THE QUESTERS, PART XVIII
I didn't remember...
It was hot, humid, and wet. I was laying half-in and half-out of a scummy pool of water. Around me, a battle was raging.
But I couldn't remember what had happened. However, the First Spider was screaming a strong warning. It felt like my brain was tingling.
Slipping and staggering, I clambered to my feet. My ears were ringing and I could taste blood in my mouth. Half of my body seemed numb. I could feel the after-effects of a massive blow to the side of my head. My armor was damaged and one of my quadrant arms was mostly gone. It had been ripped away and all that remained was a torn stump extruding tendril-like mechanisms that slowly and awkwardly trembled like a wounded animal. My other arms, both real and mechanical, were intact but somehow seemed oddly distant to me.
"Sorry. I'm sorry," I heard myself whisper. I was talking to the spirit of my Great Uncle Otto. It was he who had built the armor that I was wearing. I'd done a poor job of caring for it.
There were voices yelling warnings and instructions. Then there was a deafening roar and I turned to face whatever had produced it.
In a savage whirlwind of a fight, my comrades were being battered and thrown around by a red-armored giant.
"Oh... yeah," I muttered softly as everything suddenly snapped into place.
My name is Jonah Anthony Parker. I'm a soldier of the Spider-Folk and I was born and raised in Nyack. I was an exile from my family and I'd found employment with an ex-girlfriend who was the Sword Priestess Militant of this part of the world. And yet, at the moment, I was serving in the war-band of a Blood Seeker named Rahne.
We were trying to do something that would save lives beyond counting. And that huge bastard who was beating up my friends was in the damn way.
I took a few steps forward, splashing my way out of the shallow pool. Then I spat out a red gobbet of blood and saliva. I could feel my spider-amulet at my breast, tucked inside my armor. It seemed oddly warm.
Rose was on the wet forest floor, curled up into an unconscious ball. The boulder that had smashed her out of the sky was broken rubble scattered around her. She must have thrown up a magnetic shield just before it hit. I couldn't tell if she was alive or dead, but Beck suddenly appeared, grabbed Rose by the shoulders, and began dragging her away.
Ed came out of the undergrowth, glanced at me, and whined. I gestured towards Beck and Rose. Ed seemed to understand and ran awkwardly to them. Firmly thrusting himself between the two women, he teleported them away.
Meanwhile, Smit had got close to our opponent and performed an upward slash with his claws. His attack skittered off the giant's armor, but Alex used the distraction to get behind the giant and cut at its exposed upper right arm. Blood flew through the air in a wet arc as Alex spun around his larger foe, looking for the next weak spot in the giant's armor. That made me hopeful, but then I realized that the blood was Alex's.
Rahne, using a tree as a launching point, sprung forward, lunging through the air feet first. She hit the giant in the face but ricocheted away. She was trying to get one of her foot claws through an eye-hole in the giant's helmet. Alex crouched and made a cut at the back of the giant's knees - trying to hamstring him - but it didn't work.
The giant growled, landed a full punch that hammered Smit to the ground, and then half-spun around and batted Alex away. Then the giant staggered back as Faye - well over six foot of Green muscle - tackled him.
"Get out of here!" Faye bellowed to everyone over her shoulder. Her eyes were frantic and her face locked into a warrior's snarl. She knew we were losing the fight and she wanted us to run while she kept the giant busy.
But if Faye thought I'd let myself be left to explain to Uncle Ben how I'd watched her die, then she was crazy.
I found some solid footing, crouched down, and jumped upward. I soared high, with my mechanical arms trailing behind me like the plumage of some huge bird. After rotating in mid-air, I landed high on the giant's huge back. The natural gifts of my people allowed me to foot-cling there - rocking wildly back-and-forth - as the giant exchanged blows with Faye.
Then I sprayed webbing into the eye-holes of the giant's armor.
The giant roared and thrust its body backward, trying to smash me against a nearby tree as it pawed at the webbing on its face-plate. Faye threw a long punch that would have been careless if her foe wasn't blind. It landed hard, but all it seemed to do was stagger the giant.
Some webbing tore away from the giant's face. Smit struggled to his feet. Shaking blood from his face, Alex bounded back into the fight. Rahne circled carefully. The Blood are fundamentally pack creatures and the three of them were trying to set up a three-way attack.
