Disclaimer: I don't own "Level Up". I'm just kicking the tires and taking it out for a drive…
9
Angie let Wyatt go, but only because she was thinking of pinning Dante to the wall instead. "What?!"
Dante reminded her, "You said he was telling the truth. If he knows a way to stop Maldark-"
She cut him off. "I said 'probably'! He is probably telling the truth. I didn't say you should follow the idiot on a suicide mission two hours after you meet him…no offense, Waylon."
"It's Wyatt. That's fine."
"Maldark will kill you before you ever get a chance to use your 'superweapon', even if he can make one…" Angie barked at him. She stood toe-to-toe with him, ready to put him in a headlock if she had to until he came to his senses…which, in his case, could be a long wait.
Dante stood his ground, pretty used to arguing with her. "Wyatt's right-Maldark's going to kill us anyway."
"You didn't talk this way before!"
"What do you want me to say in front of them?" He gestured to the school above the tunnels, meaning the Grinders. "You want me to tell them we're completely poned one way or the other? I'm sure that won't end badly…" Deacon would take over, he knew, and probably kill Dante. He had no illusions about that. Then, Maldark would really have the army of human bounty hunters that he wanted.
Wyatt had to confess, "I don't think I can make a superweapon anyway. You said Maldark destroyed the game once he escaped. That means I can't pull our game weapons out. No game weapons, no superweapon."
Angie gave Dante a triumphant look. "How do you plan to get past Maldark's Tenrecs to get your chronometer without a superweapon?"
He gave that some more thought, and then a smile that was pure evil spread across his lips. "I may have an idea..."
Wyatt leaned to whisper to Angie: "Every time he grins like that in my timeline, one of us ends up covered in slime, varmint vomit, or pie…"
"Not just in your timeline," she said.
Dante ignored them. "If I bring Maldark a big enough prize, he'll let me personally deliver it to his doorstep."
"Prize? You mean a prisoner? So, you want to bring me to Maldark?" Wyatt asked.
"Okay, don't take this personally, but you're not a big enough prize. Since Max Ross is dead and Mahtava is dead, besides yours truly there's only one other person who's that big a pain in Maldark's giant purple butt," Dante told him.
When Wyatt still didn't take the hint, Dante shoved the photo of Never Fail back into his hands.
Wyatt got it. "Lyle. And the Genesis Orb."
"We're getting the band back together."
The odd sorcerers in Sculpture Park had been unwilling to part with one their Thunder Poles… until Lyle had traded it for the mystical human artifact known as the Magic 8 Ball (which Kowalski had parted with only after much coercion and finally a bit of blackmail regarding his brief time as an Oboe player in the seventh grade). Leaving the newfound Cult of the Magic 8 Ball to their bizarre activities, Lyle had managed to escape back to the camp with his own prize.
He studied the Thunder Pole. It felt strangely familiar and powerful…but if he couldn't figure out how to make the damn thing work, it wasn't going to be useful as anything but a fancy walking stick. Was he supposed to use Latin like in 'Harry Potter'? Did the game have its own commands?
Just to see what would happen, Lyle laid out the few weapons they'd taken off Saast's army-a Hail Razor, a Nzappa Zap, and a Hunga Munga-and tried the spell Wyatt had taught him.
The backfire from the Thunder Pole emitted a deafening boom and sent Lyle flying into the swamp water…and Lyle found it completely awesome. It had been a complete failure, for the weapons didn't so much as twitch, much less merge, but the Thunder Pole had at least responded to him. He really did feel like a game warrior in that microsecond.
The others in the camp were not so amused. Warning alarms sounded. The Fog Faeries reflexively took flight, trailing a protective cloud of sleeping gas in their wake. The Barbarians and the Gula Muncher converged on their fallen leader, searching for signs of his attacker. Natalie, Maggie, and the guys were right behind them, weapons in hand.
"What was that?" Natalie shouted over the noise.
Bob answered: "Alarm."
"It's all right! I was just trying something! Sorry!" Lyle waved them off. He climbed out of the water, dripping wet.
The warning alarms did not stop.
"Lyle, man, I don't think you did that. I think that's a perimeter breach," Reggie said.
Lyle listened. Reggie was right; it was definitely the alarm from the portable shield generator that was blaring.
