Metal Deep 3: Infinite and Forever (5 page)

The thing floated off toward the ceiling once more. I was barely up when Scion was on me, standing between me and it like a guard. It was collecting itself into a shapeless mass right in front of us as a billow of smoke. I tapped the door with my fist not sure how to open them. Thankfully, the rumble started and they began slowly creaking open.

“Get out!” Scion yelled. “I’ll hold it off. It can’t be let out.”

“What is it?” I screamed.

Scion turned to face me. Confidence and youthful enthusiasm pricked at his demeanor, “I’m not sure, but this is the most fun I’ve had all day. We’ll beat it back, just like our ancestors!”

Just then Scion turned to me. His eyes went wide after he jumped in front of me. I screamed and grabbed him as he slumped into my good arm. The creature had covered the distance between us, and formed the smoke-like tentacles into spears that pierced into Scion’s back and through his chest with a very real, and very sharp, cohesion.  The thing pulled back and disappeared into a far corner. It had retreated from me, but the damage had already been done.

“It’s waiting for the right moment to escape.” Scion said through shallow breaths.

I pulled Scion through the narrow crack, and tapped the door edge again, hoping that it would close. It began its slow shutting grumble, but the creature was speeding toward us. It would be out long before those slow doors sealed.

I don’t know where he found the strength, but Scion shoved me out of the way, and with his orange Dragonstone grasped, he extended his hand, and produced a beam that lassoed itself around the shadowed figure.

For the first time the once silent shadow made a sound. It was something between a screech that would shatter glass, and a howl that would wake the dead.

I cheered as he held the thing in the orange energy grip. That was until I turned, and in horror, watched as pulses of the energy rolled across Scion and into the shard. Each wave took with it a year of his life. I stood helpless as Scion began to rapidly age in front of me. He hit his thirties within seconds, closer the doors moved, but he was graying at fifty. The power lessened, the creature inched closer to the opening. Scion fell to a knee and clutched the wound at his chest. He would lose it before the doors would close. I ran and tried to move the doors faster with my strength, but the searing pain in my own arm made it impossible when I exerted myself.

I looked again, and Scion was a balding old man. From somewhere deep inside he pulled more power, and his old aging face became resolute with determination not to lose. He got what I could only describe as second wind. The creature was mostly through the doors as they started to shut on it. Scion gave one last push that caused the lasso to yank it almost all the way back in before it was sealed and the energy line cut. He collapsed to the ground with a final wheeze, as a small “droplet” of the being fell lifelessly to the ground in front of the closed gate. The rest of it had been sealed back in its prison.

There was no getting to him fast enough. I knelt beside him, and raised the fragile old man, as gently as my metal arms would allow.

My voice whimpered, but the deserving tears could not be shed, “Why?” I asked.

The old man only had a few breaths in him. I understood now, what had happened to his brothers. Whoever wielded that shard had to sacrifice their own youth to tap into its power. They were a family of selfless protectors. He forced a withered smile, “Because, you and I are the only Infinites in the world.” He gave his best laugh, but it only came out as a wheeze, “It was our job.”

“You should have let me take the hit.” I said.

“It was my destiny to choose.” I could hear his body failing. He pulled in one last breath and then let it out, “It is my family’s honor to serve the Thantosa’s one last time. One day, I believe, you will understand why. Until then …
Be Thankful
.”

With that final declaration of service, he winked at me, and then the boy Scion died in my arms as an old man. That kid taught me more about being a man, than any adult would ever be able to for the rest of my life.

POWER

The following night I stood alone in front of what the village was now revering as
THE THANTOSA GATE
. I guess they had forgotten those ancient doors were important, but my coming, after a thousand-
plus
years of having their gate builders play no-show, had them excited. A new sign was made, new guards were assigned and posted, and a gate for the path that led to
the gate
was already being constructed.

That day Largo, Kata, and Sway arrived via some new
Skip
device Sway and Kata were tinkering with. I had stayed out of their way, and they out of mine when they showed up without Maeve. Apparently she had some super important family business to attend to. I was a little miffed. I shouldn’t have been, but since Scion’s death I had been on edge. Thankfully Sway patched me up without fuss. She actually was nice. She could be when she had to be. There wasn’t much for her to do though. It hadn’t taken long for my body to start healing itself, and at a pretty rapid pace. Most of her work on me was spent monitoring what was happening so she and Kata could review the collected data.

