Quantum wrath, p.18
Quantum Wrath, page 18
“Gnarly,” I murmured as I wiped blood from my face with the back of my hand.
I quickly rooted through his pockets. I had time to identify what looked like a few spare speed loaders for a revolver, and to note that the projectiles inside them looked like fucking metallic Rubik’s Cubes. Then the sound of pounding footsteps from the back of the store reached my ears, along with the sound of more deranged giggling.
I crouched low as I moved toward the back of the store on light feet.
I could just make out that there was an open door at the back of the store, just below a wall of shelves that were stuffed with pink items of every kind imaginable. Three men were barreling in through the door.
One of them let out a strangled shout just before the blade of Lu’s newly-acquired axe crashed into his open mouth. The sight of his skull splitting straight open around the pink blade seemed to spark a wild amount of joy in the blonde woman, too. She let out a hysterical laugh as his blood spurted all over the walls and shelves around them, and she even kissed the bloody, heart-studded blade the moment she yanked it free. Then she clutched it to her body and did a little twirl.
I had to chuckle. It was sort of like watching a dopey puppy go apeshit with a brand-new squeaky toy.
But grosser. And the puppy was kind of too attractive for comfort.
I shook my head to clear it as screams and snarls came from all the other men as they stumbled around in the dark. One of them came swaying toward Lu, but she was all giggles as she snatched a pink watering can off the shelf with her free hand and slammed it down on his head.
He crumpled under the force like a pathetic blade of grass, and once he hit the shop floor, he didn’t get up again.
The others hung back with unnerved expressions and squinted into the shadows. One of them seemed to steel himself as he raised his weapon, but the other turned and barged back out the door.
Lu shoved the watering can in front of her face just as a cube-shaped bullet came hurtling toward it. The projectile embedded itself in the can in a screaming scrape of metal, and I watched with fascination as the metal cube snapped sharply open like a bladed origami piece.
The blonde nightmare didn’t even skip a beat, although she did let out a little ‘oooh’ of intrigue just before she gripped the watering can by the handle and smashed the origami blades into the man’s skull. I had a brief moment to wonder what her echolocation told her about the bizarre projectile.
Then I gave my head another hard shake.
“Let’s go,” I commanded. I wasn’t entirely sure if the men had been gathered by the Unit bastards who had stayed behind in the city square we’d been followed from, or if they had some other means of communication. “There could be more–”
“Wait,” she hissed as she jerked the dead man’s knife out of its sheath. “There are more men outside. They’re talking all sneaky, like they’re planning something big and dumb.”
“Then it’s a great time to fucking leave,” I growled.
But it was too late.
She had already sent the knife hurtling out through the open doorway.
There was a low thunk and a gurgle, followed by a muffled thud.
Then silence.
“Shhhhit,” I exhaled as I backed away from the door.
A second later, three innocent-looking, jelly-like blobs came bouncing into the room in a way that deeply reminded me of old-school grenades from Earth.
God fucking damn it.
We might’ve been in a situation where we had just one jelly-grenade thing to deal with, but now these people had clearly decided we were dangerous enough to warrant multiple.
I had no idea what type of cursed explosives these were, but alarm bells went off in my head at the sight of the small, writhing particles that glowed in their centers. Then the particles started slowly wriggling outward like a bunch of maggots burrowing through jello.
“Hmmmm.” Lu giggled again and tiptoed forward while she stretched a finger out toward the blobs. “More new toys…”
“Move!” I ignored her shout of protest as I jumped forward and kicked the nearest blob right back out the door.
There was an odd, squelchy boom from outside, and the voices all cut off abruptly.
I didn’t skip a beat. I just snatched the body of the nearest dead man and slammed it down over the other two grenades.
The only warning sound was a barrage of tiny thuds. Then the body exploded in a shower of blood and gore.
