My padre never talks about the guerra. We have the stars and stripes flying on the side of our house. He keeps his medals framed on a wall at the garage. A scar runs all the way across his back like a white-purple road. Mami said he was grazed by shrapnel; that he was lucky. I guess he was. He got a purple heart. Other's got killed.
-Jaime Reyes
Jaime fired close enough to keep the soldiers back, but sooner or later, they would realise he wasn't aiming to hit.
And don't even think about recommending some lethal maneuver, Jaime brooded silently.
This limited options. Retreat was not recommended. If Jaime allowed the soldiers to exit the cell, he would be vulnerable to their attacks.
A glance revealed the other prisoners taking Frost's advice and making a run for it.
"You can't just leave me here!" Jaime yelled. A translucent green barrier suddenly appeared and blocked the prisoners' retreat. A glance to his left and he knew it was Enchantress holding them back. Sharp snaps of jade lightning jumped between her fingers.
"This feels like cookie dough in summer," Enchantress said. The gorilla beat its fists against the force field but the barrier didn't so much as tremor.
"Out of the way or else," the bald woman snarled. A rose aura radiated around her hands.
"I'm sorry," Enchantress said. And she looked it. Her lip trembled as though she were about to cry. "The rats can't escape the mouse trap."
The bald woman muttered a string of words and thrust her arms forward. Pink energy whirled at Enchantress. She blocked and counter attacked.
Jaime cringed at his proximity to magical energy. His brain was on fire! Hundreds of scenarios flashed through his synapses, fanning the flames higher and higher. Must not engage with irrational energy. Repairs were not completed from the last encounter. Priority—
"Watch out!" Frost warned.
While he was distracted, two soldiers rushed the door. Their blitz was foiled when Frost threw out a barrier of ice. Jaime drilled the ground in front of the soldiers with blasts to force them to retreat.
"Your aim kind of sucks," Frost said.
Indeed. If Jaime would allow the targeting system to lock on—
"I'm not trying to hit them," he shot back.
Behind him, the fight between the two magic users had halted. Enchantress pinned the bald Indian woman with her power. "You are Checkmate's prisoners," Enchantress said. "You are banned books and must be shelved. You're criminals."
"Don't lump me in with y'all," Jaime shouted over his shoulder. "I didn't do anything wrong!"
"Enchantress," Frost said and stepping forward. Enchantress wheeled towards her, green glow in hand. "You don't belong here anymore than we do-" Frost began.
"I'm not stable," Enchantress said.
"Admitting it is the first step," Jaime muttered and fired off another blast.
Enchantress went on, "Checkmate is going to help me control it. Control her."
"How's that been going?" Frost shot back. "Look what they did to you. You're a babbling idiot. They've kept you locked up, sedated. They were never going to help you."
"Liar!" Enchantress bellowed. Her eyes seemed to flash emerald and her blond hair flickered as though a shadow had passed over her.
"They made you a bunch of pretty little promises didn't they?" Frost went on. "That they wanted to help you. That you could trust them."
Jaime felt his own chest tighten in anger. Almost Peacemaker's words exactly. Did he ever mean to help Jaime?
"And what did they do?" Frost's voice lowered to a hiss. "Put you on their freek squad. Made you fight for them. And then? Run experiments. Throw you away. Break your mind. And conveniently forget all their sweet promises. Look at you!" Frost yelled. "You're a shell of the woman I knew, Enchantress. They destroyed you. I'm not the liar. Checkmate is!"
Enchantress seemed to swell like a cat. Her hair billowed out around her face, staining black. Her blue eyes glowed jade, and her features morphed, elongating, pailing. "Those ... those!" Words failed. She let out a roar of rage.
Irrational energy levels increasing.
"I'm not blind!" Jaime shot back.
In a flash, Enchantress vanished. Instantly, the cells were filled with the sound of gunfire and cries of alarm. Blasts of light and energy flared out to the hall.
The shimmering barrier was gone and Frost and the others were already sprinting down the hall towards escape. Jaime followed.
By the time he caught up, the gorilla ripped the doors off the elevator. It swung itself up the cables and climbed. The bald woman followed after muttering a spell and soared up the shaft. That left Jaime and Frost to climb after them by ladder.
"Stop staring at my ass," Frost called over a shoulder.
"My mother didn't raise me that way," Jaime protested. He'd only glanced up a few times. And that was to see how close to the top they were.
