Hicks

Shit, this was all we needed. My muscles still felt like water, and I wasn't willing to bet against the only things keeping me upright being Nick's grip on my hand and his other hand set against my back. Next to the cot, I could see Faith judging the distance between her and Flynn, while over on her side of the room, Dupres was doing the same. The guy with them, who I didn't recognize, looked to be judging the distance between him and Dupres, maybe planning to play meat shield if necessary.

Flynn stepped into the room, moving out of the doorway without his aim ever wavering from its target. Following him in was his usual partner, Private Rudy Wojciechowski.* Big guy from Chicago, everybody usually just called him Rude. I didn't blame 'em– it had taken me a week of practice to get his surname right, but I'd promised myself I wasn't going to be that asshole again. Even if Polish names run by a completely different set of rules than American English.

Wojciechowski's sidearm was out too, and he'd made the eminently sensible decision to cover Faith. Had to hand it to both of 'em, they knew how to do a threat assessment. I took the opportunity to check out both of their eyes, and winced slightly. There wasn't any of the dull look or greenish shine that had marked people the aliens had controlled; they looked perfectly normal. Whatever this was, it was a lot more subtle and a lot nastier.

"Call it in, yo," Flynn told his partner. "Pretty sure the boss lady is gonna be thrilled to see what we caught."

Dupres tensed slightly, and Flynn raised his weapon just a bit. "I wouldn't. We can fix you up if I put a bullet in your knee, but you still wouldn't enjoy it."

Damn it, I wasn't going to let this happen. On top of everything else, if that thing pretending to be Elsie Chapman managed to use her abilities on even one of the people in this room, we were in deep trouble. All of 'em, and we might as well run up the white flag right here. I had no illusions how long I'd last if she managed to turn Nick, given that his magic was apparently the only thing keeping me my usual charming self.

Nick squeezed my hand, and I felt a pulse of warmth spread out from the hand on my back. Grabbing onto it, I forced myself to stand, releasing my grip on Nick as I did so. Flynn and Wojciechowski both looked towards me, though I noticed that neither of them shifted their aim.

"You don't want to do this," I told them both. I didn't raise my voice, or try for a particularly soothing tone. I kept it level, calm, like talking down a jumper.

"You're both good soldiers, some of the best. You wouldn't be in this unit otherwise. You're smart and you're level-headed, and this isn't you."

Flynn frowned, and I saw Wojciechowski's gun waver just slightly. Encouraged, I took another, careful step forward. The distance between us seemed to stretch on forever, but it was probably only about six or so feet.

"Sir– sit down before you fall down," Flynn said. His gun was still aimed at Dupres, but his eyes were on me, and I took a second to pray that she'd back my play rather than try and jump him.

I shook my head, taking another careful step. "I can't do that, Private. You know that– you both know that. I fought too hard for this place to hand it over to somebody else, no matter how powerful. This is my job, this is my duty. You're calling her boss, but why? She's sure as hell not in your chain of command. And she's not one of those 'fucking lunatics' who's kept you guys alive through things that would make Jack Hanna hide under the bed. So why exactly has she got your loyalty over them, or me?"

The warmth around me pulsed again, radiating amusement. Yeah, laugh it up, Worm Guy, wait until you hear the stories this guy tells the newbies about you. You're starting to sound like a cross between David Attenborough and Batman. Which, I can't say that's entirely wrong.

"I– wait, what–" Flynn's aim was wavering now, but his finger was still resting on the trigger guard. I took another step, then another, until I was standing directly in front of the two men.

"Gentlemen." I made my voice as calm and authoritative as I possibly could. "Give me the guns. Now."

Something– shattered, is the only way I can describe it. It wasn't visible, but I had the sensation of something cracking apart like salt rime and flying away as sparkly pink dust. The sound of two safeties clicking on almost echoed in the silence, and then two nine-millimeters were being presented to me, butt first. I took them and stepped backward, only to fetch up against Nick, who laid a hand against my shoulderblades to prop me up.

