CHAPTER 2

THE ROOM WAS MOSTLY BARE.

The walls, floor and ceiling were of concrete, cracked and worn with age. The windows were boarded up but in sections, the wood had splintered and chipped, and miniscule rays of sunlight filtered in, casting thin, dancing shadows onto the bare concrete ground.

The room had not a lot in it than unlabeled, half-open crates pushed up against the walls, pieces of sparse furniture here and there, thin mattresses and cots, and hung up weaponry. In one corner, a single, dirty looking fridge, door cracked slightly open, the fridge’s gentle hum an indicator that it was still functional. Then there were the cables too, that ran along the corners and edges of the ceiling, supplying power to the building.

Sat around the room lazily, slumped in chairs, eyes barely open were men and women alike, large and muscular and very clearly hardened, clad in tattered outfits. The bruises and scars on these people indicated that they were incredibly dangerous folk. That one of them had one glowing green eye meant he was the most dangerous of them. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was who these Scavengers were waiting for. That was the target here, that was the only one who posed any consequential danger, the only one who could provide much needed answers, much needed closure.

She was in there with them, in the cables and yet they wouldn’t know until it was too late, until she was ready to strike.

It was another half hour before the target arrived. In this time, the Scavengers made known their displeasure at having to wait so long.

“He should have been here an hour ago,” growled the Scavenger with the glowing green eyes, rising from his seat and grunting. He was the largest of them, with rough scarlet hair and a horribly scarred face. He was clad in an unbuttoned, sleeveless black leather coat, paired with black pants and spiked boots. Sprayed onto the back of his jacket in green ink was the name: Argon.

“Is he ever early?” another of the Scavengers asked, still sitting, legs crossed, fingers twirling absently. Her dark hair was cut short, the sides shaved and her gray eyes looked dangerous. Murderous. This was Lilith. She, much like Argon, had a reputation.

“We put our necks on the line securing this haul,” Argon growled. “The longer we have this goddamn shit in our possession, the likelier the chances of drawing bad attention to ourselves. This ain’t the deal we signed up for.”

In her seat, Lilith chuckled, not diverting her gaze to Argon. “Don’t tell me you’re worried? You’re not buying into all of that hokum that’s been going around, are you? That there’s some vengeful lunatic out there hunting down this stuff?”

“You’ve seen the bodies, seen what’s happened before.”

“Scavengers killing scavengers. There’s nothing new about that. Besides, there isn’t a soul in the world that’d be near goddamn crazy enough to make a move on us. It’s a death wish. Just relax, dude will get here when he gets here, he’ll have his glowing toys, and we’ll have us enough rations for the next couple months. More guns too…could always do with some more guns.”

Argon grunted and returned to his seat, only rising again when there came the rumbling and hum of a vehicle just outside their building. Argon bounded toward one of the windows, peered through the cracks in the boards then turned to the others. “He’s here,” he declared. “Get your game faces on.”

Only a handful of moments later, the door to the building swung open and in strode a tall figure. He was clad in a simple black Tee, paired with blue jeans and black sneakers. His hair, dark and greasy, was slicked backward, a spitcurl falling down the front of his face. Over his aqua-green eyes, he wore round spectacles. There was something oddly composed and neat about this man, something that made him look like a fish horribly out of water out here in the middle of the Badlands.

Accompanying the man were two hulking figures, each of them sporting cybernetic gear. Military grade cyber-arms from an age long gone so clearly, these must have been veterans from a world where people had given a damn about veterans. Now they were like everyone else in the Badlands. Scavengers.

“Argon,” greeted the new arrival in a calm, posh manner. He cast a searching glance around the room, his eyes settling on the crates. “Three crates worth? That’s impressive.”

“Also goddamn fucking difficult,” Argon hissed. “You do know you aren’t the only one out searching for this shit? Everyone wants a goddamn piece of the thing in the crates and I don’t understand what the hell’s so special about some scrap metal.”

“It’s not the scrap that’s useful,” the stranger responded. “It’s what it’s done in the past. What it could do again.”

“I don’t care about any of that, Bennett,” Argon growled. “You got our rations as promised?”

Bennett.

That confirmed her hunch.

“Ah, yes, in the truck outside,’ responded the stranger, this Bennett. “Along with your guns.” The man gestured to his cyberGuards then. “Dimitri, Darren, get our crates and let’s move.”