The next level of prison cells looked like a tank had gone through on a rampage. The gorilla or bald woman must have freed other prisoners. Some cells had been opened, scorch marks gouged the walls, pieces of ceiling had collapsed. And there were bodies. Jaime's legs were unstable as he pulled himself out of the shaft and rose to his feet.
Were they ...
Some were void of life. Others were unconscious due to injury. Others, sedated. Others-
"Stop scanning them." Jaime shivered. He felt the acid kick of bile press the back of his throat.
Frost paused. "You okay?"
Jaime tried to answer. To nod. Something. He could only stare at the face of a soldier. He had been shredded by something with claws. Big ones.
He felt a hand heft him by the armpit and drag him forward. "You really are new to this," Frost said. "Can't stop. It's a free for all down here. Some of these freaks don't have the sense to escape. They're killing anything that moves, Checkmate or no."
Jaime kept himself from glancing at something that definitely was not human. It had been sliced the same way as the soldier.
"This supposed to make me feel better?"
Frost slammed him to the wall covering his mouth. Her eyes were wide. In a moment Jaime heard what she had.
Low, heavy breathing.
The two ducked behind a pile of rubble and crouched there. The lights trembled over head slashing shadows with bright white. They tried holding their breaths to catch sound of the creature.
But Jaime didn't need his ears. The scanners allowed him to perceive the figure. It stooped low to the ground, only a blob due to the fact that the scanners didn't use visible light. And it was ... sniffing. Like a hunting dog. Jaime felt his muscles lock. His brain ratcheted through fighting maneuvers but all he could think of was that dead soldier.
The shuffling noise was closer. It would find them. Then he was dead.
A smell surrounded him like he had just jumped into a dumpster. Molding fish blended with rank beef. And something sweet. A shadow fell across their hiding place.
An explosion. Followed by a ear splitting roar. Frost was dragging him to his feet. He followed her lead, stumbling down the hall. He glanced behind him. Three checkmate agents were decked out with cannons on both arms. They drilled a beast the size of an elephant with bullets and plasma slugs. The creature howled, swiping out blindly with glinting claws.
The fight to get to the next elevator was a churning nightmare. Frost iced halls as she passed, sapping warmth like a vacuum. She trapped the feet of anyone who approached them in blocks of ice. Jaime followed her over bodies, ducking cover, and shooting off robots, soldiers, or prisoners.
They reached the shaft, climbed to the next level, and the madness started all over again. Jaime was too tired, too overcome with shock to bother arguing with the suit. He fired where it told him, destroyed checkpoints that blocked their escape, and disabled threats as they leapt up.
"We're almost there," Frost said with a half laugh. "Elevator to the surface is just around the corner. Can't believe we actually made it-"
The next thing Jaime knew, something struck him in the back of the knee. His leg buckled and he fell. At the same time, Frost stumbled and cried out. Her jumpsuit darkened at her shoulder and her face twisted in pain.
"That was a warning shot," a voice behind them shouted. "On the ground or I put one in your head." Jaime turned. He knew that voice.
Peacemaker. He had three other soldiers stacked behind him. Peacemaker had traded his pistols for a rifle. All had their rifles locked against their shoulders, held at eye level to target them. Scanners locked onto the weapon. M16 rifle. 5.56 caliber. Semi-automatic. 60 rounds per minute at a velocity of 948 meters per second. At this range with depleted energy reserves: thirty percent chance of fatal injury.
Jaime held his knee. The round hadn't pierced the armor. But there was a gash along the exoskeleton. No blue glow appeared to repair the damage. They were feet from the corner. But were they faster than the soldier's trigger fingers?
Priority: escape. Use the woman as a decoy to distract the soldiers.
"Get down," Peacemaker's deep voice thundered. "Now."
"Just try putting me back in that cooler!" Frost shrieked back.
"What's the vibrational frequency for stone again?" Jaime panted.
The maneuver had a 28 percent chance of success. The rates would go up if he would abandon the woman.
Jaime glanced at Frost. She understood the look of readiness in his eyes. She wasn't the only one who saw.
"Don't do it, kid," Peacemaker called out.
Jaime's rage boiled over. Peacemaker said he'd help. He said he understood.
He was a liar. Just like Frost said.
Jaime couldn't trust anything Peacemaker said. Jaime fired and so did the soldiers. A frozen shield blossomed from the ground stopping the bullets while Jaime's blast struck the ceiling just above the soldiers. Chunks of rock collapsed on them. Jaime grabbed Frost by the waist and heaved her down the hall at a sprint. They reached the elevator. The doors were gone, evidence that some prisoners had already escaped. The two clamored into the elevator pit. Shots rang through the hall. Bullets pinged around them.
