Nos Faux Ratu Ch. 08

Jenna smiled, then did something very un-Jenna-like. She hugged him. "You are a good man," she said softly.

"That is what I keep telling people," he replied with that deep, dry voice. "No one believes me. They all think that I am just a pretty boy."

Jenna started to laugh, then her head shot toward the building. She heard something. It was the sound of doors opening and claws scraping pavement. "What the hell?" she said, pulling her assault shotgun off of her back. "They're coming out?"

Shinmatsu reached into his robe and pulled out a small pouch. He reached into the pouch and pulled out a pinch of salt, throwing it forward. This was his arena now. His contest.

Jenna stepped forward, trying to figure the Fool's angle. She got on the secure comms channel. "Nessa, they're coming out."

*I kinda got that. You got any suggestions?*

Jenna pondered for a second. "Let them through."

*What? Are you nuts? If they get through --

"This wave won't be that strong. He knows we're out here, and he's hoping we'll reveal our big guns. Death, look to the heights. See if you can find their spotters."

*Roger, over.* There was radio silence for several seconds. *Hostile entities located. Relaying their positions now.*

Jenna spoke again. "These are just decoys. The Nightwalkers are more than than capable of netting them." Sure enough, less than a dozen frantic, half-crazed werewolves came charging out, looking more frightened than fierce. Their shredded clothing indicated that these were some of the common street criminals that the Fool had been rounded up, which made Jenna wonder something else.

"Shinmatsu, how long does it usually take for a lycanthrope to manifest its animal side?"

"Usually 24 to 48 hours."

Jenna got back on her radio. "Everyone, I think that the Fool gave these wolves an accelerant, something to make them morph faster. Don't know what it could be, but anything like that is bound to increase instability. Be careful." She looked at her backup. "I'm going in."

"What? No, the plan is --"

"The plan is compromised. He's going to start testing us and trying to throw us off balance. I'm going to return the favor."

He put a hand on her shoulder. "I thought you and Nessa had agreed, no lone-gunman routine."

"I'm adjusting the plan due to a change in the conditions. This is a tactical move, to disrupt his disruptions."

"This is why I prefer fighting with fat men in a round circle," Shinmatsu said. "Much less complicated."

"Shinmatsu, no matter what happens, I . . . I'm really glad I met you."

He looked at her, his eyes showing an increased intensity. "Do not speak as if this is goodbye."

"Trust me, I don't want to die. I want friends. I want a family. I want my son to know me and I want to go scuba diving in the Bahamas with a really beautiful woman. But we both know that this could end really badly."

He nodded. "Nessa will not allow this to spread, you know that she has a . . . contingency plan."

Nessa had figured as much, and she accepted that it would be a final solution. No witnesses, and no survivors. She wondered just how far out on the line that her sire had stuck her neck to try and take even a few of their opponents alive. She turned and stared at the building.

"What are you going to do?" Shinmatsu asked.

"Something that the Fool would never expect," she replied. She proceeded to walk directly up to the building.

*Jenna, what the fuck are you doing?!* came Nessa's voice.

"What I have to," she replied.

*Jenna, please don't do . . . whatever the hell it is you're doing,* said a younger, male voice.

She did not pause in her steps. "William, please get off the line. I know what I'm doing."

*But --*

"Please," she said, soft and plaintive, "don't distract me. Not now. I'll do anything to keep you safe," she finished. She paused outside a metal door and waited. She knew that someone would be watching her, the ghostly Empress dressed in white, offering herself up like a lamb. What wolf could resist that? After a minute, the door opened.

Jenna glanced in, but she found herself still alone. The door had been triggered remotely. She half expected a contingent of guards to be right inside the door, but the Fool wasn't moving his important people into exposed positions yet, and his non-important people would have no chance of containing her, even if she were still the Nightwalker that they probably all thought she was, much less the Nightwalker vampire that she had become.

She stepped inside, letting the darkness slide along her armor, wrapping her up like a comfortable blanket. Light had not been her ally for many years, even before it became a lethal effect. She welcomed it back. Her new night vision amazed even herself, as the tiniest glow from an outlet illuminated the entire corridor for her. She forced her body to inhale, letting all the scents of the warehouse slip through her nose.

