Thirty-Three
Far above both of my selves, my higher consciousness was busy scouring Eastport for any sign of Gertrude. I gazed down on the city from above like a high-flying spirit, thanks to Hannah’s abilities. I reached through the ground, sensing the vibrations of every footfall through the combined senses of all the floral life threaded throughout the sprawling city. I peered through Io’s eyes as she watched her drone flocks camera feeds for any sign of unexpected movement.
There was movement all across the city, on rooftops, bridges, intersections, and all throughout the sewers. Sigils had been painted everywhere. People were moving in several areas of the city that no one should have been. Even as I continued looking for Gertrude, I took note of their locations, just in case.
At long last I found her, surfing through the sky as trails of necrotic black energy flew behind her, heading straight for Central Park. But she wasn’t interested in Autumn’s tree. She just dropped down in front of an old bronze statue.
With an angry burst of obsidian energy she ripped the statue out of the ground. A plaque at the statue’s feet read “Georgie ‘the Hammer’ Nelson” and depicted exactly what I’d imagine a 1920s gangster boss would look like. Gertrude, possessing Chelseas’s body, spat on the torn up statue and started strolling towards the outdoor amphitheater that was used each summer to host plays and concerts.
This was one of about three such theaters in Eastport (the people here love their plays, what can I say). Funny story, I once crashed an attack helicopter into another amphitheater closer to the city’s coastline, and that one was still under repair all these months later.
With her position triangulated, I relayed what I knew to all of my girls.
Selene stepped on the gas while Gabby and I pulled our clothes back on.
As Red Ryan, I placed my newborn son back in Tabitha’s arms and kissed both of their foreheads. “Sorry. Daddy’s gotta go save the world.”
Io, order all nearby Bureau personnel to keep Tabby and Derek safe.
Understood, handsome, Io replied obediently, in that sultry tone that she knew I liked.
I needed to remember to clap her cheeks asap. She’d been such an S-tier secretary and drone operator this whole time and she deserved a massive thank you.
Eager to test out a theory, I dashed out of the delivery room, snatched up my red axe, and ran towards the nearest window; swan-diving through it and thinking wings. Red fairy wings sprouted from my wrists and ankles, as expected, but a pair of silver angel wings also exploded from my shoulder blades.
With a wild grin, I dove through the air to pick up speed and then spread my wings wide; gliding through Eastport. Lana sped along behind me as fast as she could, and I let out a whoop of joy at the sheer exultation of soaring through the air at expensive-sports-car type of speeds.
It was almost better than sex.
Not quite…but almost.
-
Central park at 1am was quite a spectacular view.
Eastport was situated on an island just far enough from the mainland to keep light pollution to an all-time low. With the entire city on lockdown, most of the light from the city all came from the fires burning across a few highrises.
With the zombie threat finished, Bureau helicopters were already criss-crossing the sky. Wizards were leaning out of the doors and unleashing gouts of frost rays (guess the cat was out of the bag as far as magic and monsters were concerned, going to be interesting to see how that pans out) to douse the flames, darkening the sky even further.
Over our heads was an entire galaxy of distant stars.
Swooped down into the park on silver wings. Lana alighted on my shoulder as we strode towards the black ram-themed bus that came drifting to a halt in the parking lot. Autumn shot out of the earth beside me and fell into step at my side.
I stepped down from the bus and readjusted my suit. Gabby slipped out of the bus right behind me, as did Selene and Hanna, and together we moved towards my counterpart.
From far above, my higher self felt like I was trying to force two magnets together by the ends with similar polarity, and each step seemed to grow more and more difficult as I forced both of my bodies nearer and nearer.
We met in the middle, Red Ryan and Blue Ryan clasped arms, and suddenly everything clicked together. The metaphorical magnets flipped around and shot together. Both separate bodies converged into one again.
Two problems. The first, I was now over eight feet tall, wearing mixed pieces of both the black and silver suits. Black pants, brown shoes, silver vest, rolled up sleeves, popped collar. The red emergency axe still rested comfortably in my left hand. Meanwhile Michelle’s angelic sword was sheathed down my back, right between my silver wings. The fairy wings coming out of my wrist and ankles had not only elongated to support my increased mass but also split the difference between red and blue and become a rich purple. My veins showed green beneath the semi-reptilian skin, and my eyes were just as silver as Gabby’s, though my sclera were still white. My ears were a little more pointed than I remember, and I had some wolfish features of my own, namely sharpened canines and an extra dose of five-o’clock shadow.
