Down the Trade Route

Growing more confident in their abilities, especially after their easy victory against the AssMachenstani troop, the sisters and Marco set out to find the AssMachenstani base in LusciousLocks. Estonia would use her spatial abilities to sense the immediate surroundings for enemies, Latvia would freeze them in time, and Lithuania would make them vanish and reappear in a faraway universe, or as she liked to call it, “burst them”. If they suffered another power drainage, Latvia and Estonia were to take cover and yield to Marco and Lithuania’s firepower. If worst came to worst, Latvia would whip out her quilaire and hope for the best.

“No matter what happens,” Marco said as they marched through the woods, in the direction of the trade road, “We steer clear of the mist woman. She’ll render you powerless. And my bullets won’t work against her.”

“Good old fashioned bullets don’t work against her?” Estonia asked, incredulous. “How do you know? It’s not like we’ve tried.”

Marco frowned. He knew the woman resisted bullets, though he didn’t know how he knew. “She’s telekinetic, or something,” said Lithuania. “When I traveled to that other universe and found Marco, she—Delilah—just wrenched my gun from my hands without moving a muscle. What I don’t get is why she’s—why she’s not a villain in that other world.”

Marco felt a wave of confusion sweeping over him. His memories from the other world were jumbled. “You never told me,” Lithuania said to him, “What she did to you in the other world.  I mean, she simply handed you to me, unconscious. She didn’t seem to mean us any harm.”

Marco shook his head. He wasn’t sure he agreed, but he couldn’t remember enough to prove the contrary. “I don’t think she can die,” he said. Lithuania looked at him questioningly as they walked. He focused on the ground. “I can’t remember much but—I think I might have tried to kill her. I don’t think she was good. When the woods caught fire and AssMachenstan revealed itself as one and the same as LusciousLocks, I might have—I dunno.”

Lithuania continued to look at him, sympathetically now. “It’s OK. Your memories should return, in time,” she said, hoping it was true. “I just wonder, when you say LusciousLocks and AssMachenstan were the same over there, how much of that holds true in our universe.”

“I don’t know if they were one and the same, exactly,” Marco said. “But they seemed to be celebrating AssMachenstan. They were either newly converted, or a part of AssMachenstan all along—I don’t know. This whole other-universes thing still kinda blows my mind.”

“You know what I find strange?” piped in Estonia. “How you guys seem to be able to do anything I can do, but I can’t do what you do.”

Lithuania stopped and looked at her sister. “What?”

“I mean our powers,” said Estonia, tucking her red hair behind her ears and looking everywhere but at Lithuania’s eyes. “Sorry, I’m off-topic, I know, but—Did I get the short end of the stick?”

“Space. Time. Infinity,” said Latvia. “If I remember my quantum physics correctly, infinity encompasses space and time. And time encompasses space. Space is the most basic.”

“Exactly,” said Estonia, avoiding her sisters’ gazes and resuming the march forward, “which explains why you can do what we can do,” she said to Lithuania, “And you can do what I can do,” she said to Latvia. “and I’m the lame one, right?”

Latvia frowned. “We do seem to lean towards our respective abilities though,” she said. “I mean—I haven’t been able to teleport without you—or outside of a magical high. And I can’t do that thing you do, sensing your surroundings like that. I also haven’t been able to teleport other objects.”

“I have,” said Lithuania. “And I’ve teleported, alone, though I was pretty charged up at the moment.”

“I mean, technically, we can both move through space, if we can move through time,” Latvia said to Lithuania. “And since you can move through worlds, moving through space and time should be a piece of cake for you, right?”

“I sure as hell can’t do those time tricks you do, returning laser beams to their guns and what-not,” Lithuania said.

“But you could, if you tried, couldn’t you?”     

“OK then,” Estonia said, resigned to her fate, “So I did get the short end of the stick. Which is fine, I guess. God knows teleporting gives me enough of a hard time—”

“Don’t look at it that way,” said Latvia.

“Oh come on, don’t patronize me,” said Estonia. “I’m OK with it, really.”

“Maybe in theory Lithuania’s got the most going for her,” Latvia said. “But that doesn’t mean we each don’t have a specialty—a focus, of sorts.”  

“What are your focuses?” asked Marco. “I know it’s the whole space, time, infinity thing. And I was never great at physics, but I’ve seen you all do a hell of a lot of crazy things that seem entirely unrelated.”

“They’re not,” said Latvia. “Estonia can move through space, move others through space, and sense the space around her—to a distance. As for me, I guess I’m occasionally psychic. Not Psychic-mind-reader psychic. It’s more like I catch glimpses or feelings about what’s going to happen. Except that doesn’t seem to be happening much anymore. And I can’t really seem to control it… I guess that’s why mom left me that fortune telling kit.

“And when supercharged, I traveled through space and time, once. And I can control time around objects, meaning, I can basically make things fast-forward, rewind, or pause.”

“Damn it woman you get all the cool stuff,” said Estonia, kicking a twig. Her tone was more harmlessly, almost jokingly envious than resentful.

“As far as I know,” said Lithuania, “I can burst—er, send things into other universes or move them across space, and move myself across universes and space. If, as you guys say, I can mess with time… well, I haven’t figured that out yet.”

Marco gave a short whistle. “Who would’ve thought you three would become, like, superheroes or something,” he said, looking at Lithuania. “I can’t say I’m not jealous.”

