Blaze (The High-Born Epic) (55 page)

             
“I’ve got it,” Gabby said as she tapped Harold on the shoulder.

             
He turned and saw the image, and it was nearly an exact match except for the angle from which the image had been made.  Harold looked at the name above the image.

             
“Naxos,” Harold said as Gabby started tapping symbols on the grid.  “Where is it?”

             
“Right there,” Gabby pointed to a small green icon on the grid.

             
“How long until we get there?” Harold asked.

             
Gabby pressed a few more symbols and the grid read: ETA 43 mins.

             
“Let’s stash this backup copy and go,” Gabby said.

             
Harold grabbed her arm and they flashed to the outside.  They walked around for a few minutes and both decided on a particularly large pine tree.  They dug a small hole at its base and wrapped the recording in a piece of plastic they had found in the gunship.  Harold made a small symbol in the tree with his sword, and after they were satisfied that either one of them could find it, they air-burned back to the gunship.

             
Then, they rose into the sky, and Gabby directed them towards Naxos.

Chapter 47

             
The buildings of Naxos appeared on the horizon and they both began scanning the city’s surroundings with their enhanced vision.  The looked all around the outskirts of Naxos as they got closer and much to their surprise, they saw nothing to cause them concern.  There were no ripples anywhere, and there were no mechanoids on the building tops, nor were there any snipers to see.

             
“This is odd,” Harold said.  “Do you see anything?”

             
“Nothing,” she replied as the city continued to grow in the windshield.

             
Harold looked high above them, and there was nothing there to make him believe high-level fighters were there either.

             
After a few more minutes, they arrived at the outer ring of ruins, and still they saw no evidence of High-Born activity.  They flew around the perimeter of Naxos, studying every building and street.

             
Nothing.

             
Not even the slightest hint of High-Born working in the buildings or even walking the streets.  Naxos was a veritable ghost town.  As they circled around the city, they caught just the right angle and could see all the way to the central complex in the city’s center.

             
The stage on which their friends and family had been sold was right there, almost mocking them.  Gabby motioned for Harold to look and he turned just as she pushed on the controls and they passed over the outer ring of old ruins.  They began going down one of the natural corridors created by the buildings.  Harold looked into the windows of the buildings as they slowly moved through the streets towards the city’s center.

             
Still he saw no High-Born activity.

             
“Gabby,” he said as she began thumbing the weapon’s switch on the controls.  “Something doesn’t feel right about this.”

             
“Nothing feels right about any of this,” she said as she pulled the trigger.

             
Harold watched as the stage was decimated by the rail spikes flying from their cannons.  After a few shots, Gabby released the trigger, and resumed their slow movement into the city.  Harold turned and looked into a building and was still puzzled that he was seeing no activity.

             
“What is going on?” he asked.

             
“They may have evacuated– ” Gabby stopped as a missile streaked by them.

             
Harold watched as it detonated about 100 yards from them.  Then a friction trail streaked dangerously close to them and Gabby pulled back on the gunship’s controls, sending them up.  Friction trails zipped all around them and they crested the tops of the buildings.

             
Harold’s and Gabby’s eyes opened wide as they peered at the outskirts of Naxos.  The entire perimeter of the city was full of shimmering air, and they could see dozens, if not hundreds of ripples of gunships coming towards them.  Gabby gasped and Harold shouted as they saw many more ripples still rising from the forest surrounding Naxos.  They watched in dread as flashes began appearing beneath the gunships. 

             
All of the gunships had begun firing missiles towards their general direction, and Harold realized that no pilot on earth could have avoided what was coming.  They quickly looked at the ground and they could see the shimmers of dozens of tanks moving up and down the streets, and even more were rising from hidden elevators within the ground.  As they crested the streets, they joined the other tanks that were already firing into the sky.

             
The missiles were closer now, and Harold figured out that they were all going to detonate at different ranges so that the entire sky above the buildings would be a deathtrap for anything invisible.  And, along with all of the tanks now firing beneath them, there was nowhere to run or hide.

             
...Harold’s and Gabby’s eyes met...

             
...Words were not necessary as he slid on his helmet...

             
...They were ready to fight and die for what was right...

             
...He grabbed her...

             
“I love you, Harold,” Gabby said.

             
...And they flamed out of the cockpit...

             
...Appearing on the streets of the city just as the entire sky filled with explosions and fire.  The High-Born strike had been more devastating than Harold had originally thought, and the buildings shook as shockwaves reverberated across the entire city.  Some distance down the street, caught in between the blast waves of two separate missiles, their gunship shuddered into sight.  It exploded, and they both grimaced as what remained of it plummeted.  While it crashed into the streets behind them, they turned to face the army that had trapped them.

             
Harold looked down the city streets as his sword scraped against its scabbard.  He could sense the tanks and gunships as their heat radiated into the air.  He and Gabby were surrounded, and there was no escape. 

             
There was only battle or death. 

             
He focused his thoughts on his blade as he reached for the fire within him, and flames licked up and down his katana as he surrounded it with heat that only one such as he could control.  He beckoned the source of his full strength, and his eyes beamed like the rising sun as ravenous flames roared over his body...

             
...And Blaze bent his knees while bringing his flaming sword up to his shoulder as his glowing eyes glaringly beheld the High-Born battle group before him...

