Calamity

The far half of the room exploding into flames and smoke, Marlo stared at the reality. Nessa wasn’t dead, but she was staring off into the distance, head in her hands occasionally, she twitched. Loki had left her and was staring at Marlo, his face twisted with distaste.

“Not bad kid.” He jerked a thumb at Nessa “She’s not worked it out yet.”

“What… what did you do to her?”

Loki shrugged. “Showed her whatever killed her. It’s not like I know what it is. As long as she’s like that, I’ll leave her alone. I’m not the kind of monster who’d kill someone unable to defend themselves.”

Marlo knew that was a lie. He was leaving Nessa alone because he was more worried about the Seancer. He reached for it while not breaking eye contact. His fingers met nothing but cold mist.

“Forget it kid.” Loki gestured, clicking as he did so, and Marlo turned and saw to his shock there were now hundreds of Seancers, all stacked on top of each other. “As long as I’m around, you aren’t getting that.”

“Then…” Marlo raised his fists and his Armpak slithered to do the same “I’ll fight you!”

Loki laughed. “Will you now?”

Marlo took a step forwards. He was terrified out of his mind, but his body was moving without any input from him. He had to do this. He had no choice. Loki nodded. “Looks like you will. Alright. Let’s see how you do against this.”

He clicked his fingers, and Marlo found that suddenly he couldn’t move. He looked down and saw that his feet were tied to metal bands stretching off into the distance, where Loki had just been. Not bands. Rails. His blood ran cold as, in the distance, he heard the rumbling.

“You humans really are poorly made.” Loki’s voice came from all around him. “Even if your mind knows it’s fake… your bodies are all so traumatised from your deaths. With just the slightest push… you snap.”

Marlo could imagine the train coming now. The sheer power of it, obliterating him again. The feeling of his body being turned into nothing but… no. He took a deep breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth. This wasn’t real. None of this was. And the fact Loki felt the need to do this to him was promising. It meant he was cautious.

“Come on!” he yelled. The train appeared in the far side of the room, moving slow enough that he could see it coming, but with all the same grave finality. He thumped his chest, ignoring his rising heartbeat “Let’s go! Round two. Hit me!”

The train rushed forwards, coming closer and closer. Every part of Marlo was screaming at him to run, so he screamed right back, bellowing at the train. “HIT ME!”

The train passed through him harmless, and when he opened his eyes, Loki was in front of him, nodding. “Okay.”

He reached forwards, and his hands rolled, a flurry of punches cracking into Marlo’s chest. He was sent tumbling backwards, and clutched his ribs, gasping for air, certain they were broken.

“I must admit I’ve gotten sloppy at combat.” Loki blew on his nails “But it should be enough to beat you two. If you want to give up at any time, just say and I’ll take you to the old man.”

“Odi…” Marlo stopped himself just in time. He was winded, but his mind was racing. Loki wasn’t allowed to kill him. That gave him an advantage. But what could he do? Sure his Armpak could compete, but he was easily the weak link. He was too slow, too fragile and much too weak to damage the Nephylite. He needed… He paused. Then he staggered back up, and to Loki’s surprise, with considerable difficulty, began to laugh. He held out his arms, and his Armpak responded. All ten limbs slithered around him, creating a shape much more streamlined than that clunky cocoon from earlier. This one hugged his figure, fortifying him while not inhibiting movement or vision. Two metal hands wrapped around his feet, two encased his actual hands, two were splayed protecting his chest and four cradled his head, letting him see through gaps in the fingers. Marlo grinned and thought about stepping forwards. The Armour took one heavy step, clanking towards the no longer laughing Loki.

“I see.” He clapped. “Smart move kid. But that won’t be enough.”

