The Mask of Omegon (Gwen Farris Book 6) (26 page)

That was only because
he
didn’t know that she’d watched as much television as she had. It made sense to
her on a level that probably would have shocked the fellow if he learned about
it.

“Understood. Let’s get back now? I
should be back at Park Street in… Well, we’re making pretty good time on the
Peregrine at the moment, so I don’t know? We won’t have to unload on the far
side either.”

Groundling, seeming more like Duke
Morten suddenly, regardless of how he was dressed, filled her in. Both of them,
actually. It was apparent that he was addressing Henry, too.

“Eight days. Clearly, that’s
if
we can fight off or disrupt the following craft. Miss Farris can be around
earlier. Handy talent, teletransport.” The words were a bit impressed sounding,
for some reason.

The other man nodded.

“Rare. Special Service already?
Brilliant catch on their part. I’ll be in touch as soon as possible. Nice to meet
you again, Miss. Duke Morten.” He bowed then, but not too far.

Gwen nodded, then grabbed
Groundling in a way that probably looked like she was going to pick him up from
behind and moved back to the airship. That gave her another five minutes of
gasping to get past. It kind of sucked, to be honest. Not in the fun way
either.

Gwen considered that as her new
catch phrase, since she had a perfectly good boyfriend to practice on right
there. Not that they’d been doing anything that interesting on the ship. Not
even holding hands. Tom had been keeping to his act incredibly well. Nearly
like a spy from a movie. Then, he
was
a super hero. It probably followed
that he had mad skills in keeping things separated like that.

Then, having done all the
teletransport for the day, she got to go and clean things, even if they
were
being chased by insane Europans. In a strange way it made sense for two
reasons. The first was just keeping everyone busy. They had energy to burn,
after all, so might as well use it. The second, well, they might have guests
soon. Which wasn’t really true, since there was no good way to force a boarding
of an airship.

You just took them out of the air,
if you needed to do anything. You
could
couple ships. One of them would
have to be much larger than the other to start with. Then the people on the
smaller craft would need to be willing to close with them. After that both
sides would be needed to help tie things down. It took incredible coordination
between pilots at the same time.

So it wasn’t really happening that
night.

After that was dinner, which was
beef steaks, gravy and fried potatoes, along with fresh rolls that the cook had
made. She didn’t seem upset to see Darnell in particular, meaning that she’d
probably not been in on the false story. It was probably just as well, really.
There was a good chance that she didn’t know about the special work that the
crew had been getting up to or anything like that. Which meant that for the
story to really fly, Darnell would have had to actually bother her enough to be
noticed by the others.

So, lies were the better plan that
way.

Tomas sat right next to her, his
leg brushing hers occasionally under the table. It wasn’t anything overt. At
least she didn’t think it was. No one jumped up to thrash him at any rate. The
food was good, but Gwen didn’t stuff herself. She had things to go and do.
Being uncomfortable would just make that harder.

After the meal was done, a thing
filled with tension and small talk, Gwen waved at Groundling.

“Can I borrow a crin? I can’t fly
and blast power at the same time. I’ll leave half an hour after twilight. I
need to be able to see, but don’t want to be noticed.”

The man didn’t respond for a few
moments, but instead of telling her that a girl had no place killing fifty odd
people, there was a single nod.

“Let’s get that done. It’s poor
form on our part, but so is coming after us because they didn’t like the candy.
That’s war for you though. It turns everyone into animals. Are you certain you
can handle this?”

Gwen didn’t really know, but acted
like it was a simple enough thing for her to do. Honestly, that could be the
truth, if she was able to avoid being killed while she tried to fly over.
Groundling didn’t make her wait, or ask twice for a weapon. That was gotten
from a locked panel, which was inside the broom closet. Which was where
everyone
normally kept their weapons on civilian ships. Clearly.

She checked the crystal pack in the
handle, making certain it was fully charged. It didn’t have a dot-aimer on it,
which could actually come in handy. None of the weapons had one, so she’d have
to make do. That probably wasn’t going to be a huge problem. The bag on the
other airship was probably the size of several large warehouses put together.
It looked pretty big to her anyway.

“Right. I’ll be back in about an
hour. Save me some candy?” It wasn’t really dark yet, so she waited, going to
the lowest deck, since it was the broadest one. When the ship was lit up fully
in the distance, the red and white nearly glowing in the setting sun, she held
the crin’s copper tube in her left hand, then rose from the deck. That meant
using the game controller in her mind. It was how she made it all work for her.
A thing which probably meant she was well and truly insane. It worked though,
for a lot of things. She just pretended that she was holding a game controller.
Then,
knowing
what it was supposed to do, holding the feeling of that
part of the magic, it just worked. As long as she added power constantly at the
same time.