Off in the distance Scion’s memorial raged on with music and dancing. The people celebrated their own lives that were saved, and honored the Hades brothers that had fallen for their sakes. I understood, but I just felt like being alone.

By now the word was out that I was a Cyborg. Feringal, the first Cyborg who attacked them had given many an impression that we all would be that dangerous and unstable. There was already a prejudicial stigma in much of the Amalgam world when it came to those who augmented their abilities via machinery. In the past machined body parts were equated to those who were power hungry and looking for new ways to become even more powerful. After I shared my story, I was soon accepted, trusted, and even made to feel welcome. So, I was able to walk among the people freely without my “disguise,” and without feeling awkward, or like I was being judged. It didn’t hurt my case that the elders and Largo were chummy.

I did love the water, and there, under the rage of the waterfall, I could feel peace. I tucked up under a rock outcrop beside one of the far monoliths that stood in front of the gate like four useless guards. I listened to the flowing water mix with the music from the village below as I nodded off to sleep under the weight of the past day’s exhaustion.

I couldn’t have been asleep long when I felt someone kicking at my foot.

“Wakey, wakey!” A familiar woman’s voice said.

I jumped with a start as my first sight was a woman’s ridiculously tall, but sexy, stiletto. I traced the leg up its super long length and continued up the curvaceous body until I met eyes with Meg, the wench from the expo. She was with the guy whose Cyborg brother I dropped from the waterfall. They were both packing heat, including some kind of new spike gun that made a zapping sound every time she taunted me with a button push. Guess my Kryptonite secret was out.

“It’s funny.” She said, “I find you how I left you … asleep on your ass.”

I stood and grinned, “It’s funny,” I replied mocking, “You’re still slutty and smell like overly used skank. Guess we’re both walking down memory lane tonight.”

She slapped me. Sway and Kata sniggered. They and Largo were near the path that led away from the gate. They were being held at gunpoint by two particularly emo Street Vipers. The girls and Largo wore confident grins. I was not feeling it. Maybe it was their poker face? My poker face morphed into something a little angrier. They picked the wrong night.

“Open it.” Meg said pointing to the gate. “My people have the village. They will burn it down, and kill everyone. Then you will have the unfortunate pleasure of watching your friends be turned into the abomination that you should have become.”

I sneered, “How’s Cade?” I asked. “Are you two still a couple now that his face is backward? You don’t strike me as a through-thick-and-thin type.” I made an obvious look toward her butt, “Well, maybe through thick.”

Meg cocked the spike gun, and made it spark like that firework show from the other night. She was fuming. Her brotherless compatriot pushed me toward the doors. I turned with a fist, but the guards next to Largo and the girls raised their guns and prepared to fire.

I thought about the kid, and what he had done to save me, and to keep that thing in there caged. I couldn’t just let it out. He would have died for nothing if I did. He was willing to sacrifice himself to save others. Could I do the same? Perhaps I could, but could I stand by and watch my friends get butchered? I stared at each of them. Kata and her pink dress watched me with kind and confident eyes. Largo stood with his arms crossed, chest out. He nodded in approval of my defiance. Sway rolled her eyes and smiled with an “it’s going to be fine” nod.

Time seemed to stop. For a brief second I was in my own little world. I looked skyward, thought about the kid’s last words to me, and for my new life that had come via the hands of so many, I simply whispered the words, “Thank You.”

A switch flipped in my mind. The Dragonstones burned bright. The energy pulsed through my body, and my already impressive Amalgam parts moved me with speed I almost couldn’t fathom. I rolled and was in front of my friends. The guards pulled the triggers. I stuck out my forearms one above the other, and from them I projected green energy shields that ricocheted the bullets away from us. The guards went to reload, but I was already knocking them out before their hands could find new clips.

Meg and her partner fired spikes at me. I dodged one, and blocked the other with the round shield I projected from my left arm. Kata and Sway already had the downed guard’s guns as I disarmed Meg and her buddy of the electrical spike weapons. I left the girls and Largo to hold them captive, so I could rampage an unholy terror across the Street Vipers waiting below. I ran fast, hit hard, and destroyed every piece of equipment they brought. Those who fired met my shield. Those who resisted met my fist. Those who were smart ran away. Within minutes they had scattered, and I had all their cars, bikes, and trucks trashed and smoldering down at the bottom of the South ravine. They would not be returning to Falor again.

After I had cleared the village, I returned up to the gate where Meg and her friend were still waiting. She was over near the black gate wearing a look of complete hatred and fear. Sway looked impressed, and Largo gave me a “that’s-my-boy” handshake.