Marlo knew that. He wasn’t going for him. But he couldn’t let him know that. Thanks to these arms, he could now move however he wanted, his Armpak puppeting his body. And he wanted to hit this dickhead. Badly. He ran forwards. He must have come faster than Loki had expected because his eyes widened. He swung, and Loki stepped back, out of the way. He grinned, but then the metal arm extended, and a steel fist slammed into the god’s jaw. He staggered, and then wiped his face. When he looked at Marlo, his eyes were narrow and fierce

“You little shit.”

He lunged, and Marlo held his ground. He weaved between punches, and threw a few of his own, but Loki wasn’t falling for it again. He forced Marlo back, and then threw a kick. Marlo caught it with both arms, span, and slammed Loki into the ground. He punched him twice in the back, trying to aim for where the thought the kidneys were, but then Loki rolled and grabbed him, kneeing him in the head. Marlo was rocked, and staggered, made worse when Loki swept his legs. He fell hard, and before he could get up, Loki grabbed him, and held his head underwater.

His eyes widened, and the hands on his chest tried to push him out, but he couldn’t overcome the Nephilyte’s strength. He started panicking, water being forced up his nose, and took the only option he could. The hands unfurled from around his head and lashed out. They missed Loki, but forced him back, and the two on his chest pushed harder, joined by the new four. Marlo managed to get his hands out of the water and slammed his fists into the pool edge. A large piece split off, and he fell into the water.

His helmet reformed, and he leapt out, lifting the chunk with him. Loki pulled himself up and growled, but Marlo slammed the rock into him, trying to shove him back. He pushed him back a few metres, then when he stopped gaining ground, jumped, and drove both his feet into the boulder. It split, and the force made Loki tumble into another pool. He surfaced gasping, just in time to have Marlo throw both halves of the rock at him. As he crashed under, Marlo turned and sprinted, towards Nessa. Loki erupted out, leaping in between them and tried to take out Marlo’s legs again, but this time he leapt, swinging a kick of his own into the god. He barely blocked, and his arm made a nasty crunch. Marlo grabbed him and rolled over him, reaching out to Nessa. He was about to touch her when Loki grabbed his leg, and swung him overhead, making him crash into the ground. He gasped in pain, and Loki pinned him, swinging punch after punch into his face.

“You thought this would be enough?” He spat “You have no Augmentations, and these cybernetics are nowhere near good enough to give you a chance. You’re just a filthy stinking human. Your one positive quirk exists to serve us. You! Exist to serve us!”

Marlo punched, and the arm extended, but Loki avoided it, then grabbed his arm, and slammed it into the ground. “You don’t have a chance against me! Give in and be glad you’re useful. Now, let’s see if I can break you while still leaving enough of you that you’re useful-”

A mass of metal slammed into him and sent him flying. Standing over him, with the arm Marlo had extended to snap her out of her hallucination on her shoulder, was Nessa. Out of her shoulder blades were two massive, hyper-condensed arms of metal, like angel wings.

“Nessa!” Marlo grinned under her suit. She hauled him up and looked at him.

“Friend! You are using my creation most ingeniously. You are indeed a perfect host.”

“Ah, this? Just a last-ditch effort.”

“That does not lessen its effectiveness. Now,” she turned to look at Loki, he was staring at his own reflection in a pond in disbelief, gingerly touching the wounds the pair had inflicted on his face. “Stay behind me.”

“Like hell.” Marlo crouched low “We’re beating this bastard together. You don’t have to fight him alone.”

Nessa stopped and looked at him. “But…”

“No time to talk.” Marlo said as Loki pulled himself up, practically glowing with rage.

“You’re right. Let’s get him… Marlo.”

“Ah, so you do know my name.” Marlo grinned before Loki took a step forwards. Behind him, the sliced-off section of building yawned. Behind the pair, the Seancer sat, so tantalising, but for now, not worth going for.

“I’ll give you two credit.” Loki said “No humans have ever lasted this long against me. You’re both a shining example of your race. Unfortunately for you,” He swung his left fist, as he clicked with his right. One portal appeared in front of his hand, but two opened below Nessa and Marlo, who barely managed to dodge back before the same white arm, twice, came through, with the kind of speed that would have beheaded them had it hit. “I’m remembering how to do this.”

