Chapter 50

Eric ran down the door lined corridor, his booted feet pounding loudly on the hard floor. He cursed his own programming skills when he decided to add realistic sound to this artificial world, as it made him easier to track. Behind him the huge black form of Nothing screamed and tore open the side of the residential tower, worming its way inside as she chased his receding echoes.

“Guess she didn’t like that last Rail Gun shell” he muttered to himself and turned another corner, seeking the emergency stairs that would take him back to the tunnel network. He had spent most of the past five days in those tunnels, keeping hidden from the Dracoris until he could set up good ambush points.

Like his most recent attack, he had lured Nothing to a place of his choosing. She was getting cautious, taking more time to examine the surrounding terrain before she came after him. He had been fortunate on this occasion, able to fire his last Depleted Uranium shell from his Rail Gun into her wing root.

He had been aiming for her chest, but she must have sensed his position at the last instant and thrown herself sideways. The powerful shell had torn a massive wound where her right wing joined the body, so he hoped she might be grounded at least.

From the sounds of her enraged pursuit, he had hurt her badly and that made him grin savagely. The dragon showed remarkable healing powers and he suspected that unless he killed her outright, she would regain her flight soon enough.

He reached his marker point in the corridors and tripped the arming signal to the remote. With desperate haste he flung open the stairwell door and raced downwards, taking the stairs three at a time.

Above him he heard Nothing reach the doorway, squeezing her massive form like some kind of evil rodent into the tight hallways of the apartment building. Eric could almost feel her chill, black breath filling the stairway above him with her poisonous vapours.

One last burst of energy and he reached the basement level. A quick glance behind him showed tendrils of dark gas seeping from the doorway he had just vacated, so he clamped his mouth shut and dove into the open maintenance tunnel hatch.

Eric landed hard on the concrete floor below, or at least the hjghly detailed simulation of a floor and felt his ribs scream in agony. His internal counter reached zero and he rolled to one side, bracing himself against the tunnel wall.

Above him the explosives he had fitted all across that level of the tower detonated and collapsed the floor. Thousands of tons of reinforced concrete and glass toppled like a badly stacked tower of dominoes, crushing the basement level above his cowering head. Dust and small pieces of rubble filled the tunnel, battering his armoured body as the floor heaved and shook like a ship at sea.

At last the rumbling crashes ended and he coughed out a mouthful of concrete dust. The lights in the tunnel had gone out so he turned on his flashlight and played it around his position.

It had been a close call, but he could see the deeply buried maintenance tunnel had withstood the collapse of the building above. The way underneath the building had partially collapsed, however the opposite direction was still clear.

Eric got to his feet, nursing his new injuries and pondered if he had finally managed to kill the Quantum Dragon. His tired feet had taken him a bare fifty meters along the tunnel when a new round of rumbles shook the ground. He paused and cocked an ear towards the collapsed tower.

A faint roar could be heard, then a louder scream of pain and anger. More crashes could be heard then the ground shook again.

“Sounds like even a falling building won’t kill that beast” he told himself. He turned away and began moving at his best speed, wanting to get back to his current hiding spot before Nothing got airborne once more.

Sarah stood in the middle of the circle they had prepared. Eric was at her feet and she was aligned with the point of the pentagram that faced due North. Carmody stood to her left in the western point of the pentagram and Stanley was in the eastern one.

As if the wind knew, it had died away to little more than stray zephyrs, idly stirring the hair of the spectators who looked on. Sister Domenica strode purposefully into the midst of the arcane circle, careful to avoid standing on the freshly painted markings. She met Sarah’s eyes and gave her a rare smile of encouragement.

“Remember, time may flow differently in the realm you journey to” she warned her pupil. “Only hours have passed here, yet for Eric it could be seconds or it may have been days. It will be confusing at first, but I know you will succeed”

“Thank you Sister” Sarah told her. “I know I have not been an easy student to teach so thanks for putting up with me”

Sister Domenica reached into her robes and drew a hypo-injector. She held it casually in her hands, yet for a moment they trembled.

“This is a special drug that will help you open the Portal” she told the girl. “I think you will need it to boost your powers” The Sister leaned forwards and laid the cold metal tip of the injector against Sarah’s neck.

“It’s HEx, isn’t it Sister?” Sarah asked her teacher calmly, not flinching from the device. “I figured that must have been what allowed me to make that transition the first time”

Domenica pulled the hypo-injector back, untriggered, and slid it back into her robes.

