15) The Shadows of Retribution (Tick)

Cooper had found another group of orphans in another cell and had released them as well to add to the group he already liberated.

Cooper led the liberated orphans out of the prison level and up to the laboratory level, all the while using the dark as their shield. Since Batty could see and hear the best, she was always right in front of Cooper, but she was given strict orders to dodge behind him if they ran into trouble. The movement was slower than he intended because Cooper wanted to avoid any confrontations while having the children in tow. He passed up several opportunities to reduce the odds in order to prevent them from being caught up in the crossfire.

Once on the laboratory level, Batty got his attention and signaled Coop there was a man about to come around the corner. She dutifully switched places with Coop so when the man came around the corner, he came face to face with him and not her.

Cooper slammed the man dressed in a lab coat square in the throat, crushing his larynx. Coop then grabbed the man’s neck while still using his right hand to hold his jaw, ensuring the man couldn’t make any last call for help. Cooper was getting ready to break the man’s neck and end a slow painful death as his throat slowly swelled shut. However, he looked past the man into the room which he had just come out and saw the bloodied body of the young orphan Simi they were going to rescue strapped to a procedure couch or wrack of some kind. Having seen so much death in battle he could tell at a glance they were too late. He then looked into the torturer’s eyes with a cold look. The torturer’s eyes went wide with comprehension and fear.

Cooper decided this man deserved a slow death so he punched him in the diaphragm and let him fall to the ground where he grunted and gasped for the precious air supply which would soon be gone as his throat swelled. The torturer panicked with the full realization of his unstoppable demise.

Cooper looked back at Batty and the others and made a signal of, “Wait here.” Then he stepped into the lantern lit room, pulled down a curtain from the window revealing the blood red sky outside and covered Simi’s broken body. Before he pulled it over Simi’s face, he reached down gently and reverently closed the eyes of the child. Even though Simi was large for his age, to Cooper he looked no different than the small and fragile Ehawee, who had managed to worm her way into his heart.

He heard Batty gasp from behind him and turned to look and see she had peeked around the corner to see Simi’s body, covered in the curtain, Simi’s blood already soaking through the white cloth. He felt Batty’s grief through the anguish in her eyes. He covered Simi’s face, turned and stepped over to Batty and pulled her into his chest for a hug.

As Batty wept, Cooper’s rage grew within him from an ember to a raging inferno. He closed his eyes and schooled himself to cool it. He knew he would do these children no favors unleashing his rage in front of them nor would he likely get them all out safely if he gave into the rage. Rage leads to mistakes. Mistakes lead to death. He had to ensure these children were out of the shadow’s lair before he could release the power of his rage.

While Batty wept, the other children came into the room silently and one by one touched Simi’s covered body and said their silent goodbyes. Finally, Batty gave up her embrace on Coop and went over and did the same.

Cooper wanted to bring Simi’s body out of there and give him some sort of dignity, but he knew that that wasn’t practical at the time. “Best be tending the living and honor the dead in your heart” he thought to himself. Besides, if what he had planned were to come to fruition, Simi will have the funeral of pagan kings on the backs of many fallen Shadowmen in the conflagration.

He gave Batty a few moments then said quietly, “Alright, it’s time we best be getting out of here.”

Batty nodded and took her lead position as they lined back up to make their way out.

Cooper knew they had to take a different way out than the way they came in. When the gas lights came back on, there would be security where they had entered. Fortunately, Cooper had spent some time studying the blueprints of the “Gentleman’s Club” before these events took place. He did so in anticipation he may someday have to deal with Mr. Alexander and his organization. So, he knew there was a service dock on the same level with the laboratory which would afford them a quicker escape. Since the lights were back on, Cooper had taken the lead position and had to deal with a few “obstacles” on their way to the exit.

Half an hour and five Shadowmen later, Coop was leading his charges out the loading dock side door. Once out of the building, Coop took a piece of tape and placed it over the latch hole to ensure the door didn’t latch behind them. He led them around some dumpsters and crates to the main street in front of the building.