Wimund crouched behind a podium, breathing hard. Why did his prime have to be sixty? He looked down at the unconscious form of Monticello which he had dragged to cover. He had stopped the bleeding as best he could but even if he wasn’t fighting he couldn’t take more of this woman’s terrible music attacks. Still, now he was unconscious, he didn’t have to guard him anymore. He stood up, and stepped out, creating as much distance between himself and Monticello before he was seen by Julie. She turned and smiled as her second performance came to an end.

“Look’s like you’re approaching your final act.” She said, stretching. “Any last requests?”

“Nowt from you. But I’ve got a little ditty of me own me and the lads used to sing.”

Julie pulled a face “I’m sure you do. As for me… “Art thou troubled” by Georg Handel should do.”

Wimund wasn’t listening. He swayed back and forth slightly, remembering his days on the waves, feeling the reassuring bulk of his ship, the Blade of God, below him. It felt like yesterday, even though he heard that apparently, it was almost a millennium ago.

“Yo ho, all hands. Up on deck we go.” Julie, as her dress started playing shook her head.

“That’s really the best you have?”

“Our homes be in these wooden walls.” Wimund’s eyes snapped open, and an additional cutlass extended from his hands, making six blades in total. “Our gardens deck to bow!” He lunged, and Julie’s eyes widened. He was faster than before, much faster. Their blades clashed, and for the first time, she was forced a step back. She sang louder, but for some reason she was finding it harder to keep tune now. Her breathing was getting faster, she was sweating, and each parry was hurting her arm more and more, making her yelp in pain like a complete amateur. Worse still, his breathing had slowed, his stance was good, his attacks were coming faster and faster, and he was grinning! He was trying to make a fool of her. Furiously, she sang louder, making a series of thrusts that obliterated the statues in front of them. What they didn’t do, though, was hit Wimund, who staggered through them with the grace of a seasick drunk.

“Men of the Sea, born of the Sea,” He swung his blades in from both sides and Julie was forced to dive back to avoid them. She came up with a slash, but he blocked it with ease.

“Monstrous pillagers we all be.” His cutlass dragged along the knee she had come up on and cut her dress with frightening ease, slicing into her flesh. She howled and fell back. He wasn’t just faster, or stronger. He was different…. Glowing?

“Conquerors of the horizon,” Julie scrabbled back to her feet, standing with difficulty. Wimund stood there, muttering those infuriating lyrics as he swayed. He wasn’t attacking. She took a deep breath, and sang even louder, trying to drown him out. Her sword boomed with energy, and she stabbed forwards, wielding a pillar of power now, which would obliterate anything in its way. Anything apart from the one thing actually in its way, Wimund, who just grinned. He brought all four cutlasses down, and with horror, Julie found her thrust being redirected, stabbed into the ground, firing a beam of pure destruction which burrowed floor after floor, tearing through the skyscraper. Julie’s eyes were wide and went wider as she felt a cutlass against her neck.

“The murky sea is where our prize is in.” Wimund said, before leaning in and conspiratorially whispering “Cannae kill ye before the song ends, so just shuffle back, would ye?”

Cheeks burning with embarrassment and rage Julie jumped back, and attacked again, howling “That doesn’t even rhyme! I refuse to lose to a buffoon who can’t even make a basic shanty!”

“That’s where you’re wrong lass.” Wimund thought, dodging in-between stabs “Music ain’t about rhymes or proper singing form or what have ye. It's about having a laugh wit’ ye mates.”

Out loud, he took one more breath and launched into the final verse. “Once more milads! Once more we go!” As he sang, a wave of golden light erupted from him, slamming into Julie. She was thrown backwards, and as she got up she heard her dress splutter and die, the soundwaves all going dead. She looked down in shock, and then stabbed frantically. Wimund sidestepped and slashed the rapier into bits with all four of his cutlasses “Under sun and rain, sleet and snow!”

