Pride x Familiar (19 page)

Simone was waiting for me outside the mag-lev
station where Constance had intercepted Caelum. She was dressed
like a regular teenager, in tight denim pants, a sleeveless blouse
under a denim jacket, and black and white sneakers on her feet. And
she had her own riding helmet in hand.

“How did you get here?” I asked in a flat
tone.

“By cab.”

“Then why didn’t you get a cab all the way to
the park?”

“Because I’d rather go in with you.”

I gave up trying to argue with her or question
her.

The Countess secured her helmet over her head,
climbed onto the back of my bike, then wrapped her arms around me.
“Let’s go.”

I wasn’t accustomed to tandem riding, but I
managed to avoid spilling us both onto the street. It took a good
twenty minutes to arrive at the amusement park.

I was lucky. We found parking for the bike close
to the park.

I paid for an admission ticket, snapped the
water proof paper bracelet around my left wrist, and walked through
the turnstiles unchallenged.

The Countess walked right beside me.

I called Arisa. “We’re at the park. So what
now?”

Arisa said, “Put me on speaker.”

I did as she instructed and held the palm-slate
between the Countess and I.

The girl was looking about anxiously. “Where the
Hell are they?”

Arisa asked through the palm-slate, “What do you
plan on doing, Simone?”

The Countess sounded irritated. “I’m planning to
separate those two.”

I gave the girl a flat look. “What is Prissila
planning to do with Caelum? She can’t be thinking of harming
him.”

The Countess continue searching the faces around
us. “No, she won’t harm him, but I’m worried of what Caelum may
do.”

I struggled to keep my voice devoid of emotion.
“What is that supposed to mean?”

Arisa interrupted me. “Simone, I’ll ask you
again. What are you going to do?”

The Countess inhaled long and deep. “I’ll tell
him what he needs to know. I’ll tell him the truth.”

Arisa asked, “In that case let me ask, have your
people secured the park?”

“No, the Ventiss personnel got here first.
They’ve shut the Alucards out.”

Arisa said, “Then you’d better hurry, Simone.
Get to him before they can stop you.”

“They wouldn’t dare,” the Countess muttered
angrily.

“Oh yes they would. Look behind you.”

The Countess and I both faced the entrance.

Sure enough, a number of security guards were
heading toward Simone and I with purpose.

I asked the Countess, “Are they yours?”

She gave me a pained glance. “Definitely
not.”

Arisa’s voice was clear despite being on
speaker. “Caprice, I want you to cover Simone.”

“Say again?”

“Make sure she gets to Caelum and Prissila. Do
what you need to do.”

“Permission to use the Valkyrie Armor?”

She was quiet for a heartbeat. “Very well,
permission granted. Non-lethal force and I leave it to your
discretion.”

I nodded unnecessarily. “I’m wearing the
skinsuit you prepared for me. That might be enough. Where are the
Princess and Caelum?”

“Sending you the last known holovid feed.
They’re somewhere near the water course. Oh, how romantic. It looks
like they’re in the queue to board one of those pedal boats for
couples.”

It was hard to remain impassive, but I kept my
feelings from showing.

“I know where that is,” Simone said.

She did? I frowned at her as she turned away
smoothly on her sneakered feet, her movements light and
precise.

I followed her, keeping an eye on the security
guards that were beginning to walk hastily toward us. “Arisa,
what’s going on? For the Ventiss to make such a fuss to keep us
away from Caelum seems a little extreme.”

Arisa held back from replying straight away.
“Caprice, when this is over there are things I need to tell
you.”

I frowned inwardly. “Does this have something to
do with the Original Twelve?”

“Where did you hear that?”

“Yesterday. It was something the Princess
mentioned to Caelum, but she didn’t tell him what it was.”

Arisa was clearly annoyed. “Why didn’t you tell
me that yesterday?”

“I’m sorry. It slipped my mind.”

I heard her sigh loudly through the palm-slate.
“Then you and I definitely need to talk. For now, protect Simone. I
have a bad feeling about this situation.”

