Carmody and the Electric Dragon

The streets were quiet after all the excitement at the aborted Halloween Festival. Guards and Police Auxiliary had finally gotten everyone to go home or to a hospital, depending on their condition.

Security barriers had been erected across the school entrances and vehicle and foot patrols scoured the blocks in the immediate vicinity. A local curfew had been declared and no-one was allowed to be on the streets after 11 PM.

Nata, Suki and Dog had been waiting patiently until the area had been cleared of civilians, using a mixture of stealth and cunning to remain hidden until the time was right.

At the right moment, Nata lead her armed and armoured companions on a short jog through the deserted back streets and alleys until they reached an open access shaft. The three of them climbed swiftly down the ladder and looked right and left along the maintenance tunnel they found themselves in.

“This way” Nata declared confidently and set off at a steady pace, drawing her sword but not activating the spell focus it contained as yet.

Suki looked at the faintly glowing arrow that had been freshly painted on the tunnel floor then at the back of the Sister.

“So how did you decide we should go this way, Nata?” she asked her friend.

“A little bird told me” she replied with a grin.

=====

“It’s another relay” Achmed announced when they reached a four way junction in the tunnels. He touched his hands briefly to a small box near the ceiling, stretching up on his toes to reach it. With a nod to himself, he pointed to one of the tunnels that lead away from the crossways. “Definitely the next relay is that way” he announced.

The Guards went to move off when Achmed paused and held up a hand to stop them.

“Sorry, I am getting a signal of some kind from that direction” he said and pointed to a different corridor. He looked confused and was looking between the two corridors as if undecided which was the correct route.

“What are you detecting down that second tunnel?” Eric asked the Scanner, his pistol drawn and gazing intently into the distance where his friend was looking.

“Dunno, but it feels like an active command signal, same as from the school” Achmed said. “It could be drones but I can’t tell for sure. Whatever it is, it is getting closer”

“Okay, everyone head down the first tunnel” Eric commanded firmly. “Stay alert” he added, then signalled to Deuce at the back of the party.

The Jack sprayed another arrow in the direction they were heading, but added a quick ‘X’ on the second tunnel that had worried Achmed. That done, he joined the rear end of the departing group, walking swiftly and checking behind him at regular intervals.

=====

Bob Two was sulking, if that was a suitable emotion to apply to a hybrid mind formed from a computerised brain merged with an otherworldly intelligence. His supposed Master, Santo Green, had left him to patrol the service tunnels close to their nest once he had delivered the hostage. It was boring work and stabbing the odd rodent was nowhere near as exciting as it sounded.

The attack on the school looked like it had been fun, at least if trying to hack and stab screaming children and adults was your kind of entertainment. Bob Two was of the firm opinion that was his kind of thing, so being told to stay in the back and watch his servants run amok had been a bitter blow. His cutting and shearing attachments had been fully repaired and he was itching to try them out on a worthwhile opponent.

At the moment he was with a motley collection of modified Sentinels, repair robots and one Mobile Welding machine they had liberated from the workshops. All of them had roughly sharpened metal blades and spikes welded onto their bodies, a few spattered with blood from the previous fighting at the Festival.

All Bob Two could show for himself was the drying blood of a terrified rat he had skewered half an hour ago. It was hardly a badge of honour and the starved little animal had barely added anything to the fragment of the Emissary at his core. What he really needed was a nice, juicy human to feast upon!

“HUMAN LIFEFORMS DETECTED” announced the leading Sentinel, its advanced sensors reaching out into the distance. “PERMISSION REQUIRED TO COMMENCE ASSAULT”

“Yes!” Bob Two tapped out eagerly on the tunnel floor, his black camera eyes scanning into the tunnel ahead.

With a rush of metal feet, tentacles and rubber tyres the robots and Bob Two charged forwards. He was meant to report any contact with the humans to Santo, but he was not going to do that. The Emissary might tell him to hold back, to wait for further humans to be spotted. There was no way he was going to allow that.

The collection of robots were nearly at the junction of four tunnels when Bob Two saw blue light filling the way ahead. Some of the robots had reported something like that at the school earlier in the night, but none of them came back.

It did not matter, there was no way puny humans could stand up to the armoured Sentinels or the cunning tactics of Bob Two!

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” his tentacles rapped on the floor and walls as he ran. Now he would get to feast!

=====

A steady drip of something was landing on her face, something warm and sticky. Half asleep, Angelina tried to brush it off of her cheek but her hands would not move for some reason.