He handed a slip of paper to Batty and said, “Make your way to this address. Ehawee should be there. This is a safe place. No matter what, don’t leave until I come and get you.”

Batty said, “What if you don’t come?” on the verge of tears.

Cooper looked her in the eyes and said, “I will come. I guarantee it.”

She nodded feeling reassured. She shuddered at the sound of cannon fire not too distant from their position.

Cooper surmised his message had made their way to the Legions. So, he knew what was happening. He did a quick scan and saw a wall of soldiers proceeding down the main street toward the palace. He saw they were dressed in the uniform of Lord Calador’s Regiment, so he quickly directed his charges to a back road and said, “Stay to the back roads and alleys. Avoid the soldiers. All hell is breaking loose. Don’t get into a fight with the soldiers. Just run and hide and take your time. Just look like you are children trying to get out of the way. I think you can pull that off.” He winked.

Batty pointed to a storm drain and said, “We’ll be safer if we go underground.”

Cooper wanted to slap himself because he was underestimating his charges. Too many years of seeing children as just children without realizing these children have already been tempered in the fires of despair and adversity. He rubbed Batty’s head and said, “Yeah, that works. You’re in charge. Take care of each other and I will be seeing you as soon as I can.”

Batty, Yoyo and the other girls took turn kissing Coop on the cheek as they went one by one past him into the underground. The young men shook his hand. Once the last of them were underground, Cooper turned, and his countenance returned to its mechanistic automaton of vengeance again as he walked back to the shadow’s lair.

Victoria II and her group had spent some time resting in another valve room which Sister had led them to. She spent some time trying to think things through while her people rested. Ouihan had apparently healed fully in a short amount of time.

When she asked him about this, he had said he didn’t ever remember being seriously hurt but he always healed his minor scrapes and cuts quickly. The one thing he did remember was strangely the worse the cut or scrape the faster it healed. This was one of the many things he knew to be different about him than other people. However, he never really paid it much mind because he was used to the​ fact he was always very different than his fellows.

He had an innate understanding of the workings of things like magic and mechanics in the world. Everything which he set his mind to fixing or making most times worked as he envisioned it to. On the rare occasions they didn’t, they were even more wonderous in their results. An example thereof was Gidget.

Ouihan had just finished making the adjustments to free the two new shadow sentinels from Shadowman control and their compulsion to kill the Empress. They all agreed that that would be best. One couldn’t have two party members who were compelled to kill the party leader now could one? The two former shadow sentinels were nowhere near as strong willed as Johann. Nor near as angry. So, they were very agreeable to the Empress’ proposal to serve her for clemency.

One of the former shadow sentinels, a thief named Willis, had recounted his experiences once put into his new mechanical body. Once he was given control over his body he began to flex and extend his different extremities testing his control. “It is so cold.” He said with a shiver.

Willis confessed he had been a thief as far as he could remember. For all intents and purposes, he was a street orphan just like Brother and Sister. His parents both abandoned him when he was around ten years of age. But before he had learn to steal from his dad to augment the family’s income. He found out later the reason why he was abandoned was because both of his parents got pinched on a “job”.

After this he fell in with a bad crowd, actually worse than his parents, who taught him the more aggressive end of “Active panhandling”. He had done this for his teen years up into his early adulthood.

One day he and his partner were pickpocketing on Victoria I Plaza when his partner got too aggressive with this elderly, obviously rich, lady. She had fallen to the ground and split her head open on a cobblestone.

He and his partner bolted but Willis was the one who got pinched. Since he couldn’t prove he wasn’t the one who accidentally killed the lady he ended up walking the 13.

Willis confessed he knew, deep down, that that was going to be his eventual fate. It was only a matter of time. Now he has been given a second chance of redemption, he figured he would make the most of it. Even the cold feeling as he occupied his body was bearable compared to what he thought awaited him in the afterlife.

The other former shadow sentinel was occupied by a woman named only Sally. She was a ‘lady of the night’ who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, according to her, when her gentleman caller had an “accident”. Therefore, she was sent up the 13 steps. She didn’t say much. Mostly kept to herself.