Frost cut off a strip of fabric with an ice blade. Jaime helped her tie it around the bullet wound, trying to hide his trembling hands.
"Maldita 28 percent," Jaime grumbled and moved to the ladder. "Come on."
Frost gritted her teeth. "They'll just shoot us down. As much as I'd love to fall to my death, I'll make my stand here." Twin ice daggers condensed in her hands.
Jaime shook his head. There had to be another way—
There were several options ...
—a way that didn't involve killing everyone in a half-mile radius. If only he could magic himself out like that bald lady. She was probably halfway to the border by now.
Be advised-
"Yes, I realize we are about to be captured," Jaime seathed.
"Least we can do is try and take a few of them with us," Frost mistakenly answered. Still, the exoskeleton went on. Didn't it ever shut up?
Corrupted data has allowed only minimal retrieval of aeronautic capabilities.
Jaime frowned. Aeronautic? Wait, didn't that mean- A twinge ripped through his back. Jaime awkwardly hugged Frost to him. "Hold on."
"What are you doing?"
The suit whined as a thruster charged. "I'm not really sure," Jaime said. In the next moment, they shot upwards through g-force to the surface. "Woooo!" he whooped. Fear melted to exhilaration. In seconds they reached the top. They blew past a barricade that soldiers were erecting around the elevator entrance. A few soldiers tried shooting him down, but Jaime avoided it with a cartwheel. And while it probably looked cool, it was not intentional. He couldn't tell which way was up or where he was going; which made avoiding walls— "Ow." —rather difficult- "Ay!" That one was a pillar.
Impact eminent.
Jaime careened into a floor/ceiling/wall and tumbled to a halt. The two found themselves in a stone hallway. Morning sunlight made its way through arching, gothic windows. Just outside was a large courtyard surrounded by walls. A pale coat of snow padded the grounds. Wait ... snow?
"This isn't Fort Bliss," Jaime breathed. "Where the heck are we?"
Frost punched him. "You could fly this whole time? Why didn't you do that sooner!"
"I didn't know I could fly," Jaime said. At her exasperated sigh he went on, "The gyroscopes aren't calibrated and it wasn't safe. Hello, crash landing?"
"Idiot."
Jaime and Frost ran opposite the sounds of fighting. It didn't take them long to find an exit. A small side door with only one guard. Before Jaime could fashion a non-fatal plan, Frost stepped out.
The guard let loose the usual, "Hands up."
"Looks like you caught me, hot stuff." Frost unzipped the front of her uniform in a slow, languid motion. "Long time since I've been with a man." Her voice slid out sultry and rich. "Come on, soldier boy. Show me a good time." She moved as smooth as silk, sliding nearer and nearer.
"I said hands-"
"Just a quick one," she whispered. "Our secret."
In seconds she was past the gun, pale lips against his. She let out a moan of ecstasy. Jaime gaped. What was she- He stared at the ceiling.
Holy thoughts, holy thoughts, holy thoughts.
A gurgle followed by a muffled shriek brought him crashing back to the present. The man's gun dropped to the floor. He tried to scream. Frost forced herself on him until the man grew still.
She took a shuddering breath. "Thaaat's the stuff." She stepped back, lids half closed and delirious with pleasure. The soldier's body crumpled to the ground. His skin was cracked like an eggshell. And purple. So purple it looked black. Jaime found himself rushing forward. He reached out, then jerked back. He didn't need scanners to tell him what he could see for himself.
Subject died from hypothermia and suffered from severe frostburn over all parts of the body.
"Dios mio," Jaime said panting. "You killed him. You ... Was that what you were going to do to me?"
"Have to keep moving."
He shoved her back. "How can you act like that was nothing! You deserve to be down there," he bellowed. "I should have never of helped you, te asesina! Enchantress was right." She swiped at him with a blade but he dodged. His arm came out, ready to fire. "I won't let you escape, killer!"
"We don't have time for this," Frost hissed. "You try and stop me, we both get caught."
Priority: escape.
Jaime's teeth ground together. This was wrong. Wrong. Wrong! But he couldn't worry about that now. All that mattered was home, right? Frost smirked as she slid towards the door. She turned and ran.
Loose Spanish translation as taken in context:
ay - ow
Dios mio - oh my God
guerra - war
maldita - damn
mami - mom
padre - father
te asesina - you murderer