“Hammers?” she called out, opening her eyes. “Monique? Mom? Anybody?”

It was dimly lit, wherever she was. A big, cold open space that sent her voice echoing back to her. She found her hands were bound together at her back, making it hard for her to lift herself off the concrete floor she was laid upon.

As she struggled, her movements jostled something on a raised step next to her. It shifted then rolled onto her with a slow, wet squelch. The heavy, blood soaked body of a man in a blue workers coverall landed across her stomach, the head barely attached by a piece of skin.

Angelina screamed as she saw the dead man’s face and pushed herself away from his bloody corpse. Her bound hands scraped along the rough floor, adding her blood to the dripping gore that already surrounded her.

“My apologies, girl child, but my human supervisor had come looking for me unexpectedly” said a man’s voice from the shadows. He stepped into the cone of light shining from far overhead, a plain looking man in clothing identical to the dead maintenance worker.

“Who are you?” whimpered Angelina, desperately trying to free her hands even a little behind her back. “Whatever ransom you want, my parents will pay you. Just name your price”

“My price is the world” the man laughed and came to stand close to her. In the shadows across his unremarkable face, his eyes seemed to be utterly pitch black. “As for my name, you may call me the Emissary”

“You’re the terrorist that attacked the school before, aren’t you?” Angelina demanded, louder now as her courage returned. “The one that Sarah and Carmody defeated”

“A terrorist?” mused the man who had been Santo Green. “If you mean I bring terror to this world, then indeed I am!”

He sat himself on the step that the girl had been laid against, careless of the still warm blood of his old boss, Jake Long. Idly he ran his fingers through the scarlet mess, making shapes in the puddle. Angelina swallowed down the bile rising up in her throat and addressed the madman.

“You know they will come to rescue me, my friends and my family. If you have any brains at all, you will let me go and start running as far away as you can”

The Emissary looked at her and laughed. Santo Green had never really laughed much in his life so it was stilted and forced, the laugh of someone who had no care for what others thought of him.

“I want your friends to come to me. In fact I have invited them to come. For when they arrive, my pet will be waiting to finish them all” He laughed again, a horrible sound like a frog gargling broken glass.

“What kind of pet would a creature like you have?” scoffed Angelina.

“Come here, my pet!” Santo commanded and something moved in the darkness.

A vast shape loomed out of the furthest shadows of the chamber, its heavy tread making the floor shake. Giant wings spread, blocking the light as they flexed to their full width. Brilliant red eyes glowed at the girl from far over her head as its massive jaws opened wide, screaming its anger and hatred at her in a barrage of sound.

“That’s a good boy” he chortled.

=====

The streets were deserted as the VTOL screamed in low to the ground, the rear hatch opening wide to show two suited women. Fiona, the Guard Sniper, leapt confidently from the hovering aircraft and landed in a crouch. She scanned the area through the sights of her long barrelled rifle then signalled an all clear to the second woman.

Sofia Abrams lifted herself into to the air, moving gracefully from the hatch to land gently on the street surface beside the Guard clone.

“We are clear” Fiona said over her earpieces to the girls and pilot still aboard. “Good luck on the next stage”

“Thanks Fiona. Good luck to both of you two” Carmody replied from her seat in the VTOL carrier. Sarah and her waved to the two women as the hatch closed, then the engines powered up to full thrust and the aircraft soared into the night sky once more.

Miss Abrams watched the VTOL accelerate away, carrying her two young students into the most dangerous situation she could have imagined. She turned to the female Guard clone at her side, the one they called Fiona, and asked her a question.

“Why is Jericho letting the girls do this, Fiona?. They are just students in Junior High”

Fiona joined her to watch the aircraft until it was out of sight between the buildings.

“They were chosen for this because they are unique. No-one else we know of has the abilities they possess. Their age is irrelevant to Jericho-Two provided they can achieve what is required”

“But they are only twelve years old!” the teacher said.

“On that basis I am only three years old” Fiona replied calmly. “Yet no-one questions my ability as a Guard soldier” She started moving at a steady jog to her assigned position without another word, leaving the teacher looking dumbfounded at her retreating back.

“I never really thought about it like that” Sofia muttered to herself. With a sigh she sealed up her flight suit and adjusted the heavy item mounted on a swivelling harness across her shoulders. A test of the stealth systems and then the targeting array flashed up on her helmet visor, confirming everything was ready.

