Pride X Familiar ReVamp (Pride X ReVamp Book 1) (20 page)

“Mademoiselle, might I request that you not disturb the customers.”

“Heh?” Prissila muttered.

The manager indicated the far depths of the restaurant. “Perhaps you would care to join your companions at another table?”

“Ah, I wasn’t planning on staying.”

I heard Simone giggle then say, “Come on, Prissila. You’re already here.” She stood up and spoke to the manager. “Sir, we’d be grateful for another table.”

He nodded. “This way please.”

Prissila’s head was spinning left and right, alternating between Simone and the Manager.

I reached up and had to apply a fair bit of strength to remove her hands from my lips. “Princess, shall we be going?”

“Heh? Uh…very well….”

Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

I indicated she should lead the way, and moments later she followed Simone and the manager deeper into the premises.

That’s when my right arm tingled.

It was faint, and I had to admit I’d never felt it before.

I wondered why when a sudden, ominous feeling crawled up my arm, shoulder and down the length of my spine.

I turned to the entrance of the restaurant in time to see it vanish in a flash of violet light.

My body shifted into overclock mode a millisecond later.

Tables, chairs, people – they all flew up into the air as though the floor under them had erupted upwards.

Then they were slammed into the depths of the restaurant by an invisible shockwave.

My Fragment had manifested by then. My right arm was braced before me. With its bladed shield the gauntlet took the brunt of the shockwave. I felt the equivalent of an effect-field emanate from the gauntlet. It warped the air around me, forming an even larger shield that prevented bodies, tables, chairs, and bits of the floor from knocking me back.

This was the ability of my Fragment. Both a shield and weapon rolled into one. But it wasn’t the full manifestation of the Fragment. For a single heartbeat I saw in my mind the image of the Artifact, and realized I was manifesting only an element of the whole device.

The shockwave rolled by, leaving the interior of the restaurant in shambles.

I had no idea what had just happened, but it appeared this part of the arcade had been targeted. Crimson Crescent came to mind, but I had no proof.

Thinking this I turned to look for a sign of the Countess and the Princess. I ran as best I could toward the debris even as parts of the ceiling rained down around me.

I saw bodies, and parts of bodies.

I smelt the blood around me.

I pressed on, growing ever more desperate for a sign of the two girls.

And then I found the Princess, lying under plaster and permacrete.  I found the Countess moments later in a similar state. My heart was pumping so loud and fast I didn’t bother trying to feel for a pulse in either girl. But Prissila moaned when I used my gauntleted right arm to clear away the large pieces of rubble from her body.

While I did this, I heard the groans and cries of pain from the survivors.

What the Hell just happened?

Was that some kind of beam weapon?

How could anyone bring a cannon into an arcade full of shoppers?

I clenched my jaw as I pulled Prissila free of the last of the rubble. Her dress was torn and frayed around the edges and she’d lost a shoe. But she was alive, and I was thankful for that.

I freed Simone next, then spotted the manager. He was out cold, but was breathing at least.

I tried rousing the girls. We needed to leave the confines of the ruined restaurant. I had no idea how much longer the ceiling would hold before collapsing.

There were the other survivors to consider as well.

I needed to help them too, but I didn’t want to leave the two girls.

Damn it. Was this what it was like to have to make painful choices?

I swallowed and came to a decision then. I would carry them out to safety, then return for whomever I could find alive.

My gauntlet tingled again.

I spun my body and faced the ruined entrance. I could hear the sound of alarms and the cries of people outside in the arcade. But my attention was grabbed by the silhouette of a woman, possibly a girl walking toward me.

Her right forearm was encased in something that resembled a cannon. It was angular and shaped like a crystal shard. It might have had a place on a small tank, but it looked incongruous on her slender body.

I figured it for a Fragment. If so, then she was a Familiar like me.

She stepped on the ruin of rubble and bodies, coming to a stop a dozen or so meters away.

She was dressed in a long, flowing coat. Under it, she wore a skintight black and grey suit that was noticeably thicker than a wetsuit. It had the hallmarks of a pressure suit designed for use in a vacuum environment. In other words, it was what the military called a skinsuit.

By why was she wearing one here? And how was it nobody noticed her incongruous attire? Even with the coat she looked suspicious, and with the strange helmet-visor on her head covering half her face, it was impossible not draw attention to herself.

My eyes widened at a frightening thought.

Thermoptic camouflage.

Was she the one trespassing into the Academy and attempting to break into the information network?

But why the Hell was she here?

And why attack this place?

Was she after me, or was she after the girls?

