Fantasmagoria (33 page)

Two Imperial tanks were waiting for him. The first shell ripped the armor from the rear of his vehicle, causing it to spin out of the line of the second shell, which struck the tank’s tread and sent it tumbling into the air. The lion-faced war machine rolled across the inclined ground like a toy and disappeared into the water.

The tank was down.

As he felt the ocean swallow him, Jack stared at the burnt hulk of a now-submerged warehouse, the same warehouse where so many children had died. It had only been a few months, and the scablike structure remained a black monument to his mistake. Jack bowed his head.

Imperial shock troops ran from cover and gathered along the waterline, guns pointed, ready for the tank driver to surface. But no one came.

§ § §

The barrage from the saucer pelted Kraxus and showered smoke and sparks on the island. But the monster-god had enough. He rolled onto his hands and his long tail whipped through the sky, cracking against the energy shield and knocking the ship through a government tower, over the hills, and into the ocean. It landed with a splash and the ensuing wave wiped out every lighthouse along the northern-facing shore. The ship was intact, but the water interfered with its shield, which flickered and faded.

Kraxus stood and turned to the sea. His spines popped and glowed. His mouth erupted in dark energy and a beam of white ripped through the air and struck the ocean. It flash-boiled thousands of tons of water before it connected with the hobbled craft, and like its counterpart, it too exploded.

As it sank into the depths, three more craft appeared, falling down through the star-speckled sky.

Kraxus roared.

§ § §

A mechanical gunslinger doesn’t float, and he doesn’t need to breathe. But he does need his better half.

Jack walked along the bottom of the bay and stuck his hands into the mud near the base of a pier. He lifted a chain attached to a ball of concrete and struck it.

Once.

Twice.

Crack.

Along the line of the water, white-armored Imperial soldiers stood, rifles at the ready. Three were vaporized by beams from the deep. Their colleagues stared at the blasted remains, shadows on concrete; then they turned and opened fire. Bullets riddled the surface as each soldier disappeared, one by one down the line, in a puff of ash.

"Blackjack" Fulcrum strode out of the water with a scowl. He stopped and tied a holster to his leg as water poured from his every crevice. He was whole. He was complete. For the first time in months, he was his old self.

Jack had rolled his sleeves in the water, and he noticed his skin. “Huh. Not bad.” He looked sharp in dark brown.

The twin Imperial tanks turned their turrets toward him. With a mechanically precise aim and a draw so fast it seemed invisible, Blackjack vaporized both shells in their tubes, and the turrets exploded in smoke. The sole survivor leapt from his burning tank and ran.

“You guys gotta be faster than that.”

Jack looked at the ray gun in his hand. It was red and green with a bulbous barrel painted with intertwining roses on both sides. It was capped in a series of metal rings.

“I missed you, sugar.” He holstered Rosa and walked down the middle of the street toward the carnival, where he knew Zen-ji would be waiting.

His dip in the bay had given Jack an idea.

§ § §

Kraxus watched from the hills as the three saucers formed a pyramid over the ocean. They began to rotate in the air and surround themselves in light. Energy crackled and sparked off the water, lighting the night in a parade of color. Then a great ball of energy grew from the center, engulfing the ships. There was a flash and the ball fell into the ocean.

Kraxus roared and stepped back as a submerged mass pushed a tsunami toward the shore. When it reached the shallows, a biodroid, a robo-organic organism, stepped forth from the sea. It was just as tall as the monster-god and mimicked his form, with segments of metal armor covering a biomechanical frame. It had two massive legs and four arms, the larger of which carried drills in place of hands. The smaller set shot forth plasma torpedoes. They screamed toward Kraxus, exploded, and knocked him back.

The biodroid’s head had no mouth, just two massive eyes that rippled with energy. Beam weapons struck the Destroyer in the chest. Kraxus stepped back again and again under the onslaught as the biodroid climbed onto the beach and crested the hills. Within several minutes, Kraxus was beaten back over the peninsula, through a smoking power plant, and into the bay where he fell with a splash.

And still the biodroid did not relent. Its eyes shot beams into the ocean. Its hands launched missiles. The drills started turning.

§ § §

Jack didn’t turn to see the trail of wreckage he left on his walk from the wharf. He’d vaporized countless Imperial knights and quite a few Aminals, but he never took his eyes from the carnival ahead, and underneath . . . Erasmus. He hoped.

He heard wings. The war dragon landed on an abandoned car, crushing it. Glass flew.

“Outta my way, asshole.”

The dragon squinted down at him.

“Yeah, it’s me. Now, move. I don’t have time for you.”

The dragon spread its wings, blocking the road.

Jack sighed. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

The dragon bellowed.

“Fine.” Jack backed up ten paces and stared at the beast. “Whenever you’re ready.”

The dragon inhaled and the great bellows of its fire organ rumbled into the air.

Jack waited. He waited until the creature’s mouth was open, just before it erupted. Then he drew Rosa and vaporized the special bone at the back of the dragon’s throat that capped the furnace in its belly. The monster’s head exploded as the force of its over-filled lungs pushed the full contents of its fire organ out unchecked.

Jack dove for cover as the neck of the headless dragon flailed about, spewing a stream of flame in all directions like a wild hose.

As the lungs collapsed, the long neck fell to the ground and the last of the fire streamed into a nearby building. Jack could hear the air inside the structure whine, higher and higher, until the entire building exploded, snuffing the flame from the dragon’s corpse.

Jack stood and dusted himself off. “Asshole.”

§ § §

Kraxus stood waist deep in the ocean, his spines crackling and glowing. His mouth erupted in darkness and a beam of white struck the biodroid. But it had the same shielding as the saucer craft, and the blast was deflected. Kraxus breathed again with the same result. Entire city blocks exploded. The death toll was catastrophic.

