One of the metal giants rolled forward on its wheeled feet to block our path. Connie stomped on the brake pedal, although it was obvious she didn’t have enough room to stop. She shouted, “Hey, DM! A little help!”
The Deathmobile’s headlight beams turned green, and it trained the light onto the car-bot as we skidded toward it. The verdant beams struck the creature’s engine-block chest, and the metal began to rapidly corrode. But not, however, rapidly enough to prevent the car-bot from stepping forward and slamming its tire hands down on the Deathmobile’s hood. The car-bot struck the hearse’s hood off-center, and the impact sent the Deathmobile into a spin. Connie swore, Maggie screamed, Abe remained silent, Bloodshedder started barking – and Jack, Lizzie, and Jinx whooped with delight like they were on a carnival ride.
Incubi…
Russell grabbed hold of me – or maybe I grabbed him. I can’t remember. Connie worked the steering wheel furiously, trying to keep us from flipping over. The Deathmobile’s spin came to a sudden, jarring halt when the driver’s side slammed into one of the light poles. We sat there for a moment, stunned. The Deathmobile’s engine was still running, but the sound was softer, intermittent, as if the hearse was in pain. And since the Deathmobile is an Incubus instead of a true machine, I suppose it really was hurting.
Speaking of hurting, my head was throbbing again, and when I turned to see Russell, I saw why. Blood ran from his nose like a faucet, and I realized the back of my head had slammed into his face when we hit the streetlamp.
“We need to get out of here!” Maggie said. “They’re coming!”
She didn’t have to tell me that
they
were the car-bots.
Jinx opened the passenger door and hopped out, and I scooted off Russell’s lap and followed. Connie was groggy. Her forehead had bounced off the steering wheel during the wreck. I guess she didn’t dream the Deathmobile with airbags. Russell took hold of her arm and pulled her out of the car. Jack, Lizzie, Maggie, and Abe followed. Bloodshedder kicked open the Deathmobile’s back door and wriggled out tail-first.
The three car-bots rolled toward us, headlight eyes blazing with Maelstrom energy, arms raised, tire hands ready to smash down upon us.
TWELVE
I wasn’t worried about the Incubi having been injured in the crash. If they’d been hurt, they’d heal eventually. Despite Russell’s bloody and possibly broken nose, he seemed OK, and I felt all right aside from a renewed headache. I wasn’t certain about Connie, Maggie, and Abe, but there wasn’t time to check them over. I’d just have to hope they weren’t seriously injured.
Jack and Lizzie didn’t waste any time. The couple ran forward to meet the car-bots’ attack, savage grins on their faces.
“Wait for me!” Jinx called. Cuthbert Junior appeared in his hand as if by magic, and he went running after his fellow Incubi, eager to cause some damage at last.
I heard Connie say, “Oh, my poor baby! Look what they did to you!”
I hadn’t had time to do more than glance at the Deathmobile, but I knew it too would heal, so I wasn’t concerned about it. Instead, I focused on the immediate and rapidly approaching threat: the car-bots. I drew my trancer, flicked the selector to high, and aimed it at the advancing machine-golems.
Each of the Incubi chose one of the car-bots and headed for it. Lizzie reached hers first, scuttling toward it swiftly on her multi-jointed insect legs. She leaped onto its body and skittered upward, hacking at the creature with her unnaturally sharp knives as she went, slicing hoses and belts, and cutting jagged furrows in its metal.
Streams of fire shot forth from Jack’s cigarette fingers to engulf the tire feet of his car-bot. Rubber and asphalt melted together, and the car-bot was stuck fast. Its feet might have been sealed in place, but its momentum caused its body to pitch forward, and the car-bot smashed face-first into the ground, metal tearing and crumpling.
Springs shot out from Jinx’s gigantic shoes, propelling him into the air and toward the third car-bot. Bloodshedder – not to be left out – bounded after him. Jinx raised Cuthbert Junior high over his head as he hurtled toward the car-bot. The springs retracted into his shoes an instant before he landed on the machine-monster’s left shoulder.
Jinx slammed his sledgehammer into the side of the car-bot’s head, the impact making a tremendous sound and causing a number of the creature’s headlight eyes to explode outward. The car-bot’s head bent to the right so far that I thought it would fall off, but it managed to remain attached, although it didn’t straighten. I didn’t know if the metal giant had enough sentience to be angry at Jinx, but it reached for him with one of its tire hands, as if he were an irritating bug that needed to be swatted.
