CHAPTER 21: SURROUNDED
The Anomalies gathered in the front yard of my house. It was a somewhat staggering crowd–eleven people milling about, checking their weapons and preparing to load up.
"Dad," Gibbs said, placing a hand on Jackson's shoulder, "it's gonna be okay."
"Well, I know that," Jackson assured him. "You've got a nice group of people behind you, mostly."
"Mostly," Gibbs said with a grin. He glanced over at Ari, who was standing on the outskirts of the group observing the proceedings.
Gibbs watched as Luca stepped tentatively towards Ari. Ari looked at Luca, who recoiled slightly. When Ari didn't attack him, Luca offered Ari the grip of a pistol. Ari observed it, the design that was so far advanced to anything he had encountered before. Ari looked at Luca before taking the pistol, and he examined it from all angles. "Is this model standard issue?" he asked.
"It is," Luca answered, his voice tremoring slightly. "We have more advanced weaponry, but…you know…."
"I won't see any of it until you know you can trust me?" Ari said with a slightly amused grin. Luca eased slightly, and he gave a sheepish smile in return. "What's your name?" Ari asked.
"Um, Luca," he answered. "Luca Sciuto."
"Sciuto," Ari said, taking a much keener interest in Luca. "I forgot, Abigail does have a brother, doesn't she?"
"Uh," Luca said, taken completely off guard. "I didn't know you knew Abby."
Ari smiled, but this seemed to only put Luca off even more. Luca nodded awkwardly and hurried away.
"Is everyone familiar with our goals?" Theas asked. "The Spatial Hunters will be here soon. They're getting closer by the second. We need to draw them away from here so they don't uncover our operations. Not all of us will directly confront them. The members of the ART will be on the frontlines of the conflict. That's Jack, Gibbs, Fornell, Ari, and myself. We will be supported by Admiral McGee. The rest of the Anomalies will be under protection by Sloane and Rob. Guys, I don't want to be dishonest with you. This will likely be a full combat operation."
"What do we know about the Hunters?" I asked.
"Nothing more than the last time you asked," Theas answered. "They're not going to be thrilled that we killed Algaltha and his Team, so I would expect a heavy offensive from them. Are there any other questions?"
Everyone shook their heads, but no one seemed pleased about what we were preparing to do.
"Then let's go," Theas declared. Theas opened a portal, and I noticed it was about twice the size of the ones he usually conjured.
We all filed through the portal, and I came out at the bottom of a small, rocky ravine that had a tiny creek trickling through it. I looked around as everyone else crowded out as well. We spent a couple of minutes taking in our surroundings before Theas started directing us. We split into our separate groups, and I watched as Sloane and Rob took up defensive positions on either side of a group consisting of Luca, Kyle, and Jackson. Sloane and Rob had the same class of assault rifle that Sarah used. Luca, Kyle, and Jackson all had pistols, and they all looked around nervously, as if they expected the demons of Hades to start popping out of the bushes.
"Once we split up," Jackson said, "what's to stop these Hunters of yours from coming after us instead of you?"
"That's why we're remaining together for now," Theas said. "We need to ensure that we're able to intercept the Kill Team when it arrives. Once they arrive, you will all escape into the forest while we fight them. I would just set up a portal to take you home as soon as they got here, but they might be able to track you down, so that poses a major risk."
Jackson nodded, and while he looked far from relieved, he appeared ready to do whatever needed to be done.
"What's the plan for ART?" I asked Theas.
"You see these ridges?" Theas said, pointing to either side of the ravine. "There's thick forest on both sides. We'll take up positions in there and try to box them here in the ravine where we'll have the higher ground. It won't be enough to throw us the win, but it may be enough to weaken–"
"That's an awfully well-thought-out plan you have there, Theas."