Ouihan sensed some bitterness in her but it was way out of his expertise to fix. So, he made the necessary adjustments, but he felt he may have to assert his control on her at some future time.

Victoria II was considering these things while she also considered her next steps. Cal taught her she should always keep an inventory and appraisal of her resources in order to have an appropriate flexibility of command. She, not for the first time in the last 24 plus hours, wished she had her Captain beside her. However, she understood Cal’s reasons and ultimately believed them to be right. Yet, she was still a young woman with limited tests of command. At that moment though, she suddenly realized had it not been for Cal and his teachings she would most likely be dead by now and The Civilization would be lost. All she had done. All her ancestors had fought for would be soon relegated to the trash heap of history like so many other empires which were before. So, in essence, Cal was with her in the teachings he had given her over the past few years.

At that moment the ground shook and she heard a loud boom above. Victoria II closed her eyes with the realization things were getting out of hand. She recognized the sound of an eight-inch shell exploding above. When she opened her eyes, her countenance took on the aspect of her mentor. The cold hard warrior had risen to the surface and in that moment, she knew what had to be done next.

Cooper had just sent a throwing spike to hit an armored Shadowman right between the eyes where his helmet and mask had failed to protect when he was hit again by another scorcher, probably for the fifth time that morning. As he lost control of his body and fell to the ground the armed grenade, he was holding in his left hand rolled out of his grip to the feet of the Shadowman who had just scorched him.

The Shadowman barely had time to register what the object was which rolled to bounce off his toe when the grenade detonated sending the hapless Shadowman flying back into another group of Shadowmen who were charging in. All of them were well within the lethal range of the grenade.

After a couple of minutes, Cooper pulled himself up off the floor, righted himself and continued with his “March to the Sea” as it were. All the while claxons were going off warning all within the Shadow’s Lair there was an intruder.

Once he had his feet beneath him, he grabbed another grenade, pulled the pin and held it in his left hand while he proceeded down the long corridor toward the main lobby. His goal was to reach Alexander’s office and remove him from the equation. He also had been planting these wind-up devices which looked something like a roll of quarters with some sort of adhesive on one side.

These small black devices didn’t look like much and were most likely not going to get a second thought from someone who was walking or running down the hallways. However, these devices were a wonderful and awful combination of alchemy and clockwork. Their purpose was quite simply incendiary. Once the timer reached zero the alchemical substance in them will ignite and heat the surrounding foot radius to around ten thousand degrees. More than enough to start a fire in the large, primarily wooden, building he was now marching through.

Up to this point he had already placed ten of these incendiary charges as well as four other more explosive devices. The heavier explosives were place at load bearing points within the building. Again, these devices were designed to not draw attention except by the most expert and careful observer.

Cooper entered the main lobby to see approximately fifty, fully armored, Shadowmen waiting for him. “Alright, time for Betty!!!” he said as he pulled up his main gun from his right hip.

Captain Frederick von Richter stood uneasily on the HEAS Monarch’s bridge as the ship proceeded toward the palace and legion grounds. He could see, off in the distance, the battle which was in full swing between the Legions and the Regiments of the Council. His orders were specific. Help the Council’s Regiments quell the mutinous Legions even if you must fire on and or bomb the palace itself. These orders, needless to say, did not sit well with him.

His eyes kept glancing over to Mr. Black, the Council’s Liaison who was effectively in command of the ship. This was another thing which did not set well with him. The other issue at hand was the fact Mr. Black didn’t just have the power of orders from the Council but also it was punctuated by the behemoth of a sentinel which was now ever present and always just a step behind Mr. Black. Captain Richter had seen the Empress’s sentinels on many occasions, so he knew what they looked like in great detail. This sentinel was a very close copy of the Empress’s, so he was aware of its capabilities.

Master Chief Petty Officer of the Ship Gaban stepped up to the Captain and handed him a message slip.

The Captain looked down at the message. It simply read, “White Queen’s Knight takes Black King’s knight.” He looked up into the eyes of the Master Chief, then darted his eyes over to the left-wing hatch of the bridge and said, “Good thing you’re here Master Chief. The left-wing brackets need your talented touch. It’s been slipping. Since you have the touch would you be so kind to fix it?”

