Now, Earth

“Wait for the screams, he said…” Jake muttered, “sorta sounds like Flo did when she went nuts… then her kid brother ate my hand…”

The soldier next to Jake glanced at him with concern in her eyes.

Jake shrugged and focused his gaze on the tunnel mouth in which much death was about to be dealt at vampiric hands. He was pretty sure that there wouldn’t be much left for him and the others to do after Bennett got through with the cultists. The sight of Bennett in action was still fresh in his mind. It wasn’t something easily forgotten. As much as he wouldn’t have minded scrubbing it from his memory.

Still, it was a distant second to that whole thing with Flo and her little brother. That had been an utter nightmare that fueled sleepless nights years later.

An explosion rocked the tunnel mouth that they had initially exited from.

Bright light filled the space for a split-second.

That must’ve been the reinforcements Bennett had mentioned.

“Everyone get ready!” Detective Ordonez barked over the sounds of battle inside the dark tunnel.

“Goddamn, I hope our side is winning,” the soldier said.

Jake totally blanked on her name, so he simply nodded and primed the spell he had already pre-loaded into his artificial hand.

Bloodcurdling screams from the tunnel that led to possible escape from the cultist noose shook them all to the core so much that, for a moment, no one dared move.

To hear other human beings make such a sound of pure animal terror… it made even veteran fighters pause. It touched the fear of mortality that everyone carried within them.

“Move! Gates in front, shield!” Detective Ordonez’s harsh voice shook them from their stupor.

“Shit, shit, shit—” Jake nearly fumbled the phone as he pulled it from the holster in his tac vest. He ran forward as he swiped a finger across the phone’s surface. A blue glow outlined his body as his version of the Mage Shield spell sprang to life.

Jake was a big man, which made him a good meatshield.

He got hit even before he reached the tunnel mouth.

Sharp spines struck him all over, but bounced off the magic shield.

He felt the impact though, along with the corresponding drain on the phone’s mana reserves. He needed the shield up for whatever was waiting for him inside the actual tunnel.

Jake grabbed his last flashbang, pulled the pin and chucked it into the dark tunnel. “Fire in the hole!”

The bang that accompanied the bright flash shook years of dust and debris off the tunnel’s surfaces.

Loud pops.

He felt the rounds bounce of his shield.

“Fuck this!”

Jake put on a burst of speed driven by pure terror.

A huge tentacle speared out of the darkness.

Jake grit his teeth. He couldn’t let it get past him. It would’ve smashed the people behind him.

The clubbing tentacle struck him in the center of his chest with a bone jarring thud. His shield flickered for a moment, but held. The inertia was mostly absorbed, so he kept on running.

He lowered his shoulder and rammed the cultist just inside the dark tunnel mouth.

Jake plowed forward for what felt like another twenty feet. He couldn’t tell. The blood was pounding in his ears so much he could barely hear anything else.

Shouts, grunts, gunshots, spells.

The cultist couldn’t bring her tentacle to bear with Jake right in her face, so she punched and stabbed at him with a wicked-looking knife.

The shield flickered again.

Mana was running low, so Jake pushed the cultist away.

He’d done what he was supposed to. He’d brought his guys into the thick of combat without any casualties if the fierce close quarters combat was an indicated.

Now he had to deal with the cultist in front of him before she clubbed him to death with her thick tentacle.

Jake dropped the shield and activated the spell programmed into his prosthetic. “Lightning Claws!”

The blue glow of the ghostly Mage Hand spell that outlined the skeletal amalgamation of plastics, metals and magic disappeared. Only to be replaced by bright, crackling blue-white aura that resembled lightning bolts shaped into clawed hand, more bird of prey than human.

The cultist struck with her tentacle.

Jake met it with a swipe of his magic-powered hand.

The cultists shrieked as the smell of burnt flesh filled the small tunnel.

It reminded Jake of grilled calamari, to his disgust.

The cultist turned and ran deeper into the dark tunnel.

Jake didn’t give chase. He knew what, who, was waiting down there. He turned to find that the fight with the cultists was over.

There had only been a handful.

The combined force of state government soldiers and Resistance members had been overwhelming.

Bennett had been true to his word.

The Vampire had drawn the majority of the cultist force or just killed them.

Jake looked down at his lightning claws. “Well… now I kinda feel stupid.”

“Run!” one of the soldiers yelled.

Jake saw a huge shape rushing at them with impossible speed.