We all looked around, and at first, I couldn't tell who spoke. Then Theas looked behind him and seemed to nearly faint. Standing there was perhaps the strangest individual I had ever seen. I expected the Hunters to all look more or less like Algaltha and his people. Gray skin, enormous body proportions, brutal weapons. This person looked closer to a half-defeathered raven. His skin was ghostly pale, and he had long, inky-black hair that flew in a wild mane down his back. He had long talons for hands and feet, and he had enormous black wings out of his back that were ragged and disheveled. He also had smaller wings out of his forearms. His eyes were bright red, fierce, and he surveyed us all with a menacing grin.
"Oh, Gilo," Theas said with clear exasperation. "I was hoping it'd be your team they sent."
"I'm sure you did," Gilo said, matching Theas's sarcasm. "Nok was thrilled to be able to give his greeting in person."
Sloane, Rob, and their protectees were too stunned to move, and meanwhile Gibbs, McGee, and Ari were looking around with weapons raised.
"Where is the rest of your team?" Theas asked.
"They're here," Gilo answered. "They're making wonderful strategies to slaughter all of these juicy Anomalies."
Theas drew his swords from his back, and the blades became electrified as the members of ART aimed their weapons. Sloane and Rob led the noncombatants away, but they had hardly taken five steps before their path was impeded by two more Hunters. One of them had pale red skin with blood red hair in a messy mohawk. She wore a black sleeveless shirt with black pants, and she surveyed the noncombatants with bright yellow eyes. Her associate wore a white long-sleeved shirt and pants, along with a long, hooded robe. Her skin was so bright it either reflected the sunlight or absorbed it–I couldn't tell which. She had long, white hair in a straight plait down to her waist.
Sloane and Rob aimed their weapons, but the two Spatial Hunters barely reacted to this.
"Gilo, your fight is with us," Theas said. "Those people are innocents."
"There's no such thing as an innocent Anomaly," Gilo said, seeming to relish in the fear coursing across the ravine. "You're going to join the prey," he growled.
Theas lunged forward and swung his electrified sword, but Gilo shot straight up into the air while the rest of the ravine took up arms. The red-skinned Hunter clenched her fists, and a surge of fire enveloped both arms as her eyes glowed bright. Sloane and Rob opened fire with their assault rifles, but the other Hunter raised one hand. The bombardment of gunfire hit what appeared to be an invisible wall and vanished, leaving Sloane and Rob to watch in shock.
"You guys are going to love what happens next," said the red-skinned Hunter.
The other woman placed both hands about a foot apart from each other, and she made some finger-strutting movements before a bright glow lit up the whole forest. In her hands appeared a warbling ball of energy which was the exact color and consistency of the blasts from Sloane's and Rob's rifles.
"Everyone down!" Sloane yelled.
The Anomalies dove for cover as the Hunter in white fired the energy ball. An enormous blast of smoke and fire rose high over the forest, sending debris raining down. Gibbs fired his sniper rifle while I fired an arrow, but Gilo's quick path through the air allowed him to evade the weapons fire. He came down on top of Gibbs, ready to swing his claws, but Theas fired a bolt of electricity at him that forced him to fly off course. I drew another arrow while Gibbs took aim, and as we focused on Gilo, I lost all track of what was happening elsewhere.
Gilo came down and landed on a tree as an arrow landed in the trunk. He leered at me, but a slicing wave burst out from the arrow, hitting him and knocking him off the tree. Gilo plummeted down and slammed into the ground, and Gibbs held him under the aim of his gun.
"Help the others," he told me. "Get the NCs away."
It took me a second to register that NCs meant noncombatants, and I turned to see what was happening. There was a massive crater in the ground, pouring smoke into the air as five Anomalies recovered from the blast. Fire still raged around the red-skinned Hunter, and she and her companion bore down on the Anomalies who seemed barely fit to return to their feet. I closed in and fired an arrow, but the red-skinned Hunter swiped her hand and knocked it aside with a blast of fire.
"I got this hotshot," she said with a nasty grin. "You keep the others down. Nok wants them all together when we execute them."
The white-robed Hunter nodded, and the red-skinned Hunter braced herself. Fire raged across her entire body, and she shot at me with shocking speed that lit the ground ablaze as she went. I tried to evade her, but she appeared next to me, hitting me in the face. I swung my fist in return, but she blocked it and punched me in the gut. I received several more strikes in the torso before she kicked me away. I tumbled across the stone ground, registering the burns on my skin where the Hunter had hit me. I groaned in pain, but even this was too much wasted time. The Hunter appeared directly over me and brought her fire-engulfed fist down.