“No Sarah, I think it was all up to you” the Sister said gently. “You don’t need this awful drug to boost your power”

The Sister stalked from the circle to where her assistant, the tall man named Pike, watched nervously from the safety of the wind barrier.

“Mr Pike and I will channel what power we can into the circle from the outside” the Necromancer declared. “It will augment your own power and help focus your ability”

She then knelt on the landing pad and reached both hands forwards, touching her fingertips to the outer edge of the symbols. Mr Pike seemed reluctant to join her, until Sarah saw Domenica lift her left hand and point a finger at him in warning. Whatever that raised finger meant, Pike quickly knelt and laid his own fingers against the painted marks.

“You may begin, Miss Evermore” her tutor commanded and Sarah focussed deep within herself, just like she had in her training sessions at the Awakening Centre.

=====

Seven stood in the lee of the windshield, watching as the AURA members and their invisible dragon began to activate the Portal. She was used to lurking about at the edges of groups, being ignored by the others. It was how she lived her life until now.

The friendship between all of the AURA team members was obvious, something she had been aware of intellectually yet now she could see it in person. Seven wondered if she could ever be part of such a team. If she could ever have friends like these.

Sarah Evermore looked like she was in a trance now, the circle and pentagram beginning to glow with a faint green light. Over the resting form of Eric a dark cloud had begun to form, swirling around like a small tornado. The green glow from the circle was reflecting from the faces of the other girl, Carmody, and a big blurred shape that was the Steam Dragon.

Suddenly the dark opening spread wide, covering the entire circle. The green light had grown more intense as well, illuminating all of the occupants with its sickly radiance. Then the figures began to fade, seeming to become only light as they were drawn into the centre of the swirling vortex overhead.

“It’s working!” she heard the white robed woman, Sister Domenica, cry out.

Unnoticed by the other AURA members, Seven had drawn a slim pistol from her pocket. It had been stolen from the Armoury at the orphanage and it was loaded with Armour Piercing rounds. She had no idea if it could harm Nothing in her dragon form but she was ready to find out.

With a wordless cry, Seven ran towards the glowing circle. She nearly made it when a pair of strong arms looped about her and pulled her to the ground. As she struggled futilely in the powerful grip of her captor, the three figures in the circle vanished. The dark opening sealed closed and disappeared, leaving only Eric still lying on the stretcher.

“Why did you stop me?” Seven sobbed, letting her gun fall to the hard landing deck surface. “I needed to rescue Eric, don’t you understand?”

“If you had entered the circle you could have destroyed the Portal, maybe killed the others inside” Jericho-Two said to her in his calm way, holding her close in his powerful arms.

“But I caused this!” she wailed. “I have to fix it. All of this was my fault”

“No, Seven. It was my fault” Jericho confessed. “I should have found a better place for you. I should have introduced you to Eric from the beginning. All of this happened because of my decisions, not yours”

Seven realised that Jericho-Two had loosened his hold and she twisted in his grip. For a moment she considered standing up and running. Maybe even running clear off the edge of the Tower, ending this once and for all.

“Stay with us” Jericho whispered to her. “Stay here for when Eric comes back. He wants to be with you, to get to know you better”

“Why?” Seven cried. “He should hate me for what I have done!”

Jericho sighed and considered his words to her.

“We are Avatars of Great Archimedes” he said. “We are asked to do things that the world will hate us for, but we do them because we have to. That is our purpose, the reason for which we were made”

Seven faced the Avatar as they knelt together and she buried her face into his shoulder, her tears staining the dark grey suit.

“I don’t want to be this person anymore” she spoke into the dark fabric.

“Then be someone else” Jericho suggested. “Try being Selena Smith for a while”

She pulled back and regarded him with her dark, red-rimmed eyes. With a trembling hand she took off his dark glasses and looked deep into his pale blue eyes. Eyes that were the same as her beloved Eric’s. Something stirred in those eyes, emotions that had not been there before.

“You’ve changed, big brother” she told him.

“You can too” he said. “I don’t know what Archimedes has planned for us, but he makes plans for everything. Follow the path you want to and we’ll deal with Archimedes as we go. How does that sound, Seven?”

She sniffled and rubbed her nose with the sleeve of her coveralls.

“Ah, Seven, I have a hanky you can use” offered Lilly. She looked up to see the AURA team grouped around her, sympathy and concern in their expressions.

“Thank you Lilly” she replied and took the proffered white rectangle of cloth. She delicately blew her nose then got to her feet.

The children and the Guard clones regarded her and she smiled weakly at them all.

“Please call me Selena” she said.