Chapter 43: Round 2
Angelina’s yellow eyes followed Ethan as he walked down the corridor of the vault. The high ceiling and clean walls of the vault corridors created an empty space above them.
Amanda stood close behind her, her expression unreadable. One hand rested against the grip of the sidearm holstered to her hip, but it looked to be standard issue for a vault security team, and didn’t look quite right on her.
Ethan slowly brought his hands down to his sides. The little creature on his shoulder shifted slightly, then was still.
Her yellow eyes stared up at Ethan, but showed no other sign of life.
"Cute niece," Ethan repeated, voice flat. "Last time I checked, I didn’t have any family left. The empire made sure of that, promoting most of everyone. So, care to tell me how a demigod like you is in the lower ranks?"
Angelina’s smile was the same as the others’, and just as winning. "Blood doesn’t care about paperwork, Uncle. Zeus’s line is a messy one, and you’d know that. You’re a forbidden child."
Wait, what? "I’m part of Zeus’s line?" Ethan’s face felt hot, and he was getting angry, or he acted like it.
My lightning exposed everything, I guess... he thought.
"Yeah, Uncle, and that’s all that really matters here today." She seemed pleased with herself.
Amanda stepped forward. "The creature stays, son of Zeus. Hands where we can see them. Both of you."
The only voice in his ear was Rick’s, suddenly cut off. Mission jammed. Ethan knew the others would soon realize it. Dayan and Marcus would come running, but it would be too late. Spark would probably be off his shoulders by then.
They’re after Spark, in the end...
Vex, still outside with the unit, wouldn’t be able to get to him in time.
Ethan’s immediate problem would be solved by the three of them inside the vault with him. This had all been so carefully set up.
Ethan turned to Angelina and said, "You’re the demigod the eastern cell hired. The one who smiled while they planned the extraction. Clever. Hire the threat to babysit the threat."
Angelina continued, "And that’s all I’m here for. The higher cells will fight to get their hands on the fragment, but I have a more pressing goal: I need to find out if you’re any good at controlling it.
Because of who your father was, there’s every possibility you could be more than just a warm body to carry a bomb around. And that would be something worth saving."
Spark’s tiny fingers dug into the hair at the back of Ethan’s head. He felt a low sound, almost amused, come from the creature’s throat.
"Father. Loud woman. Yellow. Me no like her."
There was a long moment where Ethan did not respond. He measured the space between himself and the two women before him. Two meters to Angelina and four to Amanda.
He didn’t know, didn’t know whose side was whose, as the talk went. Amanda could be with the revolutionaries, as she knew about the beast as well.
All I knew was that the empire should have zero information about this. Or did Angelina just spill everything to the empire? But from Barry’s information, the high cells, the ones directing the revolutionaries, are still in contact with Angelina.
What the fuck is happening? Who is Amanda with? Or is Rick right? Is Amanda with them?
Too many questions, and no one with answers.
Amanda stepped forward, her eyes locking onto his. "And as for you, Ethan, you don’t have to die here today. All we ask for is the fragment you’re holding. That’s it. We don’t have to be enemies here.
Hand it over and we can all walk out of here under our protection. The revolution is already compromised, thanks to Angelina’s acceptance of the contract here today."
Ethan stepped forward. His storm sense felt her heartbeat.
A lie?
Ethan continued staring at her. "And you’re the loyalist who was testing me in the office. Playing both sides until the winning one became obvious."
Amanda’s mouth hardened into a determined line. "I’m the one who still has a future when this is over. I can assure you of that. Rick, Dayan, everyone, everyone is done."
Lightning flickered across Ethan’s knuckles for a second before vanishing. The circlet on his brow was slowly warming up. The system window hovered just out of sight at the edge of his vision.
[Hostile Demigod Detected: Angelina, Lineage: Hermes]
[Threat Assessment: High]
[Secondary Hostiles: 1]
[Mission Opportunity Available]
Ethan ignored it for now.
"Spark," he said quietly. "Remember the thing we practiced?"
Spark’s scaly tail flicked. "Loud."
Angelina’s eyes narrowed. "...Don’t."
Ethan moved.
It wasn’t meant for either woman. Before either could react, it shot off and hit the nearest emitter housing. Metal screamed as the emergency shutters dropped and sealed the corridor off from him.
He heard muffled shouting and shots from further down the hall, but he knew that was from Dayan and Marcus, and he also knew they wouldn’t be able to get to him anytime soon.