“Hold fire! Friendly!” Detective Ordonez barked.

The soldiers and the Resistance members squeezed themselves against the tunnel sides when it became clear that the huge furry thing wasn’t going to stop.

“Cra—”

Jake was too slow. He got a mouthful of fur as the shape clipped him and sent him spinning into the tunnel wall.

The Lightning Claws vanished a shade before his consciousness did.

How lame, Jake’s thought a moment before things went dark.

Kare ran.

She scented an enemy, a dangerous one at that. She knew this by instinct. One predator recognizing another. Her territory had to be protected. She had recognized the knot of people ahead of her as temporary allies, so she didn’t attack them.

She couldn’t avoid slightly bumping the large, oafish one as she ran past him.

His fault. He should’ve moved out of the way like the rest of them had.

The scents of dead and dying filled the tunnel. So much blood and viscera. It made it hard to think. To control the urge to rend, tear and feast.

Ugh.

She was just so gross sometimes.

Kare rounded a slight bend in the tunnel and growled as her hackles rose involuntarily.

A pale, figure, tall and lean crouched over a dead cultist.

The man’s clothing was covered in blood, his face, his hands, everything was drenched.

“Oh… it’s you,” the man said warily. “You didn’t attack the others?” the man frowned than raised his hands. “Then, perhaps you won’t attack me?”

Kare’s growl was a deep rumble that began in her broad, muscular chest.

Not enemy, a small, high-pitched voice spoke in her head.

She growled in response.

Threat. Enemy. Kill! a louder voice snarled.

Kare saw red. She charged.

Bennett slipped into the shadows on the tunnel wall.

Kare collided head first with the concrete.

Dust and debris fell down on her and powdered her golden fur.

She plopped to the ground, momentarily stunned.

Confusion followed clarity.

Kare whined.

She hoped that Rino wouldn’t find out about what had just happened.

It would’ve been really embarrassing.

Kare shook her huge head and climbed to her feet.

She had left allies behind in a fight with cultists. Hopefully they hadn’t gotten killed.

Veronica fumed in silence.

More old people arguing.

More time wasted.

The Resistance leader, some old bearded dude that looked like a homeless guy, didn’t want to go along with their plan.

Sour-faced Detective Ordonez was also skeptical.

What the stupid people didn’t realize was that any other option left them screwed.

Veronica wanted to shout that out, but her mom’s stern gaze kept her in check… for now.

The longer they stood and argued in the old guy’s house the more time her dad and sister spent in trouble.

“You don’t really have a choice,” Nila said.

The old man, Dalton, used to be a government agent or something. Veronica hadn’t been paying much attention at the start. His face didn’t give anything away. It was like he was carved out of stone.

“I’m not in the habit of leaving myself without options,” Dalton said.

“No offense, but your little resistance is done,” Rino said.

The other people in the living room that weren’t Nila or Veronica gave the weredog plenty of space. It was largely the instinctive fear of predators built into the human psyche. Leftovers from their simian ancestry.

Nila and Veronica had proved to themselves that they could stand against the weredogs on equal footing. They were dangerous, but not impossible to fight.

“Your time is up,” Rino continued. “The only reason you’ve been able to operate was because we— the cult,” she corrected, “allowed it.”

“And I’m just supposed to take your word for it? You’re the enemy,” Dalton said.

“Thought you’re a fancy secret agent man… use those skills,” Rino shrugged.

“The cult knew exactly where to hit you. They knew where all your underground camps and staging areas were located. You don’t have to take her word for it,” Nila said.

“The weredog is telling the truth. At least as she sees it,” Detective Ordonez grunted. “I’m seeing it the same way.”

“That’s more reason to get my people out of the city then. We’re not fighters. This plan of yours would only get us killed,” Dalton said.

“You don’t believe that’s possible,” Detective Ordonez’s words were spoken with finality.

Dalton’s stony mask crumbled and the man suddenly looked decades older than his middle years. “They’ll be all over the bridges. Trying to get out by boat is a death trap for obvious reasons. That damned mist is blocking the roads to the south. Do you feel it?”

“What?” Nila frowned.

“The crushing sense of despair. A dark whirlpool spinning round and round without beginning or end. You just realize one day that you’re already caught in it and it’s too late…”

Veronica blinked.

Dalton’s words struck a chord.

The old guy was right.

She realized that she was feeling what the he had just described.

Except it was more like a pressure squeezing all around her brain.