Lithuania laughed. “Stop looking for praise, you know what you’re capable of.”

 “That sounds dirty,” said Estonia. Latvia snorted. Lithuania smacked her. Marco felt his face flush but pretended not to notice.

“Sooo,” he said. “Estonia, can you sense anything nearby yet?”

Estonia looked up abruptly, alarmed. “Did you feel that?”

“Feel what?” said Marco, Latvia and Lithuania at once.

Estonia blinked hard. Something was off. Something was different. “Lithuania, did you just do something?”

Suddenly everyone had a split-second case of double vision. “What the hell?” cried Marco, rubbing his eyes. The colors around them seemed to have shifted, almost imperceptibly, into slight variations of themselves.

“I swear it’s not me,” said Lithuania, alarmed.

“Oh my God,” said Latvia, looking at something behind them. Lithuania, Estonia and Marco all turned around—and their jaws dropped.

Standing just a few feet away from them, exactly where they had all walked just a few seconds before, were themselves. Another Marco. Another Estonia. Another Latvia. And another Lithuania.

Their expressions were equally stunned.

Their Mission

Suspecting the mist woman’s betrayal, Marco, Felix, Winfry and Isa dashed top speed towards the hollow. Once inside, the AssMachenstani men could look all they wanted— they’d never find them. “Don’t stop!” cried Isa, jumping nimbly over a fallen tree trunk as she sprinted. “We don’t know how long this spell will last.”

A laser beam grazed the tree Winfry was running towards. “Everybody down!” came Marco’s cry. They dropped to the ground, scrambling for cover on all fours.

“Damnit!” muttered Winfry, “We’re so close!”

Isa swiped her hand over the sparse grass, weeds and fallen leaves. A burst of blue erupted from the ground. “We’re close enough,” she said. “Marco, take cover, and try and target the enemy. The rest of us—charge up.”

More beams shot their way. The pounding footsteps of AssMachenstani soldiers grew louder by the second. Marco stood up, facing away from the enemy behind a thick tree trunk, looking around desperately, searching for the best shooting point. Then he looked up. In an instant he whipped out his pair of daggers, stabbed the tree, hoisted himself up, stabbed again, until he had deftly made his way up to the top of the tree.

As Marco climbed, Felix, Isa and Winfry were hugging the floor, rubbing in as much magic from the earth as they could get. Already they could feel its inebriating power coursing through their veins, as laser beams soared above their heads.

Winfry closed his eyes, apparently in prayer. Isa and Felix continued collecting magic, awaiting his signal. A second later, gunshot rang from above. Marco had made his move, and a soldier had fallen. Winfry opened his eyes. “I know where they are. I’ll guide you” he said.

Felix held Isa’s hand, Isa held Winfry’s hand, and the moment she did, the location of every AssMachenstani soldier flooded her mind as well as Felix’s.

Isa turned to Felix, “Alright. You freeze, I burst.” Felix nodded. “OK. NOW!” Together, Isa, Winfry and Felix rose to their feet, facing the troop of about ten AssMachenstanis storming their way.

Felix focused his power on the soldier nearest them. The soldier raised his laser gun, shot, and just before the laser beam smashed straight through Felix’s face, Felix opened his hands and released his magic, sending the laser beam magically backwards in time and soaring straight into the soldier’s gun. The gun exploded, killing the man on the spot.

From above, Marco’s gun continued to ring. Three down. Four down. Felix focused on suspending the numerous laser beams in midair, Isa spread her hands forward and burst the soldiers, one by one, into nothingness, while Winfry focused on teleporting the remaining soldiers high into the air, then letting them drop to their deaths.

A moment later, Marco, Felix, Winfry and Isa stood victorious in the forest silence. “Come on,” said Isa, “To the hollow.”

The moment they entered the magical grove, the identity spell faded. Winfry became Estonia. Felix became Latvia. And Isa became Lithuania. “Good job girls,” Lithuania said to her sisters. “And you, Marco.”

Marco nodded. “We owe everything to Winfry,” he said. “That was some pretty quick thinking he did, switching everyone’s identities with the librem…”

“They took our place,” said Latvia, clearly uncomfortable at the thought. “I was dying to say something—“

Lithuania shook her head, remembering what Winfry had once told her. “It was their mission. Winfry and Isa told me so themselves. They said they were supposed to help me. Help us. I think this is what they were talking about.”

“But what’s going to happen to them?” said Estonia. “I mean—once that mist woman finds out—”

“She won’t kill them as long as she thinks they’re us,” said Lithuania. “And if the spell fades, Isa, Winfry and Felix will be too valuable to her information-wise for her to kill. She’ll need them to get to us.”

“So we need to rescue them,” said Latvia.

“They’ve still got their librem. And a quilaire,” said Marco. Lithuania knew perfectly well what he meant.

“You don’t mean—” said Estonia, shocked. “You don’t mean to say we’re going to let them fend for themselves, do you?”

“I’m wondering whether we have a choice,” was Marco’s reply. “They came to Lithuania with one mission: help her. And that’s what they’re doing. They’re buying us time. The enemy thinks they have you three. This could be your best moment.”

“We could finish pinpointing the location of the AssMachenstani base here in LusciousLocks,” said Lithuania. “Then return to Econometric Elation and inform Foggistan. Those AssMachenstani emissaries won’t be hunting for us back home anymore, now that they think they’ve got us.”

