REND

Amber Deen – Part 2

 

A black blur with flashing blue lights burst out of the thick cover of smoke and past the wall of bullets. The agent brandishing swords swept through the guards, an unstoppable force of overlapping whirling blades, leaving chopped-up bodies in her wake. She was so fast that she already killed several people before their lobbed-off limbs, heads, and torsos hit the ground. There was no blood, the cuts cauterized by the intense heat of the blades. The flying body parts looked like broken mannequins.

Amber was rooted on the spot, mouth agape, transfixed at the equally beautiful and horrific scene unfolding. She never expected the night to go this way.

Bright blue blades rotated nonstop through gunfire and explosions; a morbid light show of carnage. The guards could barely react and train their guns on the agent before they met their deaths. Even the ones wearing ComExos were equally helpless, methodically disassembled by the swordswoman, machine and body parts alike.

A roar filled Amber’s heart with dread. Following it was a shockwave that blew away the smoke at the entrance of the cave, sending the dismembered corpses of the guards, broken weapons, and machines tumbling away. The parting smoke revealed the other armored agent, the one with the body akin to an oversized metal gorilla, standing protectively in front of the agent in plain clothes.

Unsurprisingly, they were unharmed. The air shimmered around them; a force field. Sparks danced across the tops of the cylindrical piston-looking devices sticking out all over the armor of the gorilla man.

Bianca whistled. “Plenty scary, aren’t they?” she said as she absentmindedly twirled the ends of her wig. Her tone was slightly interested as if she was commenting on the weather.

“That BID agent…I’ve seen him before,” Amber said, unable to let go of the nagging feeling.

“You mean him?” Bianca nodded up towards the screens.

The wide screens flickered between displaying broken images and static. Some of them were cracked, busted from all the shaking, and dangled precariously. It was a surprise they hadn’t already fallen from the ceiling. The drones had shifted their attention from the arena to the BID agents. One of the remaining working screens facing their direction showed a close-up of the lead agent and the gorilla man protecting him.

Amber snapped her fingers. “Oh, I remember now. I saw him at the club.” If her memory served her correctly, he introduced himself as Matt…or Matthew?

“You knew the BID was going to raid this place?” Bianca pouted. “You should’ve warned me. We’re friends right?”

Amber ignored Bianca’s second question. “No, I meant I just saw him. I didn’t know who he was.” She realized this was the reason her Guardian Angel reacted bizarrely. She assumed she and Erind incorrectly handled their conversation with the two guys hitting on them, but apparently, it was the Guardian Angel foreseeing a terrible future for them if they interacted with this man at the club.

Whatever the future that never was, she didn’t know and didn’t want to know. She was just relieved they avoided it.

Then a realization came to her. Her shoulder muscles contracted, the pain returning once again. It had been cropping up more often lately as she found herself to be tense nowadays.

He had seen them!

Even if they weren’t doing anything wrong at the club, the place itself, especially this cave below it, was full of illegal activities—and that was an exceptionally severe understatement. This was way worse than getting caught by the police raiding a party where illegal drugs were found, something she had experienced back in her rowdy teenage years.

Much, much worse. No amount of connections or battalions of lawyers could bail her out of this one if she got caught.

What should I do?

Bianca clapped her hands. Amber, already jumpy from the hefty concerns sloshing in her mind, made a surprised squeak.

“What was that about?” Bianca said with a giggle. “Would you relax? I’m just excited that someone with powers is coming to fight them. See that tall guy over there? The one running from the side of the arena to the BID agents? I remember him when I was interviewed for…you know. Not a hundred percent certain, but I think he has powers.”

The arena was also a place of heavy fighting. The fence around it was down and men were shooting at something below, obviously Madam Blanchette. However, Amber couldn’t see what was happening in the arena because the screens were no longer displaying it. Leandro was standing on top of a table, commanding his men. He had a ring of thick greyish clouds around him that rolled and pulsated as if something in it was trying to get out.

A clump of the cloud branched out, rapidly expanded, and puffed up. It separated from the main ring and solidified into a six-legged creature that grew to the size of a horse. The creature screeched and jumped into the arena. Leandro kept summoning more creatures to throw into the pit while shouting orders at his men.

