Let me stop here for a few seconds to tell you, whoever-you-are, that all you’re about to hear about my awesome piloting skills is one-hundred percent true. If it sounds farfetched because you don’t think I had the hours of practice like the other two schmucks had and that I even needed the hours of practice to survive, let me let you in on a little secret:
The Dragonovs weren’t like flying a plane or playing a video game because I told it to do everything in my mind and it did it. If I didn’t know a certain way of putting something so that the female computer voice would understand, I simply envisioned doing what I wanted in my head and presto, it happened.
Sounds crazy, huh? Well, it was crazy.
Crazy fun.
“Missiles inbound,” The female computerized voice chirped.
“I know, I know,” I growled, turning off the wings and flipping once before assuming a perfect dive toward the oncoming missiles. Just before they reached me I turned on my right wing and flapped hard, spinning me out of the way. My foes weren’t expecting this and tried to fire off more shots but I got to them first.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but I’m kind of a straightforward guy. So most of the time, without a plan in place as to what the heck I’m going to do, I just end up tackling stuff.
Literally.
I spread my arms wide before slamming into one of them hard and the two of us spun through the air as we plummeted toward the sea. Punching, kicking or any other methods of forceful attacks were useless against both of us but that didn’t stop us from trying. We beat at one another for a while and continued to drop to the black ocean, each trying to get in a good punch. Paying too much attention to beating my enemy’s brains out and paying zero attention to the fact we were running out of open air was just one of the reasons we landed in the cold waters of Normandy and began sinking fast like the hunks of metal we were.
Lights on the sides of our helmets automatically came on as we sank into the dark water. The female voice chirped every time we went down another ten feet, which was annoyingly a lot because we sank so fast. Then my opponent finally shoved me away and turned on his jetpack, floating in place as I watched him while I kept sinking.
“Lock onto target,” I said, holding up both arms.
I guess he figured out what I was doing because he blasted off, rocketing to the top of the sea. Blasting off after him, I kept my arms up and let my targeting system do its thing.
“Target locked,” It beeped.
“Fire,” I said and two heat-seekers fired off from my wrists.
What? Just two?
“Keep firing, you crazy computer chic,” I yelled as four more missiles hissed away after my target.
“Better?” It asked, shocking me.
“Uh,” I muttered before my missiles hit the escaping suit and what was left of the man began sinking in a flaming mass. “Yeah, loads. Thanks for asking.”
I shot out of the water like a speeding bullet (you’re going to say nothing of that comment) and started looking for the last bogey. Climbing higher and higher into the sky I found he wasn’t in sight. Then I remembered that I was flying in state-of-the-art battle armor.
“Find him,” I said, stopping in the air to hover. When nothing happened I said, “Uh, locate nearest enemy?”
Still nothing.
I thought for a second before trying a few other commands with no results. Wow. Even future computers crashed, it seemed.
Although I couldn’t say right then and there, I was pretty sure that Microsoft had their name somewhere on the Dragonov I was in and the only way I could fix my little targeting issue was to purchase the Windows 2340 upgrade for $39.99.
Or switch to Apple.
Neither of these thoughts helped me find my target and if my computer voice hadn’t beeped informing me of incoming missiles, I might never have found him. Red dots zipped toward the small blue X (that was me) on my targeting screen.
Blasting off I said, “Deploy counter measures.” It was a perfectly logical command I thought because it stood to reason that anything that flew and shot weapons had to have counter measures, right?
Wrong.
Apparently the Dragonov didn’t rock counter measures or anything resembling them.
I told you Microsoft made that hunk of junk.
Barrel-rolling to my left, I gritted my teeth and spun, just waiting for one of the small missiles to hit me. None of them did, shockingly, and they hissed past me. I stopped spinning and turned to see the last enemy flying toward me.
“Any other weapons besides missiles?” I asked.
“Please select from the following options.” The female voice told me and a list of what I was assuming were weapons appeared on the screen that also included the rushing Dragonov almost upon me.
Scanning the list in panic I randomly picked one, shouting, “Saber rounds.”
“Saber rounds selected. Auto-locking target.”
I know I say and have said this a lot in this story but here it is again--
I’m not sure what I was expecting before two thick eight-barreled mini guns appeared from somewhere on the back of my suit and lowered down over my shoulders. The opposing Dragonov didn’t stand a chance when they started firing once the computer had locked onto him. Unlike normal gatling style weapons that fire at a severely rapid rate, these little jewels, which were shooting armor piercing rounds, fired at an almost slow pace considering the type of weapon that they were.
Something beeped loud and the voice in my head said, “Target has deployed self-destruct. Would you like a suggestion?”
The almost sing-song way the computer spoke was a little disconcerting, just saying. But since I did have a falling apart hunk of almost exploding metal almost upon me, I shouted, “Yes,” Covering the eyes of my helmet against the coming kamikaze.
The suggestion, as the voice put it, was in fact the shutting off of my boosters and holo-wings, causing me to instantly drop abd the other flaming Dragonov passed just overhead whilst I pin wheeled down. I was probably thirty feet underneath it when the self-destruct happened, the force of the explosion sending me speeding downward in crazy cartwheels before I landed back in the ocean.
