doesn’t make sense, but it looks like whatever did this, was able to go room to room and brutally kill the people inside without alerting the rest of the place.”

“Well, you’re the professional, so I’ll defer to your judgment,” Cal said. He ignored the daggers in Detective Ordonez’s glare. “There’s no trail for me here. I’m going to investigate the surrounding area.”

“Let’s go then,” Detective Ordonez said.

“Sorry detective, but I can cover ground a lot faster on my own,” Cal said. “It should be safe for you if you leave this place immediately. I’m ninety-nine percent sure monsters won’t spawn until after midnight. Whatever killed the people here seems to have done the same to any monsters that might’ve escaped your patrols.” He walked over to the window and opened it. “Be careful. My guess is there’s something new and very dangerous out there.” He jumped out.

Detective Ordonez ran to the window, but Cal was already out of sight. “Fucking asshole.”