I reflexively turned away so my face was spared from the worst of it, but hunks of flesh, viscera, and blood splattered into the front of my body. Lu let out a gasp as she dove behind me, but I doubted she escaped the aftermath much.
I didn’t have time to check or care right now, though.
As soon as the blast ended, I hurriedly retrieved the dead men’s guns. I shoved both of them into the waistband of my pants. Then I rooted through their pockets for fresh magazines and pocketed them, too.
“Don’t use this unless you absolutely have to,” I said in a low voice as I handed one of the firearms to Lu. “I’m fucking serious, it could be life or death for us. Use these, and we might as well shout ‘I killed your lackeys, come and get me’ to these motherfuckers. Got it?”
The weapon was practically trembling in her hand, but the pink glow dimmed from her eyes a little as she nodded. She sighed and tucked the weapon into her pants.
Next, we needed to stash the men’s bodies. Or whatever was left of them all.
I scoured the back area of the shop and soon spotted a display bed covered by a big pink comforter. I grabbed the blanket so we’d have something to wrap the bodies in. Then I darted to the back door and nudged it open just enough to peer out.
The heavily mutilated bodies of four men were sprawled out behind the store, along with several of their limbs that had blasted off from the jelly-grenade I’d kicked at them.
But as soon as I stepped out of the alleyway, I froze.
The air was frigid out here, and the air near the ground was laced with a faint white mist in the aftermath of the blast.
A squelch and a flicker of movement made me whip my head around, and I spotted a white, slug-like tentacle protruding from the nearest dismembered torso. It was as big as a goddamn banana, and there was a face on it, complete with tiny black eyes and a ridge of jet-black, razor-sharp teeth that glinted slightly in the dim green sunlight. Like the other corpse-chunks in the alley, the torso was riddled with tiny holes.
It let out a soft hiss before its wriggling form retreated back inside the body and left a bigger, gaping red hole where it had been.
I turned and saw Lu staring at the torso open-mouthed. She looked a smidge horrified and a little like it was fucking Christmas day, and she just got a present she never even knew she wanted so badly.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I felt, either. Should I be horrified or impressed by the way these grenade things worked?
“Quick,” I said as I snatched up the nearest dismembered hand. I tossed it onto the blanket and snapped my fingers impatiently at Lu. “Toss all this in here, fast.”
“What if one of those wriggly little nightmares stabs out at us?” Lu asked with an intrigued look.
“Deal with it,” I growled as my irritation toward her flared up.
I had exactly zero patience for her bullshit right now, not after the stunt she’d just pulled with those grenades.
Lu didn’t move an inch as she eyed the maggoty little shits, and I let out a tense breath as I kept on working.
“I don’t think they like the air,” I said, but I was careful to only grip each body part for the smallest possible moment before I tossed it onto the blanket. “Or the sun.”
Only the slightest trace of nerves showed on Lu’s face now. Then it vanished as she shrugged to herself, and she broke out into a hushed, jaunty little tune as she danced around and lobbed body parts onto the blanket two at a time.
“What the hell do you think that is?” she asked and glanced at the dispersing mist.
“Obviously, that jelly stuff was some type of cryogenic goo to keep those maggoty things in their larval state.” I heaved one of the bloody torsos onto the blanket. “When something activates them, they explode, and the warmth sends them into whatever hyperspeed, twisted life-cycle they exist in.”
“You’ve seen something like this before, haven’t you?” Lu shot me a fascinated look over the mangled arm she was drop-kicking onto the blanket. “Where?”
“Somewhere I never plan on going back to again,” I said shortly. Then I reached over to grab the corners of the blanket and pull them together around the stack of body parts. “Get back inside.”
Inside the store, I shoved the bloody, mangled remains of three men into a big pink trunk while Lu stashed another few maggoty limbs inside a pink luggage set. I quickly used my knife to gut a pink mattress and shoved the rest of the fleshy lumps inside before I threw the pink blanket over them, and then I shoved the mattress padding behind the pink clusterfuck that occupied the shelves.