In this case the hard part was
going to be the distance and time involved.

Unless people started shooting at
her.
That
would become the big problem, if she messed up, or was noticed
doing what she was. The idea wasn’t that no one wouldn’t be looking at her, as
much as it was that no one would be expecting a person to fly off into the
night. Not from that far away. It took a while to get to the right spot, about
a thousand feet over the top of the candy striped bag. It was hard to see,
since it was getting darker out. There was no particular sound from the thing.
Then, the wind was mild and the engines were largely various magical things.
Corrections used steam rockets, which weren’t that loud. They hissed, but there
was no roaring sound.

They also weren’t her concern. What
was, at the moment, would be the idea that she didn’t want to be directly above
a large explosion. Hydrogen gas would heat the air, which would go pretty much
straight up. To that end, she moved over to the side, by about a quarter of a
mile, huffing loudly enough already that she had to question how, exactly, she
was going to get back.

Still, she fired and managed to hit
the bag below and in front of her, on the third shot. The fourth missed again,
but the fifth and sixth did their jobs, making the thing explode. It wasn’t
like in the movies though, just making a
whumping
sound, the light
showing that it was well and truly on fire. Going down suddenly too. If anyone
noticed her there, flying away, they didn’t manage to hit her with anything.

Then, they were probably all a
little bit busy at the moment.

Dying would do that to you. Not
that it was an instant death sentence, going down over the ocean. It was, as likely
as not, a choice between burning to death, or diving into the cold water below.
Now that it was underway, she winced.

“Not… Cool… Gwen.” Her breath was
hard enough that she wondered if she could make it back. It was tempting to let
go, plunging toward the water, with the idea that she could teleport from there
as she fell. The problem was that she was already a bit too tired to really do
that. Maybe she could, or maybe she’d just end up in the drink, not swimming
well at all, since she didn’t know how.

Being crippled as a child, no one
had ever thought to teach her. Functionally she probably
couldn’t
have
learned, since her mouth didn’t really close back then. Not until after a whole
lot of surgery.

So, to avoid that and already
knowing what
real
pain was from her training with the Westmorlands, she
flew into the night, nearly missing the Peregrine, since they didn’t have any
exterior lights on. That was normal enough, unless they were coming in for a
night landing. Over the ocean, they
weren’t
going to hit anything.

Luckily there was a bit of light
coming from the ocean behind her. The craft that had been chasing them not
sinking at all it seemed. Not in any kind of quick or easy fashion.

Which she could kind of understand.
The gondola under the bag was essentially a boat, after all. It was still on
fire however, so watertight on the bottom or not, they were helping her out.
Not a lot, but just enough she could make out the silver thing as it flew
along. Just as she got to the deck, her power gave out, dumping her with a
thud.

No one was around though, which was
fine with her, since she had some heavy breathing to do.

No one wanted to listen to that.
Well,
someone
might want to, but they were probably sick individuals
that had too much time on their hands.

After a whole week, with an extra
day tacked on like Groundling had mentioned, the Peregrine returned to its home
hangar. It was nice to be there, but seemed strange, since there was no cargo
to unload. It made the trip feel incomplete somehow. Like they were cheating
the company, using their ship to travel around like they were.

Oddly, no one minded that part of
things. After all, they’d finished the important mission part already. That
Gwen hadn’t had much to do with that, on paper, meant that she apparently
wasn’t going to be called in as soon as they got back to answer to government
officials. It would be coming, she didn’t doubt. Probably by Ferdinand doing it
himself. That wasn’t exactly the easiest thing for her to deal with, or the
best way for it to be done, but she understood he meant well. To him, it was a
kindness, since
he
knew that he was a great guy. That part was true.

Which was what made it harder for
her than if it was some person she didn’t know calling her on the carpet to
dress her down for getting involved where she wasn’t actually needed. Gwen was
really good at ignoring jerkwads that wanted to harm her, after all. What she
was
less
skilled at was having people that meant the best for her
standing there looking sad about the risks she was taking.

Still, she managed to get Tomas
back to his house after only about ten minutes. She didn’t love doing things
like teletransport with multiple people at once, but it was clear that it was
going to be coming up for a good long while. The war
needed
someone like
her. At least now that it was a known thing that they could get prisoners back
from the enemy like they could.

Gwen stretched as soon as her
breathing became regular again, sitting on the nice sofa that Tom had in his
living room. Back sitting room, to be more exact. His place wasn’t exactly Park
Street, but Gwen didn’t mind that so much. It was a nice big house, with good
things inside of it. Like her boyfriend.

That was a thing that she really
expected to just vanish, of course.