I rose to my feet, then crouched a little with my gauntlet before me. The Fragment encompassed my right hand and forearm. It felt like my arm had become the Fragment rather than wearing it. I was accustomed to that by now after a couple of months training with it, but I’d never seen it so large before or in this configuration. Twin short swords extended forward by a foot and a half, and the rest of the gauntlet resembled an elongated shield. Blades like those found on ice skates ran along the top of the shield.

I heard her speak amid the din of background noise coming from the shopping arcade outside the restaurant.

My body, or rather my mind, was still overclocking. I concentrated and forced myself back into normal time so that I could understand her better.

“Tit for tat,” the girl said. There was no mistaking the malicious glee in her voice.

“What’s that mean—?”

“They kill my friends. We kill theirs.”

“Your friends?”

“Ah, perhaps I should say my comrades.”

I felt my face twist in horror. “Comrades…are you…Crimson Crescent?”

She curtsied like a proper young lady. The picture was ruined by the five foot long crystal cannon extending from her right arm.

Her smile was malice personified. “Caelum Desanto…it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Reflections – 8.

Before the super freighter exploded in the Harbor Sphere, no one had ever heard of Crimson Crescent.

That is to say, the general public had never heard of them.

Afterwards, the furor over their existence and agenda lasted a couple of months.

But by then, Crimson Crescent had disappeared ‘into the woodwork’, and the public quickly forgot about them.

Perhaps the Prides’ management and control of the information mediums played a part in that.

Nonetheless, mere months after the explosion life returned to
normal
for those unaffected by the freighter’s destruction.

If there was one change to the populace’s daily existence, it was the increased security within Pharos, and the greater restrictions on personal freedom. Crimson Crescent’s announcement – their declaration of war against the Aventis – gave the Powers-that-be within the Prides a reason to implement those changes. But the general public, being the sheep that they are, accepted all this as necessary for the sake of ensuring their safety. It was the ‘price of freedom is eternal vigilance’, et cetera, et cetera.

How are you supposed to argue against that?

Well, in many ways, but the problem is that the Powers-that-be are in charge and they don’t care for your arguments. They won’t even bother pissing on your complaints.

Having said this, life within Pharos didn’t change all that much, so it was somewhat easy to grow accustomed to the increased levels of security, especially when you didn’t notice they were there.

But what of Crimson Crescent?

For a few of weeks after their explosive debut, the media had tried to interpret their agenda.

The problem was Crimson Crescent had declared war but not declared their agenda. So for a short while people wondered what the organization stood for. On the news networks, experts were asked their opinions on what Crescent’s existence meant for the average Joe. What were their motives? What did they hope to achieve? So on and so on.

However, as the months went by the threat they posed failed to materialize. So little by little the average Joe forgot about them.

Perhaps I should say, out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

But even when Crimson Crescent was mentioned – which was rare to say the least – people failed to bat an eyelid.

I hadn’t forgotten them, and neither had the people who’d suffered because of that explosion.

People like Arisa.

Then one day I ran into them head first, and I realized the war between them and the Prides was in full swing. Except for years now, that war had been fought in the shadows out in the nebula, and on the worlds of the colonized star systems.

That goes a long way in demonstrating just how effectively the Prides could handle information control across all mediums. Or perhaps, Crimson Crescent wasn’t bothered with keeping the public aware of their existence.

However, the war raged on.

It was a war that had cost lives on both sides – the lives of Familiars and Aventis.

A war with no memorials to commemorate their deaths.

A war people knew nothing about.

A war I was eventually dragged into because of who I was, or rather who I became.

Chapter 8.

(Caelum)

The girl’s smile felt like cold ice running down my back.

Disbelief mixed in with the horror and fear I was feeling. “These people…they were just eating their meals—”

“Aventis, all of them. No loss.”

“No loss? How can you say that? They’re still people—”

“You really think so. Well no matter. I was careful in selecting an establishment full of their kind. It would go against our creed to harm Regulars.”

“How can you tell they were all—?”

“With this,” she said and tapped her visor. “All of them belonged to the Prides.” She smiled. “All of them save for you.”

“Then why did you fire?”

“A Familiar in the company of Aventis. How disrespectful,” she commented bitterly. “On top of that being led around like a leashed dog by the Raynar Witch’s sister.”

She aimed her cannon arm at a point behind me.

I moved to block her shot, holding my gauntlet at the ready before me.

I saw the disappointment on her face.

“You’re going to protect the Witch’s sister? Or is it the other one—the Avenir bitch?”

I swallowed and answered, “Both.”

“I guess you like them big breasted, huh.”

“What?”

She lowered the barrel of the cannon. I was shocked to see her extend her left hand toward me. “Come with us, and you can have all your perverted desires fulfilled.”

“Wh—what?” I felt a surge of hatred for this girl.

“Is that a no?”