Three enormous, golden, radiant crosses slammed down around Julie, trapping her. She couldn’t go left, right or backwards without running into one, which were so hot to the touch her flesh melted. Shrieking in pain and terror, she shrank back from Wimund, who leapt into the air.

“Let none hold ye down! Time tae go!” he landed on a huge, shining cannon which had formed under him. The inside of the barrel began to glow, and, still singing he waved a cheerful goodbye to the screaming Julie.

“Dreams await us! Onwards we go!” The cannon fired, a tremendous blast of pure energy that destroyed Julie instantly. The blast ripped through any statues in its path, and blew out the entire north side wall, along with a good chunk of ceiling. Wimund flopped off it, and, wheezing from the exertion, held up a hand to the floor above him.

“Thank ye, Lord. Ness Marlo, rest is up tae ye.”

Loki leapt in the air, and split his legs, kicking in either direction. Two portals opened on either side of him. Nessa managed to dodge hers, but Marlo’s came from a different direction, slamming into his back. He staggered, and when he straightened Loki was in front of him. He swung a right hook into Marlo’s jaw, then a left. Marlo blocked the third and jabbed Loki in the throat.

He rocked from the blow, spitting blood, and then Nessa came in, her two additional arms grabbing Loki and slamming him into the ground. She started to rain blow on him, but only got a few in before he teleported out. He grabbed a piece of flooring tile, and started jabbing through portals with it, trying to stab the pair. Marlo jerked his body when a portal went for his eye, shattering the tile, and then grabbed Loki’s arm. A second portal opened to try and free it, but Marlo just grabbed that one too.

The metal hands gripped the flesh ones, and Marlo cranked up the strength to max, rewarded with a chorus of gristly crunches and howls from Loki. Loki made a third portal for his head and smashed his forehead against Marlo’s, knocking him down as the world dissolved into black and white flashes. He blinked furiously, trying to see, and was aware of Nessa and Loki fighting on his right. Nessa’s arms turned into long metal whips which cracked at the Nephylite, making him duck and dodge. He came in low, wrapping his arms around the woman and bearing her to the ground. He punched her in the face, over and over, and her attempts to shove him off were just rifted away, making dents in the floor around them. As her skull snapped into the floor over and over, blood started to gush from her face. Marlo staggered over but without looking at him, Loki portalled him across the room. He grabbed Nessa around the waist, lifted her over his head and then slammed her down, neck first, onto the tiles, where she lay, still.

“Nessa!” Marlo yelled. Loki looked at him and stepped into a portal. He was suddenly on an exposed girder in the ruined section of the room, stretching out over a dark abyss. As the room rocked from Wimund’s attack down below, he beckoned a Marlo who was finding it hard to stand. It was a clear challenge. If he tried to attack from range, he’d be beaten out by portals. Loki was strong even up close though, enough that he could go up against Nessa in a fight. He didn’t stand much chance. It was stupid to approach. But he did all the same. He walked out onto the girder, precariously walking as the hands around his feet gripped the bar.

“You two really are something.” Loki said. He had clearly taken heavy damage. His face and body were covered in blood and muck, a far cry from the spotless persona he had been a few minutes ago. But Marlo was also injured. He yelled, and ran up, swinging a punch with all his might. Loki leant to the side, revealing a hidden portal. Marlo’s fist slipped into it and slammed into the back of his own head. He cried out in pain and wheeled his arms to not fall off. Loki prodded him and straightened him back up.

“I never wanted to go this far. Do me a favour and don’t fall, because explaining that to the others will be annoying. You much be approaching your limit, so just-” Marlo cut him off with a gut punch.

“So are you!” He spat. He brought the back of his elbow down on Loki’s head and slammed him into the steel bar “Just die already so we can get into this Seancer! We need this, to stop all of you monsters!”