“I thought I was making a difference, but… none of it mattered did it? We are all so small. Like ants in the eyes of gods.” Dalton’s words seemed to mesmerize the room as he walked slowly over to the side table next to the couch. “There is no hope is there. Bennett said you had people capable of freeing us from this dark nightmare, but… you’re here because that person got captured. Just like the rest of us.”

Nila’s eyes narrowed. “What are you—?”

Dalton reached down to the drawer.

“Stop him!” Detective Ordonez shouted.

Nila and Rino moved, but they were on the other side of the room.

Too late.

Dalton pulled a revolver out of the drawer and pressed it under his chin. “No hope left…” he closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger.

The bullet tore through the ceiling.

Hanna had drawn and struck with her long sword faster than a blink. It was enough to knock the gun out from under Dalton’s chin.

Nila and Rino disarmed the big man with ease.

Dalton didn’t resist as Nila pulled the gun from his fingers, while Rino restrained him.

“No hope left…” Dalton muttered softly.

The pressure had built to overwhelming levels.

Veronica could feel it in the brain signals.

Whatever it was was affecting everyone.

“It’s here…” Alexa groaned weakly from her position on the couch. The woman had been in and out of consciousness for the past few hours. All the way from their sewer escape to the trip to Dalton’s house.

“The old dude is right,” Johnny said from where he sat on the stairs, head in his hands. “We’re never getting out of this place.”

Veronica felt it like a giant hand sticking its grubby fingers into everyone.

“Hopeless?” Veronica whispered.

Maybe they were right. What was the point? Her dad and sister were screwed. She was too weak to help them and she was the strongest one in the room. What could a stupid, useless girl do against real monsters? She had seen the giant monster lizard thing Tessa had killed back in their neighborhood. Veronica knew that she couldn’t have done the same. Her power sucked compared to her sister’s.

“I don’t understand?” Detective Ordonez’s voice was confused. “Flo? Was it all useless? My leg… am I even a person anymore?”

Jake sobbed softly as he curled into the fetal position by the front door. “Gonna eat me… gonna eat me…”

Rino bristled dangerously as her lips curled to reveal slowly lengthening fangs.

Dalton whimpered as her hold became more painful.

Nila’s hands shook and fell limp at her side. Dalton’s revolver dropped to the floor with a thud.

Hanna’s sword followed suit a split-second later.

Tears and prayers filled the room.

Veronica teetered.

Until one voice somehow pierced the invisible miasma.

Bastien clutched his hand together in prayer. His knuckles white from the force.

“Hail Mary full of grace…”

The young man prayed. His words wavered at first, but they grew firmer.

Soft light emanated from between his death grip.

It eased the pressure, but only just barely.

Veronica blinked.

A moment of clarity and realization.

It wouldn’t be right if an evil cult and a weird fish god thing won after all the bad things they had done.

“Not justice,” Veronica muttered.

A spike of pain in her brain made her cry out and fall.

Her mom jolted out of her own stupor.

“Baby?” Megan blinked then rushed over.

“I’m fine, Mom… not going to let the bad guys win,” Veronica grit her teeth. She tasted blood from where she had accidentally bitten her tongue.

“Oh my god! You’re bleeding!” Megan cupped Veronica’s face between her hands and cast her healing spell.

Veronica instantly felt better.

The pressure on her lessened.

The mist in her thoughts cleared slightly.

It was still there, however, still pushing, straining to envelope her once again.

“Sorry about this, Mom,” Veronica said as she gathered her power.

Seconds to build up to the strongest brain blast she had ever attempted.

Except she had no target.

There was a presence out there on the edges of her perceptions, but she couldn’t pinpoint it. Rather it was all around them.

Like water they were all drowning in.

“Hey! Fish asshole! Get out of our heads!”

Veronica unleashed a powerful electromagnetic burst in every direction outside of Dalton’s house.

She didn’t want to scramble the others’ brains.

Veronica heard something like a roar of indignation as the pressure pulled back.

“Take that!” Veronica whooped then promptly passed out.

“What the hell was that?” Rino recovered first.

“Is Veronica okay?” Nila looked on with concern.

Megan simply nodded.

Jake shot to his feet and surreptitiously tried to wipe his snot-covered face.

Gene and Johnny did the same.

Olo helped Bastien to his feet. The young man was wan and pale.

“She pushed it away,” Alexa said. Her voice was weak, but steadier than it had been for hours.