The impact blasted out a chunk of the ravine, and I only barely managed to evade a fatal strike. I put some distance between the two of us, but my bow was nowhere to be found, leaving me completely defenseless.
"I just have to say," I said to her, "you guys are way different than the other Hunters we fought."
"There are all kinds of species of Hunters," she replied. "Algaltha's Kill Team was only one of them."
She aimed her fist at me and fired a blast of fire, and while I managed to duck down to evade it, a second blast was fired at me as well. I dove out of the way as the fire blast smashed into the ground, blasting up burning rock as smoke rose into the air. I rolled across the ground, and I managed to find my bow, but without a quiver, it wouldn't mean much. I looked around just in time to get punched in the jaw, and I stumbled back as the Hunter swiped her arm through the air and hit me with a wave of fire.
I yelled out in pain as my clothes and flesh were burned, and I was knocked off my feet and slammed into the ground. The Hunter walked calmly over, standing next to me and staring down at me with grim satisfaction.
"I don't know why you'd sacrifice yourself for Anomalies," she said in a deadly voice, "but remember, you made your choices."
She focused fire into her fist, preparing to bring it down on top of me, but she was then hit by incoming gunfire. She yelled out in fury while stumbling back, and I swung my bow around and upended her. She crashed to the ground while I scrambled to my feet, and Admiral McGee came over, aiming his pistol down at the Hunter. She rolled onto her fours, glaring at us as her body began heating up again. I looked around quickly, finding my quiver with a few arrows in it.
"Go," the Admiral said, preparing to open fire again.
I dove down, scooping my quiver off the ground and shouldering it. I pulled an arrow as the Hunter advanced on the Admiral, but he held his ground against her. I fired an arrow, and it hit the ground at her feet and exploded, blasting her back through the air.
"Never thought of a bow as a wartime weapon," the Admiral said with a grin.
"Neither did Gibbs," I replied.
An enormous wave of fire rose up towards the top of the ravine, illuminating the entire battlefield. The Admiral and I braced ourselves as the Hunter rose back to her feet. She looked absolutely murderous, white-hot flames engulfing her entire person, and she built up a mass of power with intent to bring it all down on top of us at once.
"Brindier, stop."
The Hunter looked around questioningly as the Hunter in white stepped forward to stand beside her. The red-skinned Hunter, Brindier, extinguished the sheath of fire around her, and she stepped back to allow the white-robed Hunter to face us directly.
"Are you sure, Iryn?" Brindier asked, seeming concerned.
"I've never seen such a heinous breach of universal regulations," said Iryn. "Not only do we have nearly a dozen Anomalies all at once, but the scum of this universe is aiding them. They must all be vanquished."
"Get ready," the Admiral breathed. "This one looks like she might be serious."
We both prepared to fire our weapons, but something deep down in my gut told me nothing we did would accomplish much against her.
"Before we get started," Iryn said to us, "you should know that I manipulate Aolen. I detect that all of your weapons operate off of it. This will be a problem for you."
The Admiral and I both tensed as Iryn reached out a hand. McGee's pistol exploded with significant force, nearly blasting his hand off as he yelled out in pain. He crumpled to his knees as blood spewed out of his hand, and he gritted his teeth while glaring at Iryn. I fired an arrow, but it bounced off an invisible wall and clattered uselessly to the ground.
"All of this energy," Iryn said, stepping towards us. She held her hands out to her sides, and purple light flowed from the arrow and the remains of the Admiral's gun into her palms. "All of this power. You'll regret it."
Iryn clapped her hands together, firing off a wave of energy that slammed into me, making me lose all sense.
IN THE EYES OF THE MULTIVERSE:
Gibbs and Fornell were steadily pushed back. They fired their weapons, but they were getting nowhere.
"I hate these guys," Fornell said angrily.