Our aerial fight had brought us close to the shoreline it seemed because I hit bottom hard, landing on my back while sand kicked up all around me. I laid there for a second trying to take in all that had just happened in the last five minutes before groaning and getting to my feet. Looking up, I saw that I was in about fifteen feet of water. Deciding that I’d had enough flying for the time being, I began walking slowly toward the bank, my feet tearing through the weak seaweed and scaring fish away from their homes.
It was kind of peaceful, actually, trudging under the water in semi slow-motion after I’d just handed two deadly soldiers their own butts. Little pieces of shrapnel began dropping into the water above me, swirling past me or landing on my helmet and shoulders with a soft clink before settling on the bottom.
It was strange to think that hundreds of years from now some intrepid explorer might find the remains of 23rd century battle armor under the waves and think it to be something else entirely.
My helmet was out of the water by that time and I saw Chloe and Piper standing on the beach watching. Chloe, after the suit incident, was back in her black jumpsuit while Piper still rocked the dress. Hoping I looked half as wicked-cool as I felt whilst marching out the sea like a robot-playa’, I approached them, stopping ankle deep in foam in front of the spectators.
“Are you alright?” Chloe asked with a look of sincere worry. “It looked like it got a little rough up there.”
I shrugged, causing the whir of gears with the motion, “Nothing I couldn’t handle, it seems,” I said, suddenly serious when a notion struck me. “Chloe, these things can’t fall into the wrong hands. I knew it wasn’t a great idea in the first place but after using one-“
“I know.” Chloe said, nodding. “Klaus is gone. He jumped a few seconds after you wen
t after the other two Dragonovs.”
“Where could he have gone?” Piper asked, “Don’t you have what he wants?”
“Power down.” I said as the suit sank to its knees, the chest and arms opening, allowing me to step out on the sand- then I fell down.
Chloe and Piper both grabbed under my arms and lifted me to my feet. “Careful, Jericho,” Chloe told me. “You’re going to have to walk slowly for a minute.”
All feelings of my awesome heroism were all but gone after having to have each of my arms looped around a girl’s neck to walk. Also they seemed to be the only viewers to bear witness to my feats of aerial combat because the sermon being held by Peter the Hermit was still in full swing with the crowd still shouting God wills it.
It was for the best, I suppose. Had any want-to-be pilgrims saw the three winged demons flying overhead whilst the Hermit spoke they might’ve changed their tunes from amen to burn him.
We finally made it back to the stump we’d been sitting on before all helheim broke loose and I gratefully sat back down slowly. I wasn’t sore, or anything, but just wobbly. I was, however, able to walk the last ten of fifteen feet to the stump without the aid of my female crutches so I guess that was a plus.
The three of us sat in silence for a few minutes, choosing to stare at the ocean this time instead of the multitude of people. When my gauntlet said two hours left I broke the silence. “So why’d Klaus think you were synthetic?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the sea.
Chloe didn’t answer right away and I’m thinking she was probably trying to think of the best way of telling an uncomfortable story. “He was talking about Beck, my sister.”
“Beck,” I repeated, looking at her. “Like, little sister, twin sister?“
“Identical twin,” she confirmed.
Piper hadn’t heard Klaus’ speech so she just sat there watching us talk about things she didn’t understand. Poor thing.
Since I didn’t want to leave her completely out, I leaned slightly in her direction and touched my shoulder to hers, “Was everything he said about the raid when she was fifteen true, then?”
“In a roundabout way, yes,” She said, leaning forward and putting her elbows on her knees. “The explosion that killed her happened when she was twenty but she’d been missing since she was fifteen.”
“Why?”
Sighing, Chloe shrugged, “Beck was always the more rebellious of the two of us but the real reason was she met someone handsome who turned out to be a Rebel and she ran away with him.”
“Tough break. But that still doesn’t explain why Klaus thought you were her.”
“Father was always a recluse and since we were his daughters, so were we. When you live in a war-ridden city where you don’t go out unless you’re killing something, it’s not hard to hide the fact that you have more than one child, which is illegal.” Chloe said.
Wow. Way to cut down on population growth. If it’s illegal to have more than one kid Kate Gosselin would’ve got the life sentence. Har har. “But if there’s a law saying you can only have one child isn’t there like a fallback plan for people unfortunate enough to have twins?”
“Apparently not,” Chloe said. “Our father was a renowned scientist so he was a public figure. And since he didn’t want to keep us locked up like animals he alternated taking one of us with him.” She smiled then at some memory before saying, “After years of this it became almost like a currency between us. We would trade each other turns or give them to each other in exchange for something. Beck was quite the business woman because she went more than me in our teens.” Her smile faltered. “Then one day she went and never came back.”
“Just like that?” I asked, frowning, “She never told you any plans of, I don’t know, ditching you guys for Romeo the Rebel?”
“She never believed that all the fighting was necessary and the Rebels say that they’re trying to stop the war so I guess that’s all she needed to hear.”
“When was she wounded?” Piper asked, sounding cute considering the wound she was referring to was in fact death and reanimation but hey, she was a Viking, cut her a break.