“Perfect!” Lu giggled and clapped her hands together. “That was easy… And fun!”
I shot her a scalding look.
The fact that she had flung the knife out the door without even listening to me already pissed me off, but the way she acted after had my blood boiling. She could’ve been the one with her damn body blown to fleshy bits by fucking around with those grenades. She thought this was all a game.
I couldn’t deny that the fight had been exhilarating for me, but I didn’t let this stuff go to my head. Super or not, that was the quickest way to get yourself killed.
I locked my jaw as I scrubbed the blood from my face as best I could and commanded her to do the same. At least we were wearing all black. There were bloodstains in her white-blonde hair, but it could sort of pass for red dye in addition to the pink she already had going on.
It was only then that I noticed she was carrying a bright pink carry-on bag, along with a soft, pink suede sling. As she slipped the head of the axe inside it, I realized that the inside of the sling was lined with stiffened leather. Then she slipped its pink strap over her shoulder so the heart-studded axe was braced diagonally across her back.
The axe itself was conspicuous as hell, but I guessed the blades were the biggest offenders. It was double-headed, with two curved pink blades, each with a heart-shaped gap near its base. Its handle was slightly twisted and warped-looking, but the bottom was wrapped in sturdy black leather to add some grip.
The cutesy little carrying case didn’t do a whole lot to disguise the fact that it was a fucking giant, pink battle axe, but it was at least more subtle than carrying a naked blade through the streets by hand.
I glanced at the carry-on bag next.
“Do I even want to know what’s in there?” I asked.
“Just some clothes,” she assured me with a chipper smile. “You said I could get some, didn’t you?”
I pursed my lips as I retrieved the machete from the body it was lodged in and then snatched up a sheath from the shelf. Despite the machete’s absurd pink appearance, the blade was wickedly sharp, and I thought it’d make a decent backup weapon that I wouldn’t be pissed about discarding in a pinch.
“Let’s go,” I said as I led the way out the back door and glanced in every direction. There were no people visible, so I pushed my way out of the hideously pink store and into the green sunlight.
Lu gave a mischievous giggle as she followed after.
“Stop fucking giggling,” I snapped. “Fight’s over, get your head out of your ass.”
The giggling immediately stopped, so she must have finally caught on that I was anything but amused right now.
I didn’t say anything for a long moment as I headed down the street at a brisk pace. The image of Lu leaning down to grab the grenade kept flashing through my mind, and every time, a fresh jolt of fury lanced through my chest.
She was so fucking reckless. Careless, even. She was young and flitting around like nothing could ever hurt her, but millions of supers just like her had ended up smeared all over the pavement since my time.
“Would it kill you to do one fucking thing that I asked?” I vented as we rounded a corner. This region had a few scattered people on the street, but we were still skirting around the area near the plant, so the babble of crowds was a bit distant. “Just once?”
“Yes, it would,” she said crisply. “I like to have fun.”
“Fun,” I growled. At the same moment, Lu’s blonde and pink head exploded wide open in my mind’s eye, and her lean, muscled limbs went tearing in every direction.
I didn’t need this. I didn’t need some hyper, new age supervillain to look after.
Tension rippled through my jaw, but I clenched it for the time being. Right now, I had to focus on getting us back to our rented place.
“We need to lay low for the next day,” I said curtly. “I don’t want to draw those bastards after us.”
“Why not?” she scoffed. “We could kick their asses, just like we did these dudes.”
“Because that’s not our fucking goal,” I gritted out. “These people will just muddle our plans if they start trying to mow down anyone who gets in their way.”
“Who cares?” Lu snickered. “Sounds like a good time to me.”
I shook my head and decided it was best we didn’t talk anymore as we strode back to the shipyard in a long, tense silence.
Inside the ship, I locked and bolted the door. Then I rummaged in my rucksack for something I rarely ever used.