“You people are murderers—you’re butchers. My parents died because of what you did.”

She tipped her head to one side. “Is that what you think?” She raised her hand a little higher. “Then come with me and learn the truth.”

A twinge of doubt brushed my heart. “The truth about what?”

“About the explosion that day. The truth about who was behind the destruction of that super freighter.”

The sounds of a commotion outside the ruined entrance distracted the girl and I. For one heartbeat I debated charging her, but she raised the cannon and this time she aimed directly at me.

“Time’s up,” she declared. “Maybe next time you’ll make the right choice.”

“I think I’ve made my choice right now,” I hurled at her angrily. “And we’re standing on opposite sides of the battlefield.”

“Ha ha, that’s good. I like your attitude.” The mirth on her face faded in a heartbeat. “If you and her survive, tell the Raynar Witch’s sister that this is a warning. If she thinks she can protect her school, then she’d better think again. She should tell her sister, that the Mistress will get what she wants, and there’s nothing the witch can do to stop her.”

“What the Hell are you talking about? What the Hell are you after? And how do you know who am I?”

“That’s for you to find out,” she threw back at me. “Time to go. Sayonara.”

“Don’t do it,” I yelled.

The cannon’s muzzle shone violet. Particles of light swirled like dust motes caught in a spiraling vortex.

Then a shrill whistle screamed into the air.

My mind overclocked as I braced myself for the impact and destructive force, but it never came.

Instead, the beam of light razed the ceiling overhead.

Damn it. She was planning on burying us.

I turned and threw myself over the unconscious bodies of Simone and Prissila. At the same time as I landed between them, I raised my right arm, and willed the gauntlet to protect us. I saw the fragments of the ceiling crash down on us, then strike a barrier that rippled like clear water. More and more pieces collapsed on the effect-field, and I began to feel the equivalent of muscle strain in my arm.

I grit my teeth and put everything I had into keeping my arm up and over us.

In slow motion I turned my head and peered down in the direction of my feet.

In the direction of the girl.

She was moving ever so slowly, shooting a second beam at the floor of the restaurant.

She was caving us in and dropping the floor on us at the same time.

The floor gave way but it felt like a half minute later.

She turned and ran away in the direction of the restaurant entrance. I watched her body shimmer and vanish from view. No, that wasn’t quite right. It was more like watching a person turn into transparent glass.

She ran out the entrance, and leapt over the remains of the balcony promenade beyond.

At least, that’s what I thought I saw.

By then the floor was giving way and we were falling into the shop below. By some miracle Simone and Prissila fell together with me. I reached out with my left arm. It moved agonizingly slow though I knew my speed and reflexes had improved considerably in the past few months.

My left hand grabbed onto Simone, and I tried pulling her close to me.

A moment later we hit ground, having fallen a full level to the store below the restaurant.

My right arm bore the weight of the ceiling via the gauntlet.

I turned my head to look upwards and saw the effect-field was still there. The shimmering wall of air continued to keep the rubble and debris from crashing down on us.

But I couldn’t move, and I didn’t know how much longer the gauntlet would maintain the effect-field barrier.

I was trapped with the girls.

My arm trembled violently as it began to succumb to the strain the gauntlet was placing on it.

In desperation I looked around us. There was little light coming down through the hole above us, and the store we’d fallen into had lost power. Yet I still searched about looking for a way to get the girls out of danger.

That was when I saw her.

She leapt down through the hole in the ceiling above us and landed on the barrier on a pair legs encased in sleek, Valkyrie Armor.

I yelled in pain as the strain on my arm rose.

Then the strain began to ease.

I didn’t understand why until I saw the debris I was holding up shatter into smaller fragments.

She was kicking the pieces of ceiling into smaller pieces, all while standing on the effect-field barrier my gauntlet was generating.

As the weight fell away, I found the strength to laugh for a heartbeat.

I owe you one, Caprice.

Then I wondered what she was doing here?

Was she shopping here as well…or was she following me around?

The last piece of rubble large enough to do some damage broke apart from a kick she delivered with perfect accuracy. It was as though she knew the weak point to each piece she attacked with her legs and feet.

The shimmering barrier faded as the gauntlet stopped emitting it.

I couldn’t hold my arm up any longer. As soon as I collapsed to the ground the gauntlet reverted back to its bracelet form. The air chilled to polar temperatures as the gauntlet returned to pocket space. The sensation of wrongness, a kind of disorienting feeling, faded well before the chill did.

Caprice landed on the ground, then ran over to help me up.

I shook my head at her. “Get the Countess and Princess out of here.”

She didn’t argue or agree. She simply did it, though she hesitated for a clear moment. Then I saw her pick up Simone and Prissila and hold one girl under each arm. She turned, and leapt into the dark confines of the shop we’d fallen into.

