28: Caring for Monsters
Blizzard Realm
Dan Dresden

From the moment I recovered him until now, Banjee was groaning from a fracture in his right thigh as well as a broken left hand and possibly a couple of shattered ribs. But he suddenly became silent once he looked at his rearview mirror.

"¿Me estás vacilando? (Are you kidding me?)" Banjee whispered bitterly.

All we could see was white with maybe a hair of purple from Alec's Accelium. But as I looked behind me, I saw a swarm of black growing closer.

"They're relentless," I said to myself.

"Maila, Vert, stay alive…" Alec whispered.

Vert Wheeler

Maila squirmed as blood spurted out of her torn abdomen before coughing up blood on the dash. Her eyelids struggled to stay open and her severed Drone arm was hardly pressing on her wound.

"Just hold on for a little longer, Mai," I told her. "We'll get out of this realm soon."

Dread filled my mind more than ever before, and I felt a slight disconnect from my mind to the barely-visible road ahead of me.

"You two will not be going anywhere…"

The voice was distinctly Russian.

"Harkov…" Maila whispered before coughing again.

A swarm of nine flying Drones were gaining behind us. The lead one had a G-class with red windows serving as a conduit for its flying exoskeleton; the rest of them were Heavies.

Behind us, the thick snow obscuring the camera serving as my rearview mirror started to turn black and green.

"Ten on one," one of the Rød Drones commented. "Let's see what Gelorum's Murderer can do."

"North, LeBlanc, we're glad to have you fighting for our side in our moment of victory," Harkov said pridefully.

"Yeah," Anna said, but I could tell she was half-hearted in her delivery.

"Their decadence ends here. OPEN FIRE!" Harkov screamed.

The skyline turned from pale white to blood red as the energy bombs began raining down onto us.

"There will be no mercy for those locked in the failures of humanity!" Harkov shouted. "They are beyond even our repair. Death shall be their answer! The death of these two shall bring new purpose to our race! Let them redeem themselves as their blood cleanses the plague they have brought upon us!"

I steered sharp to the right as the first bomb hit.

"Hang on!" I warned Maila as I slammed my fist on the red Nitrox 3 button. The sudden burst of speed felt more likely to give me whiplash compared to even when I used that Hyperpod at the Water Realm; the digital speedometer clocking at 590 MPH. My eyes stayed glued to the faint purple color of the track I was supposed to be on.

By sheer luck, I was still on the track as the Nitrox wore off and my car slowed down.

Maila hacked blood on the glovebox, her coughs becoming more strained and dry.

"Shit…" I whispered. Any sudden movements would hurt her more.

But how could I dodge the Drones' attacks in a straight line?

One of the red energy bombs landed just twenty-feet away in front of Reverb; the impact was strong enough to shatter the rest of the windows with shrapnel leaving light cuts across Maila's torso.

I kept turning my head between looking at the road obscured by the blizzard and Maila. Any moment from now, whatever little movements she made could stop right then and there.

"Either we will kill the Valkyrie or you will," Harkov boasted. "Either way, this will be a symbolic victory for the sake of our kind! For the necessary extermination of the weak and depraved! For evolution!"

I turned and looked at Maila's face. Whilst fading in and out of consciousness, even she felt disgusted by her former ally's speech.

Alina LeBlanc

Anna's fingers fidgeted on the steering mechanism of her Oh-Nine while her face began contorting in disgust; even more so than when the Valkyrie's rampage had been at its peak.

Why? This could all end with just one bomb hitting that blasted blue sports car. The Valkyrie would be dead and Gelorum would be avenged. Or at least that's what we've been told.

Dreams of a utopia could still be possible.

But as I watched the blue car erratically dodging Rød Squadron's barrage with impossible effort - on icy roads no less -, I could not help but feel like this wasn't right.

It was like a man hitting a helpless woman. Soldiers killing children in our modern wars. Someone telling a depressed man to kill himself.

No. This did not feel like creating a utopia at all.

I got the feeling that Anna knew this dream was dead from the start until she confirmed it, saying, "It's time…"

"You're going to…" I shouted, even though I knew the answer.

Anna took out the Metro Realm Accelecharger she took from the Valkyrie and inserted it into the reader. A golden, shining aura covered Oh-Nine, as if the former tyrants from my childhood were right about a "divine power lurking within the mortal world" that could have "cleansed" the love I had for women like Anna.

Taro Kitano

Karma kept her finger on the EMP trigger button, firing balls of blue energy toward anything that appeared in the foggy white void. No matter how prepared anyone in her way was, the second they even cross a hundred meters within her sight, they're dead.