"...What the fuck just happened, yo?" Flynn demanded, rubbing at his face as though he'd just woken up. "Er– sir."

"You're fine, Private," I replied, tucking one of the guns into my empty holster and handing the other one over to Dupres, who stowed it somewhere in that leather jacket of hers.

The guy I didn't recognize produced a couple candy bars from the pack at his feet. "Here. You two just managed to break a pretty powerful psychic compulsion, that burns a lot of calories."

Flynn and Wojciechowski exchanged glances, then looked over at me. At my nod, they took the candy and tore into it, while Faith pushed a third one into my hand.

"Pretty sure you're gonna need this too, Major," she told me with a grin. "I'm thinking that whole thing was as much you as them."

"It was," Nick said firmly. "You were leaning on my aura and I could feel it… sort of like using a tuning fork to shatter a wine glass."

Dupres looked thoughtful. "Loyalty. You are their legitimate authority, and they accept that. This close, with the strength of Dr. Tatopoulos's power behind you, it was enough to remove the false bond."

"Oath magic," the new guy agreed. "Or a psychic version of it. They didn't swear to her willingly, so she doesn't really have a claim on them."

Wojciechowski was looking a little confused, but Flynn didn't bat an eyelash. Seeing the expression in my face, he shrugged. "Someday I'll tell you about all the crazy shit I got into in high school, sir, though maybe off-duty and with a cooler of beer."

"I'll put it on my calendar," I replied. "Now what the hell is going on here, Worm Guy?"

"And I recognize Death on Legs and the Man With No Fear over there, but who're you two?" Flynn asked.

"Faith Lehane, that's my boss. He just goes by Angel," Faith replied, checking my pulse again.

I raised both eyebrows. "As in Buffy's ex, Angel?" I asked. I tried to keep my tone neutral, but he winced anyway.

"Ah… It's nice to meet you, I've heard a lot about you from Giles?" he said, only a hint of nervousness in his tone. Well, Nick had obviously been working with the guy and hadn't staked him yet, so he was probably fine. Probably.

The computer on the desk beeped suddenly, drawing everyone's attention, and Angel relaxed. "Oh, good, it's done," he announced, as Dupres pulled what looked like a satellite phone out of her pocket.

"We are in, it's your turn," she announced.

Unsurprisingly, Hernandez's voice came out of the speaker loud and clear. "Right then, the virus should have subverted the systems and restored satellite connectivity… and yep, there we go, we have access. Where do you want to go today?"

I facepalmed. "I didn't hear any of that," I sighed.

"Hey, Major Hicks, good to hear from you!" the kid said– the pickup on that phone must have been amazing.

"Gettin' into the scanners now," a woman's voice added in a definite Texas drawl. "Looks like there's a lot of interference from the– I'm just gonna call it twisted space right now, it's close enough. Don't think we're gonna be able to get a portal open through this until the field strength drops."

Nick grimaced. "Field strength meaning the energy output from those obelisks?"

"Yeah. They're not power taps, exactly, in the sense that they're pullin' power outta the network. What they are is like the jack on your headphones, they're expandin' the network to let the energy flow up and over the islands, then back in through… oooh."

Angel and Faith traded looks. "Fred, I don't like the sound of that 'ooh,'" Angel said.

"Looks like the ship itself is a fourth tap, but it's puttin' the energy back in. Makes sense, from what Elsie said. If the Shadow's pluggin' into the energy network to basically become the planet's mind, she'd want the energy to keep circulatin'. But yeah, the obelisks are resonatin', and that gives us the interference. You're gonna need to to plant the power collectors, then find a way to destroy the obelisks."

Flynn raised a hand. "Uh, that one we can help with. Gotta know how the security works if we're defendin' the place, after all."

Dupres sighed. "Why do I have the suspicion that it will require something more esoteric than explosives?"