I glanced at the guards again. “Arisa, I have to
go.”

“I understand. Go Caprice.”

I ended the call and slipped the palm-slate into
a pocket. The skinsuit doubled as a bike riding suit so it had two
pockets I could make use of. While the skinsuit enhanced my
strength beyond what was natural for an Aventis, I was going to
need a lot more if I was to get the Countess to Caelum and
Prissila.

I concentrated my will and directed it at the
anklets and bracelets I wore on the outside of the skinsuit. Unlike
Caelum’s Fragment, mine didn’t require contact with my skin in
order to function.

I summoned the Valkyrie Armor, and the black
mist surrounded my body, chilling both myself and the air around
me.

A handful of seconds later I felt the Armor
encase my legs and forearms. Now I had an edge no Aventis, even one
clad in a skinsuit, could hope to match.

I ran in front of the Countess and crouched
down. “Get on,” I said.

Simone hesitated until she heard the guards
calling loudly for us to stop. That spurred her into action. In a
heartbeat the Countess was riding piggyback on my back.

I straightened easily. “Hold on tight—real
tight.”

“I can’t do that without choking you.”

“I’ll be fine. Just don’t break my neck.”

Her arms tightened around my neck, but I could
still breathe comfortably thanks to the protection the skinsuit
offered me.

Crouching a little, I took off at a run. I
covered a hundred meters in less than five seconds, and had to be
careful not to collide with the various small crowds walking
between venues.

The Countess blurted out, “That bridge to the
right—take it.”

I veered onto it, narrowly avoiding a young
family with their kids.

I didn’t even have time to apologize.

The Countess instructed, “Left at the end, then
straight on until you get to the small fountain.”

Following her directions, we not only left the
guards behind, we avoided many of the guards running to intercept
us.

“This is too much,” I muttered. “They’re taking
this too far.”

We neared the fountain.

Simone said, “Take that path to the right that
runs diagonal.”

Again I changed my vector.

Simone was holding on for dear life but I wasn’t
about to let her fall.

We neared a water way with a wide bridge running
across it.

I saw the queue on the opposite side lining up
for the next available boat.

Caelum and Prissila were moments from boarding
one.

At sight of them, I felt a dull pang through my
chest.

The distraction made me stumble and the Countess
cried out in fright. But I recovered without dropping her.

Then I saw movement off to my left and it was
too quick to be a Regular.

Too fast even for an Aventis.

A skinsuit clad Familiar.

“Get off,” I yelled at the Countess, digging my
Valkyrie heels into the ground in an effort to slow down.

Simone practically jumped off my back.

I heard her cry out as she fell and rolled along
the ground.

But my attention was on the girl with the long
lance aiming her barrier-field at me.

I raised my arms, extending the sharp blades of
my gauntlets, and projecting a barrier-field of my own.

Both her barrier and mine collided and the air
grew heavy, so much so that I found it a little hard to
breathe.

But neither of us backed down, even as the
permacrete ground began to crack and shatter under the pressure of
our colliding barriers.

I looked at Constance, her face a picture of
concentration as she drove her field into mine. “What the Hell are
you doing?”

“Keeping the Countess away from the Princess—as
instructed!”

The ground between us shattered. As the
fragments billowed up into the air, Constance leapt back, putting
room between herself and me. I took the reprieve not to withdraw
but to attack. The bridge was only meters away. All Simone needed
to do was get to the bridge unimpeded.

I slammed my bladed gauntlets into Constance’s
barrier-field, but their piercer-fields failed to penetrate the
girl’s barrier. I leaned into her, and pushed against her field
with the effect-field generated by my Valkyrie Armor.

The ground underfoot began to crack and shatter
like glass.

I felt my footing start to slip.

“Countess—go! Run for the bridge now.”

She didn’t have to be told twice.

Without needing to look at her, I knew she was
running for the bridge. My Awareness was expanded by the Valkyrie
Armor. I could point to the Countess with my eyes closed, but right
now my eyes were locked on Constance.

