OVERFALLS (The Merworld Water Wars, Book 2) (46 page)

From a tall cloud ridge, cackling, eyeless women with mad hair and yellow, serpent tongues pelted me with countless baseball-size hail. I quickly realized the trick to passing these bands was hauling ass.

“Second word. Spear.”
I have to spear one of these hail balls with the lightning bolt
. Surrounding myself with moving gel shields as I ran through the hailstorm, I desperately tried to spike one of the icy spheres with the exposed tip of the bolt.

“Come on! Come on!” I shouted, as the gel shields began shredding.

Suddenly, a ball of solid ice slammed against the back of my neck; I fell on my side, rolling uncontrollably until I slipped through a jagged gap in the clouds, just outside the entrance to the third band. The bolt of lighting flew from my hands, landing out of my reach. I could barely keep the shields intact with the constant downpour of hail. Back at the entrance to the second band, several of the frightening women formed a line; there, they created a monster hail globe, like those straight out of a crazy cartoon, and rolled it towards my head. I frantically twisted and turned, trying to free myself. Finally, I squeezed through the gap, clawed across the cloudy floor, and wrapped my fingers around the lightning bolt.

With no time to think before being squashed by a jumbo ice ball, I had to trust my instinct and Savior powers. When the giant globe was within reach, I jumped on top of it, speared a hail ball right out of the hand of one of the angry women on the cloud ridge—giving my insincere thanks just to piss her off—and dove into the final hurricane band, thunder.

There, I found an infantile giant; around his neck was a curvy key.
Toss
was the next word the eye spoke.

“
You
make all that gosh damn noise during a storm?” The beast started stomping and roaring, sending violently deafening sound waves throughout the band. Slapping my fists over my ears, I shouted, “You know, I’m not in the mood to deal with a tantrum-throwing giant.” I tossed the hail-tipped lightning bolt at the key; when it struck him, the giant lit up like a possessed Christmas tree, and the key flew right into my hands.

The cloud abruptly parted beneath my feet, and I plummeted into the ocean. Once underwater, a sort of magnetic pull dragged my body deeper and deeper into the sea’s darkening waters. When the irresistible force vanished, leaving me floating in the middle of nowhere, I glanced around and grinned.

“Oh, hell yes.” Two mermobiles—one purple, one silver—floated nearby.

As I was about to slide in, Katrina appeared next to her racer, shouting, “Bid your lead farewell. You’ll never see it again. Oh, and watch your flesh.”

“Watch my flesh? Starting a new cannibal clique?”

Laughing, she jumped in her mermobile and sped away.

When I touched the side of my mermobile, an electric shock shot straight up my arm. Backing away, I saw that the entire vehicle was covered in electric currents. “Okay, it wasn’t like that a minute ago.”

Odd popping sounds, sickly groans, piercing wails, and an odd stench filled the space around me. Flipping around, my stomach lurched: Splashzers. The mer-zombies surrounded me; I couldn’t escape.

“Trident be!” I shouted. My dual-ended trident materialized in my hand. Okay. Mer-zombies can’t be all that different from the regular flesh-ripping kind. Bash the brain, right? Rearing back, aiming for the closest brainless beast…I froze. I literally couldn’t move. The group of rotting fins and oozing fangs closed in; their warm, grotesque breaths covered my face, arms, and hands. A male Splashzer with half his face missing placed his decomposed hands around my wrist and elbow; with a ravenous snarl, he started to close his jaws around my arm…

In a blink, the Splashzer’s head whipped back, and I could suddenly move again as his fin floated to the bottom the ocean, along with those of half of the scaly decrepit.

“Fins first, babe,” said a trident-wielding mermaid with shoulder-length, chocolate-brown hair, amber eyes, and a fuchsia fin covered in protective netting. Smashing her trident through the skulls of the finless Splashzers with lightning speed, she said, “Fins retain merperson magic. It’s how they keep from rotting completely, why your mermobile was shock-friendly, and why you turned into a statue. Now, feel like helping me take out the rest? And the name is Ash Finleigh.”

“Marina Valentine, and hell yeah,” I said, using one end of my trident to slice through the lot of peeling fins, before whirling it around to bash their skulls. I found the whole process oddly enjoyable.

“Well, that was some unexpected fun,” said Ash, watching all the bits and pieces of the demolished Splashzers get gobbled up by other fish.