Deep menacing growls that made the hairs on Amber’s arms stand on end emanated from below, telling her that Madame Blanchette was alive and kicking. The occasional torn corpse or shadow creature sent airborne out of the pit showed there was much kicking going on.

Was Madame Blanchette also part of the BID?

An even bigger problem if she was. She seemed to know Amber, and she definitely knew Erind. But the fact that both of them hadn’t been arrested, or worse, summarily executed by the BID, countered that possibility.

Deen bit her lip, thinking it was also too much of a coincidence that the time Madame Blanchette attacked this place was also when the BID came. There was a connection here she should figure out.

That was if she would be able to leave this place alive.

Amber turned her attention to the man Bianca pointed out.

Against the flowing river of fleeing customers and employees, he led a small group of guards up the stairs from the pit to meet the BID agents. He leaped forward, several feet ahead of his men, and rolled on the ground. The stairs and floor crumbled beneath him, rocks jutted out of the ground as if an extremely heavy object dropped on it. Rocks tumbled and gathered around him, encasing his body. When he rolled back up, he was completely covered in an armor of rocks.

He stomped towards the agents, growing larger with each step, absorbing more and more of the earth. He attacked the female agent with wild swings.

The swordswoman nimbly evaded the strikes and ignored him. She swooped between his legs and went after his men behind him, dispatching them with ease. The rock giant clumsily turned around, trying to chase her, but a blinding burst of light hit him, momentarily driving back the red hue coating the walls of the cavern.

The gorilla man shot the rock giant with a powerful charged beam. Each of his forearms had opened up to reveal hidden energy cannons.

With a mighty roar, the hulking agent launched himself at the convulsing rock giant, arms held high, streaks of electricity covering him. He dropped down on the rock giant, slamming its head with his forearms that once again transformed into heavy metal bludgeons. Rocks and earth gave way to the powerful punches of the agent. In a couple of seconds, the rock giant was reduced to rubble with the mangled body of the guard mixed in with the debris.

Bianca snorted. “That was fast. And disappointing.”

“They’re killing the fleeing people,” Amber said.

The female agent had cut a path across the guards and reached the customers and employees that were trying to escape. They had crowded at the exits connected to smaller tunnels which presumably led out of the cavern and back to the surface. The elevator couldn’t have been the only way out of this place.

Seeing the guards were getting slaughtered left and right, several of the patrons decided to take matters into their own hands and fight the agent with their powers. Amber spotted the man who participated in the arena before Xazary; he took off his clothes and transformed into a human-crustacean hybrid.

“We should have popcorn with this,” Bianca said. “Xaz, could you get me some?”

“Apologies, Miss Bianca. That is not possible given our current situation.”

“Hmph.”

The sword-wielding agent jumped amid the frightened crowd and slashed the people blazingly fast with her four swords. Some of them died mid-transformation into grotesque creatures. The man with the crab exoskeleton led those trying to use their powers to defend themselves. But it was obvious they didn’t have any experience fighting. With blades supercharged and glowing a blinding blue, the female agent easily cut down the crab-man and the others who rallied behind him.

Amber noted that the agent always hacked off the head of everyone she killed. And for some people, especially those who showed superhuman abilities, she drove her blade into their skulls, even if they were already separated from their body, and, with a surge of electricity racing up the blade, made the decapitated heads explode.

She’s making sure their brains were destroyed. Unconsciously, Amber patted her neck and the back of her head.

The agent continued cutting through the throngs of people like a scythe reaping wheat. Screams overpowered the sound of gunfire. The nauseating smell of burnt flesh and the metallic hint of blood filled the air, mixing with the gunpowder and dust. The swordswoman pressed on with her slaughter into the corridor out of Amber’s view. Small groups broke off from the main crowd and went looking for other exits.

“Some of them are just normal humans!” Amber cried out. “Especially the employees.”

“Probably.” Bianca shrugged. “So?”

Lances of blue light hit the stragglers, turning their bodies into charred corpses. The other agent positioned himself on top of an extended rock platform that appeared to be the bar complete with cabinets of drinks lining the walls; most of the bottles were broken or had dropped to the floor. He methodically shot people one by one with precision from his vantage point. The agent named Matt, on the other hand, if that was his real name, leisurely descended the stairs from the entrance.

“They—they can’t do this! They can’t just kill everyone.” Amber wanted to run and try to stop the BID agents, but she knew it was suicidal. “Even the customers, not all of them are…they can capture and test people!”