I towered over all of my girls. Even Gabby and especially Lana.
Io’s drones flew down and landed on the grass all around us while the copies of Euna that had been guarding Autumn walked and merged back into one extra thicc and delicious figure.
The only one missing was Tabitha. But she was busy looking after our son.
“Well?” Selene asked, drawing the golden gun from her thigh. “Are we going to put a stop to this bitch or what?”
As Ryan Prime (this isn’t even my final form, sorry, couldn’t resist) I nodded and turned my gaze towards the stage in the park. Gertrude had gathered a large audience of phantoms and the thralls that they possessed. She was busy working on some complex ritual painted on the stage, and after Hannah’s warning I knew we could not let her complete it.
When I spoke, my voice came out like rumbling thunder.
“Nobody fucks with my city and get’s away with it. Let’s finish this.”
-
Go, I commanded as I pushed off the ground and rose to hover twenty-five meters above the gathered crowd of phantoms and those they were possessing.
Gertrude paused in the midst of her strange arm-flailing dance, necrotic energy half-formed in her hands as she tilted her head at me.
“Hey, great-great-great grandma! I know it’s been a while since you were last sucking down air around these parts, but I’m going to have to ask you to disperse this little gathering of yours! This park, this city, and this world are at capacity. You and the rest of you dead freaks need to fucking beat it!”
Gertrude screamed at me incoherently, opening Chelsea’s mouth a bit too wide in the process–like something out of a very old horror movie from back when computer-generated special effects were just kicking off–and pointed her hooked fingers my way.
A crackling bolt of black energy lanced up towards me.
Lana fired off a spell that neatly intercepted it, and the whole attack burst apart like a t-shirt cannon loaded with confetti.
Nicely done, squirt!
Hey! It was one time, she said defensively.
I laughed loudly, which only served to piss Gertrude off even more, so she started hurling more and more spells my way. I strafed around them with contemptuous ease. So long as I kept her occupied, she couldn’t finish the ritual.
First off, we both know it was more than one time, little one. Secondly, it was a nickname. Not an accusation.
Oh. My bad.
“I was going to offer you a place at my side once my new empire was off the ground, you pathetic chosen one! But now you will be lucky if I see fit to make you into a slave! All of your women shall die, and their spirits will be banished! I’m going to rule this world for all time!” Gertrude shrieked as she kept firing spell after spell.
Meanwhile my girls went to work.
Euna split into a dozen copies, all blessed by Gabby, and rushed into the crowd. She didn’t even need to stab all the way through anyone to disperse the phantoms. Just a light cut rendered their host body unfit for involuntary possession. Phantoms were being thrown out of bodies left and right.
Gabby and Selene were cleaning up in Euna’s wake, Selene down on one knee, firing shots off that fried phantoms before they could recover from being forcibly evicted by Euna, and Gabby by swooping back and forth through the crowd with her mace.
Autumn conjured massive carpets of vines, roots, and extra-strong blades of grass to grip the legs of handfuls of thralls at a time, keeping them at least temporarily stuck in place and unable to come to the aid of their fellow formerly-alive-freeloaders.
Lana focused on defending me as I hovered around thanks to my blue fairy wings. I drew my angelic blade and dive-bombed the stage, preparing to cut the head off the snake.
Gertrude brought her arms together and broke them apart as soon as I flew too close; sending me careening away from the main stage and crashing down into the crowd of phantoms and thralls. As one, they all dog-piled on top of me, which was extremely rude. And warm. That many bodies all generate an awful lot of heat.
“Idiot!” Gertrude spat. “I shall not be stopped! Even if I am, I have dozens of other rituals going off throughout the city! You’ll never stop us all!”
Au contraire, I thought to myself as I lifted the mass of bodies off of me and fired off a spray of blessed roots adorned with thorns. All it took was a scratch or nick, and the phantoms controlling each body were ejected skyward.
Gabby sped by and mopped up a few of them.
I leapt up and used my sword to disperse the rest, coming to a halt in mid-air and glaring over at Gertrude. “If that’s true then why are you afraid to fight me? If your plan will go off without a hitch, why not take out your biggest threat here and now, all by yourself?”
Gertrude seemed to consider the idea. “So be it! Let’s dance!” Then twin plumes of black energy shot down from her hands as she shot into the sky with a mad cackle.