'It smells like dog,' she thought. For some reason, that amused her. The smell of gun oil and explosives was less entertaining, but it was expected. She considered drawing a weapon, then dismissed it. Why tip her hand, particularly when she was now certain that the Fool wanted to talk to her. Otherwise, she would have encountered the welcoming party the moment the door had closed behind her.

Jenna strode down the corridor, made her way through two doors, and into the main room of the warehouse. There was a significant quantity of heavy construction equipment inside, and Jenna could hear scampering amongst the bulldozers and cranes. It was a strange sensation, as no one was really sure who was the cat and who were the rats in this particular game. Not yet, anyway.

"White?" came a voice from high overhead. A glance upward did not reveal the source of the sound, as the Fool was in fact no fool. The ceiling of the warehouse caused immense dissemination of sound, making him hard to find unless he visually made himself known. "I never would have imagined that as a color for you."

"A great deal has changed," Jenna replied calmly, spinning slowly to maintain her situational awareness. "You know, even after all you have done, I wish it had not come to this?"

"You were the one to betray your government and the cause."

"If that's how you wish to interpret it," Jenna replied. "You have lost your mind and your way. I respect the man I thought you were, but I will stop the man you have become." She looked up. "You should have listened to me in the beginning. You never should have made this so personal."

"You mean your son? I never would have hurt the boy. I just needed to get your attention, and bring you back to the fold. I had no intention of hurting him."

"Of course not. It would have been the only way you could control me."

"Not the only way," the Fool growled. "I could have made you one of us. This new form," he continued, "it's amazing. So primal and so honest. You could have this, Empress. Come home. Take your place amongst the future of the United States elite."

Jenna shook her head. "Not even if I could, old man. You really wanted me as a mate, whether I willed it or not? You are as bad or worse as the Messenger was. Now, I can never be yours."

"Don't be so --"

"Trust your nose, Fool. Smell my flesh. My heart no longer beats, my blood no longer flows . . . I am undead. I am your enemy."

"You . . . you allowed this?"

"I requested it. I guess I should thank you, in truth. Had the Hanged Man not been so effective in his attack on me, I might never have been forced to make this choice. I might not have been given the strength to kill you. You've made a great many mistakes."

"Such as?"

"The attacks on my friend, attempting to force all the Nightwalkers to accept the Lycanthropy virus and driving many of them into the camp of your enemy --" She paused. "-- trying to kidnap my son. You have violated a cardinal rule of war." She heard something drawing closer, but willed herself to remain still. "You gave your enemy something to fight for."

A furry blur leaped from behind a caterpillar tread, but Jenna caught it easily in mid-flight, grabbing it by the arm and swinging it like a baseball bat into the ground on the other side of her, letting go after the sickening crack that left her attacker limp. The entire fight had taken less than two seconds.

It had been a test. Jenna knew that, but she had no choice that time. In her world, every test was "pass and live" or "fail and die." She raised her voice. "For anyone listening, know this. Anyone who fights with the Fool tonight is subject to forfeiture of life. Tonight is the end game. Think carefully about what you are fighting --"

"Enough!" snarled the Fool. "I find you guilty of treason, Empress, and your sentencing begins now!"

Jenna jumped ten feet straight up into the air, easily avoiding the two slathering werewolves who attacked her first. Unfortunately, it also put her in range of rifle fire, and she several bullets whiz by, and one impacted her chest plate. Apparently, the Fool's Nightwalker "back ups" had arrived. She flew back under the impact of the bullet, but she was otherwise unharmed.

"I'm taking fire," she said into her intercom. "Enemy reinforcements have arrived."

*Game on,* Nessa replied. *Stay alive.*

'Working on it, Jenna thought. She decided to stay on the ground after that. She was going to have to deal with more wolves, but it was better than making herself a target in the air. That, and she was faster than she had been letting on. She took off with such speed that she could actually seem the confusion on the face of another werewolf as she vanished from its view. 'That's the Emperor,' she though, recognizing the emblem on the body-armor. He was Major Arcana, which meant that he was going to be dangerous. Still, she was able to lose him, then a thought occurred to her. She did not WANT to lose him. She needed to gather as many of her enemies around her as she could. But how –

She pulled one of the armor plates on her arm aside as she ran, and dug her nails into her arm. It hurt like hell, but she was able to draw blood. 'There. If they are truly as animalistic as Nessa said, then they should not be able to resist.' Sure enough, she heard the pitter patter of little paws and sharpened claws, and the sound began to escalate. And it became harder and harder to dodge.