“Monsters?” Loki growled. He tried to get up, but Marlo stomped on his head, slamming it satisfyingly into the girder. The second stomp went into a portal that opened into open air, making Marlo almost lose his balance. Loki straightened and blew blood out of one nostril.

“You think we’re the monsters?” He jabbed Marlo in the gut with frightening speed, making him double over. He grabbed his head, and kneed it, so hard the arms came off. “You humans are the ones who abandoned us!” Marlo fell on his back and got a blow to the gut that bent the bar underneath him. Bile and blood flew from his mouth, and as he tried to crawl back Loki grabbed him around the leg, swung him overhead and slammed him into the other side of the metal, placing himself between the boy and salvation. “You left us to die! We are just repaying the favour!”

He reached in, grabbed, and tore off the arms that were Marlo’s main source of protection. They were pulled off his body, going limp in his hands until he held all ten, barely connected to their leather anchor. “You all deserve to rot here forever for leaving us behind!”

Marlo, his face a bloody mess, tried to say he had no idea what he was talking about, but his lips were too swollen. Loki shook his head. “Whatever. You’ve lost, admit it so we can just-” The arms in his grip exploded, turning into a mass of metal spikes that raged up his left arm, piercing it a dozen times from wrist to bicep, sending blood flying from the pale limb. He screamed in agony and snapped his head around. From her prone position on the ground, hand outstretched, Nessa laughed.

“Cobalt, however, has an excellent role to play in Cybernetics.”

Loki bellowed an incoherent word at her and snapped his right hand. A portal opened below Nessa, and it dumped her out, in open space. She fell, disappearing out of sight into the darkness.

“Nessa!” Marlo screamed. Loki ripped the metal out of his arm with a screech of agony and grabbed Marlo around the throat. Marlo choked and rasped, lifted up and held over the same black depths that had taken Nessa.

“Pass out.” Loki spat. “Pass out so I don’t end up killing you. You have a wonderous opportunity to make up for your people’s sins, so take it, and pass. Out.”

Marlo was suddenly terrified. He didn’t want to die. Not like this, in the grip of some monster who looked human but wasn’t even close. His throat felt like it was being held in a red-hot vice, and he could feel his arteries being crushed.

“No…” he gurgled. Loki ignored him and stroked his face with a thumb.

“God, look at you. A creature as frail as you, fighting me? I hope they realise how hard it was to avoid killing you.”

Frail? Marlo’s eyes fluttered as his world went dark. He was still too weak. After everything, he had let Nessa down, let everyone down. He was going to be taken away to wherever they wanted him to go. He was going to…

No! His eyes slammed open. So what if he was too weak? He just had to get stronger. And right here was a prime opportunity!

He opened his mouth and bit down on the thumb that had been stroking him. Loki shrieked, but with his other arm mangled, couldn’t push him off. His grip loosened on Marlo’s neck, and he bit down even fiercer, harder and harder, teeth feeling like they were splintering as they cut through skin, muscle and even bone until he bit through the whole thumb. Loki screeched in pain and dropped him on reflex. Marlo swallowed, and grinned as suddenly, his descent stopped. Loki, cradling his hand, turned and stared at him.

Marlo stood there, hovering in open space. Or to be entirely accurate, most of him did. His feet were not there. Two small portals, these ones red in colour, were wrapped around his ankles. His feet were ten metres away, on the safety of the room’s floor. Loki’s own trick, used against him.

“You little shit.” Loki spat. Marlo felt great. His wounds felt like they were closing, his bleeding slowing, his swelling shrinking. He was suddenly full of energy. He took another step, and the portal under his left foot disappeared and reappeared, keeping him so steady he felt like he was walking on the floor he was technically on, not thousands of metres above ground. Loki snarled and raised his hands to strike him through a portal, maybe even sending him to fall to his death, but then stopped. Marlo, his face alight in a grin, turned.