“Will those fish now, uh, turn—”

“Nah, the curse dies with a fin slice and brain bash, turning them into an all-you-can-eat buffet. Fish aren’t stupid. They know to stay away from the Splashzers while the merperson magic is still alive inside of them. You need to motor. Whore-bitch’s family probably set these Splashzers on you to slow you down.”

“Then she should be disqualified. Hell, everybody probably saw it on the screens and—”

“And nothing. Your feed suffered a mysterious malfunction right after Katrina zoomed away. They saw nothing. Tree sent up the red flag. Go. The mermobile knows where to take you; let it lead, you just floor it.”

Ash was gone from sight before I could move. Finally settling into the mermobile, I shoved the key into the ignition and…WHOOSH! In mere minutes, I was crossing into the Gulf Super Zoomway and landing right on the track, blending seamlessly into race mode. There were only two of us racing: Katrina and me.

“Hey, babe, ya there?”

“Ash?! How the hell did you get here so fast? And…what are you doing here?”

“Yeah, I have a special fin. And I’m your specially assigned spotter. Trust me, I rock. Look, you have twenty-five laps to catch Katrina.”

“And how many laps down am I?”

“Three.”

“Three? That’s it? Shouldn’t she be, like, five to ten ahead of me?” I said, taking the turns like I was a professional.

“Um, can you see her? She’s a complete idiot. She’s been in the wall twice, wigged at the giant squid tentacles—which you just avoided like a freaking ace—and nearly flipped it once. Definitely didn’t get any of her brother’s talent. Get on her ass. Rattle her…intimidate her…make her screw up…and she will.”

Smiling like a hungry honey badger, I said, “Anything else?”

“Just one thing…beat the bitch.”

“With pleasure.” Kicking it into a faster gear, I rounded the track with ease. With Ash as my spotter, the task was that much easier.

“Pit trap in turn two—get ready to soar…now! Nice, babe. Track’s changing—mud—shape-shift, blue button—good! Watch the mud bombers! LEFT! RIGHT! UP! DOWN! Damn, you should be a racer!”

Sweat trickled down my cheek and my knuckles were white holding the wheel, but I’ve never felt this badass. Coming up on Katrina’s tail, I said, “Uh, Ash? Is rubbin’ racin’ in the Merworld?”

Ash unleashed a fabulous hoot. “Rubbin’, darlin’,  is racin’ everywhere. Shove it up her ass!”

Smiling, I ran my vehicle right up to the backend of Katrina’s mermobile, gently rubbing against it. “Hiya! Miss me?”

“She’s wigging! Bitch can’t control her racer! Blow by her—there ya go! You just got one of the three laps back. Fifteen to go.” Four laps later, Ash screamed, “Katrina’s in the wall! Get by her, and you’ll only have one lap left to get back! Any mistake she makes, and you’ll get the lucky fish pass!”

But Katrina knew as much. She swerved in front of me to try and keep me from passing; barely controlling my vehicle, I slid off-course and scraped the right side along an inner rim where a batch of eels flipped my mermobile twice over.

“Marina! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. And pissed,” I said, using every muscle in my body to get back on the track. Moving at full speed, dodging shooting whale tails, escaping squid ink clouds, and soaring over giant piranha bursts, I caught up to Katrina. “Here, kitty, kitty.” This time, I bumped her mermobile two times. Too preoccupied with my taunting, Katrina failed to notice a swarm of eels forming a net in front of us. At the last second, I soared up and over, while Katrina smashed right into the net.

“Dude, you sure you haven’t done this before?” asked Ash.

“Just watch a lot of racing,” I said. “One lap left to get back, right?”

“Yep. One lap, and you’ll be back even with Katrina. Don’t freak, but you only have four more laps to do it, otherwise she pulls off first and moves to the next challenge before you.”

“Not gonna happen.”

Her mermobile was fast, and without any obstacles slowing her down, she was harder to catch. Three…two…one lap left to regain an even playing field.

“You’re almost there, sweetie,” said Ash. “Your best friend will be—”

“Blazer…going….NOW!” I pushed the blazer button and blew right by Katrina, crossing the line first.

“Loving you hardcore, kid! Pull on pit row and pick up a map to your next challenge from Tank.”

“Thanks, Ash. You’re awesome.”

“Back at ya. Our paths will cross again. Tell Tree she’s a bitch and I love her.”

Laughing, I said, “Will do.”

Driving up to a beaming Tank, with Katrina just now pulling onto pit row, I said, “What do you think? Could I beat Troy?”