Having a person to call her own.
She had a few that were around though.
Friends
. Like Bethany and even
Ethyl. Agatha, Ferdinand, Heather… The list went on past that even. Which was a
good thing. A strange and nearly unbelievable one that made her smile. It was
that expression that she was wearing as Tomas turned to her, his face lighting
up.

“It was different than I thought it
would be. We… Actually did something, didn’t we? True, I didn’t do as much as
some, but…” He smiled anyway, his eyes happy seeming. “But it was real. Omegon
actually managing to help, even if it was only by sweeping a floor or two.
That’s enough, isn’t it? We, the world, the kingdom… We don’t need a masked
hero to stand for us. Just people willing to try…”

He stopped then, his face twisting
a bit.

Gwen just nodded though, still
happy.

“Yep. In the end that’s really all
we need. Not that training and hard work won’t help, too. Now,
I
need a
good shower. Do you want to come with me?” It was incredibly forward of her,
but for the first time in her life she wasn’t afraid that someone was going to
reject her out of hand. Even if they ended up not being together eventually,
they were together then, at that moment.

“Yes. I’d like that, Miss Farris.
There is a good one over here, near the master bedroom?” He led the way,
carrying his bag along with him. “Plenty of room in here, if you’d like to
stay?”

He smiled at her, his face seeming
peaceful for some reason. Content.

Like that was going to last for
more than a few moments.

“Sounds fun. Of course we need to
go and see to that training in the morning. With Pete and Manly? Plus, we
should also make sure you get your next graphic novel out. It can be about how
Omegon the hero fights the evil Europans? Not that they’re
all
bad. We
just haven’t gotten to see the good ones yet, most likely. Well, except that
one
man.” She grinned then, realizing that her boyfriend hadn’t even heard that
story. Not from her anyway. It was possible that someone else had told him, but
it wasn’t public knowledge.

“Oh? Was he nice?” There was
something in his voice then, which she didn’t really recognize. Not at first.

Jealousy. It was a mild thing, but
still there, if highly suppressed.

“After a fashion. He was a healer.
From Europa. He started having visions of the world being destroyed by the
Elder Gods, so worked to find a way to save everything from total annihilation.
In the end all he had to do was help kidnap a woman from a different reality,
killing her in the process. Sacrificing one life, to save millions. Billions,
in the end. It was… Well, a good trade, don’t you think? I know that we all get
to blame Kat for it all, but she wasn’t alone in getting it all done.”

That had been Jeffrey. A man that
she barely knew, having only met him two or three times. He’d known her,
however.

Tomas looked a bit hard then and
frowned as they walked. The place was bigger inside than she’d originally
thought, she realized.

“He died in the events in the
cave?”

She blinked, smiled and shook her
head.

“Um, no? He’s still alive, as far
as I know. Not even in prison. After all, he saved the world. He offered to
kill himself, after it was done, but that seemed a bit… I don’t know, like a
bad
ending. Besides, it isn’t like he’s going to keep doing that sort of thing. He
can’t steal anyone from other realities himself and wouldn’t even if he could. So
I asked Ferdinand to just let him go. You know, the whole pat on the back
routine?”

Turning to walk through a rather
nicely decorated door, which was white with gold paint on the trim, her
boyfriend grumbled a bit.

“Still, you should be treated
better than that. Everyone should. At least if we
can
.”

Dropping her own bag, Gwen looked
around. The room was easily big enough for two. More than that if they wanted
to get kinky. Not that it was her plan for the near future. Being close to
someone was nice though, now that she’d done it a few times.

It was a thing to try doing again.

“That’s always the rule, isn’t it?
We should save people suffering and hardship, if we
can
. If we can’t…
Well, then we have to do what we think of as right and hope that it’s enough.
It probably won’t be, but hey, that’s up to history, not the little people like
you and me.”

Tomas giggled then. It didn’t sound
well balanced totally, but it wasn’t unkind.

“Do you truly believe that you’re
one of the little people in this world, Gwen Farris? You’re probably the
closest thing this land has to a true hero right now! As it stands I’m planning
to pair you up with Omegon in his next adventure, just to improve his
credibility. Perhaps on an airship? Or is that too close to the mark, do you
think?” He waved for her to head toward a door to the left. There was something
slightly playful in his voice then. “Of course, I need to find the author of
your other book, to make certain they don’t have a legal claim to the
character. I haven’t found them so far, though I have to admit I haven’t tried
that hard. Have you had any luck?”

Gwen shook her head, then started
to unzip the front of her jumpsuit. She had on underwear and a light shift
under that. She thought that was what the non-stretchy t-shirt thing was
called. They were in a matching light pink color, which distracted the man from
the fact that she needed to shave her legs soon. Instead of feeling uneasy, she
shrugged.