“Don’t be stupid. The BID already declared this as a possible Purple Bud area. They’ll have to kill everyone here ASAP.”

“But—”

“Just look around you. Dozens of Adumbrae beneath a city? The Adumbrae gathering while killing humans? Like a cult or something. I know we’re not forming a Purple Bud here like they thought—as any rational person would think after seeing this. They’re just rich people who want to have the power of Adumbrae while keeping their minds. But the Bureau has no choice but to assume the worst.”

Amber tightly pressed her lips together when Bianca changed from “we’re” to “they’re”. Did that mean Bianca had a different purpose being here? Come to think of it, wasn’t it also suspicious that all of these happened on the night Bianca first attended this event? “So, you’re fine with them killing you too?” she said, her voice rising.

“No? But I’m not innocent. I wouldn’t hold it against them if they try to kill me. I don’t know what your goal is here, but I can say that you’re not exactly innocent either. I don’t think anyone is innocent here anyway.”

Once again, Amber was helpless and useless.

She sighed in defeat.

She couldn’t save the people killed for sport in the arena. And she couldn’t save any of the normal people here. For sure, even among the customers, many of them weren’t Adumbrae. Was it right to kill them immediately without even checking whether the Adumbrae had taken root inside them?

What about the waiters and waitresses? The bartender? She wouldn’t exactly count the employees as complicit in the killings happening here. At most they could face jail time. Not die here like butchered cows in a slaughterhouse.

“What’s that look on your face?” Bianca sneered. “Don’t tell me you infiltrated this place to save people? Because that’s dumb. You can’t save anyone here.”

Bianca’s words stung her heart, but Amber didn’t have anything to retort.

[Go left. Bring Bianca.]

Her eyes darted around looking for immediate danger. There was none. Most of the people on their side of the cavern also made for the exits like they probably should too, herded along by employees and a handful of guards that didn’t join in the fighting. The BID agents were still busy cleaning up the other half of the cavern.

Leandro ordered his shadow creatures to attack BID agents. Many of them scrambled out of the pit, charging at the agents before they could all be shot down. Did he already kill Madam Blanchette or just gave up on trying to kill her?

“Bianca, I think we should go now,” Amber said. She turned around looking for the path the Guardian Angel was talking about. There was an exit straight up, a little bit to their right, and another one even further to the right. Why go left?

“What’s the rush? The way out is still packed.”

“When the BID agents cross the pit and go to our side, it might be too late to run away.”

Bianca exhaled in exasperation. “One time I was sent to shoot an episode of my show in this godforsaken impoverished country and the plane had no first-class seats, so I had to sit with the rest of the rabble I usually avoid. It’s so annoying when the plane has just landed and everyone is standing up, flocking to the exit, even though they are advised to sit down.” She folded her arms and frowned. “I’m not sure where I was going with this…but the short answer is no. I don’t want to cram in a pack of people like a can of sardines.

[Grab Bianca’s arm.]

What? Amber blinked at that instruction. She didn’t think Xazary would like it very much if she grabbed Bianca, but she did anyway. “We have to go,” she said more forcefully.

Xazary stepped forward, about to raise her hand, but she stopped with a small shake of Bianca’s head. Bianca looked down at Amber’s hand holding her arm and smiled. “Sure, friend. If you really want to go now.”

“This way.” Amber veered left. The way Bianca said ‘friend’, sent chills down her spine. She didn’t know why the Guardian Angel wanted her to take Bianca with her, but having Xazary along was reassuring.

The BID agents couldn’t have come here on their own. The two with ComExos weren’t run-of-the-mill agents. She hadn’t seen anything like them before on TV. This could only mean this was a major operation, and the Bureau wouldn’t have sent them here without any backup.

Amber assumed the rest of the BID forces were above, along with dozens of police officers. They simply couldn’t follow down because the elevator collapsed. The chances were high, however, that they'd meet some of them as they made their escape. Seeing that Bianca wanted Amber to owe her a favor, she'd hopefully order Xazary to protect both of them.

“There’s an exit there,” Bianca said, pointing to the top right, but Amber continued walking in a different direction.

“Trust me, it’s this way.”

“Sure, if you say so. But are you just going to leave your newfound friend?”