Latvia couldn’t believe her ears. Estonia crossed her arms, unconvinced. “OK, God knows I’m not the brave one here,” she said, “And God knows I’d love to leave this place. But even I feel uncomfortable just leaving them behind. You saw what that woman did to Timoteo!”

Estonia had struck a chord. Lithuania’s stomach flipped uncomfortably at the thought of Timoteo’s severed head. The mist woman was indeed ruthless. “But we have to inform Foggistan about what’s going on here,” she said. “I mean—to them, LusciousLocks is still a clouded-over country where all their soldiers have gone missing. They don’t know it’s an AssMachenstani outpost. They’re still focusing on Styx.”

Estonia bit her lip. Then Latvia said, “I think we know what we’ve got to do then. We’ve got to split.”

Lithuania nodded. “Yes. I would much rather you two were out of the warzone, I mean—you’re not trained like Marco and I—”

“Oh no Lithuania, we didn’t come all this way just to leave you behind,” Latvia laughed. “You’re going home.”

“You’re both nuts,” snapped Estonia. “We’re supposed to stick together. We’re stronger that way.”

“Well if we split, I sure as hell am not leaving!” Lithuania said. “I’m not just gonna let Felix have his head lopped off—”

“Don’t forget Isa and Winfry,” Marco chimed in.

“—while I’m at home reporting. No. No. You two go home,” said Lithuania finally.

“Alright!” Latvia barked. “No one is going home. We reconnoiter, locate the AssMachenstani base, assess the situation, evaluate which powers, or abilities,” she said, with a nod to Marco, “are most appropriate for the rescue, and go from there. OK?”

A brief silence ensued. “But we’ll have to move quick,” said Marco.

Lithuania nodded. “We have to move now.”

Ambush

The sisters held hands, blocking the trade route in the middle of the forest as the hovertank came steadily at them. This was their third raid, and based on their knowledge from the AssMachenstani communicators they had swiped, they had managed to keep their identities intact. But security had been heightened. And though Isa was currently trying her best to heighten the sisters’ magic with her quilaire, the sisters were having no luck teleporting the driver from out the cockpit.

“Lithuania,” said Estonia, her skin shimmering bright blue. “It’s not working. He’s not coming out.”

“Focus,” was Lithuania’s desperate reply, as the tank came closer and closer. “They’ve seen us. We can’t fail now.”

The sisters were gripping each other’s hands so hard their fingers were tingling. They grew bluer… brighter. In just seconds they would be run over. “Open fire!” screamed Latvia.

From the bushes came blasts of fire from Marco and Felix’s rifles, which merely ricocheted off the tank’s impenetrable hull. “Run!” cried Lithuania, dashing with her sisters towards the bushes as Winfry lit the tank on fire with his librem.

The flaming tank veered, swerved, rammed into a massive tree, and a second later, from the tank emerged the woman of the black smoke dress. She floated high above the tank as it burned, made a strange gesture with her hands, and the fire was extinguished. Safe from the flames, a small group of men wrapped completely in black military garb jumped out from the tank, laser guns at the ready. The woma slowly settled onto the ground, her smoke dress wrapping itself tightly around her as she landed, acquiring what seemed to be a more solid, fabric-like consistency. Floating close behind her was a roughly football-sized, spherical object wrapped in the same mysterious fabric.

“Come out from the bushes, you idiots,” said the woman. “Come and face me, I know you have some magic tricks of your own.” Marco and Felix, hidden in the bushes, turned to Lithuania for direction. Estonia and Latvia also waited for their youngest sister to make the move. Isa and Winfry were silent, and Lithuania felt the pressure. They hadn’t accounted for this—not for the smoke lady to appear. She was stronger than any of them.

“Relax…” said the woman. “I wish only to speak to you…” Lithuania knew she was lying, but rose regardless. The smoke woman smiled. “Now that’s a good girl… you do know going up against me is useless, no?” Lithuania remained inexpressive. “Well then, let me give you a little update, shall I?” Her eyes glinted maliciously. “From the looks of it, and from what I hear from my emissaries, you’ve been hiding out in LusciousLocks for weeks now. So let me tell you where your side stands…”

The woman cleared her throat, suggesting everyone else emerge from the bushes as well. One by one, they did. Felix, Marco, Latvia, Estonia, Isa and Winfry, all looking at each other, wondering what the next move would be, hoping someone could think of something before it was too late. “Now don’t you try and escape,” said the woman, opening her palms towards the heavens. In a flash, millions of tiny specks of blue rushed to her hands from all around, extinguishing in a puff of blue smoke as she closed her hands into fists. Instantly, the sisters felt powerless. “Your magic around me is… useless. Now let me clarify you of your current situation, Foggistanis. Your home base, the Antioch Complex, along with everything and everyone in it, has been destroyed.”

Lithuania felt her heart drop. She felt the blood leave her face, and for an instant, she thought she’d faint. She looked to her sisters, who seemed equally stunned and weakened. Could it be true? Could the Antioch Complex have been destroyed so quickly?

“No, I am not lying, and yes, your situation is quickly growing hopeless,” said the woman, her smile audible in her voice. Then she brought the hovering, wrapped object to her hands and held it tenderly, as if it were a baby. “The countries of Nilbmah and LusciousLocks have, clearly, fallen under AssMachenstani rule… and Econometric Elation is soon to follow. A fleet from Styx is on its way there as we speak. As for your Foggistani outpost on your beloved moon of Attica, well… let’s just say we’re saving the best for last, hmm? But I assure you, their situation is equally hopeless.”