“Know I’d love to see a race-off between you two after watchin’ what you did out there! Here,” he said, handing me a green strip of seaweed. “Unfurl the seaweed to find the map. Uh, little tip,” he said, leaning closer. “Just tell your mermobile where you need it to go. Off ya go! Win it!”

I sped off, unrolling the seaweed as I did. “Okay, mermobile, we need to go…to the Brook & Warz building.” The mermobile made a sweeping U-turn and headed off into the grayish waters behind the Zoomway.

In a small, abandoned village full of rickety old structures, the mermobile stopped in front of a tan coral building, its gel coating cracking. Taking the trident with me, I headed inside the dreary building. Echoing off the crumbling walls, I heard a dull groan coming from a back room—it sounded familiar, very familiar. Walking faster and faster until I was sprinting down the empty lobby, panic surged through my chest. Rounding the corner of the room, I gasped, grabbing my throat.

“Mom?” My mom was suspended above the floor by purple glowing wires wrapped around her wrists and ankles. Running to her, I said, “Who did this to you?”

“It hurts…time…”

“Time for what?”

“Think she meant to say…times up.” Katrina whizzed in front of me, blocking my path.

“Get out of my way unless you want a massive amount of hurt,” I growled.

“Your mommy’s in trouble, Savior. ‘It hurts, it hurts. Help.’ Hurt me, and watch her limbs fly. You should be clear on what’s going to happen. Things have not exactly been subtle,” said Katrina, rolling her trident on her shoulder.

“What the f—wait…it is you. I should have known.”

With a deep sigh, Katrina said, “What are you blathering on about?”

“What’s your middle name?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“Odd question. Darian. Katrina Darian Zale.”

“‘D.’ You’re The Dealer.”

“I have no idea what your mouth is spewing.”

“Let me make it real clear for you.” I rushed up to within an inch of her sneering face. “You may have a deck, but I hold the trump card.”

I sucker-punched her in the gut with every ounce of strength I had, knocking her into a large, dusty desk in the corner of the room. Turning to Mom, I used the trident to sever the wires. I dropped the trident as Mom fell against me, her knees wobbly.

“Hold on, Mom. I’m going to get you out of here.”

But Katrina ferociously attacked me from behind, ripping at my hair and slamming her fin against the small of my back. My body buckled; I could feel my ribs cracking; she had me pinned, pummeling me like a crazed lunatic.

“Ma—rina.” Mom crawled towards my trident; once she was within reach, she slid it to me, only when she did, a blast of sparks continuously erupted from both ends of the trident.

Katrina, her hate focused on making each punch count, failed to see me reaching for the oddly living trident. Though it stopped a bit shy of my palm, the trident strongly moved itself the rest of the way, flying into my hand. I struck her on the back of the head with the trident, shoved her off of me, jumped up, and pinned her against the wall, the trident's tips aimed at her throat.

“Cry, if you want to…because your party’s over.”

“Oh, I don’t think so doll face. In fact, I think we have ourselves a mother-daughter day at the office celebration going here.” Queen Zale had her significantly larger trident digging into the back of my head. “Let my step-daughter go, and your mommy won’t see the insides of her daughter’s brain. How does that sound? Fair?”

It was all I could do to keep from shoving my trident into Katrina’s smug face; the desire to kill her startled me. Lowering my trident, Queen Zale allowed me to back away. “So, the house really does win.”

“You and your card terminology! So…pathetically cute.”

“So this was all a planned detour, huh? And I guess the fans can’t see any of this, right?”

“Well, not to brag, but I am awfully good at rigging things. For all the fans know, you and Katrina are still racing. Katrina’s spotter is particularly gifted with illusion and memory alterations—comes in handy. As for Camille, well, everyone thinks she just had an extra long bathroom visit. Having you here wasn’t part of my original plan, but Katrina’s presence was necessary for a little trident magic…of the disassembling kind. And if she’s here, you’d win the Overfalls. Couldn’t have that, now could I? You see, doll face, I’m afraid I’m going to have to take your mama with me. She’s got something I want.”

“Over my dead body,” I said.

“Well, I’m sure that could be arranged. Bet you’d look better dead. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to find out, but if you do die in the process…all the better. Time for a swim-trip from hell, mommy Valentine.”

Queen Zale and Katrina released a plethora of trident strikes in all directions—some shot straight for my mom, while others bounced off walls at precise angles, like a cue ball searching for its prey on a pool table.