That was her moment. As soon as the words left Bennett’s mouth, she announced her presence. The lights on in the building flickered suddenly, prompting everyone inside to gaze upward, expressions of concern on their faces.

“You hear that?” Argon asked, tapping his ear then pointing to the cables that ran along the ceiling, referring to the large buzzing sound now coming from the cables, a sound that only grew louder and louder and louder, until…

The bulbs exploded then, sparks of electricity flying around. Sparks shot out of the cables and then came a powerful blast of electricity, one that sent everyone in the room flying off their feet, sending them slamming into the concrete walls with rather unpleasant sounding thuds.

Dazed and confused, they started to rise to their feet, curious as to what had just happened. By the time they were all on their feet, there was someone else in the room with them now, someone who stood at the center, eyes glowing blue, sparks of electricity flying from her fingertips, face contorted with fury.

“Shit.” Argon’s eyes twitched.

Bennett dusted himself off, glanced around for his spectacles, found them, and put them back on his face, their lenses now cracked. He squinted at the girl in the middle of the room and his face seemed to slack in horror as he recognized her.

“Argon, this wasn’t supposed to happen,” Bennett spoke, irritation evident in his voice. “You were supposed to make sure—,”

“I know,” Argon growled. “Get out of here with the crates, we’ll keep her busy long enough.”

Bennett glanced to his cyberGuards, nodded at them then turned to head out of the building. The girl in the middle of the room made to go after him but in only an instant, Argon was right in front of her.

Argon swung, throwing a powerful jab forward. The girl’s form dissolved into electricity then, spinning and twisting around his fist, before re-materialzing behind him. She landed a blow, one charged with electricity, that sent Argon staggering backward.

Behind her, Anthea sensed Bennett and the cyberGuards getting away but knew she wouldn’t be able to pursue them properly or stop them until she’d dealt with Argon and Lilith. Her surprise attack had taken down the grunts among them but Lilith and Argon both looked unscathed and rearing to go, Lilith already with a dangerous light dancing in her eyes.

“So you’re the one who’s been going around, hitting up scavenger nests, huh?” Lilith demanded. She extended one hand and a long bo-staff materialized at once. She narrowed her gaze at Anthea. “Not very nice to kill your kind.”

“I’m not a Scavenger,” Anthea growled.

Lilith snorted. “Bullshit. We’re all Scavengers.”

“That man,” Anthea said. “Bennett. Have you any idea who he is? What he intends to do with the scrap metal you’ve been giving him? He means to take over, the same way Zaldur did.”

“That a bad thing?” Lilith asked. “I seem to recall there was at least some semblance of order back when Zaldur was calling the dogshots. The situation back then wasn’t quite so dog eat dog.”

“People died.”

“People always die,” Lilith rolled her eyes. “I’d expect you to know that much considering you’re about to, well, you know…die.”

Anthea snorted then. “You’re only still alive because I’m not here for you,” she said, addressing both Lilith and Argon. “If you’d like to keep air in your lungs then I suggest you get the hell out of my way.”

“Not a chance,” Argon responded. “Be bad business principle if I let you go after my number one client.”

“Very well then.” Anthea shrugged. “Have it your way.”

Lilith was the first to charge, cracking a smug grin before blazing forward, bo staff ready to swing. She swung the stuff at Anthea with such tremendous force that it sent out a powerful whip of breeze, prompting Anthea to leap backward, putting enough distance between herself and Lilith.

Argon charged then too, dashing forward and firing a beam of green energy at Anthea from his altered eye. Anthea dashed out of danger’s way, zipped around the room with a trail of electricity in her wake. She went straight at a wall, leaped at it, landing with her feet, and then propelling herself straight in Lilith’s direction.

Lilith spun around and swung the staff, Argon firing another blast at the same time.

Anthea grinned, her form dissolving into electricity then, arcing around the room before materializing.just in front of Argon. Argon gasped, took a step back in surprise, received a string of blows to the face then, managing to break Anthea’s combo of attacks after a moment by grabbing her fist. Just as he prepared to counter however and with Lilith running at them, ready to swing her staff again, Anthea dissolved into electricity once more, just as Lilith had swung the staff.

The staff connected with Argon’s head instead and his one normal eye bulged just before he crumpled to the ground, blood trickling out of the section where Lilith’s staff had hit him. Anthea reappeared behind Lilith.

“Whoa, friendly fire. It’s not very often that you see that,” she commented.