"Give the lady a cigar. Each of the big sticks is tied to a… boss lady calls 'em Guardians. They're basically robots made of crystal chunks and energy. Take them out, the spire goes out too."

"What can they do?" Angel asked.

Flynn tapped one finger on his belt. "Well, one of 'em throws big-ass lightning bolts, enough that the fucking snake decided it didn't wanna play games, yo. Think one of the other ones throws fireballs and the last one whipped up a tornado to get the bat to go back to bed."

"Those sound… oddly like elementals," a British-accented voice said, over the phone. Right, Wesley Wyndham-Price, Faith's watcher. "You know, it's odd how very close to magical workings all of this has been, given that it's all been psychic phenomena."

Nick shrugged. "Magic and psychic phenomena bleed into each other at the edges, and I think the Shadow might be using that to expand the range of what she can…" he trailed off, eyes going unfocused. Which meant I was about to get another twenty or so gray hairs.

"Jefe?" Hernandez ventured.

"She's tied into the planet's energy network, which is magical and psychic and spiritual energy all three," Nick said slowly. "She's manipulating it, preparing for apotheosis. But she's still psychic. Which means all of this has to be processed through her mind on some level. So the more attention she puts on one thing, the less she has for everything else."

Faith nodded. "So?"

"So, if we're going to take those Guardians out, it'll be easier if somebody distracts the Shadow first. So, we need bait, preferably bait that can make a very big ripple and keep her from noticing anything else until it's too late."

Flynn put a hand out, and Wojciechowski slapped a twenty into it. "Doc, I say this with the highest respect– you are bugfuck nuts."

Nick grinned at him. "Oddly enough, I get that a lot."

—

* Wojciechowski (Voy-che-hov-ski). Polish orthography is very different than English.

Elsie

I've never been one to wake up gracefully, and being pulled out of a sound sleep at three AM doesn't exactly help. I'd gone to bed maybe five hours ago– alone, sadly. Now I was floating half a foot above the bed in my cabin, trying to figure out what exactly had woken me up. Another ripple of energy passed over me, and I closed my eyes to better focus. Something on the east side of the island, a ripple of energy down by the port… aha. Well, it looked like Nicky had decided to join the party.

There was only one path he could take from there, along the winding trail up to the top of the cliff. Probably trying to infiltrate the main base, those ripples in the island's energy felt muted. Nicky was a lot better at magic than he admitted to himself or anyone else, it was just mostly passive, subconscious effects. In this case, making himself hard to notice. I had a hunch it had been leaking around the edges of the limiter for years, because Nick was just too good at sneaking around.

Reaching out, I reassured myself that Mendel was still asleep in his own cabin, not too far away. We'd spent most of the evening exploring the ship, with a quick break for a romantic candlelight dinner on what I'd tentatively identified as an observation deck. I hadn't seen him this nervous since our first date, but since he was mainly radiating anxiety about putting his foot in his mouth, I'd just kept my amusement to myself. I did make sure his door wouldn't be opening without my permission, but that was just… a precaution. It was a big ship, and I didn't want him getting lost.

I quickly dressed, a bright blue sleeveless top and black pants, perfect for a tropical late spring. And heck, it couldn't hurt to look good when confronting Nick. Not that he was one to let his hormones do his thinking, and honestly, I wasn't even totally sure he was really interested in me that way. But still, the more I looked pretty, the less I looked like a threat. And this was Nick; I could use any advantage I could get.

The energy-rich atmosphere filling the area around the archipelago made twisting the space between here and there child's play, and soon enough, I was hovering over the area where the cliff led onto the open deck of the observation base. The entire area was lit with floodlights, and I could see the guards currently standing alertly at their posts. Part of me wanted to see how Nicky planned to get in, but if it involved sedatives, (and it probably did,) I'd be down several soldiers until it wore off, and I'd rather not lose the manpower. Besides, these were my people; I didn't want them hurt, not even minor injuries.