“Pushed what away?” Hanna scowled. She eyed her empty hand with confusion. Before snatching her sword from the floor.

“Evil… something evil,” Bastien said.

“Concepts don’t fit,” Alexa tried to sit up, but Max gently pushed her back. “Good, evil… it’s beyond those thing… I think.”

“The Deep Azure,” Nila said. “That was the Deep Azure and it reached out directly.”

“Why? Why now… if it could’ve done that this whole time?” Dalton sat on the floor. His hands limply at his sides. “If it could make me— make me—”

“It can’t ignore things any longer. That’s the most rational explanation. Our actions are a legitimate threat to its plan,” Detective Ordonez said.

“But what can we possible do?” Dalton said.

“Free my husband and daughter,” Megan said. “That’s what we’re here for.”

“But we’ll die…”

“You were just about to,” Hanna said. “And I saved your life. You owe me now,” she said mercilessly. She pointed at the unconscious Veronica. “She saved us, which includes the rest of your people. So, it seems to me that you all owe her. The Deep Azure was seconds away from having you all kill yourselves. Is that how you want to go out? With an invading god pulling your strings?”

“Death isn’t necessarily the end,” Alexa said.

“Okay, that sounds ominous,” Olo said.

“Honestly don’t know entirely what I mean. Feeling a little out of it.” Alexa leaned her head back on the couch and closed her eyes.

“I’m not dying on my knees or in the fetal position. And I’m definitely not going to kill myself for some Cthulhu-wannabe mother fucker!” Hanna snapped at Dalton.

The big man looked so small, so diminished, but he picked his head up and a spark of life flashed in his eyes. He nodded.

A series of loud howls made almost everyone jump.

“That’s Kare. She’s on her way back from scouting and if we’re doing this then we need to act quickly. The cult’s in disarray, but that won’t last long,” Rino said.

“You got all that from howling?” Olo said skeptically.

“Yeah,” Rino said. “Oh and for the record I wasn’t going to off my self like you weaklings. I was going to kill everyone in this room.”

Silence.

“No offense,” Rino shrugged.

“I—” Nila began, “I was going to kill you… no offense.”

Rino barked a laugh. “I’d like to see you try.”

Then, Threnosh World

PJ15 headed directly for the closest security station. Their power armor blended in with the dim surroundings.

The city section wasn’t dead like much of the areas they had crossed during their long, winding journey.

Energy readings were close to 100% of expected usage.

PJ15 noted that many facilities were in operation. Manufacturing and fabrication facilities. Nutrient production facilities. The massive birthing creche facility.

It was only the lack of lighting that created an illusion of a dead area.

There was one structure that wasn’t in the city map.

In place of a large transport landing and departure zone was an enormous, foreboding oval structure.

PJ15 saw it clearly despite the kilometer or so distance.

It was almost as large as the birthing creche and yet the structure appeared to be without a roof.

Its purpose wasn’t clear at first.

They got a hint when they saw the Inheritors and corrupted taking the captured Brightstrike into the structure.

PJ15 worked as fast as they could to reinitialize control of the security station.

They were too slow.

They were too late when they finally located Honor.

He was also being led to the arena.

Surveillance video was from a great distance and much detail was lost in the zoom function, but Honor appeared strange. He walked stiffly and his eyes stared ahead with a blank look in them.

Dread filled PJ15 as they frantically redoubled their efforts to activate the combat drones in the security station and those in the scattered auxiliary locations.

PJ15 desperately searched for a way to view what was happening inside the massive structure, but there was nothing.

The command console beeped.

Success!

PJ15 immediately engaged the combat drones.

Minutes.

It would take minutes for them to initialize, roll out and begin attacking the corrupted and Inheritors.

Time ran out.

A bright beam of yellow light flared out of the oval structure. It stabbed up into the sky like a giant blade for a few seconds, before it winked out of existence.

PJ15 stared at the surveillance feed in their faceplate.

Silence.

Their thoughts were silent.

The near constant murmuring from their power armor had also ceased.

Deep down they both knew what the light signaled.

Minutes passed.

A separate feed showed movement out of the structure.

It was Honor.

He was surrounded by corrupted and Inheritors as they led him away into a nearby lift.

PJ15 jolted at the wordless voice in his head.

It was correct.

This was what they and Brightstrike had come here for.

They consulted the map. The lift led to a dwelling facility just below street level. They knew where the enemy was keeping Honor.