"You will all pay!" she cried as she blasted a Drone the second they appeared in her sight. "For what you did to her!" Another Drone dead. "Back then and now!"

Even Maila was not this rabid.

One Light Drone steered left from one of her attacks, scraping within inches of its right vertical fin. The Drone then drifted right as Karma passed by, charging its energy bomb at her.

I immediately slammed by fist on one of the buttons on my steering wheel before a gatling gun emerged from the rear trunk of Rivited.

"It's too dangerous! We need to turn back!" I shouted.

"I'm not leaving her!" Karma shouted, her voice cracking.

Alina LeBlanc

"We fight for love! Not for hatred!" Anna shouted as she drifted her car like a bowling ball towards the swarm of Drones behind us.

"Anna, NO!" I covered my face, expecting the end.

But I did not feel anything as Anna collided with the first Drone. Not even a light bump.

The Drones colliding into us started bouncing like massage balls falling off the track and exploding onto the snowy grounds below.

"What the-?!" Harkov shouted.

One Light Drone exploded into a mountain, forcing an avalanche to rain ice, rock, and dirt towards the rest of the trailing Drones behind us, burying them alive. I screamed as a falling boulder was about to break our windshield only for it to bounce like it was made of rubber.

"Consider this my formal resignation message, you psychotic snake!" Anna radioed to Harkov.

"The corruption is spreading..." Harkov murmured. "The weakness of empathy has tainted your once pure hearts."

"No one is pure of heart," Anna said. "And that's why we can never have a utopia."

Vert Wheeler

I sighed out a breath of relief as I saw Anna fight for us instead of against us.

"Anna, Alina, there's a jammer vehicle that's preventing us from bailing out of this Realm-"

"I know," Anna said tensely. "One of the Rød cars are using it."

"If you can take him out, we'll all be able to escape."

I saw Maila's tired eyes point towards the rearview camera on my dash. I also thought of Banjee, Shirako… and Markie.

I thought we would be invincible by the time we destroyed the Hammer, if distressed at how we handled it. But any second from now and with this Realm feeling all too similar to the Desert Realm's sandstorm, some of us could end up like Markie.

Markie…

I felt sick to my stomach, and I could barely feel the shockwaves from the explosions coming from Rød Squadron's energy bombs.

Alina LeBlanc

Oh-Nine's radar highlighted the Rød car that was jamming their electronic signals.

"It's going to be a tough one," Anna radioed to Vert. "We are with you."

Taro Kitano

"Vert, we have you on radar," I reported.

"Taro, Karma, get these guys off me! I can't battle with Maila hurt like this!"

"Who do I shoot?" Karma asked coldly.

"It's them, Karma. Rød Squadron."

"Engaging." Drift Tech began charging a large blue EMP ball aimed at the flying black silhouettes above.

"Those bast-" The sight of the blue Amour G-class suddenly caught her eye. "You're dead. YOU'RE DEAD!" Karma screamed as she was about to collide Drift Tech head-on, rear wheels exploding into bursts of white Nitrox fire.

"Karma, NO!" I shouted.

"Ah helvete!" Anna shouted as she steered away, the right end coming less than an inch close from clipping her.

Karma Eiss

"You snake!" I shouted as I yanked the handbrake almost to the point of snapping it off, drifting my car to the right. Suddenly, Drift Tech spun a complete 180. I spun my steering wheel in a random direction, praying to whatever was out there to return control.

The thought of Tone Pasaro's death flickered in the back of my mind.

"That was reckless of you, Tone," I said as I approached the Teku leader, who had recently won a street race with a member of the Speed-X racers. "You could have gotten yourself killed out there."

"Hey, hey, if you want to have cred, you gotta show off a little," Tone chuckled causally as a groupie walked to his left side and began caressing him.

"This has not been like you," I protested. "Ever since..."

"We're not in Oregon anymore, kid," Tone said. "California is one different beast."

The next thing I knew, I fell off the track onto another track below. Orange glass shattered across the track.

Vert Wheeler

"Karma!" I shouted as I saw Drift Tech disappear below the track from my rearview camera mirror.

I wanted to lift the e-brake and glide back. Maila's eyes began to water.

"There's nothing we can do," Anna said as Taro zoomed across her. "Let her wingmate rescue her. I'm still trying to get a clear shot!"

Memories of my failure to save Kadeem started resurfacing. If only Deora II's grappling hook caught Krazy 8's tailwing. If only we had more time to rescue him without the one-hour time limit.

And even after being crowned an Acceleracer, I still felt powerless.

Could I save Maila? Any moment from now, she could fall down and die.