He pointed to the Barbarians, ordering: "Guard the Genesis Orb!"
As the avatars retreated to the orb's hiding place, Lyle and the others moved to the edge of the swamp to investigate. They reached the portable shield and found a familiar, curly-haired geek standing on the other side of the energy wall.
"Help?" Wyatt had been calling for five minutes before there were any signs of movement in the forest beyond the shield. He waved as Lyle's company crept out of hiding. "There you are. I'm back. Sorry about all the ruckus, but you don't have a doorbell and it's hard to knock on a plasma shield…"
"You?" Lyle blinked in disbelief. Wyatt might have been dressed in the coat and mask of a Grinder, but Lyle recognized him at once. There was no way that the computer geek was standing there, hands in his pockets, casually as if he'd just dropped in to mooch dinner at a friend's house instead of having come back from the dead. "No way-I saw Onterro vaporize you. This is a trick."
"No trick. It's me, Lyle. Dante didn't kill me. I told you he wouldn't."
Lyle raised his Thunder Pole and made no move to lower the shield. He could at least use the point of the staff to stab the nerd if this was a set-up. "Then you joined the Grinders. That's the only way you're still alive."
Wyatt answered, "I didn't join the Grinders—"
"Bull," Lyle shot back. "What are you wearing then?" The kid had twitched, had almost turned to look over his shoulder, Lyle noticed. He was just a god-awful liar. No one just walked out of the Grinders' headquarters and no one came back from being hit by a disintegrator ray.
"-but what I did do is get about fifty Tenrecs on my tail when I escaped from the Grinders. They're right behind me," Wyatt said. This time he did look over his shoulder.
Lyle wasn't impressed at all. "Sounds like you have a problem."
Desperation crept into Wyatt's voice. "Oh, come on! Listen, I know how to get to the Doubleback. I know how to get into the castle and fix the timeline…but I can't do it on this side of the shield. I can't do it without your help. And I can't do it with a butt full of Tenrec quills!"
"I still think he's a doppelganger," Reggie said.
"Oh, for crying out loud, how many times do I have to do this?" Wyatt found a sharp rock and cut hand to show blood, not computer code. "Lyle, we're friends in any timeline. You have to trust me. We can end the invasion the way we did before. Together. As a clan. You and me…"
All eyes turned to Lyle as he weighed Wyatt's plea against his own intuition. He mulled for a long time.
Then he shut down the shield.
When Wyatt didn't move, Lyle knew he had made a mistake.
Wyatt again looked over his shoulder. "…and them."
Without the distortion of the shield to affect his night vision, Lyle now could now see figures in overcoats and masks hiding behind the nerd. Onterro was one of them.
Speaking to both the Grinder and his new friend, Wyatt, Lyle snarled: "You sonuva-"
Wyatt said again, "Lyle, trust me."
Free to overrun the camp now that the shield is down, the Grinders erupted out of their hiding places, Hail Razors drawn. The Mesmer was not far behind, keeping its unending watch over the boys. Dante had kept the creature back while Wyatt spoke to Hugginson, not wanting to risk the monster seeing Wyatt's face. When the Grinders advanced, the Mesmer stepped forward, broadcasting the battle for Maldark to see.
"Make it look good, boys. And Kutisha," Dante ordered his team. With the Mesmer watching and listening, Dante and Wyatt couldn't exactly sit down and explain their plan for getting into Maldark's castle. It would have to be "shoot first, explain later". And, now that the element of surprise was wearing off, Hugginson and his crew weren't going to go down-or give up the Genesis Orb-without a hell of a fight.
They knew the plan. Grinders and fugitives clashed, the former having the upper hand with their Taser weapons. Lyle went straight at Dante, knocking aside Wyatt to get at the Grinder, his hands already closing into fists. "I have been waiting for this, Onterro!"
Dante flinched in anticipation. "Yep, this is going to hurt…"
Angie's smile was pure evil. "Make it look good."
Lyle slammed into Dante with a football tackle, not the tiniest bit hampered by his leg thanks to the force of his fury.
Wyatt side-stepped as Kowalski attacked, still hesitant about using the Hail Razors despite knowing it would do no harm.