“Five years later. Beck was the commander of the raiding party attacking our supply lines and I was sent to stop her. I didn’t know it was her until I got close and she lifted her helmet to ask how father was doing.” Chloe face darkened and I was beginning to think that maybe I shouldn’t have opened this particular can of worms, but since I was nosy I asked, “What happened then?”
“Then her team and my team fought, my team won, and I carried her remains back to my father,” Chloe said this in a very hard sort of way, like she was starting to feel annoyed at the subject but didn’t want to stop. “Father couldn’t have saved her without the help of his estranged colleague Dr. Cross. So after a few days in the lab Beck was fully functional, with the exception of having her memories of the Rogues wiped. Since Dr. Cross, father and I were the only ones who even knew that she’d vanished five years prier, there wasn’t any danger of her identity getting out if we started switching places again. The problem came when my father realized that I was now a field scientist with my own platoon and couldn’t just switch places with my newly synthetic sister anymore. So after Beck had paced the floors on lockdown for a few weeks she disappeared again. In those weeks was when Klaus showed up unexpected and caught my father tweaking a few wires on Beck’s arms. That’s why he thinks I’m synthetic.”
It was a rather long story for such a short question but I was about as enlightened as I was going to get, it seemed. I wanted to ask what she and her father felt throughout the course of it, though, because she told the facts straightforward and left out all emotions attached.
Like, did she and her sister have a good relationship? Did she think daddy loved Beck more? Was she glad her sister was gone? I wanted to ask all of those questions until I saw a tear slip down Chloe’s cheek and all of them were answered.
Piper stood and crossed over to sit besides Chloe, putting an arm around her shoulders. “You don’t know where she went?” she asked softly.
Chloe sniffed and shrugged again. “Erasing selected memories isn’t easy and there’s always a chance that they’ll come back. My guess is that they did one day and she went back to the Rebels.”
“And since Klaus didn’t know about her he thinks you’re synthetic,” I said.
Chloe nodded. “It’s one of the reasons he sent me after you. To see what I could do.”
I stood and walked a few steps away, “Where do you think he went?”
“I don’t know,” Chloe said.
“He really has to be stopped.”
“You think I don't know that?”
“Then think, Chloe. Where would he go if he was running for his life?” I said, getting on my knees in front of her and grabbing her hands with my gauntlets.
Chloe managed a smile. “This isn’t the time to propose, Jericho.”
Smiling back, I said, “It’s a heck of a lot better time than yours in the middle of a battle.”
Chloe looked toward the town that Klaus had fled from, “There are so many places he could’ve gone. But he most likely would’ve gone to a place where he could get more men.”
“Flagstaff?” I asked, checking my right gauntlet. “Not like we could follow him if we wanted to but you know…”
“This might be our last random jump, though.” Chloe reminded me. “Father said two or three. It’s been three so maybe we’re going back to Flagstaff anyway.”
“You mean Flagstaff two years later. The place where I die, remember?” I decided to throw in for her. “You’re dad also said that I hated Klaus more than anything and I got to say, if we jump in the next few minutes straight to Flagstaff, I don’t think I meet quota on that spill. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a complete jerk, for an evil world-dominating mastermind, but your dad’s description of me wasn’t the way I feel right at the moment.”
Maybe it was because Chloe didn’t think
I was head-over-heels in love with her or Piper that made her look at me the way she did then, but after I saw her face the only logical place I could think of that Klaus would go suddenly came into my mind.
“God, no,” I muttered. “We have to follow him.”
“Jericho, we don't know if we can,” Chloe said, standing and holding her arms out to me the way a negotiator might to a suicide bomber.
“Your dad said something about jumps leaving traces. Where’d he jump from?” I was almost shouting now.
“Somewhere in the street but we don’t know that he--“
I bolted for the town with Chloe and Piper calling after me to stop. I was out of breath by the time I reached the sandy street that I’d thrown Klaus in. A few buildings and houses were still smoldering in piles after the Dragonov raid and all the people had vanished somewhere to hide.
Not knowing what I was looking for or how to look for it, I began walking around in a long circle, holding up my right glove like it was a cell phone and I needed bars. Then, miraculously because of how foolish I felt, I did indeed get bars. The gauntlets screen that had been counting down the time left in 1096 vanished and was replaced by a sentence stating that I was in range of a jump site.
“Future Wi-Fi.” I murmured to myself.
A red marker appeared that worked like a compass and after a minute of walking around I stopped when it glowed green and said a jump had happened there almost forty minutes ago. I glanced around. It didn’t look any different, then I saw the air shimmer like a heat wave a few feet away.
Then the date of the jump appeared, confirming my fears.
Chicago, Illinois, August 4th, 2012.
Then another blip appeared on the screen that read:
Would you like to travel to this destination?
Before I could select yes of no a Dragonov landed beside me, causing a crater in the middle of the street and scaring me to death. The helmet opened and I saw Chloe’s face. “Is it giving you an option to follow him?
I nodded.
Piper appeared beside me, grabbing my arm. “Then let’s go.”
Chloe laid an armored hand on my other shoulder and I selected yes on my glove.
Apparently it was time to go.
Chapter 31