“Can’t click without a thumb, dumbass!” His next step opened a portal directly in front of Loki’s face, and his boot slammed down, pulverising the Nephilyte’s nose just as his own had been crushed by the fox-eyed man. As Loki fell back with a squeal, almost rolling off the girder as he clutched his face, Marlo walked back to the room. It looked like he could only make small portals, and they had to be close, which made sense. After all, he’d only eaten a thumb. But after how good it made him feel, he wanted seconds.

With a screech of mangled metal, Nessa burst into the room, entering through another broken section of the building, metal arms turned into wings. She skidded to a halt and saw Marlo.

“Marlo?” She asked. He clicked his fingers and made a portal next to him. He reached through it and waved.

“Hi.”

“You have stolen his abilities?”

“Part of them.”

“Very cunning.” Nessa stroked her chin. “The boy I met in the cage would not have thought of that.”

“Well, it’s good that I’m not him anymore. Now.” He turned, and Nessa waved a hand, making the mangled metal attached to his back return to its normal, Armpak form. They looked rough, because even with magnetism repairing them they had suffered terrible damage, but Marlo wasn’t relying just on them anymore. “Let’s finish this.”

Loki looked at the pair, and then at his mangled arms. He snarled, and crouched low, looking like he was ready to bite his way out. Marlo had to give him that he had spirit and wondered if this is how the Nephylite had felt, just a minute ago, respecting your enemy despite yourself. Then, from the horizon, came a singular, unimaginably deep, droning tone. In the distance of the cityscape, a purple light shone. Loki looked at it and sighed.

“Looks like you win this time.” He straightened up. “I guess Julie is dead. Shame. Enjoy your Seancer. You’ve earned it, though it likely won’t be as useful as you hope.”

“Hey!” Marlo, who had winced at the blast of sound, glared “You think you’re just getting away?” He opened a portal, but when he reached through, Loki slapped the arm away.

“I can tell what you’re going to do kid, everyone who gets this power acts very predictably for the first few times they use it. You’re lucky we aren’t continuing this, because it wouldn’t be as helpful as you think.”

“You are not getting away!” Nessa clapped her hands and the metal girder wrapped around Loki. He sighed and punched through the metal with ease.

“Let it go. You two did very well. We’ll meet again, and when we do, you’ll have wished I’d killed you here. Make sure you don’t run into anyone meaner than me until then. Goodbye.” He crouched on the mangled metal, and leapt, out into the darkness. He fell, five, ten, fifteen floors, and then they heard from below the yell of “Odin!”

The pair shrank back, but the raven that appeared had no interest in either of them. It surged back up, past them, and flew away. If one looked closely, they could see a long thin, figure, sat cross-legged on the back of the raven, staring at his mangled arms.

Marlo sagged, the adrenaline wearing off and exhaustion overtaking him. He wanted to sleep for a month, no, a year.

“Marlo!” Nessa caught him. “Stay with me.”

“I’m fine… just tired.”

“I know. I am also. But you must make your message.”

Marlo looked at the Seancer. In the intensity of combat, he’d almost forgotten it “Oh yeah.”

“I will go and check on Wimund and Monticello. Once I bring them back up here, we will go.” She placed him back on his feet and patted him on the back “You have done well. One last push.”

As she walked away, Marlo walked, sluggishly, almost sleepwalking towards the machine. What could he say? What could he possibly say to inspire an entire world of people doomed to die and find themselves in an afterlife that hated them? He stopped in front of the Seancer, and looked into its closed, grainy eyes. Well, starting with all the things he had wished he had been told would help. But that would take way too long. He had to be concise. He had to make himself a martyr. He had to… He shook his head. He picked up the Seancer, and it twitched. The eyes and mouth opened, expelling green steam. It rumbled once, twice and said, in a robotic voice

“Connected”

Marlo took a deep breath. Then, there, in that crumbling room, with walls missing and the night winds rushing around him, the boy spoke.

“Hello?”