They both dove out of the way as a massive figure stampeded past. The creature came to a stop on its fours, looking around at them. It had dark-blue fur, a lithe body, and long, pointed antlers made of metal. Its glowing red eyes took in Gibbs and Fornell as they returned to their feet, and it turned to face them while preparing to charge again.
"Suddenly I miss drug dealers," Gibbs grunted, aiming for the creature's eyes. He fired a shot, but the creature quickly jumped to the side.
Fornell fired a Tri-Shot Blitz, but the creature roared furiously, raising a wall of tree roots in front of it that intercepted the attack. The roots receded back into the ground, and the creature charged Gibbs and Fornell once more. They tried to escape again, but the creature's antler grazed Fornell's arm, causing him to yell in pain as he toppled over. Gibbs fired a shot, but the creature shrugged it off as it stood over Fornell.
The entire ravine was in open battle. The Anomalies worked to put up any kind of defense against the Spatial Hunters, but they were so far unsuccessful. Sloane and Rob attempted to defend the noncombatants, but Luca, Kyle, and Jackson were forced to take part in the battle alongside everyone else. Jackson leaned on his walking stick, shooting his pistol one-handed as Brindier closed in on them. Brindier used a hand enveloped in fire to intercept the shots, and Sloane saw her approaching and stood in front of the noncombatants. Rob was too distracted trying to pull Luca off the ground while blood spewed from an injury in his side.
Brindier closed the gap between herself and Sloane, and Sloane fired a shot just as Brindier's hand closed around her gun barrel. The metal barrel heated until it glowed red, and Sloane let go just before the gun exploded, sending shrapnel in all directions. Sloane was pierced in the shoulder by a shard of metal, and in the time that she was buffeted by this, Brindier kicked her in the stomach and knocked her off her feet. Luca and Kyle opened fire on Brindier, who yawned as the bullets were extinguished by her fire shroud.
Brindier held out her hand, and she fired a wave of fire that forced Luca and Kyle to dive down. Rob ran in and swung his gun barrel, but Brindier blocked it with her arm and hit him in the stomach with a blast of fire. Sloane gasped in horror as Rob tumbled across the ground, and Brindier built up fire in both fists, preparing to attack. Luca, Kyle, and Jackson steadily backed away while firing a steady stream of shots at Brindier, but she continued to walk calmly towards them, the blasts being extinguished before they made it to her.
She was feet from the noncombatants, glaring at them with a malicious smile, and she aimed her palm at Jackson while fire licked her fingers.
"Stop."
Ari stood at Brindier's flank, holding his pistol to her temple. Brindier's grin had extinguished, and she looked at him with what almost looked like boredom. Ari held his determination, his finger on the trigger.
"You really have the guts to do that?" Brindier asked him.
"I've killed plenty," Ari told her. "You'll just be another corpse on the pile. Or maybe we don't need to go there."
Jackson observed the scene, his mouth hanging open.
Brindier flashed a grin, and she ducked down just as Ari pulled the trigger. The shot went off, but Brindier spun around, hitting him with a powerful blast of fire that knocked him back while he yelled in surprise and pain.
Theas soared through the air, swinging his swords at Gilo, who cackled while effortlessly evading the attack. As Theas flew past, Gilo tore the talons on his feet through his back, causing him to yell in pain as he plummeted back to the ground. He crashed into a tree trunk and slammed into the ground, and he groaned in pain while Gilo searched for someone else to assault. However, many of the Anomalies were either preoccupied with other Hunters or too injured to continue fighting.
The Anomalies continued to steadily be beaten back, dragging each other through the ravine into a central location that found itself surrounded on all sides by enemy combatants. Theas stood at the head of the group, teeth gritted while blood ran down his face, and he looked around at the Hunters boxing them in. Jack was being held up by Kyle while blood soaked most of his front and he gasped for air. Fornell could barely stand, and he kept his hand pressed to his stomach while blood seeped through his fingers.
"I don't know about you all, but I'm having a great time," Gilo said with a malevolent grin as he hovered ten feet off the ground.