Instead, I floated up above the lights, scanning for him until I just barely caught the flare of his mind from a stand of trees and vegetation at the edge of the bare patch. It was like looking for a single flash of light in a sea of shadows; Nicky always had been good at going unnoticed.

It was far enough away from the guard posts for an uninterrupted conversation, so I let myself drift downward until my feet were touching the rock. Then I waited, probing to see if I could feel any of the rest of the team around. Surprisingly enough, the answer was no, and I wondered what the hell Nick had pulled off to get Monique to let him come on this crazy adventure by himself.

Finally, after a second, Nick stepped out into the moonlight. I couldn't see his eyes, the shadows were too deep, but wariness was written in the line of his shoulders, not to mention I could feel it radiating from him even without trying to touch his mind.

"So," I began, breaking the silence between us, "how do you like your present, Nicky?"

"Don't know that it's worth the price you paid for it, Elsie," he replied soberly.

I tilted my head to one side, trying to get a better look at his face. "What do you mean, 'price?'"

"You brainwashed an entire island worth of soldiers, Elsie. You kidnapped Mendel. And now you're doing God knows what to the planet's energy field– I can feel the way things are knotting up here. You've lost something, that's for damn sure. Because the Elsie Chapman I know wouldn't be so cavalier with other peoples' lives."

A flare of anger sparked, and I forced it down, fists clenching. "The Elsie Chapman you knew was– is a shell, a mask, built up out of years of being what everybody else wanted– the perfect daughter, the girl who never outshone her sister, the girlfriend who never made her boyfriend choose her over the damn birds– and of course, the assistant and fellow researcher who was always there to contribute to the job and the papers."

"She's also my friend, the person I've always relied on to call my on my bullshit, when I got my head stuck too far up my ass to be able to see that I was making a mess, pointed out when I was being an irrational idiot, put a particle beam shot past my ear to protect the entire team from me when I was trying to rewrite all of you into compliant minions because I was so sure I knew what was best for everyone– remember?"

I did, but those memories seemed washed out, somehow. Information, no emotional weight, not compared with all the times I'd choked down my bitterness at watching him like a moth to Audrey's candle flame, burning his wings over and over, but always circling back around to try just one more time. And okay, I had Mendel now, but it still burned that even before that, Nick had never looked, never seen, never given me a damn chance.

Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly, focusing on him, and on my goal. Because what I wanted now was just– I wanted Nick to choose me. Follow me, pick me, be for me as much as I, as all of us had always been for him.

"Nick. You said it yourself, the Hivemind are going to be back. We only won last time because we got lucky, and because they only had two agents who could operate in-atmosphere. Once we took out their mind control and could start mounting an actual coordinated response, they pulled back, not because they thought they'd lose, but because they didn't want a win at that level of cost. They underestimated us once– they're not going to do that next time. We need to be ready."

I took another step towards him, willing him to understand. "And they're not the only threat out there! Earth's been colonized in the past, and at least one of those races is out there, and still kind of pissy that we threw them off eight thousand years ago. We're not in any shape to face them either. And given how crappy humans are at getting along with each other, we can't afford to wait for the people in charge to pull together."

"So you'll make them all listen, is that it? Just wave your hand, and they'll fall into line, and it's all justified because you're trying to save the world. Kind of like Jonathan Insley."

"I resent that, I have not created any man-eating abominations since the last time I tried to cook."

He snorted, and even smiled a little, before going serious again. "You're not saving anyone if all that's going to happen is we're enslaved to a God-Queen rather than the Hive, Elsie."

Okay, he wasn't getting it. I opened myself up to the pulse of energy under my feet and reached out, gently, to wrap him up in a wave of power, to bring him into harmony with the rest of us. Once he understood, he'd stop fighting. He'd understand how much we– how much I needed him, beside me even if it was just as my best friend and right hand. Once he could see, he'd be mine.

Except the wave of energy broke against something, shattering into a useless spray of energy, and I saw a green light flare and die in Nick's eyes.