I was going to let them go. I moved closer to Meg to start the I-win banter, but she backed up against the door to get away from me. I guess I might have freaked her out a little. Understandable, I was awesome. Then, I saw something with my Cyborg vision that made me stop dead in my tracks. I was now freaked out. The girls and Largo must have recognized the horror on my face, because they backed away when I motioned for them to get to the trail. Down at Meg’s feet the piece of the shadow-thing that had been cut off when the doors closed on it seemed to come out of the ground, and latch itself onto Meg’s foot. She didn’t feel it, and cussed at me when I told her to stop moving away.

“Stop!” I ordered again.

She sneered and screamed, “NO!” But it was too late.

The thing crawled up her leg, body, and entered her eyes. She dropped to her knees as her skin began to pale as if she were dead. Her flesh cracked and then turned to some kind of scale. She made not a sound as horns grew from her elbows, and bat-like wings snapped outward from new bones that exploded off her back. Her hands morphed into claws, her teeth pointed into a razored trap, and her eyes turned as blinding as the sun while her hair ignited into actual fire that crackled on her head without burning her.

“I am the Dragoness, Corona.” She growled. “You will free the rest of my people from this lauded prison, Keeper.”

Meg’s Viper friend quivered beside her. The Dragoness would have none of the weakness. She grabbed him by his head, squeezed until a crunching sound turned my stomach, and then tossed his limp body over the same waterfall his brother had been sucked into the day before. She was strong, and I was scared. I gave Largo the wave to leave, but they stayed close as he shook his head, “No.”

There are times in life when you speak as though someone else moves your lips for you. Sometimes the puppeteer is cruel or incompetent. There are times, however, when he seems to know exactly what to say.

“I am the heir of Thantosa your jailor, and by his memory, I will not.”

She jerked a little when I said the name, Thantosa. She must have known it well.

I stared her in the eye. She didn’t like it. I imagine there was almost nobody who could have held eye contact as she had stars for eyeballs. Anybody who looked into her eyes for too long would go blind. Guess I found another reason to be thankful. I moved closer, and she shook with hate.

“You will!” She ordered.

“I will not!” I yelled.

A beam leapt from her eyes, and hit mine. It felt like a storm wind blowing against the door to a house. It knocked with a thump, but I felt completely safe. The beam bounced away harmlessly. She screamed again. I don’t think that was an attack so much as it was her trying to do to me whatever she had done to poor Meg. I took another defiant step forward.

“Who are you?” She howled in bloodcurdling anger. 

I pulled from my pocket a piece of paper I had made for Maeve. I had already given the others theirs. On it was the answer to her question. An answer that had been too long overdue, to them, and especially to myself.

Largo held his, and yelled at her. The answer caused her to rattle with a jolt of pain as he joined me in standing against her, “He is a Thantosa!”

Kata came up beside us next. Her platinum and pink hair tossed about in the wind, “He is an Infinite hailing from a long and distinguished bloodline!”  The Dragoness shrieked. She really hated that.

Finally, Sway joined, and as the beast backed away, she yelled, “He is named after two great men who gave their lives seeing things like you destroyed. He walks in the memory of his ancestors, he lives by the sacrifices of the selfless, and he stands against you in the company of family. His name is Scion Hades Thantosa, and if you know what’s good for you Bitch, you’ll run!”

There was something about the new name that carried power against Corona. Clearly it wasn’t powerful enough to drive the thing from Meg, but it shivered, spat, and flailed as Sway screamed my new Amalgam name at the top of her lungs. Corona panicked and took flight through the crushing waterfall as if it were a mere trickle from a leaky sink.

She howled to the moon and screamed, “The line of our jailor will be broken. This I swear!”

“Big words for someone on the run,” Sway screamed back. “Why don’t you stay and fight?”

“Run ... Stay and fight … Make up your mind.” Kata said flippantly to Sway as if nothing had just happened. Just as quickly as they were all having a moment, it had passed, and things were status quo again. Without another word, Kata headed back down the hill once Corona disappeared.

Sway huffed and followed her still talking smack to herself.

Personally I was glad to see Corona go. No doubt I would see her again.

Largo and I just kind of stood there for a moment. Neither of us really knew what to say. Since it wasn’t a standoff I spoke first. “I’m hungry.”

Largo smiled with a head tilt that sometimes reminded me of a look my dad would get, “Come on,
Scion¸
I’ll grill you some cheeseburgers.”