She tilted her head to look at the long barrelled weapon that had been added to her suit. Jericho had referred to it as a Linear Accelerator Rifle, but the technician who completed the installation had simply called it a Rail Gun.

Sofia had insisted she was never going to be one of Jericho’s ‘Secret Agents’ nor would she ever carry a gun. Yet here she was, all suited up to work with the AURA Project and fitted with a weapon they told her could kill a tank.

Jericho had been very persuasive when he called her on the phone earlier this evening. He had promised her an obscene amount of money too if she agreed to this mission. Yet neither of those things had swayed her decision. There was only one thing she cared about, that drove her to be here in this place tonight.

Her students were in danger and they needed her help.

Sofia activated the Optical and Thermal camouflage systems and for all intents and purposes she disappeared from the sight of the world. With a barely conscious thought she pushed power into her Ability and lifted into the night sky, following the fading trail of the VTOL and the precious cargo it contained.

=====

From the side windows of the hovering aircraft the park looked like any other in the vast expanse of Pan City. It had a big central area covered in grass, some gravel paths winding through native Gum trees and gardens, with a children’s playground and a public restroom built close to a parking lot.

The only unusual aspect was that the central grassed area was in the shape of a huge circle that rose gently in a shallow dome, surmounted by a circular plinth of reinforced concrete at its centre. A gazebo had been built atop the round stand and this was the designated meeting point given by the voice on Angelina’s phone.

With practiced skill the Guard pilot set the VTOL down about fifty meters from the gazebo and released the side hatch. Carmody and Sarah unstrapped themselves and clambered out of the aircraft, their hair whipping about in the downdraft of the idling engines.

The girls gave a thumbs up to the pilot who nodded in reply and lifted away from them in a hurricane of jetwash. Once the aircraft receded into the dark sky, Sarah and Carmody faced each other, visible by the illumination from tall light poles dotted around the park.

“The Emissary wants us dead, you know that, right?” Carmody said to her friend, her voice surprisingly calm even for her. She held her cricket bat at her side, idly rolling the leather wrapped handle between her fingers.

“I know” Sarah agreed. “He may not be able to take out Stanley, but we are pretty fragile by comparison. Without us, AURA will struggle to deal with Stanley, even assuming he still wants to help them”

“So we need to live” Carmody replied. “Which means we need to defeat the Emissary once and for all” The girl laid her bat over her shoulder and Sarah knew what she meant by that gesture.

“All or nothing, hey Bestie!” Sarah said with an evil little smile.

“All or nothing” agreed Carmody.

The two friends looked across the partially lit park grounds. Somewhere close by, Stanley would be crouched, hiding from sight until Sarah called him. By now their English teacher Miss Abrams should also be ready, her stealth suit hiding her from their eyes and those of the Emissary and his servants.

A lone, humanoid shape was now visible standing in the gazebo. It had not been there moments before and seemed to be watching them, stiff and unmoving.

“It’s midnight” said Sarah and the two of them walked towards the gazebo with unbreakable resolve. As they got closer they could see the figure was tall, taller than the Guards. Then the red glow from it electronic eyes told them what it was.

“HALT” called out the Sentinel and the two girls stopped, at the very edge of the gazebo stand. At this range they could see the rifle it carried in its metal hands, pointed at their waists. If it chose to shoot now, it could probably kill them with ease.

“Where is the hostage, our friend Angelina?” Sarah yelled out, seemingly unafraid of the robot or its weapon.

“BENEATH YOUR FEET, DRACORIS” the robot said, the tone of its voice different now, as if another person was speaking through its speakers. Both girls glanced down in momentary horror as if they were standing on a grave, but it was just regular grass below their boots.

“HAH! HAH! HAH!” the Sentinel laughed, the electronic voice sounding harsh and cruel. It gestured to them to approach closer and they did so, stepping onto the concrete floor of the gazebo.

“Show us our friend right now, or we leave!” snarled Carmody, feeling the rage building in her. She hefted her cricket bat and the Sentinel took a step backwards. As it did so the sound of its footfalls changed, a ringing clatter of hollow metal instead of the solid thunk of concrete.

Both girls looked down and could see that the very centre of the gazebo had a floor made from sections of metal panelling. The Sentinel had retreated a few more steps and they had instinctively followed it, thinking they had it cowed.

“Sarah! Carmody!” came the urgent voice of Fiona over their earpieces. “Get out of there! That whole area is not a park. It is the top of a water reservoir!”

“A what?” Carmody wondered and then the floor opened up beneath them like a giant trapdoor and they fell screaming into darkness.