"... Okay, Elsie," he said, sounding almost tired. "We'll play it your way." And almost before I could react, a rush of power surrounded me, like flames engulfing a house. I could feel it pulling at me, beckoning, luring me to open myself to it, come out, join in, choose him– No!

I struck out almost blindly, sending Nick reeling a few steps backward, towards the edge of the cliff. Pulling my power around me like a cloak, I rose up off the ground, advancing slowly. I could feel my eyes burning with green energy, and static beginning to crackle around my hair.

"No more running, Nicky," I said, my voice eerily calm even in my own ears. "No more games. You're coming with me– you don't have anywhere else to go."

He looked at me, and then, incredibly, grinned. "Elsie… you really don't get it, do you?" He tossed me a salute, of all things, and then stepped backward, off the cliff.

I dashed forward, already trying to figure out how to catch him, but stopped short as I got close enough to look over the cliff… and see the giant lizard currently holding Nick in the palm of one outstretched hand.

Well. That was definitely an oversight on my part, my bad.

And then I heard the unmistakable screech of shattering crystal, and realized that I'd definitely been had.

—

Reno

They call this place the "Devil's Spine," in which case, the Devil must have one hell of a case of scoliosis, pardon the pun. The line of islands curves around in kind of a "C" shape with the opening pointing north. The big island's on the western end, Dr. Chapman's double landed her big-ass spaceship right in the middle, and Bleak Rock Island was at the east end. That was, of course, where Rude and I were headed.

Bleak Rock is pretty much what you'd expect, a buncha rocks out in the middle of the fucking ocean; no water, no vegetation, just black volcanic rock everywhere. Wind and rain have eroded it in places, but that just means it's got crannies and blind alleys and shit. So of course, that's where the Fire Guardian and its spike got stationed. I mean, it makes sense, I wouldn't want the thing torching the fuck out of the big island either, but it meant there was fuck-all for cover except the shadows thrown by the rocks in the moonlight. On the other hand, it meant we probably weren't gonna get noticed for a bit.

Pulling the skate up onto the pebbled beach, Rude and I checked our weapons and comms before heading off. This mission was gonna be radio silence as much as possible, to keep anybody from noticing us 'til it was too late, but emergencies happen, and it's better not to let your ass get blindsided by one 'cause you didn't take precautions.

People are always surprised at how fucking quiet Rude is. Not that he doesn't talk, lotsa guys are the "strong, silent type," or at least want you to think they are, yo. No, I mean the fact that he moves like a panther in house slippers. I have known actual ninja who make more noise moving around than this dude. I asked him why once, and he just shrugged and said he didn't like disturbing people.

I'd figured the spike would be deployed in the center of the island, just for security, and as we climbed over a rise, I saw a blue glow coming out of a gully a few hundred feet away, proving me right. Rude and I moved over to it as quiet as we could, keeping low just in case until we could slide down the walls of the crater it was in. Looked like maybe a lava bubble had popped open at some point, leaving a round hole with only one way in or out, unless you had climbing gear, or went by the name of Peter Parker.

Jesus, this thing looked like a prop out of a bad sci-fi TV show. A six-sided spire of crystal taller than Rude, covered with carvings and glowing that freaking blue color that oughta come with weird electronic whiny music– theremin, that's what the thing was called. It made my fucking hair stand on end. I signaled to Rude to stand guard while I started getting the little gadget we'd been given set up at the base of the thing.

I got no fucking clue how the thing worked. The lady on the other end of the phone had said something about stressed space and topological whatsawhosis, but I joined the fuckin' Army so I never had to hear the words "integral calculus" ever again. HEAT swore the thing would redirect the energy in the obelisk to the batteries of whatever weird-ass mad science gadget they had going on, that was good enough for me.

The instructions for setting it up were pretty easy, though. Apply superglue to the plate at the back of the metal thingy, stick the metal thingy to an exposed surface, hold for thirty seconds to let the glue set. Then hit the big red button. Instructions even a grunt could follow, at least if we weren't getting shot at.