“Not yet. It won’t take long if I
want to get to it. I’ll do that later?
After
we finish having fun here.”

That part
was
fun and used
up
all
the hot water. When they got out over an hour and a half later,
Gwen felt both clean and ready to see about some things. It meant leaving her
boyfriend behind, but he had some things to get ready for, as well as ideas to
write down, for the books.

“I’m… I need to get back to Park
Street, before everyone figures out where I’m staying. I guess this is kind of
improper? Hanging out with you like this?” She didn’t really care that much. It
was all about trying to make certain she had the right rules working in her
head. That part actually felt incorrect to her, she realized. Like it was no
one’s business what she and Tom got up to in private. The only people
disagreeing were an entire kingdom.

The man, looking fresh and ready to
face the world, nodded.

“Oh, right! That could be an issue.
I’d forgotten about that part, to be honest. I don’t suppose that you’d be
interested in marrying me? I know that I’m not that great of a catch, being
insane and fantasy prone as I am… But I have some businesses and income. A few
houses and a title? I hear some women like that sort of thing?” He didn’t seem
all that shy about it all, though it was clear he didn’t think her answer would
be yes.

Which was
odd
.

The man was nearly perfect after
all. Interesting and willing to be a bit flexible as far as what was real, or
could be. That was pretty much a thing that was going to be needed if he were
going to be hooked up with her for any length of time.

“Um… Sure? Yes? That sounds-” She
stopped talking then, her voice muffled by a giant kiss. That was better than
it had been before. Just a bit of practice let them both work out what felt
nice, or at least it seemed to be working that way.

She did it back, since it was all
about being a partner. Even Gwen got that part.

Tomas grinned, his eyes shining
happily.

“Wonderful! We should do that next
week? Before you wake up and realize that you can do a lot better than me. I’ll
have my man, Smithers, get a wedding hall prepared?”

She tilted her head, then tilted it
back and forth a few times.

“Three months? We have that
training first. Also, if I try going too fast, Ethyl will probably disown me.
Trust me, I’m not going
anywhere
. You’re certain about this? You don’t
have to marry the first girl that comes along. Not that I’ll stop you from
having some fun with the second one either…”

That got him to shake his head.

“No, Gwen. I know what I’m asking.
You’re the right one.”

He looked deeply into her eyes, his
brown to her own light chocolate.

“All right then. Let’s do it?”

That meant going to Park Street for
her, even if Tomas had other things to do. What that was exactly she didn’t
know, not asking for the specifics. It was important for people to have their
privacy, after all. At least she thought that was one of the big relationship
things. It was funny, but she kind of had a clue this time, as to what to do.

After all, she’d been engaged
before.

The first thing was to bug Ethyl
and Robert over the matter. Then Bethany and Heather. After that she really
needed to find whoever was putting out those comics about her. It was one thing
to suggest she was into girls when she was single. Another to say that when she
was about to get married to a man. They’d at least need to rework the things so
she was doing
both
. Otherwise their comic was going to seem stupid.

In the end, she decided to see
about that one first. Starting by looking at the company name on the back of
the book. It was something called SimColored Press. She blinked at the name,
not being an idiot. Not most of the time. SimStyl was a magazine that exposed
people as being gay. Sometimes even if they weren’t. The thing there was that
Gwen knew the person behind that, or at least one of them. Deborah Winslow.
Charles the super butler’s younger sister.

She wasn’t a horrible person, but
back in the day she and Katherine had been an item for a while. Before the
woman had been dumped for several other people, including Erin Debussey. Kat
would have been
much
better off sticking with Debbie when it came down
to it. Even being homosexual in a world with almost no place for that kind of
thing was better than trying to destroy it all and bring in the most horrible
things in existence.

Thanks to her new tricks, Gwen was
outside of a rather plain looking apartment building not five minutes later.
Dressed up for visiting, complete with makeup on. Not a lot of it, but enough
to work with, as a starting point. She’d have to get better at it, she decided.
If she didn’t want Tomas to change his mind on her. That didn’t seem likely,
but that wasn’t the only factor for her.

It
felt
it. That was just
her though. A life of being alone had warped her, turning her into something
that was more designed to be on her own than anything else. Now, slowly, Gwen
was being hammered by kindness and the love of others into something different.
A person, or something like it. Not that she hadn’t been that before, but now…

Now the world was different.

There was a list of who lived in
which place outside the main door, so she worked out that Deborah was near the
back, on the third floor. Living with a Yoko
Winslow
, if the listing was
correct. Given everything that probably meant that they were a couple. If so,
it was a good thing. Even if they couldn’t be married there.