Over the racket, she heard more gunfire and she heard metal being shorn apart. Her guest were arriving, so it was time to drop off the party favors. She jumped up in the air, this time with much more speed. In the milliseconds it would take for the commandos to train their weapons on her, she pulled out a string of flash-bang grenades, and began lobbing them all over the room. 'That's going to suck if you're watching with night-vision goggles,' she thought. And sure enough, the subsequent gunfire in the main room was wild, as the commandos were firing way off their marks.

Jenna landed and was preparing to initiate phase two of her plan when she found herself doing a tuck and roll to avoid the outstretched claws of both the Emperor and the Queen of Swords. She grabbed the Queen's arm and rolled backward and launched her thirty feet into the air, then did a sweep kick on the Emperor. She knocked him down, but he quickly regained his feet. Jenna realized that her speed advantage was going to quickly be overcome by sheer numbers, as four more wolves closed in on her position. Jenna closed off the flow of air though her nose and mouth, then dropped a gas grenade.

The stench from the gas had an immediate effect as the wolves in Jenna's immediate vicinity, all of whom made noises that she had never heard from any animal as their overdeveloped senses rebelled against the sensory invasion. She hurled four more grenades to every corner of the room, and tossed a couple more flash-bangs for good measure.

The werewolves seemed to be in disarray, but Jenna knew not to take it for granted. And she still had a particular wolf to –

Jenna heard rather than saw the approach, her finely tuned hearing managed to noticed the soft clacking of claws on pavement over all the ruckus, but she still was not able to quite dodge the powerful fist of the Hanged Man as he sent her sailing into a sickly-yellow metallic hulk of a machine. She must have made a noise, because over the intercom, she heard –

*Jenna, report!* came her sire's voice.

'Hell,' Jenna thought, watching as one of the deadliest beings she had ever met turned, a mask of some kind covering his face, 'They anticipated sensory attacks.' She expected that all the Major Arcana had such defenses. She wanted to warn her comrades, but she had fought the Hanged Man once before, and knew how dangerous he could be. He deserved her undivided attention. As she stepped forward to engage him, another wolf came at her, this one's armor bearing the symbol of Judgement, swiped at her from underneath the chassis of one of the large vehicles.

She skipped over that arm and then brought her heel down on the elbow for a satisfying crack. She didn't have time to savor her minor victory, as the Hanged Man was coming for her again. She dodged down a row of equipment, and she saw a dark doorway beyond. Nessa and William were both yelling at her to respond, and she felt an odd giggling desire to tell the first to shut up and the latter to use his indoor voice. It was strange the things that crossed one's mind when death was imminent.

But before she got to the door, her years of tactical training kicked in. Her enemies had been swiping at her, pushing her, and the Fool had sent several Major Arcana after her, so why didn't they simply swarm? They were herding her. Feeling the breath of one of her former colleagues on the back of her armor, she jump up, planted her feet above the doorway, flipped over backward and kicked Judgement in the back of the head and sent him flying through the doorway.

Instantly, a blue light shot up from a disc on the floor, and Judgment froze in midair, caught up in a stasis field. "They've got inertia traps!" Jenna yelled into her comms unit. She and the other renegade Nightwalkers had been so worked up about trapping their enemies that it had not even occurred to them that the Fool might want to do the same. Maybe he wanted more than just Jenna back. He wasn't going to get a chance at them though. Only vampires were coming in. "Watch where you're going," she reiterated, then did a forward-jumping kick to the Knight of Rod's face, cracking his facemask. It looked like an impromptu tech job, but it was impressive nonetheless. "And the Major Arcana has masks," said, snapping off a side kick that sent the Magician flying solidly into the front shovel of a bulldozer.