But before the car-bot could strike Jinx, Bloodshedder leaped into the air and sank her diamond-hard teeth into the creature’s wrist. The car-bot let out a shrill honking sound, as if it were in pain, and tried to shake Bloodshedder loose. The demon dog was flung around like a rag doll, but she refused to release her grip on the monster’s arm. Jinx took advantage of the distraction Bloodshedder had created. With an insane cackle that would’ve given insomnia to an asylum full of lunatics, Jinx slammed Cuthbert Junior into the car-bot’s head, over and over again.
I could feel the savage joy he took in the destruction he was causing, and I didn’t want to spoil his fun, but as the saying goes, we had bigger fish to fry. I aimed my trancer at his car-bot, preparing to unleash a blast of M-energy at the creature’s chest, hopefully finishing it off. Before I could fire, I heard Maggie cry out, “Abe!”
I spun around to see that the streetlamp the Deathmobile had hit had become animate, and like a constricting serpent, it had wrapped around Abe and lifted him into the air. Like the car-bots, its bulb shone with Maelstrom energy.
I wanted to shoot the damn thing, hoping to overload it with enough Maelstrom energy to at least stun it into releasing Abe. But he was held in the lamp’s metal coils fifteen feet off the ground, and I was afraid the fall to the hard asphalt would injure him as severely as the lamp would. Then I saw his bulging eyes and gaping mouth as he struggled for air. His face began to turn purple, and I knew if I didn’t do something immediately, he would die.
Maggie and Connie stood beneath Abe, shouting for him to hold on. Russell ran toward the base of the lamp and began stabbing it with his rapier. The lamp-serpent ignored the strikes from Russell’s sword and continued waving Abe back and forth as it squeezed the life out of him, making it difficult for me to get a good shot. I knew Abe couldn’t afford for me to wait for the perfect opportunity, though, so I started firing, trusting to luck and skill – but mostly luck. A beam of multicolored energy lanced forth from my trancer, but it missed. My second shot came close, but not close enough. My third shot did the trick, though. The beam clipped the edge of one of the coils encircling Abe, and although it was a glancing blow, it was enough. The coils slackened and Abe slipped free.
Russell dropped his sword and moved beneath Abe, as if to catch him, or at least break his fall with his own body. But just as Abe started to fall, a figure emerged from a pool of shadow on the ground. Then the Darkness stepped in front of Russell and caught Abe as easily as if the man weighed no more than a child’s balloon.
The “head” of the lamp-serpent lunged toward them, but I fired once more, this time hitting the lamp’s bulb. It shattered, the Maelstrom energy winked out, and the lamp’s movement ceased, leaving it nothing more than a looping, curved statue.
I turned and shouted to the other Incubi. “Put out their eyes!”
None of the Incubi questioned me, and why would they? As far as they were concerned, I’d just said, “Let the good times roll.”
Lizzie crawled around the side of the car-bot, up its spine, onto its head, and then hung down in front of its face. She thrust her curved blades into its multiple headlight eyes, one after the other –
pop-pop-pop!
– as fast as she could. Jack thrust his hands toward the car-bot he’d downed, which was busy attempting to pull its legs free of the melted asphalt that held it fast. The cigarettes that formed his fingers flew off like ten small white rockets, trailing lines of flame as they flew toward the car-bot’s eyes and shattered them.
Jinx kept pounding on his car-bot’s head, taking out more headlights with each blow, until finally all the headlights were out. The creature stopped moving, and Bloodshedder’s weight finally pulled it to the ground. Both Jinx and Bloodshedder leaped free as the car-bot crashed into a half-dozen untransformed vehicles, crushing them. A moment later, it was joined by Lizzie’s car-bot, which also crashed into a number of parked cars. Jack’s car-bot was already on the ground, and it simply stopped moving once its headlights were out. The monstrous metal creatures were now nothing more than scrap.
The Darkness was still holding Abe. He put him down gently, and Maggie ran over to check if Abe was all right. I realized that Maggie and Abe, while perhaps not a couple per se, were at least sweet on each other. I wondered if they’d been aware of that themselves until this moment. I understood then why Abe had wanted so badly to come along with us. He hadn’t been able to stand the idea of Maggie going into danger without him. He’d wanted to protect her. Instead, she – or at least her Incubus – had been the one doing the protecting.