The Gula Muncher was dangling the Grinders' other new recruit-Philbert-by one leg. Hanging upside down and being swung back and forth like a toy, Philbert couldn't get a good shot off at his attacker. The monster bared its teeth and drooled in anticipation of tasting human flesh again. Philbert shrieked for help. Under her mask, Angie rolled her eyes and used the Hail Razor to net the game leak. Angie flipped Natalie easily when the girl charged at her in reaction to the 'loss' of the Gula.
Deacon and Rat weren't worried about a show for Maldark. They netted Kowalski before he could so much as toss a pebble at them. Hovering overhead, the Fog Faeries beat their wings, raining down a mist so thick that the Grinders' masks could not entirely filter it. Rat felt light-headed and his vision blurred before he slipped into unconsciousness. Deke calmly hurled his Hail Razor at the flying avatars, easily knocking one out of the sky. The Faerie plunged into the swamp. Its companion let out a cry like the chiming of tiny bells and dove to the rescue. When the twin Faeries emerged from the water, Deke captured them both with the stick weapon.
Dante was busy with the urgent need to pry Lyle's fingers from his throat so he could breathe. He rasped out: "I should warn you, I have a low threshold for pain and I scream like a gir-ow!"
Wyatt pulled Lyle off Dante, just to help make the fight convincing, but Lyle quickly broke his grip and lunged at Dante again.
"Yep, that looks convincing. And painful. Keep him busy, buddy," Wyatt encouraged. Dante choked out something unintelligible in response.
Angie grabbed Wyatt's arm. "You know where they're hiding the Genesis Orb?"
"If they haven't moved it," he confirmed.
Wyatt led the way to the camp. They were charged by Bob and a horde of Barbarians. Angie made short work of capturing them, not needing to put on a performance when the Mesmer was out of sight back with Dante and Lyle. They kept the bandanas pressed over their mouths against the lingering layer of the Faeries' vapors.
The first things they found were some of the stray weapons that the camp had collected. Wyatt saw something that gave him a spark of hope. "Hello…"
Angie heard and paused to look at him. Wyatt was holding up a staff with some fancy stones inset at its point. "What is that?"
"This is just what we needed." He was doubly pleased to find the weapon-it meant that Lyle believed his story about the other timeline enough to hunt up a Thunder Pole.
"We need the orb, doofus."
"Yeah, yeah, it's here." Wyatt climbed the tower of cars to Lyle's private area of the camp. He pulled the bag with the Genesis Orb out of the back seat of the car at the top and dropped it to Angie. While he climbed down, she checked inside the sack to confirm its contents.
The minute his feet hit the ground, he found himself with her Atomic Wedge pointed at his jugular. He stared at her in confusion. "Ang-?"
"Tell me what 'Mahtava' and 'Kutisha' mean," she demanded.
Extremely relieved, Wyatt grinned at her, but would do no such thing.
Lyle was still trying to strangle Dante when Angie and Wyatt returned to the melee. Angie reached into her pocket and carefully pulled out a Tenrec quill. In two steps, she reached Dante's side and jabbed the needle into his attacker's arm. They had the Genesis Orb; there was no more need for the show.
Lyle's eyes rolled up and he slumped, unconscious, landing right on top of Dante. Dante tried to shove the larger teenager off, but the guy was pure muscle and deadweight at the moment. "Little help…he's heavier than he looks."
Wyatt stared at Angie in shock. "What did you do?!"
"Relax. The black quills aren't toxic. It's the purple quills that you want to avoid. This will just put him to sleep for a while." She rolled Lyle off Dante.
Gasping air into his burning lungs, Dante fumbled for the Hail Razor he had dropped and zapped Lyle. The Grinders were collecting the rest of the camp. Dante glanced at the Mesmer. The robot ceased its broadcast and retreated.
Wyatt waited until Maldark's spy-bot was gone before offering Dante a hand up. "It's a bad time to ask, but I sure hope you know what you're doing."
Lyle was having nightmares about the day of Maldark's invasion. In the dream, he saw the blades of Maldark's fingers dig into his father's throat and the splash of red blood against his skin. He tried to run to his father, but his leg gave out beneath him and he fell to the ground. He was only twenty feet from his father, but laid there powerless to intervene as his dad's life drained away while Maldark's scornful laughter mocked the teenager. Lyle tried to scream, but no sound came from his throat.
