A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1) (38 page)

“Which
is another way he has changed in the last ten years.  Honestly, what’s he has
done in this city is more his style than anything else he has done in a decade.”

“He
has probably has to move up his timetable once his cohorts were discovered.  It
sounds like he is trying to keep us distracted and chasing false leads.  I suspect
he knows exactly where and when the ritual needs to be done.”

“That’s
not what you said earlier,” Mei said with a frown, disturbed that all our
planning was in vain.

“We
didn’t have all the information.  Have no fear that we wasted our time.  The
mapping and surveillance that we had our allies do will still be critical, I think. 
Just not exactly the way I had planned,” I assured her.

“Whatever
he is doing it still needs to be done on the largest node in the city,” Stella
interjected.

“Or
one of the largest, there still may be several candidates.  Just not as many as
we thought,” I corrected.

“Okay,
so we have a plan!  Let’s head out and get Jeremy back,” I said, rubbing my
hands together.

“So
who do you have to babysit Beth?” Mei asked as we got prepared to leave. 
Stella and I looked at her in askance.

“I
don’t understand.  Why would she need a babysitter?  She isn’t a baby,” I
asked, looking at her confused.

“She’s
short but isn’t it a bit rude to call her a baby,” asked Stella, glancing back
through the hall where Beth was sleeping.  “You are short and we don’t tease
you about it.”

“She
needs a babysitter because it’s illegal for her to be alone for at least five more
years,” Mei said in a low angry voice, a vein on her forehead visibly pulsed. 
Apparently being call a short offended her.

“I
think she’s going all Conrad on us,” I whispered into Stella’s ear.  This got a
cough from Sebastian and a growl from the shifter in question.  “Fine, it seems
silly to confine a woman on the edge of adulthood that way, nevertheless I’ll
check the auction house for a butler or something.  Man, I wish Jeremy was
here.”

“Shut
up! Shut up!  Shut up!” barked Mei.  “I’ll call a friend from one of the local
packs.  It’ll be faster than arguing about it.”

We
had to wait an hour for the babysitter to come.  It wasn’t wasted time; I took
advantage of it to inscribe a few bowls with negation wards so we could
actually capture some minion before their heads blew up.

Afterward,
we all piled in the vampire’s antique buggy and were off.  Stella was nervous
until I assured her that it would not leave the ground and was in no way
related to a roller coaster ride.  Once we actually got going I think she liked
it.  The inertia dampener cut the wind and bugs out of the experience and due
to the lateness of the night most of the other surface traffic was gone.  That
meant we didn’t have to stop or slow for people trying to get in touch with an
earlier age. They weren’t in our way with their glacially slow bikes or skates
or whatever ancient tinker toy they managed to get together.  The teen scooters
and self-propelled jet shoes were gone too.

The
park was controlled by several shifter clans, which also meant that the flashy
ads and noisy show tunes were not on display.  This lead to a rather peaceful
journey, as we circled the area for a good spot to set up.  I had my tooth out
and we also narrowed the location to a single building.  We surreptitiously kept
on going, moving to the back of another abandoned warehouse on the opposite
side of the target building.  It wasn’t the most convenient but the entire area
was deserted. 

From
what Mei shared, the businesses had been locked in petty legal battles between
the owners and the packs.  It was questionable who would someday win, but it
didn’t really matter since the businesses were steadily losing money.  Mei
predicted that they would settle out of court eventually and the clans would
either rezone for residential areas or extend the parkland.  Once that
happened, the cooperation between the packs would in all probability vanish as
they all wrestled for the territory.  They really weren’t big on sharing.

At
the locked doors, Sebastian tinkered with his wrist terminal and the lights on
the deadbolts dimmed before the lock clicked open.  He was useful as a thief
until Jeremy came back.  All of us worked very well in complete darkness,
although the reflexive coating on Mei’s eyes was a bit distracting.  We quickly
set up stations at the front windows, watching the building across the street
as Sebastian ghosted his way out.  Even though I could see perfectly in the
darkness I couldn’t see him as he went his way.  He may have changed into a
mist, I know he didn’t turn invisible.

We
stared out the windows for almost an hour before my terminal vibrated and asked
me if I wanted to accept a data transmission.  I tapped affirmative and a map
of the relevant warehouse popped up with the locations of Jin’s minions and
more importantly Jeremy.  This was actually more than I had been hoping for.  I
started tapping away at the holographic interface assigning tags to specific
icons.  One minion was solid metal, another solid stone.  Another kept emitting
sparks and a fourth had constant wind surging around him.  Mostly elemental
powers so far.  Unless they had something tricky, like the ability turn someone
else into an element it sounded pretty basic.  Then another tag popped up which
raised my eyebrow.  There was a giant wolf the size of a tank pacing back and
forth in front of Jeremy.

Stella
didn’t have a terminal, so I slunk over to her and whispered to her.  “You have
the stone guy.  I assume you have something that can neutralize stone?”

“Sure,”
she hesitantly nodded.  “I thought you wanted me out front to grab the runners.”

“I
do, I’ll arrange for him to come to you.  Just make sure to nail him before he
jumps back inside.”

If
Sebastian followed our initial plan he would be on the wolf and guarding
Jeremy.  If he failed, I would not only make sure he didn’t get paid, but
ensure he would never be paid again.

I
would take the metal guy and as I tapped on the interface again I forwarded the
plan to Mei who was assigned the lightning minion.  I debated the priority
level to assign the wind powered shifter but really had no idea of what his
powers were.  The others I could guess at.  Sighing, I made a note to make him
a target of opportunity.