Any other hostiles waiting further down the hall wouldn’t be able to get to him either.
Angelina was closing fast, and soon yellow lightning was meeting blue.
The two struck the middle of the corridor in a loud crack, leaving behind a trail of afterimages. Ethan moved to the side of the arc, letting it wash over the soles of his boots.
The remaining charge skipped across the floor plates. Meanwhile, Amanda’s first shot went through the wall on the opposite side of the corridor, a hole now visible half a second after the bullet had passed through.
From Ethan’s shoulder, a tiny mass shot off in the opposite direction, toward Angelina. It clung to her chest, tiny claws digging into the fabric.
Her uniform strained to hold the creature as its disguise cracked, revealing something a lot older, and a lot brighter, than before.
"Ethan!"
Angelina snarled in anger, trying to tear Spark off her uniform. Ethan took the chance to use this time to increase his Agility with the remaining free points, in order to close the gap between himself and the woman.
When finally close enough, Ethan threw his fist, packed with yellow electricity, hitting Angelina’s side hard enough to lift her off the ground. When she finally came back down to the ground with a loud thud against the wall behind her, she bounced off.
Amanda had her gun up by the time he turned to face her, but before she could get off a shot, he sent a wide, low pulse of energy across the floor. The pulse didn’t have enough power to kill her, but it did short out all the electronics within a five-meter radius.
Her sidearm sparked and then died. The overhead lights began to flicker wildly, then went out, dropping the corridor into red-lit emergency lighting.
Angelina was back up in no time, bleeding from the corner of her mouth. Ethan could tell she was happy to see him.
"Ah, angel," Angelina said when she found him standing in the center of the dusty hangar. "There he is. The real one."
Ethan relaxed into a spread of free points and brought up his other shoulder, static humming under his skin, feeling almost eager to be unleashed.
"Thanks for noticing. Yes, it’s a family reunion. You’re late, though."
Spark dropped off Angelina’s chest and shot back up to scurry around Ethan’s ankles. "More loud, Father?" it asked, looking up at him with bright, unblinking eyes.
Ethan smiled without humor.
"Soon."
Everything around him turned red in the blink of an eye as the emergency lighting sprang to life, casting the color of old blood upon the pale surfaces around him.
"You’re stronger than before... good. I hate easy kills." Angelina wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, then let out a short, harsh laugh.
Amanda was pulling a heavy, old-fashioned gun from the small of her back even as she discarded the sidearm that hadn’t fired. It was kinetic, he could tell by the weight of it and the lack of any sighting device.
Heavy and reliable, the sort of thing used for close-in work and then tucked away until needed again. She kept it trained on his center mass as she moved to the shutters, pushing against them even as she worked to pry them open.
"Eastern cell extraction teams are still outside. If they breach before we finish—"
Ethan filed that away. Useful. Also temporary.
He checked the system window again.
[New mission.]
[100x Multiplier: Armed]
[Optional Objective: Capture or neutralize Angelina, Reward pending]
Capture. Interesting. The system rarely offered soft options.
Spark was already making its way around to the left side of Angelina, keeping close to the ground. This was where it was in its element, to be honest, low and quiet like a real creature and not some flashy piece of equipment.
"Spark. Non-lethal, if you can manage it."
Spark made a small offended noise. "Father, no fun."
Angelina’s yellow lightning coiled around her forearms. "You talk to it like it’s a child."
"Experience," Ethan explained. "It’s just older than most cities."
He moved first this time.
As he struck first, a narrow lance of blue lightning shot toward Angelina’s lead foot. It was a predictably dodged attack, and before she could launch another bolt of yellow lightning, Spark leapt up, wrapping its body around her weapon arm.
The tiny creature’s claws slipped into the gaps between the sleeve of Angelina’s jacket and her gauntlets, holding fast as Angelina’s next blast of lightning-shot energy tore through the air wildly above her head, scoring a long black mark on the ceiling.
Ethan reached Angelina just in time. Delivering an open palm to her solar plexus had been meant to stun her rather than kill her.
With any luck, the resulting overload would disable her for good. And it had. Her body had locked up for a split second, and that was all the time that had been required.
Ethan caught her falling body and spun her around to drive her face first into the wall.
The object on his belt had begun to warm up when he put on the circlet, and now it pulsed once and shot out thin bands of blue light that encircled her wrists and ankles, attaching to the wall behind her. She strained once against the restraints, then was still. Her eyes blazed with fury.
"You’re going to regret that, Uncle."
"Add it to the list."