Waking to the sight of Wyatt, some girl dressed up like a game leak (Angie, Lyle remembered her from the cell phone pictures), and Dante Onterro staring down at him was not much of an improvement. Lyle discovered that he was lying on the ground, only a thin blanket between him and the earth, someplace damp and dark and foul-smelling. The memory of Wyatt leading the Grinders to the campsite returned in a rush.
Lyle's first reaction is to lunge at Dante, reaching for the little weasel's throat. Wyatt and Angie caught him by the arms and held him back.
"We really need you to not kill Dante," Wyatt asked.
"I'm not blaming you, Wyatt. You don't get it-this weasel used you to catch me. I warned you. He's been after me since he ended up on Maldark's chain!" Lyle snapped, still trying to get at the Grinder's leader. He had no real wish to hurt the geek or the girl, but Lyle was perfectly willing to knock them on their butts if that would get them off him.
Angie raised her eyebrow. "Somebody thinks well of himself."
Dante stayed out of reach, still having bruises from Hugginson trying to kill him the night before. "Dude, believe me, the last thing I wanted to do was catch you. If I wanted to, I could've done it a long time ago. Noisy flowers and faerie farts wouldn't have scared me off."
"Catching me keeps Maldark off your back, keeps you in your little palace…" Lyle finally sat still long enough to glance at his surroundings. It looked like a giant Chameleomole tunnel. "…where the hell are we?"
"No, Angie disguising herself as renegade avatars for me to hunt down and execute keeps Maldark off my back," Dante explained. "Catching you means Maldark doesn't need me anymore, which means after he kills you, he kills me."
Lyle fell still, staring at the Grinder. The weasel had a point.
Wyatt slowly loosened his hold on Lyle, not fully backing off until he was sure Lyle was calming down, or at least paying attention. Angie took her cues from Wyatt, but palmed another of the black Tenrec quills just in case Lyle went after Dante again.
"Like I said, we need your help," Wyatt said.
"I'm not helping him. He's still a traitor. Hoarding food, fragging my camp…"
Dante retorted, "Hey, your pet Gula Muncher chewed on my arm like it was a chicken wing. Do you hear me holding a grudge?" He rolled up the sleeve of his coat to display a patch of Chameleomole skin that filled in where a few inches of his bicep had once been.
Lyle stood, refusing help when Wyatt offered him a hand. "Where are my friends?!" he demanded.
They had been expecting that question. Wyatt and Angie stepped aside, making room for Lyle to follow as Dante led the way deeper into the tunnels. It was not far to the bend that opened into the large central cavern and the buzz of activity there. Lyle froze, stunned at the sight of the mammoth cave and the couple of hundred people and avatars encamped there.
His people stood out from the crowd, standing there with the same dazed and confused expressions as Lyle. Reggie and Kowalski caught his eye, nodding in greeting despite their dumbfounded stares. They looked as astounded as he felt. Natalie and Bob were being handed food by a heavy-set game leak gentleman with glasses and a kind smile. A little farther back, Mike was being crushed in a bear hug by his mother and little brother. Philbert and Gus were there-they were alive! Lyle marveled- tossing a battered old handball back and forth. He'd thought they'd died the night of the invasion…
In fact, almost every person in that room were men and women whom the Grinders had supposedly 'executed' over the past few months. He'd seen their faces on the Wanted boards and in Maldark's daily broadcasts.
"Start talking," Lyle said quietly.
"Don't you get it? What's the first rule of 'Conqueror Of All Worlds'?"
They may have only played once or twice, but Lyle and Dante knew the answer. It was Lyle who said it aloud: "You can't defeat Maldark on your own."
Wyatt fell in beside him, gesturing to the cavern and its refugees. "Look out there. You and Dante and Angie have been working together all along, you just didn't know it. What you guys did is amazing…all these people, they're alive because of you." He directed that praise at Dante and Angie, who stood a short distance behind Lyle and Wyatt. "And Lyle, if it wasn't for you stealing that Genesis Orb and keeping it hidden, Maldark would have conquered the whole planet by now. And you guys did that all on your own. Imagine what we can do together. We're a clan in any timeline-we can bring Maldark down in any universe."
Lyle eventually nodded. "Okay, so, why didn't you guys just ask for my help? Why'd you have to wreck my whole camp?"
Wyatt was the first to answer: "First off, you never would have agreed to talk to Dante."