Lilith snarled, spun around and swung her staff at Anthea. This time, however, Anthea raised a hand, catching the staff unflinchingly. Lilith’s eyes went wide with surprise.

“The man you’re dealing with, what you’re selling him…it’s the same thing that took from me the one person I had left, and it’s the one thing I need to find out what really happened to him. I’m not going to kill you now but I do have a message, for you and the rest of your merry band of savages: Zaldurite is off limits. Your days of trading in scrap metal are over. Get in my way again, I won’t be so kind.”

With that, Anthea poured into the staff a massive current of electricity, the sort that caused Lilith to convulse. A moment later, Lilith dropped to the ground, her hair gone all friizy and issuing smoke.

Anthea turned then, facing the exit. As expected, Bennett was already on the move, the crates having been hauled. But regardless of how fast he was moving, he wouldn’t be able to outrun lightning.

Anthea bolted for the exit, fists clenched as she did and then leaped high into the air once outside. She dissolved into electricity at once, and then zipped forward, ripping through the air with incredible speed.

***

“Who the hell was that girl back there, boss?” Dimitri demanded as he steered the truck along bumpy sand road, constantly steering left to right to navigate around stones and jagged items that jutted out of the earth, eyes focused on the mirrors so he could see if they were being followed. “Power like that and the look on her face. You think she’s a competitor? After the Zaldurite?”

“Can we not call it Zaldurite?” Bennett rolled his eyes. “The items in those crates are far too precious and powerful to forever be associated with the bumbling moron who almost doomed us all. And as for the girl, I’m fairly certain she’s one of the Rebels, their leader even. Anthea. And no, she’s not after the metal. She’s after me.”

“After you?” Dimitri blurted. “Why the hell would she be after you?”

“Just shut up and drive, you oaf,” Bennett hissed, turning in the rear seat to glance out the back. Still no one on their tail. “Hopefully, those moron Scavengers are good for something and will be able to keep the brat off our tell long enough for—,”

He never finished speaking since there came a loud BANG then, followed immediately by the truck flying high and fast into the air, flipping over a few times midair, all of its occuptants grunting and groaning as their heads and hands thudded around the vehicle, their skins getting scraped and cut.

And then, just as suddenly as the truck had gone into the air, it crashed into the ground, flipped upside down, the engine issuing steam and smoke at once.

Bennett, in the back, blinked hard, felt a wet sensation on his head, detected the taste of iron in his mouth. With a groan, he unhooked his belt and dropped down out of his seat entirely, groaning as he landed.

He raised a hand to his head, wiped away some blood. He blinked hard yet again, and then checked on Dimitri and Darren. Dimitri had a long piece of metal protruding from his left arm, one that looked to be keeping him pinned in the driver’s seat, and blood was trickling rather rapidly down his face.

Darren on the other hand wasn’t nearly as wounded but appeared still to be unconscious.

“Morons,” Bennett hissed, and started to kick at the windows. It took him an entire minute of thrusting his feet against the window before he shattered it, at which point he started to crawl for freedom.

As soon as he’d emerged from the truck, he heard a zapping sound from overhead. The next moment, feet came into view just in front of him. He halted at once, staring at the feet then following them up to see who they belonged to.

Anthea was glaring down at him.

With a growl, she bent over, seized him by his neck and lifted him clean off the ground, his feet dangling a couple inches off the ground, throat constricting under her strength.

“Wait, wait, wait,” he choked out. “What do you want?”

“The metal you’re collecting. What are you doing with it? What are you building with it?” Anthea demanded, narrowing her eyes. “And before you think of wasting any time, allow me to remind you that you don’t have a whole lot of it left.”

“Why are you after me?” Bennett demanded. “I’m not Zaldur. I didn’t do anything.”

“Roger Bennett,” Anthea growled. “I know who you are. You were his right hand man, his engineer. You helped my father build his weapons, helped him build his empire, stood by and watched as he enslaved everyone, claimed the world for himself. His evils are just as much yours. But that’s not why I’m here, your reckoning will come soon enough. For now, I just want to know what you’re doing with the Zaldurite. What are you building this time?”

“I-I-I’m not b-building,” Bennett choked out, eyes starting to roll now as he came closer and closer to suffocation. “I-I-I’m learning.”