Lithuania didn’t believe it. At least she didn’t believe it was hopeless. Foggistan was a force to be reckoned with, and Attica was its heart. Though the Antioch Complex might be destroyed, Attica would not be taken over easily.

“Now… I’m sure you smart girls have come to the conclusion that I mean you no harm. I would have blown your heads off back at Lockton if I did.” Felix gripped his rifle tightly, shivering with anger at the memory of his fallen soldiers. “Back then, I had… other motives.” In a single motion she unfurled the spherical object from its smoky fabric, letting it drop with a thud and roll along the floor.    

A collective gasp, and Isa screamed, clasping her hand over her mouth, tears welling in her eyes too quickly for her to hold back. “NO!” she cried. “NO!”

It was Timoteo’s severed head.

Felix pulled Isa close, held her tight, rubbing her arms reassuringly. Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Marco stared aghast, as Winfry retched heavily in the bushes.

“Pardon the theatrics,” said Delilah, “I’ve just always had a soft spot for some good drama. Now… before I do the same to every person here who is not of my interest,” her eyes flashed quickly over Felix, Marco, Winfry and Isa, “I suggest you three sisters allow my men to lead you peacefully into the tank. Agreed?”  

Lithuania looked over at Felix, Marco, Winfry and Isa, her eyes full of meaning. “Promise me you won’t hurt them,” she said to the woman.

“Lithuania, no!” cried Latvia. “We can’t go with her—it’s the last thing—”

“Do we have a choice?” Lithuania cried. She turned back to the woman. “We will go with you, no tricks. Just let my friends withdraw into the woods. Once I know they are safe, we will go with you.”

“You are in no position to negotiate—”

Lithuania swiftly whipped out a blade from her belt and held it to her own throat. “Let them go or you will not take me alive.” The woman’s eyes opened wide. The men in black quickly aimed their weapons at Lithuania. Her hand was shaking, but she was definitely not kidding. She knew the mist woman needed all of them alive. She’d learned that much.

“Hold your fire, boys,” said the mist woman. “And you,” she said, addressing Winfry, Isa, Felix and Marco. “Disappear before I change my mind.”

In under a second, everyone had exchanged glances. It was the only way. Slowly at first, Winfry, Isa, Felix and Marco began to back away. “Go!” cried Lithuania, impatiently. “GO!”

The foursome began to run, deep into the darkness of the jungle. Once she could no longer hear them, Lithuania lowered the knife. “Alright,” she said, captive but not yet defeated. “Lead the way.”

The mist woman eyed her coldly, then with a swift gesture ordered three of her men to lead the sisters into the tank. As they did, she told the remaining men, “Find the ones who escaped. And kill them.”

“NO!” screamed the three sisters at once, each receiving a swift rifle butt to the face that knocked them out cold.  

“Find them. Kill them. And bring me their heads.” 

The Capture

winfry and isa had managed to escape but only to be left behind. After slipping out of their Foggistani imprisonment and evading the Assmachistani assault, the two spent the night in the woods just like they had before their Foggistani capture only now they had a rifle – the one they stole from their guard. When they woke, the Assmachistani forces had control of the tower but they were sending search parties all over the area. Lithuania must have escaped. Now how on Coralende were they going to find her again?

But isa soon figured out what to do. There were only two of them but thousands of Assmachistani agents scouring the forest for Lithuania. All they had to do was follow Assmachistan. So that’s what they did; all the way to Lockton. Within a few days, the pair found a couple of trade routes and decided to take the one with the most traffic, which led to Lockton. Where they found an Assmachistani encampment tucked in with the southern edge of the town.

In spite of the sundry of search parties sent out everyday, none of them seemed very concerned with the 200 meter radius around the camp. This made it more than easy for isa and winfry to observe the camp from the hill just south of the city. After two days of observations, they concluded that Lithuania must be somewhere no more than 20 miles southeast of Lockton. That’s where the search groups focused and some of the Assmachistani tents had sprouted decorations. It seemed like they were going to be there for a while. So that night, winfry and isa left Lockton heading southeast.

To make a long story short, winfry and isa didn’t have any better luck than the Assmachistani search forces. All they found was this strange yellow bird that seemed to follow them but would fly away whenever they realized it was watching them. At least they hadn’t much difficulty with all the Assmachistani troops trouncing around the area. Working at night and sleeping in tree hollows during the day seemed to help with this. On there second night searching they found a gigantic briar patch that took half the night to walk around. They thought they heard voices but they had enough experience with the forest to know it was just another one of its illusions. And a few days later it happened.

As they walked, the dark became even more oppressing than normal. winfry tightened his grip on the rifle and isa squeezed tight right behind him. Then, suddenly the darkness seemed to swoop together and with a chuckling the dark formed into a lady.

“You let me cap your access for a second time. Now you two really need step it up. That was quiet easy.”

winfry and isa’s confusion was obvious, but the lady didn’t seem to believe them.

“You must know there is nothing you can do now. So tell me where the others are. They can’t be far. You wouldn’t be that stupid.”
As the lady drifted towards them winfry opened fire but to no avail. She continued to advance. Like reflex they ran only to have their legs knocked from under them and their arms locked to their backs when they hit the ground. Something was paralyzing them. They couldn’t fight it.