Angie continued: "Second, we had to put on a convincing show catching you or Maldark wouldn't have believed it."
Dante had to add: "And the camp was a wreck before we got there. I'm an expert on wrecks."
"All right, all right! Forget I asked." Lyle made a rude gesture at the annoying Grinder. "What do you want me to do?"
"Like I told you, the only way to stop Maldark is to use the chronometer to keep those Doublebacks from screwing with the past-breaking your knee, framing Dante…" Wyatt said.
"Is that the chronometer you said is busted?" Lyle wanted to know.
The geek's ears blushed red. "That's why we have to get a new one. We figured we can make trade for the chronometer if we have something Maldark wants badly enough."
"Like me and the orb?" Lyle had to admit the plan made sense…well, as much sense as alternate timelines and living breathing computer game characters invading the real world.
Wyatt confirmed. "Yeah, you and the Genesis Orb."
"That's your big plan?"
Dante put one arm on Lyle's shoulder, heedless of the glare the larger teenager gave him in return. "There is just one more thing we were hoping you could help with…"
The next attempt to forge the superweapon didn't go much better than Lyle's first efforts.
He'd conjured the fire perfectly, repeating the spell the other Lyle had used in the alternate timeline; Wyatt had tossed in Angie's Atomic Wedge, Dante's Hail Razor, and his own Rubber/Glue gun.
The fire spit the weapons out.
"That's working well," Angie commented.
Wyatt scratched his head. "I don't know…maybe I remembered the spell wrong. Gaming experience enhances the weapons. Maybe these weapons have been used to knock out Tenrecs and teleport humans…they haven't barded enough leaks to form a superweapon." He returned Angie and Dante's weapons. "Lyle were a level sixty-eight sorcerer…maybe since he isn't now, the spell won't work. At least we tried."
Angie already had a bad feeling about the whole plot, but now she felt like she was about to strap herself to rocket pointed at a brick wall. "You got a Plan B, computer buddy?"
Lyle said flat-out, "I'm not taking the Genesis Orb to Maldark. If he gets it, he conquers the rest of the planet...after he executes my dad. I only agreed to this because you said we'd save him."
Angie nodded. "And my family is outside the dome. If Maldark breaks through that barrier-"
Wyatt cut them off. "If our plan works, it won't matter. As soon as I go through the time vortex and stop the Doubleback, the effect here should be instantaneous. Like none of this ever happened."
"It matters if we're risking our lives and our families on 'ifs'-if your plan works, if we get the chronometer. Once we're inside the castle, how do you plan on capturing the Doubleback with Maldark and all his goons standing right there?"
Wyatt was losing Lyle and Angie rapidly, and he knew it. He hefted the Rubber/Glue gun. "You all create a diversion and I use this to get the chronometer off the Doubleback…"
Dante's only reaction so far had been a small frown when Lyle had mentioned his father. Now he spoke up, "Wyatt, man, they're right. I mean, it was a good idea, but we can't risk the Genesis Orb if we don't have a sure way to kill Maldark." When Wyatt gave him a wounded glare, Dante hurriedly said, "If there's no superweapon, there's no reason for Angie and Lyle to be there. If they come with us and we mess this up, they lose their families. I'll create the diversion-me and the Grinders."
He'd already talked to the Grinders about the attack on the castle. Rat and Jonas had agreed to go without batting an eye. Deacon had balked, so he was currently cooling his heels inside Rat's Hail Razor so that he didn't warn the Mesmers or Maldark. Dante's family was already gone, and it wasn't much different for the rest of his Grinders. He figured they had the least to lose if this thing went downhill.
Maldark was going to kill them either way now.
"Maldark's not going to let us in the door if he doesn't see Lyle and the orb," Wyatt argued.
"We weren't planning to show Maldark the Genesis Orb until we got the chronometer anyway. Nothing's changed. We just tell him Lyle's locked in here." Dante held up his Hail Razor.
"Wait a second, I didn't say I was out-" Lyle said.
Angie frowned deeply at Dante. "As soon as you create a diversion, Maldark activates that implant."
Dante didn't need to be reminded. "There is that."
"Don't freaking joke about this!" she snapped.
"I'm not joking. I want that Doubleback!" He hadn't meant to yell. For one thing, it only made Angie madder.