*Got it, Nessa replied. *Shock troops adjust tactics accordingly.*

*This is Death. The first wave of squirters has made their way to us. Non-lethal effects are working.* There was a moment where someone near Death was cackling with such audible glee that it interfered with Nigel's message. Then, in a dry voice, he added, *And the High Priestess would like everyone to know that she bagged, and this is a quote, 'a whole pack of pound puppies in one damn shot.' She would also like to add that she is 'one hot bitch.' End quote. Over.*

Despite the gravity of the situation, Jenna found herself smiling. Her new girlfriend was something else. And when Jenna spun to face the ring growling teeth, she kept smiling. It seemed to disconcert the dozen or so Major Arcana hybrid wolves looking down at her at the moment. Several of them looked at each other, growling in their confusion. They had never seen the Empress smile. And they, almost to a soldier, realized something that the peasants in villages in the old world when the old religions were strongest had learned the hard way. When an angel smiles at you, it is not necessarily a good thing.

"Last chance to surrender," she whispered. "I don't want to have to kill you."

One of the wolves actually laughed. It was the Wheel of Fortune. "I know you were strong, but we are stronger. You cannot beat us all. And the Fool will reward whoever brings you to him."

Jenna looked at each of their pairs of glowing red eyes, and all but one were looking her way. The Lovers, a twin sign for a single young man who was towards the bottom of the Major Arcana in his power level. His eyes were constantly drawn to the side. He was looking for a way out.

'If I can save at least one,' Jenna thought. She maneuvered herself a long the wall, maneuvering herself into a less safe position in order to put the Lovers at the back of the pack, and free to –

She had been wrong. Very wrong. Not about the Lovers wanting to leave, as the young Nightwalker bolted the moment that he had the opportunity. She was wrong thinking that she could save him. He was still a yard from the door when the Hanged Man plunged through the smoke and darkness and landed on the Lover's back, latching powerful jaws onto the back of his neck.

"No!" Jenna shouted, stepping forward stopping at the wall of growling, taloned death before her. It didn't matter. She heard the crunching of bone, so fast that the Lovers didn't even get to make any noise. He was dead before he even finished hitting the ground.

The Hanged Man turned his gaze towards Jenna, his mask pulled to the top of his head, and that infernal rope dangling from around his neck. He was mad. The rest were wild, animalistic, and savage, but the Hanged Man had reached a level of monstrosity that Jenna had simply been unable to fathom before. That man . . . killed. Nothing more, nothing less. And he killed because the Fool wanted him to.

The wall next to them thumped heavily, as if a truck had just backed into it, with cinder dust raining down on their heads.

"Move away from the --" someone started to say, but everyone pretty much got the idea to back away when the wall began crumbling down, and an enormous figure stepped through the rubble. Clad now only in his ceremonial belt, Shinmatsu appeared between Jenna and the circling wolves.

"You," he said calmly, "forgot to tell us where you're going. For that . . . no cookie."

She stared for a moment. "Cookie?"

"Yes, I said . . . one moment," he added quickly as a Nightwalker hybrid wolf launched itself forward. Watching Shinmatsu move was like watching a wave. You didn't realize how fast it was moving, or how much force it had behind it, until it hit. And oh did it hit. The enormous sumo's hands moved out, touched the wolf's chest, then swirled him around and into a dilapidated vending machine with such speed that an ancient can of Coke Zero rolled down the chute afterward and landed on the unconscious wolf's head. "Geh," Shinmatsu said afterward. "Diet drink. No good can come of that."

And just like that, the tides seemed to turn. Jenna ran toward Shinmatsu and, almost as if he sensed her intention, hunkered down and glared at the enemy while she launched herself off of his back and front kicked a former comrade in the face while pulling out her semi-auto pistols. She had played nice as long as she could.

Nessa arrived with Marcus at her side just in time to see Jenna stop fighting defensively, and it was a thing of beauty. She sailed up into the air, the sound of gunfire acting as her heavenly orchestra, sending that undead valkyrie high into the heavens with 9mm, silver-tipped serenades all her own. The Nightwalker replacements seemed unable to track her, she was moving so quickly, and the remaining wolf hybrids were momentarily transfixed. The Empress had been replaced by an angel, all dressed in white, but silver bullets came streaking from her guns with unsettling precision.

Fortunately for the wolves, silver was a soft metal and did not work as effectively against body armor as regular rounds, but at least two snarling furies hit the floor under her eye.