I'd just hit the button when I heard the thrumming. It was kinda like earlier, when the double'd pulled on whatever she did to fix Sopler and Hoffman, except louder, and closer. I backed away from the spire, hoping the fact that I'd tucked the thing into the back would hide it from view. I'd just made it back to where Rude was when the Flame Guardian came screaming down into the crater from roughly straight up. The fucker must have felt the gizmo activate and took the ballistic missile route to get here, straight up and then right back down.

We readied our weapons, but didn't start firing yet. I hadn't gotten a good look at this thing before it was deployed, and I wanted to know more about it before we started trying for mutually assured destruction. It was kinda humanoid, in that it had two arms, a torso, and a head, but most of the body was made outta that same blue energy, with the chest, hips, and head made outta some type of clearish crystal. No legs from the hips, they just sorta floated in the air like a genie in an old cartoon. The head had a single staring blue eye in the center of a flat plate that musta been some type of face, framed by a mane of bright red hair. Like signing your work, maybe.

Oh yeah, and one arm had a giant fuck-off energy sword, glowing blue and shaped kinda like a pirate's cutlass. The creature stared at us for a moment, then raised a hand and started throwing fucking fireballs at us outta fucking nowhere. Rude and I dodged in opposite directions, raised our weapons and started firing.

Generally, given the types of things we dealt with, Mutant Response Unit guys were issued particle beam rifles as duty weapons. Monster Island wasn't any different, but Sgt. Bleakman was a paranoid son of a bitch and never got rid of anything that might be useful, if he could possibly avoid it. So we were both armed with automatic rifles loaded with armor-piercing ammo, full metal jacket. Particle beams were still fucking energy, yo, and the crystal would be able to reflect or redirect that shit. Kinetic energy, on the other hand– hit a crystal at the right angle, and it's gonna fucking shatter.

Our first shots hit the thing in the torso, and it really, really did not like that. It moved that massive sword in front of itself to block our shots, then lashed out, sending a wave of fire at us. We both hit the deck and rolled, trusting to the tough fabric of our BDUs to keep the basalt from slicing us into little ribbons. Flanking it, we opened fire on it again, me aiming at its head, Rude pouring fire into its back.

Apparently Johnny Storm there wasn't enjoying our attentions, 'cause it zipped up into the air and then came back down straight at me, leading with that giant-ass swordblade. I didn't bother firing at the fucker, just dodged and let the sword slice deep into the rock. Then I poured on the fire, center of mass, seeing crystal crack away under my bullets. Something bright and blue glittered under the crystal chest plate.

"Yo, Rude! Arc reactor!" One good thing about bein' stationed with a guy for three years running, you developed your own shorthand. He figured out what I was saying immediately, and started snapping off short bursts at the thing's chest while I reloaded.

Unfortunately for us, Fireball wasn't completely dumb. Realizing we were breaking through to the Tootsie Roll center of its Tootsie Pop, it suddenly crossed its arms and surrounded itself with a swirling globe of fire. I took an experimental shot at it, but my ammo evaporated before it ever made the target. I could feel wind pulling at me as the fire ate up all the oxygen around the thing, and a crazy idea hit me.

I would like to state for the record that I was not the one who made thermite in the chemistry lab in high school. That was Sora Maeda, and I will never in a million years be on that kid's level of pyromaniac. I did, however, learn to make nitrocellulose, sometimes known as guncotton. I… may have kept up with the hobby here and there. I had a couple of my specials on me right now, tubes full of guncotton and equipped with a short fuse. Pulling one out of my pocket, I tossed it overhand at the Guardian, trusting the vacuum to guide the thing in. Then I dived behind the nearest spire as Rude did the same.