She shouted right back. "Enough to die trying to get it?"
"My mom died, Angie! She died driving home from visiting me in that freaking jail where I never would have been if that Doubleback hadn't screwed with us! If I can change that, I have to try!"
"And I want to help you. You know that. But, come up with a plan that isn't a suicide run!"
She'd almost forgotten that Wyatt and Lyle were standing there, until Wyatt and Lyle discreetly moved back in case Angie started throwing kicks or punches. In fact, the shouting had drawn the attention of most of the people nearby in the cavern. Some were polite about trying not to stare. Philbert, Gus, Kowalski, and a few others weren't bothering to hide their interest in the spat.
Blushing red, she turned on her heel and disappeared into the crowd.
Dante muttered a curse under his breath. He didn't dare go after her until she calmed down…he'd learned that the hard way. He didn't understand the 180 she was doing-this was their first chance to take down Maldark, maybe their only chance. Wasn't that what they'd been fighting for since the day they started sneaking slaves out from under Maldark's ugly nose?
When the crowd eventually went back about their own business, Wyatt admitted. "She's not wrong."
"She never is-"
Whatever Dante had been about to say, he finished with a strangled grunt of pain and suddenly fell back against the tunnel wall. Dante clamped his hand over the implant in his neck as the device sent a warning pulse of energy coursing through him.
Wyatt reached a hand toward his shoulder when his friend stumbled. "Dante? You okay?"
Dante staggered for the ladder to the overhead hatch, one hand still over the implant like that would somehow prevent Maldark's intrusion into his mind. With one hand, he climbed the ladder as quickly as he could without falling.
"Maldark-he's looking for me." Wyatt and Lyle started to follow him, but Dante waved them back, motioning for them to stay put.
It was Lyle who nodded in answer and dragged Wyatt deeper into the cavern, out of sight in case Dante didn't get away in time.
The kindly game leak with the glasses approached Lyle and Wyatt with a tray of food. Three of Dante's Grinders followed him, staring suspiciously at Hugginson. Seeing this, Reggie, Kowalski, and Mike approached, keeping a watchful eye on the other boys.
The smell of real, honest-to-God food after months of living on the creatures Bob hunted made Lyle's stomach rumble. Still, he glanced warily from Guy to the boys standing behind him.
"Please, gentlemen, you'll need your strength if you intend to confront Maldark," Guy said, handing over the entire platter. They offered thanks around mouthfuls of food.
"If I may, Mr. Hugginson, I understand that your game avatar was a wizard. I noticed your weapon and, respectfully, that you're somewhat lacking in experience with it." Guy nodded to the Thunder Pole Lyle hadn't realized he was still holding.
The Grinder with the long, curly hair and the ice blue eyes explained: "What he means is you screwed up the spell and we don't have a weapon."
Lyle dropped the food back onto the tray. "If you think you-"
A smaller Grinder boy stepped between his friend and Lyle. "I have something else that may help you. The Z&Z scavenged it when Maldark destroyed the libraries." Timidly, he offered a book that looked as if it had been burned, dropped in a puddle of slime, trampled by elephants, and then rolled in mud. The print was smeared and pages were missing.
"We've been hiding it from Maldark since then. Young Jonas used it to modify our Taser weapons…it may have information about your weapon as well." Guy patted the shoulder of the boy who had given Lyle the book.
When Lyle saw the cover, he let out a breath that Wyatt thought sounded like a "huzzah".
The Weapons of Conqueror Of All Worlds: The Expanded Guide.
Dante had barely climbed up and out of the tunnels to collapse onto the floor of the gym before the Mesmer found him and Maldark's voice echoed in his ears. Dante hoped the warlock didn't seem him shut the hatch.
The wizard's hologram appeared, glaring at the boy for keeping him waiting. As punishment, Maldark raised the ring and sent another jolt of pain into Dante.
"So, my worthless little pigs finally dug up a truffle, did they?" Maldark said in greeting.
Dante clenched his jaw, riding out the last twinges of pain with determination not to wince while the leak was watching him. He pushed himself into a seated position, using the wall for support, and managed a shaky smirk, "T-Told you we'd do it."
Maldark arched an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Hmf. And my Genesis Orb?"
"Yeah, we got it, too."