“Newfound friend? You mean—?”

“Madame Blanchette? Is that even her name? I know you don’t actually know her.”

“Yes, I don’t know her personally,” Amber said, deciding there was no more need to lie. She looked over at the pit, remembering that the mysterious woman did save Erind. Twice in fact, if she counted the attack at the docks, if that was actually Madame Blanchette. She also destroyed the operations of the 2Ms there.

“I’m guessing she’s with the BID since she’s the one that started the attack?”

“No, I doubt she’s with the Bureau.” Amber slowed down even if the Guardian Angel kept on telling her where to go. She paused to think whether she should leave Madame Blanchette or try to help her escape too.

“Hmm? I expect to have an explanation after we get out of here.”

An eerie howl made them stop. A clawed hand, large enough to envelop Amber’s body in its grip, emerged from the side of the arena and grabbed onto the ledge. It pulled up the body of a terrifying wolf-like beast, golden eyes pierced through the reddish smoke, jaws that could swallow a human whole, a heavily muscled torso covered in impenetrable wild fur.

Madame Blanchette was even larger than the last time Amber had seen her. This confirmed it. She was indeed the monster Oberon saw at the docks.

Several creatures grabbed on to Madam Blanchette as she struggled to climb out of the pit. Besides the smoky creatures of varying sizes and forms summoned by Leandro that kept on trying to injure her, biting, slashing, and scratching in futility, there were also two mutants. One looked similar to the gun-wielding mutant; just as large but with a double-bladed axe attached to the end of an arm. The other was a great serpent with a human face and dozens of tiny human arms along the length of its body that reminded Amber of a centipede. It coiled around Madam Blanchette’s left arm and up her neck trying to choke her.

The giant werewolf howled in annoyance, gripped the body of the snake mutant, and pulled hard. The human head of the snake shrieked in pain and loosened its grip or else its body would be ripped apart by the force. Madam Blanchette threw the snake across the cavern.

It flew above Amber, Bianca, and Xazary, the latter protecting Bianca as the shadow of the snake covered them momentarily. The snake crashed into the group of people at the exit Bianca wanted to go to. The people there were thrown everywhere like bowling pins after a strike. After shaking its head, the mutant snake started to attack those around it.

“What the…?” Bianca stared at Amber. “How…how did you know that's going to happen?”

“Just trust me.”

“Your power?”

Amber tersely nodded and beckoned Bianca and Xazary to continue their path. Under the guidance of the Guardian Angel, they entered an easily missed narrow corridor. At the end of it was the top of the short staircase that led down to a steel door at the bottom. Heavy chains and a massive padlock secured the door.

“Is this our path, oh great seer?” Bianca said with an amused voice.

“It is. I don’t know what’s behind it, but I can assure you that’s our way out.”

“I know it’s not apparent on my beautiful face,” Bianca replied, “but I’m a good judge of character and my instincts tell me I should trust you.”

“That’s…uh…good then,” Amber said, preoccupied with something in her mind.

“Xazary can open that.”

As Xazary broke apart the chains and forced the door open, Amber thought about Madame Blanchette. Based on what Oberon told them, the wolf monster rampaged through the docks without rhyme or reason. And Madame Blanchette appeared to be on a rampage like what happened at the docks. She didn’t seem to be in control of herself. If Amber was going to make her best guess, she would say that Madame Blanchette planned to berserk here once again to destroy this cavern.

They were on the same side if that was the case.

She’s a powerful ally to have in our fight against the 2Ms, even if I don’t know much about her.

And, again, she did save Erind from getting killed at the mall.

Madame Blanchette probably didn’t know that the BID was going to attack tonight. Assuming she managed to kill the BID agents—and Amber also didn’t want that to happen—all of the forces above ground would make sure she'd end up dead. There was no way she was walking out of this alive. That was if she stayed and fought.

“Come on,” Bianca said, going through the door. Xazary held up her hand which glowed bright gold to illuminate the dim corridor.

“Go on ahead.”

“Huh? You’re not coming with us? If you’re sending us into a trap—”

“No. I swear that’s the correct path to escape. But I have something else to do first.”

“Is it something stupid?”

“Yes.”

“You’re going to try to save Madame Blanchette, aren’t you?”

Despite the protests of her Guardian Angel, Amber replied, “Yes.”