The tube ignited just as it hit the thing's fire shield. There was only a tiny bit of explosive in there, but that close to its target, it worked damn well. When I poked my head out of shelter, I could see the Guardian floating in the air, listing slightly, and trying to cover its now fully-exposed core with one hand. Great– time for phase two.

Rude opened fire on the thing again, and it turned on him, launching a barrage of fireballs in his direction. It was obviously hurting, though, and he dodged easily, slamming a new magazine home while I dashed back to where I'd stashed our ace in the hole. Pulling it out of the bag, I checked it over, strapped the tank to my back and then ran back to find the thing stalking Rude around the crater, almost like a cat playing with its food.

Taking a deep breath, I yelled out at the top of my lungs. "YO, DOUCHEBAG!"

The thing whirled to face me, sword coming up to protect its chest as it did so.

"Made you look," I smirked, and then opened fire with my new toy– the fire suppressant gun. Basically, imagine a fire extinguisher crossed with the biggest Supersoaker ever, and you've got the basic idea. I hosed the thing down completely, covering it in sticky foam that kept it from creating a spark– and pulling it down out of the air, too. I kept hosing the thing down while Rude moved in, weapon ready. One boot came down on the "wrist" of the arm with the sword, and he unloaded an entire clip right into that sparkling blue whatever right in the thing's chest. I heard something shatter, and then the light in the obelisk flared and died.

Well. That had been fun.

—

Angel

After a quick raid of the base storeroom, Faith and I headed out to our destination, an atoll halfway along the archipelago's length. A track of sand and vegetation a few hundred feet wide surrounding a sunken lagoon, Ring Island (not a lot of creativity there) was where the Thunder Guardian had been stationed, appropriately far from any important mechanical objects. We took one of the base's low-profile jet boats, called "skates" given that they tended to look a little like manta rays. As we shot across the water, I reminded myself that I couldn't just walk home across the seabed anymore… but on the bright side, now that my lungs were inflated again, I'd probably float.

Faith stopped the boat about four hundred feet out and pulled out a couple sets of low-light binoculars for us. A quick survey of the island told us that there was absolutely NO cover anywhere on the island. The skate would have no problem making it up onto the beach despite the fringing reefs; that kind of thing was what jet boats were for. But as soon as we set foot on the island, if not earlier, the Thunder Guardian was going to know it, and be coming straight for us. Right now it seemed to be running an aimless circuit around the atoll, visible mostly from the glow of the blue energy making up the majority of its body.

Lowering her binoculars, Faith tapped fingernails on the fiberglass hull of the boat for a second. "Got a plan," she said finally. "You may not like it."

"I'm used to that. What do you want me to do?"

What she wanted, apparently, was for me to go over the side and swim into the island, while she took the skate and came in from the other side. Hopefully the big, loud boat would be enough of a distraction that the Guardian wouldn't notice me sneaking in to plant Fred's energy tap until it was too late. I sighed, but it wouldn't be my first swim in boots, and probably wouldn't be my last.

"You'd better find me something to change into after this," I informed her, slipping over the side. "Wet jeans are a war crime."

"Yeah, yeah. Y'know, for a Champion of the Powers of Light, Justice, and Kittens, you sure bitch a lot."

I didn't dignify that one with an answer; her phrasing made it clear that she'd apparently been talking to Spike a lot, and I knew when to cut my losses. Once I'd paddled a few feet away, she zoomed off into the moonlit night, and I made my way towards shore as quietly as possible.

The enhanced night vision meant I knew exactly where the Thunder Guardian was at all times, and it was definitely following Faith's progress in the skate, though I wasn't sure if that was the sound or the electrical output from the motor. Regardless, it didn't seem to react as I crept onto the shore and headed across the sand towards the giant crystal spire that sat in the middle of the shallow lagoon. It probably helped that I made the entire three-hundred foot dash crouched so far over, I was almost on my hands and knees, but still.