The giant reached a hand over its shoulder and grabbed for me. But I'd let the giant get away with that once already and it had cost me dearly. I jumped up and over its hands and landed behind it.
Faye grunted as she threw another blow. It landed with a mighty clang, but the giant had braced himself and didn't even flinch. The webbing in one of his eyes had pulled away and the giant could now partially see.
"Dammit, Jen! CUT IT OUT!" the giant suddenly bellowed at Faye.
Faye was winding up to throw another punch. But then, gasping for breath, she paused.
"Who the hell is Jen?" Faye asked in an almost reasonable tone.
The giant suddenly froze. It - he - seemed to be studying Faye.
Rahne held up both hands. The rest of use - readying for a combined assault - all paused.
"What? You Jen's sister or somethin'?" the giant growled wonderingly.
Faye still had her fists up. The was dark green blood trickling down her face from a split lip and a cut over one eye.
"I don't have a sister named Jen," Faye retorted belligerently.
Thanks to his peculiar armor and helm, it was hard to tell when the giant nodded, but he seemed to do just that.
"So where's Jen?" the giant asked slowly. "I haven't seen her - hell, I haven't seen a Greenie in... in... so damned long. Not since that big-ass war. Long time ago."
Faye hesitated before answering. "Are you talking about Jen the Law-speaker? She's one of the ancestral Greens. Do you sacrifice to her?"
"We boned once," the giant said with what looked like a shrug. "She... she's taller'n you by 'bout half-a-foot. Long hair. You have the same face, but she has better boobs. Helluva temper if ya get on 'er wrong side. And for a frail, she can throw a badass punch."
Faye looked offended. I think it was the comment about her breasts.
"Jen the Law-speaker is long dead," I hurriedly told the giant. There are creatures on this Earth with whom you'd much rather talk than fight.
The giant was silent for a long moment.
"Oh," he said eventually. "Yeah, that's right. Jen must be gone. Just like Bruce. Just like Tom and Charlie and Charlie's punks. Dead. All dead. All dead except for me."
Then the giant sank to his knees. After that, a strange noise came from his helmet.
He was crying.
Faye actually helped the giant to his feet.
"C'mon," she said almost gently. "Let's go uphill and find a place to sit down."
Alex, Smit, and I were looking on in amazement. Then we traded looks. We were thinking the obvious - should we take advantage of the giant's moment of weakness and kill him?
For that matter, could we kill him?
Rahne could tell what we were thinking. She made a point of catching our eyes and shaking her head.
Then Rahne looked around. "Where's Rose?" she asked urgently.
"Hurt in the fight," I told her. "Beck was dragging her off when Ed 'ported them both away."
Rahne glanced at Alex and Smit. Without hesitation, the two of them moved off. If they couldn't find our missing comrades, then they couldn't be found.
We scrambled up a rock-strewn hill. I took to the nearest tree, trying to keep an eye out for trouble. At the crest of the hill, Faye helped the giant sit down. He collapsed into a listless seated position, hunched over, with his forearms resting on his knees, and his massive hands dangling before him. He'd stopped crying, but otherwise, he seemed uncaring.
"Who are you?" Faye asked.
"M'name's Cain. Cain Marko," the giant growled.
Rahne and I exchanged startled looks.
"That's impossible," I said with a slow shake of my head.
"We live in a world of marvels," Rahne told me.
"I been here a long time," the giant - Cain - said in a lost way. "So long. Winters com'n go. I just stand still and let the snow cover me. In spring, I start wandering again, but I can't go too far. I try, but I can't. That bitch Morgana did something to me. I'm stuck here and I can't die. It's that damn book. The book keeps me alive, but it's been too long."
"What book?" Rahne asked carefully.
A surge of anger shook Cain. "Who cares what book? It's trapped me here and I can't get away!"
Then he lifted his head and howled at the sky. "Dammit, Morgana. Get your skinny, magical, ass back here! Let me go! It's been too long! LET ME GO!"
Then he collapsed onto his back. He lay there like an angry, breathing, mountain range.
"Come back, Morgana. Please come back," he moaned.