Jinx came toward me, grinning and spinning Cuthbert Junior in one hand as if it were a baton.
“That was a nice warm-up,” he said.
“Warm-up?” Maggie asked. She, the Darkness, and Abe joined us in the middle of the parking lot, as did Russell, Bloodshedder, Jack, and Lizzie. Connie remained with the Deathmobile, stroking its hood softly as the car worked on repairing itself.
“There’s more to come,” Russell said.
“A lot more,” I added.
“One can only hope,” Jinx said, still grinning. As long as there was violence in the offing, that grin wouldn’t leave his face.
The Deathmobile, though still damaged, was now in a hell of a lot better shape than it had been when the fight with the car-bots had started. It was more or less in good shape again, although it still had a multitude of dents and scratches across its surface, and its windshield and windows were still spiderwebbed with cracks. But its engine sounded stronger, if still a bit unsteady, and its right headlight gleamed with life, although its left remained broken and dark. Connie continued to stroke the vehicle’s hood, and the Deathmobile’s engine seemed to purr in response.
“What should we do next?” Abe asked.
Before I could answer, the door to the building burst open, and Incubi flooded into the parking lot, bellowing with rage and bloodlust as they ran toward us. None of them were armed from what I could see, and most were dressed in work clothes – suits and ties, blouses with slacks or skirts. But that’s where the similarity to normal office workers ended.
Some resembled animals – mammals, reptiles, avians, sea creatures, insects, or bizarre combinations thereof. Others looked as if they’d started life as inanimate objects – wood, stone, metal, glass, plastic… Some defied easy description, forms and faces so distorted, the human eye could barely make sense of them. They shouted, roared, and shrieked as they came rushing toward us, hands, talons, claws, paws, and assorted other appendages raised and ready to do some damage.
Jinx gripped the handle of Cuthbert Junior so tight I feared the wood would splinter. He looked at me, and his grin should’ve turned my guts to ice, but it didn’t.
“Now
this
is more like it!” he said.
I was already holding my trancer, and with my other hand, I drew my M-blade. I grinned back.
“First one to draw blood wins,” I said.
Russell shook his head. His mustache and beard were tacky with blood, but his nose had stopped bleeding. “I swear, sometimes I don’t know which one of you is scarier.”
Bloodshedder gave a snort of agreement.
I turned to Abe, Maggie, and Connie. “You three should get in the Deathmobile. You’ll be safer there.”
I hope,
I added mentally.
The hearse was almost completely repaired by now, and Connie climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Lousy bastards think they can hurt my baby,” she muttered. She revved the engine a couple times, her face a mask of anger and determination.
Before Abe and Maggie could get in, the Darkness said, “Don’t worry. I’ll protect them.”
I nodded. I wasn’t about to argue with the Darkness.
Jinx and I exchanged a last look, and then we sprinted toward the oncoming Incubi, with Russell, Bloodshedder, Cancer Jack, and Lizzie Longlegs at our sides.
What happened after that was a blur. I fired my trancer and cut with my M-blade, while Jinx swung his sledgehammer like a berserker in clown-white makeup. Acid sprayed from his boutonnière as if of its own accord, striking attacking Incubi in the face and causing them to back off, screaming in agony. My earlier weariness and muzzy-headedness were gone, swept away by surging adrenaline. I felt strong, fast, and, most important of all, focused.
Russell wielded his rapier to devastating effect, the M-sword far stronger and sharper than any steel blade could ever be. For good measure, he held a trancer in his other hand and blasted those Incubi his sword couldn’t reach.
Bloodshedder did what she specialized in, tearing into Incubi with teeth and claws and swinging her spiked tail like a mace. Cancer Jack shot jets of fire from his newly grown cigarette fingers, setting Incubi aflame, and he spewed toxic smoke from his mouth, causing Incubi to gag and choke. Lizzie Longlegs was putting her curved blades to good use, slicing and dicing opponents with maniacal glee.
Maggie and Abe stood close together, Abe with his arm around her shoulders. The Darkness stood in front of them, broadcasting waves of terror at anyone who approached. Whenever an Incubus managed to resist his fear-casting and came rushing toward him, he opened his robe to reveal an endless expanse of Nothingness inside. The lucky Incubi were able to turn aside at the last instant, fall to the ground, and curl into a fetal position, sobbing and shivering. The unlucky ones were unable to stop – and they fell into the void contained within the Darkness, their screams growing fainter the farther into Nothing they traveled.