Once in the lagoon, I swam for the center as silently as I could, then took a few deep breaths before swimming down through the water to where the spire sat about fifteen feet below the water's surface. It took less than a minute to attach the energy tap and activate it, then I made tracks for the closest edge of the lagoon. Because seawater conducts electricity, and unlike the ocean, the lagoon wasn't nearly big enough to attenuate the charge.

I popped my head up into the air, sucking in a breath, and promptly had to duck back down as a blue curve scythed down towards my neck. Above me, I heard a sound like somebody ringing a gong, and the blue light disappeared, so I shot back up and hauled myself out of the water. As the salt water cleared from my eyes, I saw Faith holding the 25 lb sledgehammer she'd liberated from the base stores, and got my first close look at the Thunder Guardian.

It was holding a sword and shield, both made of blue energy. The blade was curved, kind of like a khopesh, while the shield was the sort of round buckler that had been all over the ancient Mediterranean. Whoops, no, I was wrong– it wasn't holding them. The two weapons were built into the crystalline structures that made up its forearms, connected to its chest by limbs of that same blue energy. And topping it all off was a mane of flaming red hair that crackled with static occasionally.

The gong noise was repeated, as Faith swung her sledgehammer full-strength into the thing's shield, once, twice, and a third time, until the thing splintered into shards of energy and crystal. She managed two more strikes to the thing's chest, cracking the armor there, before it zipped away from her, so fast that I wasn't sure if it had actually teleported or not.

Out floating in the middle of the lagoon, it turned back to us and raised its sword above its head, as a crackling cloud of electricity started to form above it. Then it brought the sword down, and we both had to dodge fast, as a hail of crystal spikes emerged from the cloud. They were each about two feet in length and as big around as my forearm, but worse, as soon as they hit the ground, they were struck by a gout of lightning coming out of the cloud, causing them to shatter into tiny bits of razor sharp shrapnel. Luckily, my leather jacket and jeans protected me from most of the bits, and Faith seemed to have dodged the worst of it, but I could see we were still bleeding from a number of little injuries. Then that sword came up again, I forced myself into what should have been vampire mode, and the world… slowed.

It was like watching that "Bullet Time" stuff in The Matrix, to be honest. I wasn't moving any faster, but I was seeing and thinking at maybe two, three times the standard rate. The sword came down again, the spikes came rocketing out of the cloud, and I moved, swiping one out of the air with my hand as it came past me. I pivoted with the momentum, swinging it around and launching it right back at the Guardian, hitting it square in the chest and knocking a massive divot out of the crystal there. Faintly, I could see something brighter blue shining through the cracks, but I only saw it for a second, before the shock of the impact sent the Guardian into the lagoon, causing a massive short circuit.

"Think it's dead?" Faith asked. She hadn't lowered the sledgehammer, though; we both had too much experience for that.

In answer, the thing erupted from the lagoon in a bright flash, but it definitely had seen better days. The crystals of its torso were fizzling, shorting from one to the other as it floated in the air, but it still summoned enough strength to zip forward, directly at Faith.

Who met it with a heroic blow of the sledgehammer, cracking the chest clean through and exposing a core of blue sparkling energy. Seeing my chance, I reached into the lining of my jacket and pulled out an iron spike, five inches long and a half-inch in diameter. I took a second to be sure of my aim, and then hurled it directly into the blue core, which pretty much exploded, shattering the entire Guardian into grains of fine sand. In the depths of the lagoon, the light of the spire died as well.

"... Okay, dude, what the fuck was that?" Faith wanted to know, leaning on her sledgehammer to catch her breath.

"Fei Zhen, basically a Chinese throwing spike," I replied. "I picked it up… uh, never mind." I'd rather not remember my time in China, thanks, even if the skills had come in handy.

"Got it. Okay, then… back to the big island?"

I nodded. "Yeah. We're probably on a time limit before all hell breaks loose."

"SSDD, my friend, Same Shit, Different Day."

Boy, wasn't that the truth.

—

A/N - Sora Maeda property of Disney and Square Enix. Sorta.