That placated Maldark enough that the warlock lowered his hand, setting aside the trigger to the implant. "Excellent. Turn Hugginson and the orb over to the Mesmer, and I may delay extinguishing your worthless life."
At the silent summons of their master, two more Mesmers appeared in the doorway to the gym. Dante slid over a bit, stretching his legs to cover the trapdoor. Steeling himself for the repercussions, he frowned at the image of Maldark and refused. "No."
"Then the Mesmers will take him and I'll have no further use for you-" Maldark again raised the trigger, more than ready to rid himself of the bothersome human child.
Dante talked fast. "Fine, then. I already hid Hugginson and the orb. You think I'm that stupid? Good luck finding them without me." He glanced sidelong at the Mesmers. "Go ahead. Try your mind tricks on me, butt-munch."
A momentary glitch across the facial screen was the only indication that the avatar made the attempt. This Mesmer was well aware of its limitations against this particular human.
The threat gave Maldark pause. At his master's unseen and unheard signal, the Mesmer retreated from the gym, leaving Dante alone. Maldark eyes were black with simmering fury, but he spoke slowly and his tone was ice. "What do you want then, you useless waste?"
Dante took a deep breath. Here goes nothing. "I want to make a trade."
"I'm listening," the warlock replied.
"I want a Doubleback."
Maldark could not disguise his surprise. If the human knew about the existence of the Doublebacks, it was logical to assume he knew their abilities and had a specific purpose in mind for it. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. "To use for my defeat? Planning to alter the past were you? Do you believe I am a fool, boy?"
Dante shrugged. "Ugly. Way too high strung. Bad dresser. Completely lacking in humor. But, no, you're not a fool, and I'm not stupid enough to cross you, Maldark. You can control the Doubleback. Send it back to save my mom from that car crash. I can tell you the date. Save her and you can have Hugginson, the orb, and the whole damn planet for all I care."
Maldark relented. The boy was correct…he could not retrieve Hugginson or the Genesis Orb. His magic could not detect where the bothersome brat had hidden them. This was merely the final delay in Maldark's plans. This filthy, insolent boy would die…and perhaps Maldark would send the Doubleback to do the child's bidding and bring his wretched mother there for execution as well.
"Agreed. Bring them to my citadel at dawn."
The hologram shut down and the too-familiar burn of the implant slowly abated. The Mesmer left the teenager there on the floor.
Gasping, Dante leaned against the wall. He was sick of the whole damn game, trying to keep one step ahead of Maldark. He was almost glad it would be over soon.
"You think he's even going to try to do that?"
Angie stepped out from behind the half-broken bleachers. He couldn't see her face in the darkened room, but her shoulders were still squared, indicating she was still mad despite her gentler tone.
He didn't have the energy to get up at the moment. She could yell at him just a well if he was sitting as standing. "No, but he'll bring a Doubleback to the citadel for show...just to lure in the stupid, orphaned Grinder boy. You want to tell me what all that was about?"
Dante knew it wasn't cold feet. Angie was afraid of few things, and Maldark wasn't one of those things. She'd walk right up and punch the warlock in the face and then scold him if she broke a nail doing it.
"You piss me off when you do stupid things." Like listening to morons who claim to be time travelers or storm Maldark's castle without a superweapon. Angie crossed the room, but stopped a few feet away from him.
"That explains why you're mad all the time," he teased.
"Just figured that out, did you?" She gave him a look, but her manner was slightly less homicidal now. He took a chance and patted the empty space next to him. A few seconds passed in silence before Angie accepted the invitation and sat down beside him. He put his arm around her shoulder. She curled up against his side, wrapped her arm around his waist, and breathed in his god-awful, comforting smell.
"Sorry I yelled," he said.
"Don't be nice. I'm still mad at you."
"I know."
Despite her words, Angie really didn't want to spend their last night fighting and being mad at him. She was more angry with herself than with him.
And a little mad at their time-traveling friend.
Freaking Wyatt Black had to give her that one, brief moment of hope talking about timelines where they had defeated Maldark and prevented his conquest of their world.
Freaking Wyatt had to crush her hope to pieces almost as quickly.