Simone sprinted along the bridge.

Constance shifted her stance, and pulled back.
Immediately I fell into an overclocked state, and I realized she
intended to chase down the Countess. I couldn’t allow her to do so,
so I leapt at Constance again, and again our barrier-fields clashed
as I held her back.

The girl snarled and suddenly her lance changed
configuration.

It no longer resembled a jousting lance, but
more like drill.

And then a piercer-field stronger than any I’d
ever felt cut through my barrier, and I was forced to jump out of
the way before I was perforated.

As luck would have it, I landed at the foot of
the bridge.

Constance reconfigured her lance back to
jousting mode, and I was certain it looked sharper than before.

When I fought her seven months ago, I hadn’t
witnessed that ability from her Fragment. I had to wonder, was it
the same Fragment I’d faced before?

I frowned inwardly. No, this was an example of
her interfacing having improved, and thus she had unlocked new
abilities in her Fragment.

Damn that piercer-field was strong.

Then I heard something unexpected.

The sound of something falling into water.

In the distance a girl screamed, “She jumped.
Did you see that? She jumped into the water.”

Another girl yelled, “Is she drowning? Can you
see her?”

Yet another person cried out, “Someone call for
help. Call security.”

Through the Valkyrie Armor’s senses I could feel
that a small crowd was beginning to gather on the bridge.

Then I heard the inevitable.

“Look—look. What are those?”

“Familiars—look they’re Familiars.”

“Are those Fragments?”

“Didn’t they say Fragments are weapons?”

“Hey, they’re fighting.”

“Cool—look at those chicks go!”

“They look awesome.”

I stared at Constance whose gaze flickered over
my shoulder. I didn’t lower my guard nor change my stance. “What
are you going to do? The Countess is long gone. There’s no need to
continue this anymore.”

Constance’s eyes hardened. She wasn’t glaring
anymore. She was just staring at me coldly with a killing intent in
her eyes.

“Actually,” she hissed, “there’s every reason to
keep going.”

I didn’t get the chance to respond.

But I did get the chance to block her
piercer-field with my barrier-field.

I realized there was no turning back now.

There was certainly no running away.

Constance had made up her mind. She was going to
make me pay for what I’d done to her seven months ago when I
prevented her from getting to Caelum.

I didn’t doubt for a moment that she had been
held responsible for the Ventiss Family failing to secure him.

I didn’t doubt for a moment she blamed me for
the humiliation she’d suffered.

I blocked her piercer-field with a heartbeat to
spare, but I was unprepared for the sweep she executed with her
lance. The weapon’s conical form changed in a second to a sharp,
bladed form that cut the barrier-field protecting my left flank.
Before it could breach the field, I managed to drop my right
gauntlet into the blade’s path, but the force of the blow knocked
me aside.

I actually tumbled through the air before
crashing down hard and rolling to a stop along the bank of the
artificial waterway that enlarged into one of two small lakes.

Scrambling to my feet, I expected Constance to
chase after Simone. Instead the girl came at me, and the bladed
lance slashed down at my head.

I used both gauntlets to block her lance. The
impact knocked me down to one knee.

She gave me no time to recover, swing it once
more, piercing my barrier field and catching me by surprise.

Her blade missed my neck with only inches to
spare.

Again my Valkyrie Armor reformed its
barrier-field, and as it did, I rolled out of the way.

But Constance chased me down, and we found our
positions on the bank reversed, with my back to the bridge. Blow by
blow she pushed me back toward it.

Blow by blow I retreated, finding it hard to
keep up with her speed and strength.

How could she be so strong?

How could she have improved so much in seventh
months?

I started retreating up the bridge, blocking and
parrying her thrusts so quickly the skinsuit was having trouble
keeping up with me.

Instead of fleeing, the park’s patrons were
forming a spectating crowd. A dozen at first, then two, then a
hundred. All along the bank, and a safe distance away, people
ranging from children to young couples and families were watching
the spectacle of two Familiars fighting in broad daylight.