With their faces in the dirt they couldn’t see her but she made herself clear. “Now tell me where the rest them are or experience living hell.”

winfry managed to sputter, “We have no clue who you are talking about. I think you are confused,” and then the pain ripped through them. When he woke up, he and isa were being dragged down stairs. The woman was still there.

“You will wait down here until you are ready to talk. Lock them in separate cells so none of them can see each other.”

The guards roughed them into their pitch black cells and they heard their footsteps decrescendo and the door slam and it was silent for a moment.

Then from a cell adjacent to winfry’s, they heard, “Castration! She got you too. That is the absolute last thing we need. Her with the librem and a quilaire to boot!”

The Chase

Previously on the Chronicles of Coralende: elizabeth threw herself into a janitorial closet to throw off the gigantic skeletal human-bat that was barreling after her. And that, precisely that, was when she found it. A slender box with the note she was compelled to read: “I hope this helps. jacob.”

The emissary had over-shot the closet but elizabeth heard it pound to a stop and turn around. It screeched as it came closer. It knew its victim was near and closed in. She was out of bullets and she didn’t think the taser would do much.

She needed to run but she didn’t. She couldn’t help but open the box. Something in it shimmered. As she lifted the object up to get a better view, the emissary shrieked and launched towards her closet.

elizabeth flew back into the closet and pinballed to the ground with just enough sense to struggle back up swinging her taser at the emissary that was nowhere near her. Somehow the fiend had been launched 50 feet down the hallway to crash into the wall. It must have been incredibly disoriented because it gave elizabeth enough time to dash off towards the exit, completely unaware of the tiny silver spoon still clutched in her hand.

A screech of curdled death rang after her, but she made it to the door and tore out into the night. She made it to the hedge that delineated the property but then she double back to the door. The emissary’s shrieks vibrated door’s glass. It was almost there. And then elizabeth dove into the dumpster and closed the lid. From within the trash she heard a car crash of broken glass followed by a tremendous flapping.

Was her trick going to work? elizabeth was entirely focused on the tempest-like flapping: it was going away but then came back; it seemed to circle; it was right above her; and then for a heart-vaulting second it stopped before a trembling thump announced that the emissary decided to perch on the dumpster. After sniffing for what must have seemed like ages to elizabeth, the emissary finally flew off for good.

After twenty minutes with no sign of the emissary, elizabeth finally noticed the smell. It was so putrid she felt more than smelled it. Her biological programing was having a tantrum but she remained for five more minutes as she snailed open the lid an inch. No emissary in sight. She decided to slip out, momentarily forgetting the smell as she focused in for the slightest sign of a surprise attack. Nothing. She ran three blocks away from 257 e. mahogany before easing up and the stench rose back to full tide.

Ducking into an alley she began scrapping off plastic packaging, spaghetti noodles and unidentifiable slug when she noticed she still had the spoon. How did martin know she would be there? How on coralende could he know? And why would he do it? And why was a gigantic human-bat creature chasing after her? Where did it even come from? What was-- No. She had to pull it together. There were way too many questions and no time for answers. She had to figure out what to do, what were the priorities.

1) call andrew garner, her brother, while cleaning up at the charles st. apartment
2) call smithins to find out the status of the rest of the resistance
3) action

She navigated the alleys towards charles st. where she had access to a hole in the wall studio apartment, which she had for reasons I’d rather not tell you right now. On the way she phoned her brother several times and finally made it through on the seventh try.

“What is going on, andrew”

“Thank God you’re ok liza.” he spoke in a low rush that quivered with anxiety “It’s some sort of national attack but landers has all of us locked in the politburo. He’s with some sort of strange soldiers. I’ve never seen anything like them before. A few of us are planning to break--”

He hung up. Someone must have seen him sneaking a call, but elizabeth couldn’t worry about him. She was at the back of the apartment complex and ran up to the 2nd floor door tugging out the key card on the way up. Once inside the tiny dark room she tore of her clothes, jumped in the shower and dowsed herself with soap. In less than four minutes she was out of the shower pulling on new clothes from the closet, while phoning smithins.

After the third try she finally connected.

“Elizabeth where are you? Why didn’t you make it back with rafenner and the rest of them?”

“Oh good they made it. What do you know about what’s happening? How do the branches stand? Are we clear to move?”

“All critical officers have made contact but we sill have no clue what is going on. There have been attacks that seem to be from out of science fiction at seven of the citadel’s districts. We don’t know who is doing this or why. It all started 50 minutes ago and there is no sign of calming down. But we are ready to move as needed.”

elizabeth was already out the back door and heading north through the alleys, silver still flashing in her hands as she ran. “Ok. We need to move and we need to move now. It’s Assmachestan. I know it is so just trust me but don’t tell the others. They are going to annex nilbmah. Initiate beta phase. Did you get that? Initiate--”

The screech came from above and was the only thing that saved elizabeth from being pummeled by the 400 pound emissary. As she dove into a series of trash canisters, the emissary dove to the ground and bounced back into the air to initiate another attack. As elizabeth shuffled to her feet she grab a rake the she had knocked down with the trash. She faced the emissary above. The rake trembled in her right but the quilaire in her left started to shine a soft silver. The emissary dove in for the second attack. elizabeth didn’t budge. The emissary was a red blur of lightening about to strike. Like a toreo, elizabeth waited for the exactly last instant to turn on her heel and strike the fiend with the head of the rake before jumping out of the way and tearing down the alley.

