The Machine God

Chapter 288

Caroline Delvane floated in the sky, arms crossed, and watched the girl explode out of the ocean below.

Annette had four wings now. Each one thinner than her original pair, beating in alternating rhythm that produced a deep thump with each stroke. The girl had been limiting herself unnecessarily when they’d started a week ago. The adaptation had come on the third day, after Caroline had torn the original pair from Annette’s back and dropped her to see what she’d do about it.

She’d grown the new ones before she hit the water, and reconfigured them for speed and control. She was clever. And Caroline respected adaptability, even if the girl’s combat style still needed refinement.

They’d work on that.

Annette climbed fast, arms already stretching and thinning into blades. The control she exerted over her density was also improving very fast. So fast, that it might actually be time to begin the real training.

She was adaptable and stubborn. Also furiously determined to grow stronger. Which were all traits she admired in her own family members.

Caroline sensed movement to her left, but didn’t bother turning to look.

Julia’s ice spears cut through the air in a tight cluster, targeting her face.

Caroline swept a palm out. The air cracked, and a wall of pressure erupted in the wake of her hand. The sonic boom arrived a fraction of a second after the wind tore the icicles apart, scattering the melting fragments across the sky.

Julia came in behind the ice, using the volley as cover.

Caroline wanted to smile. Her daughter had learned a few tricks in her time away, though obviously not from Maximilian. Not with his rigid adherence to the rules.

Perhaps it was the boy’s influence. Alexander Rooke. The supervillain who dared to date her daughter.

It wasn’t enough, though.

Julia’s fist drove toward Caroline’s face.

She caught it in her free hand without bothering to uncross the other. Her daughter’s fist pressed hard into her palm, and frost crackled from where their hands made contact.

Caroline clamped her fingers around Julia’s fist, then dragged her daughter closer, seizing her by the throat with her other hand.

Julia’s eyes widened.

Caroline shook her. Left, right, left, right, left, right. Hard, but perfectly controlled. Enough to rattle her brain without actually breaking her neck. Both of Julia’s hands latched onto Caroline’s arm, and ice began forming across her forearm.

But the cold didn’t bother her. Almost nothing at Tier 2 bothered Caroline anymore.

“You have only been gone two years, daughter.” She held Julia up and looked at her. Tsk’d. The bruising along her neck was already darkening. “How have you grown weaker in that time?”

Julia snarled through the grip on her throat. Her legs kicked. Frost crept down Caroline’s arm, thickening.

Pointless, but spirited.

“It’s because you spread yourself too thin. I keep telling you that flight and breaking your superhuman limits are all you need to be strong.” She sighed. “But you children keep dreaming of such frivolous tertiary powers.”

Julia’s eyes blazed. The ice on Caroline’s arm shattered outward in a burst of directed cold. It was actually a decent attack. It just wasn’t enough.

Caroline spun in place. She dragged Julia in a wide arc, building momentum, and then released her at half strength.

Her daughter shot through the sky directly into Annette, who had been racing upward to rejoin the fight, blade-arms extended. Julia hit her center mass, and Annette’s wings crumpled on impact, folding inward around her as the two of them tumbled through the air, plummeting toward the water below.

They hit the ocean hard enough to send a geyser of white water over a hundred meters into the air. Droplets spattered across Caroline’s face and arms.

While she waited, she swept her gaze across Grimnir’s island lair. They’d secured themselves a lovely home. So far she’d been impressed by some of their members, though most of them were pitifully weak. Not for a lack of training, at least. But training could only get them so far.

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At some point, everyone had to fight for their lives if they wanted to achieve anything worthwhile.

When she’d left for America to see her daughter, she couldn’t possibly have imagined where she would end up.

Or what she’d be doing.

Caroline sighed. Then she glanced down, checking to see if the girls had hit the bottom yet.

They had. Julia and Annette were busy disentangling themselves. And having an animated conversation that was no doubt meant to be a quick, underwater strategy meeting.

Grimnir. One of the most wanted supervillain groups in the world, though perhaps that was no longer true. Especially if nobody cared or dared to enforce it.

She tapped her lips with a finger. Even she’d been more curious than anything else. But when she’d finally caught up with her wayward daughter, the last thing she’d expected was to be invited through a series of doorways to a secret island lair and forced to train her and her very angry ginger friend.