I felt around in the dim darkness and saw that a handful of other people had fallen along with us. I picked up young woman and threw her over my shoulder. Then I reached down and picked up a second woman. With one on my shoulder, and the other in my arms, I staggered through the shop until I reached the exit.

Outside I was greeted by mall security, and the first of the emergency crews to arrive.

Disbelief was written plain as day on all their faces, before they snapped into action and took the two women from me.

I dropped to my knees. A large rescue worker tried helping me up, but I waved him off.

“There’s more people on the floor above, and behind us where the floor caved in.”

I struggled to my feet, and felt hands help me out of the immediate area of danger. As I was helped along, I looked about for Caprice, and for Prissila and Simone.

Where the Hell were those special agents protecting Simone?

Had they been incapacitated or killed by Crimson Crescent?

That girl knew who Simone was, calling her sister to the Raynar Witch. I had no idea who the latter was but I intended to ask Simone for an answer.

Ahead of me I saw a lev-vehicle with flashing lights and recognized it for an ambulance. I saw that a number of them had landed on the arcade floor below, but this one had been piloted up to the fifth floor promenade.

I made my way toward it, and was rewarded with a glimpse of Simone and Prissila on gurneys being loaded into the ambulance.

Damn it, if I didn’t hurry I would miss my chance to ride with them to the hospital.

Someone grabbed my right arm and jerked me to a sharp stop.

Caprice was looking at me with a flat expression. “Caelum, we need to go.”

“No, I’m riding with them.”

“The Countess and Princess are safe.”

“Cee Cee could try again.”

“Even so, how do you hope to protect them? Can you wield your gauntlet again?”

I gave her words some consideration, then nodded confidently. “I can wield it.”

“Caelum—”

“Caprice, thank you.” I reached out and took her hand off my right arm. “I owe you one. No, I owe you my life.”

For a moment her emotionless features faltered and she gave me a despondent look. In the next moment she took a step back. “Call me.”

“I will.”

“I need to report this in.”

“To whom?”

“To Arisa. You’d better hurry.”

I faced the ambulance. The medics were loading one more person aboard. When I looked back at Caprice she was gone.

Taking a deep breath, I half ran, half staggered for the ambulance.

I yelled out to the medics, asking them to let me ride with the girls. They looked me over while I explained I was in the accident along with them. It didn’t look like I would succeed until a voice from the ambulance passenger bay called out to me.

“Please…he’s my boyfriend…please….”

I think my heart almost stopped when I heard those words, but one of the men pushed me into the ambulance before climbing in after me.

Sitting on a foldaway chair that was anchored to the floor magnetically, I sat beside Simone’s gurney. A few moments later I felt the lev-ambulance sway gently as it lifted off the promenade.

Simone reached out to me with a hand and I took it.

“You know,” I muttered, “that was a dangerous thing to say.”

“I know….”

I sighed as I gently squeezed her hand.

#

(Caprice)

From a spot on the fifth floor promenade, I watched the lev-ambulance Caelum had boarded gently lift off. It rose high through the center of the arcade then exited via the building’s open rooftop shutters. I watched it disappear from view, then turned and sought to make my way out of the arcade.

I saw Arcade security and Enforcers in the crowd around the ruined restaurant and the shops above and below it. They were keeping the curious onlookers back. But I’d also glimpsed private security moving about.

Were they the Countess’s people, or perhaps Prissila’s bodyguards?

Worse still, they might be ‘his’ people. He had a habit of sending his personnel to keep an eye on his cousin.

In the end, I just didn’t know.

But I knew I needed to get out of the arcade.

I had no intention of being stopped and questioned.

I’d managed to lie to the rescue workers to whom I delivered the Countess and the Princess, claiming to be a survivor. But that meant I couldn’t go back inside to help Caelum. I had to wait for him to come out.

I was relieved when he emerged, but annoyed he chose to board the lev-ambulance with the Countess and Princess.

I was frustrated he chose to accompany them to the hospital.

I was still frustrated as I made the call to Arisa.

She didn’t pick up so I left a message. I kept walking as I did, and spotted the elevator bank.

Ah, I can take it down to the underground vehicle parking levels.

There’s no way I can risk trying to escape through the roof or the walkways to the neighboring buildings. There are emergency and Enforcer drones up in the air. I’ll get spotted within seconds. Damn—wish I had a thermoptic Fragment like that girl.

By the way, where the Hell did she go?

I saw her jump out of the restaurant, at first thinking it was the light tricking my eyes. But my feminine intuition warned me otherwise.

I swallowed tightly, and entered the elevator car along with a dozen shoppers.