But the blow only enraged the monster. It quickly rifled back at the fleeing elizabeth. Just as it was inches away from smashing in her head, she jutted into a side sub-alley. After doubling back, the emissary was struggling through the narrow alley. elizabeth, having tossed the rake, was creating a lead. After clearing the alley, she bolted across the street to seek refuge in a book store. She got to the door and was slammed into the air and crashed into a parking meter five feet away.

Back in the alley the emissary had scaled the wall like a lizard and then dove on elizabeth from the roof. Having downed its victim it entered a frenzy and rushed elizabeth’s limp body.

It was feet away from cracking elizabeth’s skull against the pavement when three gunshots punched it to its death. From across the street, jacob martin rushed to elizabeth. He checked her vital signs. Swore. Then picked her up. Her lifeless body swaying as he walked.

The Trade Route

Lithuania reappeared on a road in the middle of the woods. She looked around her, ill at ease. She had expected to reappear back in the hollow. Then again, maybe the hollow’s magical protection prevented anyone from teleporting back into it. Or maybe she hadn’t quite gotten the hang of this teleporting business—which was the more likely possibility. At any rate, she could tell she was in LusciousLocks. The sky was dark as ever, and the pervasive stillness of the air was unmistakable. The hollow had to be nearby.

She wandered into the forest, mulling over what she had just witnessed in Nilbmah, all the while guided by some blind instinct she trusted was somehow linking her to her sisters. As far as she knew, Nilbmah had never had anything to do with anything. Yet Winfry and Isa were from Nilbmah, and they were, for reasons unknown to her, quite involved in the mess she herself was in. She supposed a good talk with Winfry and Isa was in order—at least to understand the state of affairs in Nilbmah and get an idea of how everything was related. Thought that might be easier said than done. More than once, Lithuania had probed Winfry and Isa, unsuccessfully. They were oddly secretive—in fact, they were just plain odd. Were they an item, or just cuddle buddies? Were they socially retarded, or just like every other Nilbmahian out there? She had had very little experience with people from Nilbmah, so she couldn’t be sure, but as far as she knew, they were mostly just a bunch of lazy hooligans whose country didn’t go down the pipes thanks to the grace of some divine providence no one knew of.

At any rate, Winfry and Isa were weird, and Lithuania suspected it would take longer than was pleasant for her to extract information from them. Hopefully they’d be honest and shed some light on how they had doppelgangers, and how the hell those had come to be in the first place. Had they made it out of the tunnels alive? Surely Winfry could figure the answer out with his librem.

The librem. Lithuania kicked a twig as she ambled through the forest. She had had her suspicions about that book being a scam. Winfry got so paranoid when Latvia touched it, Lithuania suspected Winfry must be hiding something about it. And yet, the damn book spoke truths, and yielded results. Not to mention it held ridiculously powerful magic. But how Winfry had acquired his librem, how the librem worked, where Isa had snatched up her quilaire—all those questions, the little couple from Nilbmah refused to reveal. “Crazy pair of hallucinating nutbags,” Lithuania mumbled.

She became aware of her surroundings again once she noticed she was walking once again on dirt, not forest topsoil. She was back on the road. “The hell?” she muttered, looking around her, confused. Had she been walking in circles?

And then, in the distance, she heard a dull drone. The sound of something large and mechanical. The thickness of the trees didn’t allow for Lithuania to get a clear picture of what was coming around the road’s bend, but anticipating that whatever was driving the machine was most likely conscious, and therefore not LusciousLockian, she dove into the brush near the roadside and waited.

A minute later, a large metallic tank rolled into view. Lithuania could tell by its style and build that it most certainly was not LusciousLockian. It was jet black, with glowing red stripes lining its grooves and angles, which faintly reminded Lithuania of the appearance of cooling lava. It was everything Lithuania would’ve expected from an AssMachenstani tank.  

Another minute passed, and the tank was gone. Lithuania arose from her hiding place and left the road behind, delving deeper into the woods, this time with more purpose. She had found an AssMachenstani trade route—her first real lead. She could trace it with the others, and find the AssMachenstani base in LusciousLocks—that would be a huge deal.

Lithuania found her way back the hollow after a mere ten-minute trek, and smiled when she noticed everyone was still sound asleep. No one had even noticed she was gone, except—

“Where the hell have you been?” said Felix, tugging Lithuania out into the clearing around the hollow and out of earshot from everyone else.

“Felix,” Lithuania smiled sheepishly. “I’m so sorry I dropped you from—”

“Forget it. Forget it,” Felix said, poorly concealing his wounded pride. “Where the hell have you been?”

Lithuania told him about Nilbmah, about the AssMachenstani trade route nearby, and about her resolve to thoroughly question Winfry and Isa. Felix was skeptical about that part. But he was psyched about the trade route. “We can finally get off our asses and actually do something,” he said. “I say we take over a tank.”

At first Lithuania thought he was joking. When she realized he wasn’t, she simply stared at him blankly. “That’s about the stupidest thing we could—”

“What are you talking about? We could infiltrate them!”

“We could reveal our position and lose the element of surprise.”

 “Or we could obtain valuable information and AssMachenstan will never find out!”