Anthea’s expression shifted slightly then, and she let go of Bennett. He dropped to the ground with a thud, landing hard on his knees and hands. He gasped, sucking in as much air as he could as quickly as he could. He looked up at Anthea who continued to stare down at him with hate and rage in her eyes.

“What the hell do you mean by learning?”

“I think you know as well as I do that the technology Zaldur had, his weapons, all of it…none of it was from here.”

Anthea raised one eyebrow over the other. “Please don’t tell me you’re some conspiracy wackadoodle. You’re not about to tell me aliens are real, are you? That all of this is just repurposed alien tech?”

“I don’t care about aliens,” Bennett responded, rising slowly to his feet, rubbing at his throat. “I care about people, about humans. And I know human genius when I see it. The tech is human. But not our human.”

Anthea blinked. “What?”

“It’s years ahead of anything we ever achieved here, on this world,” Bennett continued. “But there’s no denying that it is human craft behind the weapons. It’s just humans from elsewhere.”

“Another world?” Anthea repeated. “Like the multiverse?”

“Again, please don’t use that word, it’s not elegant,” Bennett muttered then upon seeing the dirty look Anthea shot him, he cleared his throat. “Well, yes,” he said quickly. “Something of the sort. When Zaldur started to build his arsenal with this tech, he would always go on incoherent tirades about how he was saving the world from something worse, about how he was—,”

“The lesser evil,” Anthea said, recalling one of her father’s many crazed mumblings, ones that had preceded his descent into total madness. “He said he’d been chosen, to rule this world in stead of another.”

“He always would mention a name,” Bennett said. “I can’t remember exactly what it was and I don’t care, but I knew even back then that he wasn’t entirely mad, that there was some truth to his words, especially after seeing the tech up close and working with it. But he didn’t trust me enough to let me conduct the experiments I truly wished to. All he wanted was power, more weapons…all I wanted was answers.”

“You still haven’t said what any of this has to do with Zaldurite.”

“The day you and your band of rebels took him down,” Bennett continued. “I was in my lab. And I picked up on incredible tachyonic and phaseonic signatures that all but confirmed my hunch.”

“The explosion,” Anthea murmured, thinking back to Dang. Slowly, her eyes watered. “What the hell are you saying?”

“There are other worlds out there!” Bennett exclaimed. “And this scrap metal or Zaldurite or whatever you want to call it, it’s my only way of reaching out, of finding another of these worlds, of getting away from the hellhole that is this world. The Zaldurite is survival. That’s why I want it.”

“The particles you mentioned,” Anthea began, “the signatures or whatever, if there was someone present when the surge happened, when the explosion occurred…what would have happened to them?”

Bennett went quiet for a moment, appearing hard in thought. “It would depend a lot on circumstance, and the variables at play but if what you’re open for is a broad response, there’s two possible end results. The first would be total disintegration, whereby every atom of their being is pulled apart simultaneously, reduced to nothing.”

“And the second?”

“Displacement,” Bennett answered. “A blast like that hitting something or someone, theoretically, it’d be enough to displace them through time and space. It could be to another time here, in our world, past or future…or perhaps to another world entirely which, if my hunch is correct, is the likelier option.”

“So someone could survive that?”

“Extremely slim chances,” Bennett replied. “But yes.”

“And the Zaldurite. You can figure out how to cross between worlds with it?”

“I’ll need more of it and even then, I’m going to need a lot of energy to supercharge the gate enough to get it functional and up and running. But there’d be a lot of risks involved, gates open on both sides, as you know…and I’ll have no choice in which world I’m opening a gate to. If it’s a worse hell than ours, it’d be a truly humbling experience.”

“But it would be progress,” Anthea said. “And energy shouldn’t be a problem,” she added, holding out one hand, sparks of electricity flying off of it.

“Cute.” Bennett snorted. “But I’m afraid I’ll need a lot more energy than you’re capable of generating.”

“And I’ll get you the energy when the time comes. But are you absolutely certain you can do what you’re saying? Can you open this gate?”

“Why the sudden interest?”

“Because my friend was there the day of the explosion. And I don’t know where he is now. He could be dead…but if you’re right about this, then there’s a chance that he’s just somewhere else, displaced a long way from home,” Anthea answered, then clenched her fists firmly, sparks flying from her eyes. “And you’re going to help me bring him back.”

Bennett sighed. “Don’t see any choice I’ve got in the matter,” he said. “Very well then. Let’s get to work, shall we?”