After
getting a nod from Mei and Stella, I sent a message to go and waited for the
explosions.  Evidentially,  there were no explosions but Mei charged through
her window, across the street and through the warehouse wall next to where the
map said her target was.  Perhaps she was a were-cheetah.  As I followed her at
a significantly slower pace, I faintly heard what her enhanced senses had
obviously picked up.  Deep in the warehouse was yelping and howling combined
with barked orders as the shifters desperately and loudly tried to get a handle
on what was going on.

My
targets last known whereabouts was near a window so I simply leaped through the
standard explosion proof glass leading with a kick.  Shifters must be faster
than I thought, because my metallic target and stone form secondary target were
already halfway to rear of the warehouse.  They had, however, briefly paused to
find out who had broken through the wall.  I shameless took advantage of this distraction
to catch up to the stone man grab him by the arm.  With a single revolution, I
whirled him around and threw him through the opening I had made.  I was a
little off, because his head made a hole in the window frame as he passed by.

Metal
man used this grace period to tackle me to the ground and start slamming some
very respectable blows into my face.  I took five of these before I had enough
leverage to retaliate, enlarging my hand to the size of hams to encircle his
neck while forming six inch talons on my right hand.  These changes barely
twinged the rune on my chest and I silently gave thanks to Sulayman for his
absurdly overpowered enchantments.  Every ounce of pain was worth it to feel a
little more freedom within my body.  I would have to visit a mirror soon to explore
the new boundaries of my form. 

My
ruminations were rudely interrupted when a metal fist slammed into my face for
a sixth time, immediately followed by a direct hit of a lightning strike.  The
final punch bloodied my lip and the lightning elicited a surprised grunt.  My
shiny opponent ignored the lightning, but my taloned claw tore screams from him
as four inch deep furrows were etched into his face, blinding him in one eye
and almost removing his nose and mouth.  His purposeful attacks changed to
desperate swats at my clawed hand as he struggled to escape.

Meanwhile,
the lightning wielder was spraying the room with sheets of electricity trying
to get at Mei.  She in turn was doing amazing acrobats as she leaped around
dodging the energy.  I was struck by lightning twice more during her display of
agility.  I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore it.  It didn’t hurt me so much
as messed with my coordination. 

The
wind controller was tossing miniature tornadoes that were also crisscrossing
the house.  One of these picked up my opponent and I and set up spinning
through the rear interior wall to the back.  I am not sure if he had any control
over it or we just coincidentally hit every possible solid object in between.

While
being bounced around didn’t hurt either the metal man or myself it, was very
confusing and made it incredibly hard to concentrate when combined with the
twitching caused by the high voltage.  I finally simply closed my eyed and
started to punch the man I was grappling despite his random flailing. I didn’t
use my claws at this point.  As fun as they were, they turned out to be a little
too effective if I wanted I prisoner.

We
were finally thrown clear of the wind’s grasp into a pile of crates.  Opening
my eyes, I saw that the metal man’s face looked like metallic play dough that
had been pounded until all you could see were impressions of fists.  Despite
this, I saw that he was alive.  Looking up, I saw Sebastian grappling with the
huge wolf.  It was even larger he had described, which meant that his power
hadn’t hit its maximum yet.  Behind him, barely visible in occasional glimpses
was a black and blue Jeremy, sagging against the interior of a cage.  His face
was grossly swollen, but he was awake.  He was clearly trying to stay as far
away as he could from the now truck sized wolf.  Beside him, on the outside of
the cage were two inscribed bowls.  Looking back and forth from the giant wolf
to the absurdly small bowls, I made a decision.

“Sebastian,”
I yelled, trying to catch the vampire’s attention over the howls of the wolf
and the sound of the wind from the front area. It was difficult, because the
gale suddenly picked up volume and sounded like a hundred trains were tearing
around in the street outside.  “The wolf has become a liability.  Stop playing
with him and use your damn dagger.”

The
vampire almost paused and smiled before reaching behind his back and pulling
his deadly blade.  “As you wish.”

Ignoring
the battle with the wolf, I held out my hand to the bowls and pulled them to my
hand.  I always appreciated how psionics ignored most magic although the
reverse wasn’t always as pleasant.  I reached into my somewhat tattered pants
and pulled out the adhesive bottle I had grabbed in my workshop.  It was strong
stuff, the warnings not to use on humans was repeated several times in large
red text on the side.  Ignoring this, I put a generous glob on the metal man’s
head and placed the bowl on it.  While it dried on the man’s head, I jogged
towards the front of the warehouse.  In the back ground, I started to hear the
howls and whimpers of a wolf having terrible things done to it.

Back
at the entry of the building, the roof had blown off and a huge tornado towered
above the open area.  Inside, spinning at hundreds of miles an hour was a blur
that looked like a very disgruntled tiger and the shredded corpse of the
lightning shifter.  At the very bottom of the funnel, cackling madly was the paradoxically
grounded and stationary wind controller.  Okay, I now knew what he could do. 
Next time I would definitely prioritize things slightly differently.

I
was just about to head towards the manically laughing man when Stella poked her
head inside.  “Are you done yet?” I saw her mouth, though I heard nothing over
the sound of the tempest.

I
gestured at the tornado and shrugged.  Then I mimed her waving her hand at it. 
After a second of confusion, she mouthed an incantation and did indeed wave her
arm.  Immediately silence descended as the windstorm vanished.  Looking around
puzzled, the air controller started to form dozens of smaller funnels.  This
time Stella simply waved her hand and they vanished.  For the next few seconds
furious hand waving from both elemental wielders, became endemic.

Stella
was obviously rapidly becoming bored with this game and the man was growing
frustrated as the state of affairs continued.  Meanwhile, the debris from the now
non-existent towering funnel of destruction had been raining down steadily. 
Wall fragments of duracrete, synthetic wood and plasteel steadily peppered us
as the waving contest continued.  The mauled corpse of the lightning caster landed
with a disgusting plopping sound.