All to rescue the supervillain boyfriend trapped in another reality.

Caroline shook her head. Perhaps this was punishment for being too harsh on her youngest child. She’d driven her away with the Delvane training regimen, and Julia had gone on to form a guild. Then again, she’d always dreaded the idea that her Julia would end up with someone boring. Like someone from Franklin’s family, though thankfully Maximilian and Julia had always been more siblings than anything.

The thought was almost enough to make her shudder.

She stretched her arms and rolled her shoulders. The morning air was pleasant up here. Clear skies, light winds, the island safely at a distance.

Talia had been very specific about keeping the training off the island. Something about not wanting to pay someone to rebuild the beach again.

Caroline had respected the boundary. The girl had a spine. Though, she was also very curious about why it had needed to be repaired in the first place. Maybe she’d ask at lunch.

The ocean surface broke. Annette first, wings beating hard, water streaming behind her. Julia right behind, ice crystallizing behind her as she launched herself upward.

Both of them were angry. Both of them came straight back at her.

Caroline approved.

“That boy of yours,” she said, raising her voice. “The one who got himself stupidly trapped in another world.” She paused, letting her words land. “I’m looking forward to seeing if he can take half as much of a beating as the two of you.”

Julia’s next punch came harder and faster. Emotional provocation still worked, which meant her daughter hadn’t learned to separate anger from action.

They’d work on that too, though she despaired of ever actually fixing the issue.

Caroline caught the punch. Then Annette’s blade-arm came in from the right. Caroline leaned back just far enough to let it pass her chin, then grabbed the extended limb and tore it off at the shoulder, before dropping it toward the ocean.

Annette didn’t even flinch. She reformed the arm in just under a second, better than three days ago, before immediately circling back toward the fight.

Caroline batted her sideways using Julia as a bludgeon. Annette tumbled through the air, corrected with her four wings, and circled back.

Julia slipped through her fingers, her form momentarily becoming an icy mist that engulfed Caroline. Then Julia rematerialized behind her, legs wrapping around Caroline’s waist, while her arms wrapped around her neck.

Caroline’s mouth twitched. That was a very well-executed maneuver. And perfectly timed.

Annette was racing toward Caroline with a look of intense concentration on her face.

And a long, thin blade driving right at her face. At Caroline’s left eye, specifically.

Caroline closed her left eye and hardened her defenses with her Will.

Annette’s rapier-like blade jammed into Caroline’s eyelid. Metal screeched as it deformed, the tip of the blade slipping along her flesh before sliding off her face completely.

Caroline snapped out a kick, catching Annette in the stomach as she passed by, momentum and shock carrying her past.

Then she moved, tearing herself free of her daughter’s grip with nothing but sheer acceleration. Both hands lashed out. One grabbing Annette by the back of her head before the force of the kick could send her hurtling into the sky, the other seizing Julia by the face.

The three of them hung in the air for a moment. Wind whistled by as the two girls struggled to realize what had just happened.

Then Caroline tossed them back into the ocean. Sixty percent of her strength this time. She watched as they hit the water, sending two more geysers erupting into the air. They tumbled through the water, deeper and deeper, before finally slamming into the ocean floor hard enough to crack the rock this time.

She smiled. Julia had grown into a fine young woman. Powerful, like every Delvane should be. But even before the injection, she’d been terrible at coordinating with others. Always thought she could do everything on her own.

Now she had a renowned guild who wanted to save the world. Friends who’d not only fight alongside her, but risk their lives for her. It was everything a mother could ask for.

Her smile faded. Even if some of those friends were highly questionable.

It took them twice as long to pull themselves together. Almost a minute before the two of them finally dragged themselves free of the ocean.

They exchanged a look, hanging only a few feet above the water.

Caroline cracked her neck.

“The warmup is over.” She glanced toward the island. “Talia mentioned yesterday she’d hired an entire team of healers from Astra Omnia to fast track your training. She said they were going to arrive this morning. Is that right?”

Annette glared up at her, chest heaving. “Yeah, she did. So what?”

Caroline looked down on both of them and smiled warmly. It was the same smile she’d given Julia the day her superhuman training had begun, before she’d even received the serum.

“Oh, I was just thinking it’s time for the both of you to meet them, dears.”

Then she moved at full speed, and the sky rumbled in protest.