             
Thunder echoed as he air-burned toward the first of the invisible tanks.  Its cloak failed as Blaze appeared beside it, shouting a battle cry and swinging his sword.  Blaze thundered toward a second tank as the first exploded, reaching for the fire within the explosions even as his sword seared down the full length of a second tank.  Then, he flung a near-solid wall of fire down the street, scalding the invisibility from at least a dozen more tanks.  He spun and swung his sword in a wide arc toward the sky.  Waves of searing flames scorched more than a dozen gunships into sight.  As the gunships began firing, he air-burned toward the tanks and engaged them.

             
Gabby flexed her knees and crossed her clenched fists in front of her as she called to the source of her power.  With a shout, Aireon flung her hands outward and a gust of air spiraled around her, spinning and lifting her slightly off the ground.  Her whitish-blonde hair rushed above her head and whipped about as her eyes filled with flashing white light.  As pebbles, sand, and dust twirled around her, the surrounding air took on a blurry quality.

             
Then, she reached towards Blaze.  Her feet hovered just above the ground as her hands and arms twisted and wove around one another while her body pirouetted.  Currents of wind began circling around her, and she seemed to almost dance as she leaped back and forth.  Her movements quickly became more animated, and the spiraling winds swiftly increased in speed.  Multiple shadows of her flickered around as the light from her eyes rapidly pulsed.  She moved with an unnatural grace and heavenly perfection.  And she was as enchanting as she was deadly, and she was as beautiful as she was terrible.

             
Whirlwinds of roaring fire swirled from the explosions all around Blaze.  He extended his hand to them, pulling and pushing on them and jets of flame snaked out from the fiery twisters in every direction throughout the city streets.  The cloaks on tanks and gunships fell in ashes to the asphalt as they shot at Blaze.  But he had already disappeared.  He blinked in and out of existence, seeming to be in several places at once, as red-hot lances appeared on a half-dozen tanks.  They exploded almost simultaneously and pressure waves cracked the buildings near them.

             
A dozen gunships converged on Aireon, rail guns firing rapidly.  She shouted as she stuck her chest out in defiance and threw back her head as shockwaves bounced from her air-shield and the rail spikes ricocheted wildly into the buildings and streets.  She focused her thoughts on the nearest gunship, and flicked her hand to the side.  It smashed into the one beside it and the second one lost control as the first spun into a building.  Windows shattered and steel and glass rained down into the street as the first gunship exploded.  The second gunship smashed into a third, and two more tried to pull back, only to smack into one another, and both of them began spinning toward the ground.  The engines of the crashing gunships whirred as they slammed into buildings and struck the streets.

             
Flames flashed in the air and an explosion sounded as the right wing of the sixth gunship fell off.  And Blaze was standing atop the seventh one, flaming sword repeatedly stabbing into the top of it, while the others fired on Aireon.  Asphalt churned up around her and concrete fell from the buildings near her as rail spikes bounced frantically from her air-shield.  From atop the gunship, Blaze reached toward one of the flaming tornadoes and twisting runnels of fire covered three more of the gunships.  Aireon sent tentacles of wind into the flames and the gunships exploded into a pile of molten metal that splattered across the buildings and ground.  Flames flickered from inside another one, and it spun wildly into another building.  The final gunship seemingly spun out of control into a tank firing at Aireon.

             
Aireon shouted as she swatted her hands back and forth.  The flaming whirlwinds roared down the streets and sent many gunships smashing into buildings.  Breaking glass, falling steel, crumbling concrete and detonating machinery combined into an awful cacophony throughout the city that echoed far into the distance.  As the devil winds lost power, flames shot out from them, revealing many more incoming gunships and tanks.

             
Blaze sliced another tank and as it exploded, he air-burned.  The flames seemed to follow him as they began collapsing in on themselves where he had just been.  Amidst a group of shooting tanks, one of them rattled, and Blaze blinked into sight about thirty feet above it. A fireball surged from the tank below him, and he let himself fall into it.  That fire also seemed to suck in on itself.

             
Aireon clapped her hands together as she sensed what Blaze was doing.  The collapsing flames grew in intensity as her eyes glowed even brighter.  Shouting flames bounced from tank to tank as Blaze pulled the fire with him through his air-burns, and a rapid series of explosions thundered across the city as she pushed air into the entry points of his air-burns.  More than a dozen detonations sent out a succession of shockwaves that reverberated off the buildings.  As the skyscrapers swayed, cracks crawled up them.  Huge chunks of cement fell from them and splintered the city streets with incredible booms.

             
Aireon shouted as three more gunships fired at her and three tanks rounded the corner down the street.  The gunships’ rail spikes rumbled against her air-shield as she reached out her hand, shaping her power to grasp the nearest gunship and push it into the next one.  She staggered backwards as the tanks’ larger spikes hit her, but she held fast.  As the first two gunships crashed into buildings, she snagged the third one with a quick closing of her right hand.  Then, its engine whined as it struggled against the force of her will.  A loud pop sounded, and smoke whirled from it as she sent it flying toward the tanks.  She staggered and fell to one knee as more rounds hit her.  The gunship bounced off the ground into the center tank and she snatched her hands to the right, pushing the gunship into the other tank.