My flask.
It was made of good old platinum, which I had found held up remarkably well in any dimension. Not only that, it was the only metal I’d found that could perfectly preserve any substance through the process of warping, for whatever reason.
The Lhoqin dimension had been a terrifying place, but damn, their liquor had been good.
Of course, I hadn’t drunk any of it while I was there, because all the safe bunker warrens had been gentrified to hell, and evading murderous, otherworldly wildlife is a lot more difficult when you’re drunk on the finest whiskey in the multiverse. But I had some stashed away for occasions like this.
Occasions where nothing but a good stiff drink could take the edge off.
I swallowed and savored the smoky burn for a moment in peace. I closed my eyes as I took another quick swig, and then I capped the flask and tried to take a few deep breaths.
I hadn’t been this worked up in a long time. Then again, I hadn’t been stuck fighting side by side with shortsighted villains in longer than I could remember, either. But even then, none of them had pissed me off like Lu. She just had a way of burrowing under my skin like those nasty little maggots from the alleyway.
Deep breaths. We were back at the shipyard, with no grenades in sight.
When I opened my eyes again, Lu’s pink gaze was full of intrigue as she stood there staring at me, but anger flashed through them as I turned away.
“Wow, you’re not even gonna share whatever’s in that flask?” she asked.
I ignored the bitchy tone in her voice and forced myself not to respond.
Nearly a full minute of silence passed between us. It was almost blissful, if not for the fact that I could feel her attitude billowing around the room.
“I know I messed up with the knife, alright?” she finally stormed, and she stomped around to get in my face.
“And the fucking grenade, you genius,” I growled.
“I didn’t know what it was!” she shot back.
I nearly pulled my damn hair out.
“Then why the hell would you prance over to play with it?” I bellowed.
That shut her up for about five seconds, which wasn’t nearly enough of a break from her for me.
“Well, you don’t have to give me the damn silent treatment.” She crossed her arms under her breasts as her stubborn lips pursed into a line.
“Oh, I absolutely do,” I said in a warning tone.
“Everything turned out fine, didn’t it?” she barreled on.
“No thanks to you,” I snapped as I shoved the flask back into my bag. “For fuck’s sake, you could’ve gotten yourself killed.”
“But I didn’t!” she yelled in my face, and her voice suddenly pitched up enough to activate her power. “So why are you yelling at me? It’s not like you care!”
My vision blurred and darkened at the edges, and my whole skull fucking rattled at the sound of her supercharged voice.
“Stop. Doing. That,” I snarled.
“Make me,” she hissed and stamped her foot as she took a step closer. Her voice rose to a piercing shout. “Make me stop, you fucking asshole!”
My hand shot out to grip her throat. I kept my hold looser than I wanted to, but I didn’t move.
“Is that what you want?” I growled. “Because I can make that happen. Easily. So say one more fucking word, I dare you.”
Her face was inches from mine, and her pink eyes got big as she stared up at me with her chest heaving against mine.
It would only take one move, and she’d be dead. I was stronger, smarter, and had a more powerful zenith than her. One move, and I wouldn’t have to listen to her complaints and naive bullshit ever again.
Despite that, she didn’t seem afraid.
Her sharp, pale features suddenly shifted in a firm set of defiance, and the light spottings of blood on her cheeks almost looked like freckles I’d seen on women who were infinitely more innocent than her.
I stared into her blazing pink eyes with a mixture of rage and something else I couldn’t even fucking identify. All I could think about was the way she’d giggled and kissed her bloody axe earlier… seconds before she almost blew into a million pieces right in front of me.
Then, almost before I realized what I was doing, I kissed her.
Chapter 11
Lu’s lips were hot against mine as she kissed me back, and her slender throat quivered under my hand.
Then she pressed every inch of her body against mine, and I slipped one arm around her waist. I started moving the other downward, but she snatched it and held it in place on her throat.