Angie had seen his reaction when Dante had kissed her and every time the two of them had touched. Wyatt had been shocked at first. After that, there had been something in his eyes she had first thought was revulsion or jealousy (or both), especially when Wyatt had asked 'how did that happen'. Angie had eventually figured it out. It was sympathy. It was sadness. Wyatt felt sorry for them.
He hadn't been surprised to find Angie and Dante, which meant that they were alive in his timeline. He knew the kinds of details about them only a friend would know. If they were both Wyatt's friend, it was likely Angie and Dante knew each other in the 'real' timeline. They were both alive, they were a clan along with Wyatt and Lyle, and they were friends.
But Wyatt hadn't been prepared for the sight of Dante and Angie together. Which meant, in his world…
How did she really think all this was going to end? That they'd somehow defeat Maldark, she'd have the big joyous reunion with her family, and she and Dante would live happily ever after? Between the two of them, they've almost been killed about a dozen times in the past few months. Every near death experience, every time Angie had been fed up with the loneliness of the tunnels and went to spend time with the only human who knew she was alive, every time Dante had brought supplies down to the tunnels and ended up hanging around for hours afterwards, had only strengthened the bond between them.
The second time Angie got a concussion (courtesy of a horrendously botched rescue of slaves at the mines) was the first night she'd spent in his room instead of her lonely little corner of the Chameleomole tunnel/sanctuary. Dante had sat up with her doing the hourly wake-up checks despite multiple death threats from the groggy girl.
After the Gula Muncher had taken a chunk out of Dante's arm when the Grinders strayed too near the Stenchwater Swamps, Angie became his permanent roommate (despite the risks of Mesmers walking in at any time and catching her).
They'd become close, maybe the only person the other really trusted in this messed up reality, but they were never going to be a happy ending. They'd been making the most of their time together until Maldark finally killed one or (more likely) both of them. She shouldn't have let herself get close to anyone, especially not Dante, not in this twisted world. Saving her family, saving the world, and whatever else they'd been fighting for all these months, was always going to come at a price.
"I liked it better when you weren't all noble and heroic and selfless," she complained.
Dante was inclined to agree. "It was a lot better for my health, wasn't it?"
"I said don't make jokes." Angie reached up and swatted him on the head. "You don't have to do this."
"It's kind of too late to back out now."
Angie fumed. She hated it when Dante was right."You know you aren't going after Maldark without me."
She could feel his frown and his arm squeezed her shoulders tighter, pulling her closer. He wasn't as dumb as Maldark believed-whether they made it to the time portal or one of the warlock's goons got them, no one was coming back from this fight. It was one thing for him and the Grinders and even his gamer friends from another timeline to go out in a blaze of glory and all that bullshit, but the truth was, he didn't want Angie there. He didn't want her anywhere near Maldark.
Not liking the silence as it dragged out, Angie added, "Don't argue with me, Onterro."
He finally turned his head to look into her eyes. "I had an idea about the implants…" Angie didn't realize he'd lifted the Atomic Wedge from its clip on her belt until it was suddenly in his hand. "…course it depends if you think you can hit Maldark with this."
Angie glared, insulted even though she knew he was teasing her. "No problem. I'll just pretend I'm aiming at your head," she threatened.
Now Dante grinned. He bent his head and captured her lips with his. After a minute, Angie pulled back to remind him: "I'm still pissed at you." Despite that, she started tugging off his jacket and didn't stop him from reaching for the buttons on her shirt.
If anything, that only encouraged him. "Angry sex. Awesome."
Guy kept busy, trying to distract himself from worrying, but worry he did.
Every time Sir Dante and the Lady Angie set out to rescue more humans, the new arrival stretched their dwindling supplies of food and water that much thinner. Guy would not think of turning away the poor, beaten down humans, but the more mouths there were to feed and the more bodies to cloth, the harder it became for Guy to track down necessities for them, even with the help of the larcenous Z&Z.
But, the care and feeding of their human refugees was not the source of Guy's concerns that night. He was scared for his boys and even for Hugginson's men who would accompany them into the fray against Maldark in the morning. This would all end tomorrow, but that would be no relief to Guy if it ended with their deaths…
Preoccupied, he was unprepared when he rounded a corner of the school hallway and found himself staring a Mesmer in its hypnotic face. The beast projected the image of its vile creator. Maldark sneered at the transfixed little game leak.
"I have questions about the intensions of your human friends, peasant," Maldark said.