"This is Monkey! I would really like some cover over here!" the Maniac squirmed over the radio.

"Nolo, keep it together!" Tork shouted.

"I'm trying!" Nolo cried desperately, almost as helpless as he was when Tone died, according to what Karma and Shirako told me.

"Our EDRs are still inoperable!" Dresden shouted. "It's a total war zone here!"

"Blast! If we could contact base, we would have reinforcements!" Maximo shouted.

"No one's coming for us! We're on our own!" Finn said with a grim tone.

"I have a lock on Gelorum's Murderer," Dimitri said. "Wheeler, you and the Valkyrie shall be no more!"

Powerless.

"All units, protect Wheeler at all costs."

"I'm hit!" Suddenly, one of the Rød craft began trailing fire before descending and crashing into the ground.

"Wheeler, we're here for you!" a voice said with a slight Chinese accent.

"Lau?" I shouted.

Another Rød craft fell down from the sky.

"We lost Rød 5 and 6!" one of the Rød Drones reported.

"Who was it that shot them down?!" Dimitri screamed.

"Those are our kind," another Rød Drone reported.

I looked at the rearview camera and saw a squadron of three Drones, marked with blue bodies and orange windshields emerge out of the snowy air.

"This is Jari Lindroos of the Drone Resistance. Wheeler, you are not fighting this alone," a man in a think Finnish accent assured.

"Blue and orange," Anna said quietly. "Wheeler, you must have a fan club in our ranks."

"Ride the wind, my friends!"

I instantly recognized that voice. Then I looked at one of the rebelling Drone planes. It had the same beige body and orange windshield as a particular car in the Dune Ratz team.

"Kadeem..."

"Rød Squadron, engage these traitors!" Dimitri shouted. "This cancer has spread like a plague."

The volume of red energy bombs suddenly stopped exploding around me.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you. Kadeem, Harrison..."

"This is Tork. Whoever's helping us, we appreciate it."

"Lieutenant Serpa here. We're in the clear as well."

"Banjee, looks like we're gonna live to fight another day," Dresden said.

"Stinku colors everywhere," Porkchop said in awe.

"Ah, man. Why don't we have Drones in red or orange?" Monkey whined. "The Maniacs need representation too!"

HÅP
1st Air Service Squadron
Drone Alliance
Harrison Lau

"Lindroos here. We have the jammer Drone on radar."

"Light him up so they can get home safely," I ordered.

"Roger, Håp Leader," Jari said.

"Roger, Håp Leader," Kadeem said.

All three of us pursued the jammer Drone

"Penderecki, they're coming for you! Evade!" Dimitri shouted.

"Dammit, just when we had them!" Penderecki said.

He began zig-zagging in and out of our line of fire. "I'll have to admit he's a good one," I said.

"All Rød units, leave him! Focus on Gelorum's Murderer!" Dimitri screamed.

"Hurry!" Vert screamed as Dimitri and the rest of the squadron broke off to pursue him.

"I got a lock! Firing!" Kadeem shouted as he fired a missile at Penderecki. The Drone swiftly flung rightward, but too late as the missile connected with his right wing. "Target hit!"

"Firing missile!" Jari said as he splashed the fighter out of the sky.

"All right! Our EDR systems are now operational! Let's get out of here!" Tork shouted.

"Whoever you are, proper timing," Finn said.

"Kadeem, Jari, hook onto Wheeler," I ordered as I launched a grappling hook, sticking onto the loose bumper of Vert's blue sports car. My two squadmates followed suit.

"Alina, we're leaving too," Anna said as her car hooked on to the right exhaust pipe.

"Let's get out of here, Wheeler!" I said to Vert.

Vert's car teleported out of the Realm. Anna's G-class followed suit followed by Jari, Kadeem, and myself.

Vert Wheeler

Reverb flew out of the portal and drifted down the ramp. I struggled with the steering wheel to keep it stable.

"WHOA!" Monkey shouted as one of the Drones was about to collide in his direction before coming to a sudden stop.

Another Drone was about to collide onto the ceiling, but stopped himself just in the nick of time.

"Didn't think we'd have this little space to fly in," Jari commented.

"Vert, what happened?" Dad asked as he ran out of the revolving doors.

"Get paramedics here ASAP!" I shouted. "Zulu Class! Maila's badly wounded!"

Dad stood for a moment before ordering two of the personnel.

I turned to Maila, who looked like she was about to collapse her forehead onto the dash. "We made it," I said to her.

The rest of the drivers started appearing out of the portal as well, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"We have everyone accounted for," Dresden said. "Except for Karma and Taro."