Moving carefully, Alex and Smit reappeared. Ed and Beck were with them. Rose was in Alex's arms and still looked woozy. I gestured for them to stay back. If we fought Cain again, I wanted Rose to be recovered and able to help, while both Ed and Beck kept their distance.
Alex carefully set Rose down. Ed lay down next to Rose, watching her with worried eyes. Pulling a small, Guardsman-issue, aid-kit from a belt-pouch, Beck knelt next to Rose and began checking on her.
"Where's the book?" Rahne asked warily. We had no idea what could send Cain into a berserk frenzy. And whether it was even possible to defeat him was a good question.
Cain thumped his fist against his armored midsection. "It's here," he said almost reasonably.
"It's inside me."
Smit grinned savagely and flicked open his claws. "Ya want it out? I can help with that."
Cain stirred dangerously. Smit returned Cain's glare.
Crap.
"We have a healer with us," Rahne said quickly, trying to distract Cain.
Beck stood up, took two long strides towards Smit, and slapped him on the back of the head. Smit subsided, but his claws were still out.
Cain turned his attention to Rahne. "Junior Sabertooth here isn't a damn doc," he said flatly.
Beck may not be a powerful Wilder, but she has far, far, more courage than is good for her. Without hesitating, she walked over to Cain and put a hand on his chest.
"I've had training," she told Cain.
Actually, Rose was the closest thing our party had to an actual healer, but Beck wasn't lying. Many Nyack militia are trained in the basics.
"Sweetie, ya ain't got nothing that can cut me open," Cain said to Beck. He seemed almost amused by her offer.
"Beck," someone said. It was Rose. She was still on her back but fumbling open the small pack where she kept her healer tools. Something - a tiny case of fine wood - floated out of the pack and over to where Cain and Beck were huddled. It landed on Cain's breast armor.
Beck opened the wooden case. Then her eyes went wide as she pulled out a scalpel. The blade was a silver so bright that it almost seemed to glow in the shadows of the trees.
"Is this what I think it is?" Beck asked in wonder.
By then, Alex was supported Rose's head so she could see what was happening.
Rose nodded. "The blade is Adam."
Alex, still holding Rose, froze with his mouth hanging half-open. Smit actually recoiled back several steps and then fell to his knees. Then he turned his head away as he refused to look at one of the Blood's most holy of holies. His lips began moving in what I supposed was a simple Ronin's prayer.
Beck swallowed hard and looked at Cain.
"Think it'll work?" Cain asked. "Can you get it outta me?"
"I don't know," Beck said evenly. "And there's only one way to find out."
"Painkillers?" I suggested. "Do we have any opids?"
Rahne and Beck both shook their heads. Beck, of course, knew what was in her kit. Rahne almost certainly knew what Rose had available.
Besides, was it even possible to drug the Juggernaut?
Cain touched the armor at his shoulder, seemed to engage something, and then pulled the armor on his chest away from his body. It fell open like a clamshell, detached, and clattered away. A horrible stench radiated out from Cain's exposed body.
With the armor out of the way, you could see a strange distortion of Cain's lower chest and upper abdomen. There was something large and rectangular inside of him. The edges of the protrusion were red, inflamed, and the skin was rotten. I swallowed hard at the thought that Cain had been like that for centuries.
"This is gonna hurt like a mother," Cain grumbled. Then he dug his huge hands deep into the ground beside him and squeezed the rocky soil tight.
Faye leaned over Cain's upper body and grabbed him just below the elbows. The rest of us gathered around, lending whatever strength we had to offer. I could feel Rose trying to focus her energies around Cain, but she was obviously still weak.
The First Spider was screaming a warning at me. I didn't have a lot of faith in our ability to control a Juggernaut in agony.
"Sorry if I lose it and kill anyone," Cain said calmly. I think he was sincere.
"The Old One is with us," Rahne said formally. Alex and Smit repeated her words.
"First Spider, we bear your responsibility," I said, adding the first prayer my mother had taught me. The exposed tendrils of my broken mechanical arm reached under my armor and touched my amulet.
Then Cain looked skyward. "Hey, Logan," he said conversationally. "Remember that bar in Chicago? We drank boilermakers and you told me that after a while pain is just like an old friend? Well, you were right. And fuck you for that."
"Hail Mary, full of grace..." Beck whispered. Then she swallowed hard and brought her bright blade to Cain's heaving chest.