Projectile fire erupted all over the city section as the combat drones finally engaged the corrupted and Inheritors.

PJ15 located an aerial transport shaft that led directly to the surface. It wasn’t too far away.

An hour if they used stealth.

Less than fifteen minutes if they abandoned caution and flew directly.

From there it was even less time to the surface and hopefully the chance to signal their location to the rest of their team.

PJ15 hoped that their team was still strong enough to fight into the heart of the enemy and help them rescue Honor from captivity. It had been a long time and they weren’t entirely certain how the battles on the surface had been going.

PJ15 locked the command console before leaving. The enemy hadn’t shown any proficiency or desire to utilize a majority of Threnosh technology, outside of the birthing creches, weapon and armor fabrication and basic nutrient production.

Still, they didn’t want the possibility of the combat drones being disabled or turned against them.

PJ15 felt the structure shake before they heard the loud squealing sounds approaching.

It took them a moment, but they realized that it was the sound of tearing metal.

Massive gray fingers with bony protrusions at the knuckles plunged through the ceiling like paper and ripped it open with ease.

Gyxdor dropped down and dented the metallic floor with its massive feet.

“You won’t escape me this time,” the Inheritor rumbled.

Gyxdor had to crouch to fit their head under the ceiling.

The Inheritor loomed like a giant monster over PJ15’s diminutive form.

PJ15’s power armor bristled. They felt the eagerness transmit clearly into their thoughts, but forced it away with some effort. They weren’t here to fight. They had a Task to complete, which meant escape was the only path.

“Will you give me battle or will you use unworthy tricks and flee like you did last time?” Gyxdor laughed, a booming thing that caused PJ15’s auditory protections to engage. “I am tired of the lack of a proper fight. Your fire breathing ally had to resort to dropping me into a canyon when they couldn’t take the beating any longer.”

“Thank you,” PJ15 said flatly.

Gyxdor frowned.

“Salamander being alive and in a position to provide battle are pieces of information that I did not have.”

“It won’t matter,” Gyxdor shrugged. “Not after I smash you to pulp.”

Gyxdor snatched at PJ15 with surprising quickness for the Inheritor’s massive bulk.

Tendrils shot out of PJ15’s back even quicker and pulled them out of reach.

“I must also give you further thanks—” PJ15 shot a spear-like tendril out of their hand.

Gyxdor blocked it with an upraised arm lest he lose an eye.

“—for creating a direct egress from this structure.”

PJ15 used the momentary distraction to jump up and use Gyxdor as a platform to ascend up the hole in the ceiling.

The Inheritor had left a gaping way that led directly outside.

PJ15 transformed their boots into jets and scorched Gyxdor's face on their way out.

The Inheritor’s outraged bellow followed PJ15 into the open.

Once they were out in the clear wings sprouted from their back and they shot toward the huge shaft leading to the surface.

Despite being one of the lowest levels in Orchestral Meridian City Section 12 was an enormous cavern with a ceiling that reached up close to 800 meters at the tallest point.

It was essentially a small city in its own right.

PJ15 flew into a thick, buzzing cloud that had appeared as if out of nowhere.

Insects bit and stung, but they were no match for PJ15’s power armor.

The gray surface attacked with a mind of its own.

Thousands of insects were stabbed, crushed and sliced as the power armor’s surface writhed with outrage.

PJ15 recalled the Inheritor with the ability to release and control insects.

Tylox was the name.

They felt the urge to search for the Inheritor and attack them in return.

Once again they quashed the thought by focusing on their Task.

They oriented themselves toward the aerial transport shaft as the last of the insects were brushed off the surface of their power armor.

The entire city section below them was dim and dark, except for brief flashes of light when combat drones missed and their projectiles struck metallic walls.

PJ15 didn’t need proper lighting to see the chaos unfold far below them.

Combat drones clashed with swarming masses of corrupted. They occasionally caught sight of unique Inheritors battling the drones. Unfortunately, those drones didn’t fare as well as the former.

PJ15 reached the huge transport shaft many minutes later. They landed on the side of the cylindrical shaft and started climbing. They didn’t have enough energy to power their boot jets indefinitely. It’d take time to recharge on its own.

The proximity alert beeped.

It was from the outer reach of its range.

PJ15 looked down for a moment. Then climbed faster.

Pursuit was only a few hundred meters below.

Inheritors and corrupted climbed.

There were so many.