Kraxus marched out of the ocean and the two titans grappled. A drill pierced the monster-god’s side, and he felt his energy, his life force, being sucked through the wound. He bellowed and struck the biodroid with his tail, knocking the drill loose and the invader to the ground where it crushed a commuter train. Kraxus leaped onto the robot, which fired thrusters. It crashed through four buildings and left the Destroyer flat on his face.

Kraxus stood and shook his head as the biodroid flew by, blasting him with beams and missiles. Kraxus breathed his dark energy, but each time the shield deflected it. Under a steady barrage, attack after attack, the Destroyer began to tire. He stumbled back and was forced deeper into the city. The biodroid’s tail struck him in the head as it flew past, and Kraxus dropped to one knee. The island shook. His face was cracked, and one eye no longer glowed.

The biodroid landed on a street in midtown between two skyscrapers. It spun its drills, stepped forward, and opened fire. The Destroyer blocked the marauding torpedoes and beam weapons with his terrible breath, but it was only defensive. The biodroid’s shield held fast. And the drills were getting closer.

§ § §

Jack walked through the door of Erasmus’s office. At the top of the grand staircase, Zen-ji stared down at him. The gunslinger stepped to the right and readied himself. The samurai nodded, and Jack did the same. A long moment of silence passed between them as the subterranean complex shuddered from the battle above. Both men were strong. Both men were fast. Both knew, regardless who won, the battle would be over quickly.

Jack drew, fired, and missed. The samurai had already leaped from the stairs, sword raised in one hand while the other flung curved, twin-sided blades, three at a time. Jack vaporized them as they spun through the air, but each traveled in an arc like a boomerang, and he had to move back and forth to hit them all. He wasn’t keeping pace.

The samurai had been ready for him.

A flying blade struck Jack’s shoulder. His torso twisted, sending wide the shot that would have killed his opponent. The samurai swung his sword as he landed. The massive blade cleaved Jack’s right hand, taking three fingers and cutting Rosa in half. She shattered in sparks as Jack’s fingertips bounced over the ground.

Jack stumbled back from the force of the blow and ran into the wall right next to the fire alarm. “Gotcha.” He smirked and pulled the lever.

Erasmus had wired the roof to blow in case the office was raided, and the alarm was the trigger. A hundred thousand gallons of water, the full contents of the squid tank, burst through the roof. The weight was crushing.

A mechanical gunslinger doesn’t float, and he doesn’t need to breathe. And in the water, the samurai would be slow. The odds were even. Now it was anyone’s fight.

Zen-ji swam for the stairs, but Jack pulled him back. The Japanaman swung with his sword, and Jack dodged. He watched the blade slice through the water an inch from his eyes. Then he slammed the ten-foot samurai to the floor with the strength of his draw arm. Zen-ji raised his sword again, but before he could strike, long tentacles grabbed them both.

Archie the giant squid squeezed through the hole in the roof and wrapped samurai and gunslinger in the vise of his massive tentacles. Zen-ji cut one only to be smothered by three more. His sword was immobilized, and the air was crushed from his lungs. It bubbled to the surface in a dance. The massive squid thrashed the samurai from side to side.

Jack was trapped, and he could only watch as the beast swung the samurai to its mouth and bit him in half before swallowing his torso, armor and all. A cloud of blood filled the water.

But a Japanaman does not fall so easily, and a samurai will not be bested, even in death. As Zen-ji’s better half passed into the creature’s mouth, the half-samurai thrust a blade through the creature’s soft throat right into its brain. The squid spasmed, and Jack grimaced in pain. Then it went slack, and the gunslinger’s heavy metal frame, still wrapped in sucker-lined tentacles, pulled the limp monster to the floor.

Jack pushed the dying tentacles off him and walked through the water to the fire alarm. He replaced the latch, and thousands of gallons of water were pumped into the sewers through vents in the floor.

Jack put his hands on his knees and looked at Rosa as the flood subsided. She was in pieces. He walked over to the twitching squid, but the samurai was already dead.

§ § §

Kraxus was down. The biodroid lumbered forward between smoking skyscrapers, and with both drills spinning, pierced the Destroyer’s armor a second time. Kraxus roared in pain and grappled with his attacker. He blew fire, and this time he connected with the robot, and it flew back, crashing through a factory tower and leaving a crater in the ground. But when the monster-god erupted in dark energy again, the biodroid had raised its shield.

From the ground, the invader pointed its metal tail at Kraxus. It was tipped in a drill that flew like a missile and pierced the Destroyer in his gut. Kraxus clutched his stomach and fell.

Windows all over the island cracked. Nearby buildings collapsed from the shock.

The biodroid stood, but Kraxus did not.

(THIRTY-SIX) Out of the Feral Planet

Jack walked up the stairs and into Erasmus Pimpernel’s office. The vault door was swinging open. The bodies of Sciever and Togo and Ruud and a gaggle of Pimpernel’s prized whores slumped over the furniture, all drowned. But Erasmus was forever sealed in his little helm. Erasmus wouldn’t drown.

In the corner next to the vault lay the severed body of Vernal Wort. Jack grimaced and walked past.

“It always comes down to you and me.”

Jack turned to see Erasmus inside the vault surrounded by strange devices. Each floated individually in beams of light. Jack didn’t recognize anything.

“Everybody always thinks they’ll win, they’ll make it. LaMana did. Pugs did. Vernal did. And you. But look at me, Jack. Look at what’s left of me. I’m the survivor. I’m the one who lives.”

“Not any more. I’m going to kill you, Erasmus. Right now.”

“I shut down the Dark Red. So, if you’re still mad about that, don’t be.”

“Little late for an apology, boss.”

“I’m not your boss, Jack. I never was. I’m your enemy.”

Jack scowled.