“But if they do find out—we don’t know how they communicate, or—”

The debate continued, and when everyone else woke up, the matter was put to vote. To Lithuania’s chagrin, the vote went in Felix’s favor, mostly because Winfry’s stupid librem suggested his might be the most convenient course of action. So against Lithuania’s will, an action plan was devised, which relied mostly on everyone’s magical abilities, which were thankfully heightened due to some mysterious influence of the hollow, yet still erratic and rather unpredictable due to the three sisters’ lack of practice. Still, whether it was her plan or not, Lithuania didn’t doubt they needed to move as soon as possible. She just never suspected she’d soon be wishing she’d known how terribly wrong things were about to go.  

War in Heaven

Jessica was on the verge of a panic.

Martin wasn’t picking up. Timoteo wasn’t picking up. Jagesic had already gone to the other side. And she was all alone, in her office, in the Antioch Complex—the district that, as far as she knew, would in minutes become the focal point of the AssMachenstani invasion.  

The specks of light outside, flashing in the halo of Styx, were coming closer, glowing brighter. She had received nebulous reports already of an invasion in Nilbmah, though those did not surprise her. It wasn’t an invasion—it was a Purge. Based on knowledge she had acquired from the other side, it was what AssMachenstan always did before converting a country into a full-fledged ally: it eliminated all possible stray ends, all possible rebels, prepping the country before turning it into as close to a puritanically AssMachenstani satellite as possible. Anyone left behind after the purge would in theory be fertile ground for the AssMachenstani Common Mind to take hold.

Jessica rose from her desk, beads of sweat trickling down her forehead. She realized her knuckles were sore from being rapped on the desk non-stop for the past half hour. Why weren’t they answering? The moment was too crucial for them to be pulling a disappearing act. Were they scrambling? Had they left any loose ends? Or worse, could they be straying from the plan?

The murmur of general excitement was mounting outside. Jagesic had already informed the Foggistani forces in Attica and Coralende of the impending attack. All ground troops in the Antioch Complex were falling into formation. Support from Attica was on its way. But would it be enough?

No. Of course it wouldn’t be. Jessica stared out her office window, her eyes glazing over the busy city lights, the moving vehicles, the gathering tanks and helicopters. She didn’t understand why, if she already knew what was supposed to happen, she kept on stressing like the outcome could be any different. Death and disaster were inevitable. The general confusion that would befall the planet any minute now was inevitable. The pieces she, Jagesic, Martin and Timoteo had set in motion were the only differences now, and they wouldn’t come into play until most of the chaos had already happened. It seemed absurd—she still wasn’t sure she understood the reasoning behind it—but apparently, it was the only way to save the world. It was the only way to prevent the disaster of Planet Breckinridge from repeating itself. Death and destruction were a necessity.

Suddenly, Jessica felt a soft buzzing sensation coming from her chest. “Shit,” she muttered. It was time. She unzipped her jacket and unhooked the small brooch pinned to her vest—the brooch she never removed, and never lost from sight. It was a small pearl, embedded in the center of a triangle made of white gold. To most people, it appeared to be nothing more than a small, decorative object. To Jessica, it was her ticket to the other side.

Now the pearl was glowing. She couldn’t wait much longer.

And yet, the prospect of shifting to the other side was terrifying. She had never done it before. It was a mission unlike any other, one Jagesic had specifically chosen her for. She knew she should be honored. She knew it was a sort of higher calling. She knew the brooch had come as a gift from a being incredibly more powerful than either her or Jagesic; a being she would be in the presence of in just minutes. She knew she wasn’t the first to go through this process. Jagesic had also done it very, very long ago. But how would things change? How would she change? Would she still be a Psychic on the other side? Or like Jagesic, was she about to become… something more?

Jessica placed the brooch in her desk and pulled at her hair, her hands shaking.

A second later, the city sirens emitted their blood-curdling wail. It was a sound Jessica had always been afraid of—a foreboding sound she associated with thoughts of the apocalypse. In a burst of anxiety, Jessica pulled back the sliding glass doors of her office and stepped out onto the terrace.

The night sky was brilliant. The cold wind caressed her cheeks gently. Had she been blessed with ignorance, she would have believed the approaching AssMachenstani spaceships were nothing but beautiful stars, glowing more intensely due to the seasonal mining gasses pushing their way into the stratosphere. But she was not ignorant.

For the last time she admired the bright city lights… The Foggistani helicopters off in the distance, hovering over the farmlands of Econometric Elation, en route towards the heart of the Antioch Complex… The cool night air, playing with her tightly pulled ponytail. She sighed, released her hair, placed her hands on the veranda and closed her eyes. Would everything still feel the same, afterwards?

A tremor.

Jessica opened her eyes. The wind had stopped. The siren’s wail seemed to have grown louder. She looked up at Styx. Something was happening up there. It’s halo seemed to grow brighter… redder… The black band across its surface becoming more defined.

The veranda began to shake. Jessica jumped back, as dozens of dry leaves and tiny pebbles began to rise off the ground around her, floating slowly up into the sky. The grass around the building became erect. Through the darkness Jessica could see the silhouettes of trees in the distant countryside, their branches stretching unnaturally upwards, as if magnetically pulled. Jessica could even feel herself becoming uncannily lighter.

Then everything around her began to rattle. The concrete on the balcony cracked. The glass on the sliding doors began to vibrate with increasing intensity— started to crack—shattered.

A hideous roar of screams then erupted from the direction of the city as the earthquake’s intensity increased. The unnatural brightness of Styx now bathed the entire Antioch Complex in an infernal, blood red light. It was the reversal of gravity.

The attack had begun.