Brindier gathered fire into her fist. Iryn held a ball of purple light in her palm. The antlered Hunter pawed the ground, preparing to charge.
"Stop this," Theas said, panting a bit. "Back down."
Someone appeared in front of the Hunters, standing before Theas and surveying the scene with a straight face. As far as any of the Anomalies could tell, this man looked entirely human. He appeared to be in his mid-forties. He had thick, brown, messy hair down to his shoulders. He had a close-shaved beard, and he wore a black button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up with dark jeans.
"Nok," Theas breathed, taking an instinctive step backward.
Nok looked around at the battlefield, taking in the carnage and the injuries sustained by the Anomalies.
"I see this Kill Team has done great work," he said in a low, silky voice. "It's hard for me to imagine how Algaltha had so much difficulty."
The Anomalies watched Nok with varying degrees of fear and concern while they supported their injured compatriots. Nok looked over at the antlered Hunter and said, "Alkor, I appreciate your restraint."
Alkor huffed, pawing the ground as though wanting nothing more than to gore the Anomalies with his antlers.
"Now, then," Nok said, turning back to Theas. "Let's finish this unpleasant business and send our friends here on to the afterlife. I'll do the deed myself. No need for you all to get your hands any dirtier."
Nok's Hunters remained where they were, and Nok strode forward as Theas braced himself. The Anomalies who were able raised their weapons, and while Jack tried to raise his bow, his arms were too heavy to lift. Gibbs stepped in front of him, aiming his sniper rifle at Nok who watched them fearlessly. Ari kept his aim steady, but his eyes shifted back and forth between the other four Hunters as well. Theas took a step backward, and he crossed his swords in front of him.
The blades built up electricity, and Nok's eyes narrowed as he aimed his fist at Theas. A powerful blast of black energy fired from his fist that shook the earth, and at the same time, a field of electricity spread outward from Theas's swords. The electricity field intercepted the energy blast, but the impact nearly threw all of the Anomalies off their feet as Theas's shield only barely held. The electricity formed a dome around them all, and Nok lowered his arm to his side as he watched Theas open a portal. The Anomalies clambered through as quickly as they could, and Theas didn't even glance back at the Hunters as he followed them.
JACK FOSSE:
We all tumbled out of the portal into the lab, falling over all of the equipment as we piled in. About half of us could barely stand upright, and I was in that group. I looked around as the most injured of us sat down, trying to provide what little treatment to themselves they could. Admiral McGee cradled his hand, wrapped in a spare cloth he must have found lying around. Rob took off his shirt, which was hanging off of him in tears, the front burned beyond repair. His whole torso was burned and bloody. Fornell gasped in pain, leaning back in a chair as he looked up at the ceiling.
"If I had known we were going to be fighting a group of comic book villains, I'd have stayed in bed," Fornell grunted.
I had to sit in a chair as well, and I took off my shirt and used it to mop up the blood all over my body.
"I have a medical team on the way," Theas said. Despite his lack of serious injuries, he looked positively exhausted, no better than the rest of us. "They'll be able to treat you here, so there won't be a need for hospitals. Guys…I am so sorry." We all looked at him, unsure of what he was apologizing for. "This was my fault," he said, and for the first time since I met him, he seemed to be on the verge of tears. "If I had known it was Nok's team that was coming, I never would have employed you to face them. It would have been a Keeper military assault team instead."
"Well, if there's a hint of good news here, it's that you seem familiar with them," Sloane said. "Maybe you can give us a little bit more intel."
"Yeah," Theas said, although it was somewhat dry and self-admonishing. "Yeah, I can give you some intel. But not right now."
Nobody made any argument to this, and we all focused on keeping ourselves together.
"Guys."
I looked around, and as Sarah walked into the lab, leaning against a wall for support, I wasn't sure if I was horrified to see her or pleased beyond measure. Sarah, however, looked positively abashed. She observed us each in turn, taking in all of our injuries, many of which were brutal. Finally, her eyes found mine, and as she saw my disparate state, something seemed to break in her eyes.
"What happened to you?" she asked me.