The Master Chief gave a meaningful look in his eyes toward Mr. Black and his guardian then said, “Aye Captain. Be my pleasure.” He then went over and opened up the hatch and leaned out on the rail and pushed up on a lever which worked the bracket which secured the bridge gondola to the bottom of the air ship. He made a show of pushing against the bracket and the bracket didn’t even budge an inch. “Captain, it seems to be frozen. It’s gonna take more strength than I can muster.”

“I see Master Chief.” The Captain turned to Mr. Black and said, “Sir would you be so kind to loan us the strength of your guard there? Unless you want to wait for the bridge to fall off the air ship?”

Mr. Black looked consternated, but he said, “Very well.” He turned to the shadow sentinel and said, “Go help the Master Chief.”

The Shadow Sentinel stepped out onto the left wing and easily reached up and pushed the handle to the bracket up to the locked position. As soon as he was leaned out and pushing out the Master Chief stepped off the wing and reached down into a compartment which was just halfway up the bulkhead forward of the hatch. In the compartment there was a red handle which he quickly pulled.

There was a loud “Twang” as the left-wing walkway fell off the side of the ship bringing the shadow sentinel with it.

Mr. Black yelled, “What the hell!” as he ran over to look out the hatch to see his bodyguard falling some 1500 feet to the city below.

The Master Chief said, “Whoops, I guess the walkway couldn’t handle its weight.” With a smirk on his face.

Mr. Black looked into the Master Chief’s eyes, narrowed his own eyes and said, “You did this on purpose! Security arrest the Master Chief!”

Neither of the black uniformed SPs moved from their stations to the rear of the bridge but continued to stand at attention. Mr. Black yelled, “Did you hear me?!”

The Master Chief smiled broadly and said, “Mr. Black?”

“What?!”

“Mind your step.” And he clotheslined the man knocking him over backwards out the hatch sending him down to join his sentinel.

Captain Richter calmly walked over to the hatch and looked out. “Master Chief, you do realize you have violated at least ten safety regs?”

“Aye sir. I’ll put myself on report immediately.”

“You do that. Remind me to Captain’s Mast you some day.” The Captain then turned back to his bridge crew and said, “Very well we have our brothers and sisters in the legions to help here. Helm bring us to 128 degrees and weapons you are authorized to release weapons to fire upon the Regiments. But do please keep your fire tight. I want to avoid collateral damage.” He then turned to a female commander who wore a leather flight suit and said, “Casandra, if you would please launch the Valkyrie Squadron and provide some close support to the legions?”

She saluted and said, “Aye sir!” turned and left.

Captain Calvin Cooper had finally fought his way up to the stairway when he had exhausted the last of Betty’s .45 caliber ammunition. He expertly switched to his bolt gun and continued to fire and make his way up the stairs against an armored human tide of black. Behind him there were about a hundred of what can best be described as human wreckage. He had taken more than a hundred hits himself, but his coat and harness were designed to be bullet resistant. But it didn’t lessen the pain of the multiple impacts. He began to slow in his pace and limp some from the leg wounds, welts and bruises.

Conversely the Shadowmen’s resolve seemed to stiffen the closer he got to Mr. Alexander’s office.

However, in spite of the stiff resolve of his enemies, Captain Calvin Cooper’s rage grew as he remembered the body of the boy who now laid down below in the laboratory area. He also kept remembering the fear and hurt in the eyes of the other children and finally he thought of his dear Vicky who this whole organization had been directed against. The rightful and righteous Empress of The Civilization. She was still in danger due to these men, and a few women. So, on he marched against the black tide. On a grim mission, but a mission none the less.

Each agonizing step only served to focus his awful rage. He was the very definition of a juggernaut in this moment.

The opposing black tide saw the look in his eyes and it only crystalized their fear. He radiated his rage which washed like waves over the defenders causing some of the Shadowmen to the rear to break off and flee.

Off in the distance the first of the incendiary devises started to go off igniting the beginning of an inevitable hell which the building will become.