Cars and trees were lifted into the air. Helicopters over the city lost control and whirled headlong into skyscrapers. And just as the earthquake hit its peak, Jessica rushed into her office, deafened at once by the moan of the collapsing building. She could hardly stand straight as she dashed for her desk—reached for the brooch just as it began to float off into the air. She tore the pearl off the white gold triangle, held the pearl between her fingers in a moment of panicked hesitation—

Had she had any doubts before, she now no longer had a choice. In a matter of seconds, the entire Antioch Complex and every one of its inhabitants would cease to exist.

The ceiling groaned, cracked—split off and shot straight into the sky. Jessica herself was lifted off the ground. Horrified, she placed the pearl in her mouth, gave the world around her one last glance, closed her eyes, and bit hard.

Silence.

Gravity returned.

And Jessica’s body collapsed in a dead heap upon the floor, as the wrath of AssMachenstan rained down upon the Antioch Complex.

In the Shadow of the Beast

A burst of smoke signaled Delilah’s arrival into the central courtyard of the LusciousLockian National Palace, an enormous marble building constructed in the classical style, wrapped in a thick coat of ivy in the tradition of most LusciousLockian governmental buildings. Next to Delilah’s fluttering skirt of smoke landed Timoteo, face first into the thick grass that hadn’t been tended to for weeks.

“Well then!” said Delilah, clapping both hands together as she took two steps towards the Palace stairway. “It’s been a while since you’ve been here now, hasn’t it?” She whirled around and stared down at Timoteo, her expression one of vicious amusement.

Timoteo, on all fours, looked up at her. “Oh yeah, years.”

She kicked him in the face, knocking him on his side. Blood gushed from his mouth. “Where the hell have you been?”

Timoteo rose to his feet, glaring at Delilah spitefully. “Somewhere you couldn’t catch me.”

“You betrayed me, Timoteo. You betrayed us. You know how many years you set us back?”

“That’s right,” he spat. “Let’s assume your plan wasn’t to turn me into another zombie all along.”

Delilah’s skin flashed a bright red. “I loved you!” she screamed.

Timoteo wiped his bloody mouth, grinning. “Your colors are showing,” he said.

Delilah looked at her red hands and flushed an even deeper shade of red. With a backhand slap she sent Timoteo sprawling several yards away. “I risked everything for you! I taught you—You were supposed to become king.”

Timoteo grunted, lifting himself up yet again. “A puppet king under the control of a ruler set on draining LusciousLocks and destroying the world. I sure did miss out, didn’t I.”

Delilah glared at him murderously. “Give them back.”

“Give what back?” Timoteo asked innocently.

“I can make you bleed more,” Delilah threatened. “Now tell me. Where are they?”

“In some place in time and space.  They’re perfectly safe, I assure you.”

Delilah stared at him for a minute, her skin tone gradually returning to pale white. “You know it’s either that, or your three precious girls. We won’t stop until we have them.” Timoteo stared at the ground. He would say nothing. Delilah approached him, slowly. “My God, Timoteo,” she said, more softly now. “How old you’ve grown.”

Timoteo looked up into her black, lightless eyes. “You haven’t aged a day.”

Her face approached his face. She placed her hand on his cheek. The years had made him gaunt—almost skeletal. His skin was sallow, sickly. His eyes no longer glistened with that eagerness—that shimmer of excitement she remembered when she used to teach him how to channel the magic from the earth. When she used to teach him of the history she knew, of the link between LusciousLocks and AssMachenstan that had existed since the times of Planet Breckinridge, but had been forgotten after the massacres and the Great Digital Fire.

Delilah touched the lines around Timoteo’s eyes. “It’s unfortunate, what’s happened to you,” she said. “The decisions you’ve made… It’s like you never had anything to do with AssMachenstan. Like you’ve entirely forgotten who you are…”

“I know very well who I am,” Timoteo said icily.

Delilah withdrew her hand, looked at it, then looked away. She had almost forgotten what his breath felt like. “You know I can’t release you until you’ve told us where you’ve hidden them.”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Then we’ll torture you.”

“So be it.”

Delilah pursed her lips. Timoteo observed her carefully. He knew there was still a part of her, hidden behind those cold, lifeless eyes, that still cared for him. He was counting on it.

“Forgive me, Tim,” said Delilah.

She turned away from Timoteo, took a few slow steps towards the Palace stairway, and closed her eyes. Her dress began to shift slowly back into mist… a black mist that wrapped her… hid her entirely from view. A dull droning sound began, growing louder… louder every second, its dull bass reverberating in Timoteo’s chest and stomach. The sound eventually forced him to cover his ears. Delilah was now an enormous cloud of black smoke, swirling, shifting, jerking abruptly like a coiling snake.

She was transforming.

The droning became more animalistic. Like the wail of a large, dying mammal. It continued to evolve. Louder. Sharper. Higher. Timoteo buckled to his knees, squinting with pain. It was unbearable, piercing straight through his skull, jamming his brain.

Tiny specks of blue light began to rise off the ground, sprouting from the blades of grass, from the soil. Timoteo couldn’t even hear himself screaming as the magical blue specks gathered all around him. He felt his head cracking open—his forehead splitting—every blood vessel in his body strained, about to explode—

Timoteo felt the trumpeting sound flood him to the very last pore. He felt the shadow of the hideous monster rise before him, engulf him. He felt the shock of electricity tear through his skin, through his bones—

He felt the world around him explode.

And Timoteo knew no more.